Wednesday, October.17/2012

Carlos Beltran is only amongst a select few active and retired players that possess 300 Career HRs (334) and 300 Stolen Bases (306) for their Career. At age 35, this year may be his last chance to win a World Series.

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer): Follow @chuckbooth3024

I love that baseball is a game of numbers.  Every once in a while you stumble upon an awesome mind-blogging stat or ten that makes you sit and back and think, wow, that guy is awesome.  I have a decent memory when it comes to the history of the game.  So it came as no surprise to me that Carlos Beltran continues to be putting up video game statistics in the postseason.  Having started this article, unfortunately the man has left the 3rd game of the National League Championship Series with a strained left knee.  This is a shame.  I hope that the slugger can come back in this series as he is listed on the injury report as Day-to-Day.  Just how good is Carlos Beltran in the Playoffs?  Check out these stat lines.  In 111 career AB, the man has a .378 AVG with  14 HRs, 25 RBI and has a staggering OPS of 1.327 (His OBP is .489 and Slugging is .838.)  These are unbelievable numbers and easily the highest OPS in the history of MLB for a playoff career.

When the St. Louis Cardinals lost Albert Pujols to free agency last year, it was a risky yet bold move to pick up the often injured slugger.  The franchise signed Beltran to a 2 YR/26 Million Dollar contract (or just over 10% of the contract that Pujols signed for.)  The team also re-signed Rafael Furcal and Lance Berkman to help carry the load offensively.  Showing the wisdom as they have so often done, the Cardinals proved to work their payroll model and still improve their club in the process.  While Furcal and Berkman would succumb to injuries during the year, Beltran has produced at a high rate for a nice portion of the year.  At the 82 game mark, the outfielder had 20 HRs with 65 RBI and was a co-frontrunner (along with Joey Votto) for the National League MVP.  While his numbers slumped a little in the second half, the club still knew they had a proven playoff performer.  Beltran also played in 151 games this season, his highest amount since 2008 with the New York Mets. Read the rest of this entry →