The Yankees beat the Angels Thursday night, 6-3, to move back to .500 at 30-30 on the season. The biggest hit of the night belonged to Carlos Beltran, who clubbed a go-ahead, two-RBI double in the bottom of the fifth. The Yankees would never look back.
Beltran coming through with a meaningful extra-base hit is something that's becoming rather commonplace this season. His power surge this season is incredible, given that he's 39 years old and playing on bad knees.
Last year, in 531 plate appearances, Beltran had 19 home runs and a .471 slugging percentage. This year, in just 228 PA, he has 16 homers and a .573 slugging. This time around, he's also hitting .282 with 14 doubles and 43 RBI in just 59 games.
We shouldn't be surprised at Beltran doing things many 39 year olds don't do these days, though. He should be a Hall of Famer once eligible.
Yep, there's our jumping off point. Once you declare a non-obvious-to-the-casual-fan guy a Hall of Famer, there's always a certain segment of people who want to scream, "no." For some, it's just laughter. I've tweeted it before and I always get a few "lol are you serious? NO WAY" type responses.
I don't even see how it's a question.
You want run production? Beltran will be over 1,500 RBI (he has 1484 right now) and runs (1482) soon. There are only 32 in baseball history who have gotten to both of those figures (baseball-reference.com play index link here) and they are all either future Hall of Famers, already Hall of Famers or have a PED stain keeping them out.
How about a power-speed combo? Beltran has 408 career homers and 311 steals. The only other players over 400/300? Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays and Andre Dawson. That's it for all of baseball history.
In terms of hits, it's a fallacy that a player has to have 3,000 hits to gain enshrinement. Very few ever get to that, which is why it's such a special moment when someone does. Beltran is, however, over 2,500 (2,514). Do you know how many non-pitcher Hall of Famers there already are with fewer than 2,500 hits? Figuring in some pre-1901 recording issues, we know it's at least 66 and could be around 80 (baseball-reference.com play index).
So he was just a compiler, right? Well, first of all, why do some people think that's a bad word? In order to compile these kinds of counting stats, a player has to be exceptional at doing his job for a long time. Beltran is a career .281/.354/.492 hitter, which is good for a 121 OPS+. Given his outstanding glove work until injuries and age zapped his range in addition to his exploits on the bases, this was an all-around great player for nearly 20 years.
In fact, using Jay Jaffe's JAWS system, which attempts to measure all players on a level playing field (how much better they were than their peers, and yes, it's somewhat reliant on WAR), Beltran is the eighth-best center fielder of all-time behind Mays, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr, Joe DiMaggio and Duke Snider.
If there's a postseason bonus -- and I believe there should be -- Beltran is a .332/.441/.674(!) career hitter in 52 playoff games. He has 13 doubles, a triple, 16 homers, 40 RBI, 45 runs and 11 steals. He's walked 35 times against 26 strikeouts. No, he's not required to have been playing on a team that won a ring. Again, run through the Hall of Fame now and you'll find dozens and dozens of non-ring winners. And, no, one stupid little at-bat shouldn't be held against him -- especially since he and Carlos Delgado carried that offense all series.
Everything in Carlos Beltran's dossier says he's a Hall of Famer. That he's having a huge season at age 39 just makes it that much more iron-clad.
