June 20, 2006
Two Year Slump
USA Today details Adrian Beltre's fall as a high-priced free agent. The interesting thing is no one can put a finger on what's wrong with Beltre. They keep saying he needs to relax. Maybe he should take a shot of whiskey before the game (or a beta blocker, for a more high tech solution).
Bavasi comes in for criticism as well:
General manager Bill Bavasi is taking heat in Seattle for the club's moves, which might explain why he speaks in clipped sentences when answering not the $64,000 question but the $64 million one: Why can't Beltre hit?
Bavasi says it's unrealistic to expect Beltre to duplicate his 2004 season, even though Beltre, at 27, is at the start of what is typically a player's prime years.
Bavasi says the more reason-able expectation would be production between those outstanding numbers and his average previous season.
Asked why Beltre hasn't come around yet, Bavasi responds, "He will. ... He has ability. He's a young guy that has upside."
(Twenty-seven is actually the peak of a player's ability, not the start of his prime years.) Bill certainly hopes so. His job may be gone if Beltre continues to struggle.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:14 AM
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Bavasi says it's unrealistic to expect Beltre to duplicate his 2004 season
Hmm... 5 years @ $12.8m/year based on his pre-2004 numbers? Yeah, right...
Here's the top 20 HR fluke seasons, ranked by each single player season's variance of total homers from his career HR/162 game rates:
First Name Last Name Year HR HR/162
Luis Gonzalez 2001 57 23.7
Brady Anderson 1996 50 18.5
Barry Bonds 2001 73 42.0
Roger Maris 1961 61 30.5
Davey Johnson 1973 43 15.4
Hack Wilson 1930 56 29.3
Adrian Beltre 2004 48 24.0
Tilly Walker 1922 37 13.5
George Foster 1977 52 28.5
Sammy Sosa 1998 66 42.5
Ted Kluszewski 1954 49 26.3
Jay Bell 1999 38 15.3
Andre Dawson 1987 49 27.0
Carl Yastrzemski 1967 44 22.1
Sammy Sosa 2001 64 42.5
Ted Kluszewski 1955 47 26.3
Cy Williams 1923 41 20.3
Jimmie Foxx 1932 58 37.3
Sammy Sosa 1999 63 42.5
Rogers Hornsby 1922 42 21.6
Beltre's right at the top.
On behalf of all Angeldom, I'd like to thank the Seattle Mariners for hiring Bill Bavasi. Clearly they saw how adept Bavasi was at tanking our team year after year in the 90's, making all manner of inane blunder. I fear King Felix, but I'm glad the man making his court is someone we ostracized.
