ESPN Beltran

by JohnPeterson on May 7, 2009 1:45 PM EDT Comment 44 comments

So ESPN was doing this stupid thing on Baseball Tonight for Willie Mays's birthday where they took attributes of several different current Major League center fielders in an effort to "build" Willie Mays. I know it's stupid, but it's ESPN.

Because I love Carlos Beltran so much, I immediately thought of Carlos Beltran. Then I was thinking that of the traditional "tools," Beltran falls short of Mays the most on hitting for average. Of course, batting average is a highly-overrated statistic, but hey, this is Steve Phillips and company.

So what did they do? John Kruk, up first, selected Carlos Beltran for hitting-for-average. Willie Mays has a career .302 batting average, Beltran only .282, but hey, he's hitting .388 right now, so he must have an ability to hit for a high average!

Idiots.

Personally, I would select Beltran's defensive ability. Instead, they picked Torii Hunter, who in addition to spelling his name incorrectly is a highly overrated defensive outfielder, not close to Beltran according to all the metrics that matter.

Anyway, I don't think any of the players cited are close to Mays in anything but speed and arm strength. I just thought I would rant about what I saw on ESPN last night.

Batting Average: Carlos Beltran

Speed: Curtis Granderson

Power: Grady Sizemore

Defense: Torii Hunter

Arm: Someone, I don't remember

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Comments

We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!

by kingcritical on May 7, 2009 1:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That pic is so awesome

it gets better every time I see it.

by meigs1414 on May 7, 2009 2:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Torii Hunter is the most overrated outfielder of our generation

No love for Mike Cameron? Or Andruw “Didn’t Used to Suck and Might Not Suck Again Soon” Jones?

by anonymous on May 7, 2009 2:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Torii Hunter robbed Barry Bonds of a HR during the Mil All-Star game

therefore, he will always be an excellent defender in the eyes of fans.

by Sokojoe on May 7, 2009 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cameron and Jones were pretty fairly rated, IMO.

Both were superb defenders.

by SQUAD on May 8, 2009 2:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kruk is a moran

I think this is him:

by JoshNY on May 7, 2009 2:16 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs

heh

I never get tired of this picture.

'Oh yes, I know all about that duty-of-a-citizen stuff. It doesn't go. There are exceptions to every rule, and this was one of them. When a man risks his liberty to come and root at a ball-game, you've got to hand it to him. He isn't a crook. He's a fan.'

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on May 7, 2009 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I like

how quickly he abandoned writing the sign in mixed case and went straight to all uppercase.

by Eric Simon on May 7, 2009 3:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well at least he spelt brain right

It could be “Get A BRIAN! MORANS”

by meigs1414 on May 7, 2009 3:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I love that this douche is a Cardinals fan

I hope the back of his t-shirt says “Eckstein” on it.

2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?

by Greenpoint Ian on May 7, 2009 3:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can't stop

…laughing at this picture. Says a lot about how W. managed to be “elected” twice doesn’t it? He clearly dominated the Moran demographic!

by Pedrito on May 8, 2009 8:12 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I voted for him.

And I don’t think quotation marks around “elected” is appropriate.

by JohnPeterson on May 9, 2009 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What is this for?

by JohnPeterson on May 7, 2009 6:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

"Facts" and "Accuracy"

have no place on Baseball Tonight.

by ams258 on May 7, 2009 2:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

for what it's worth, Karl Ravech seems to know what he's talking about, at least

We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!

by kingcritical on May 7, 2009 2:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

is he the one who looks like a catcher's mitt?

by JoshNY on May 7, 2009 2:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

you tell me

We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!

by kingcritical on May 7, 2009 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

no

it’s Dave Campbell

by JoshNY on May 7, 2009 3:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Willie Mays is more like

Barry Bonds’ bat with Carlos Gomez’s glove.

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on May 7, 2009 2:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

hey, at least they bring up Beltran

I’d expect them to leave that no-good choking non-hustler out of the discussion altogether.

2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?

by Greenpoint Ian on May 7, 2009 3:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Because Beltran is a totally forgettable player

really . . . he reminds me of that pair of shoes in the front hall . . . you know, the ones you might not wear everyday because they aren’t very clean but they are always there when you need to go out and get the mail . . . those shoes might be covered in dog crap but you wear them nonetheless . . . wow, it’s hard to believe i’ve had those shoes for coming up on five years, maybe it’s time to buy a new pair . . . something with an edge . . . oops, kettle’s boiling, gotta go . . .

oh yeah . . . go mets

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on May 7, 2009 3:22 PM EDT up reply actions 6 recs

"i sense that..."

by All Shook Down on May 7, 2009 5:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

you should do one of these every day

by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on May 7, 2009 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

only one?

I sense a new blog in the offing — Fake Matt Cerrone.

by anonymous on May 7, 2009 6:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He seems like a nice guy and all so I feel kinda bad

but these “…italics….” comments are just perfect.

by James Kannengieser on May 7, 2009 6:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh is this not the first one?

I tried making fun of Cerrone on B!T but sensed that it was somehow a Mets fan faux pas. Like, Cerrone has very poor grammar and senseless opinions, but has done great things for Mets fans. No? Awesome!

by JohnPeterson on May 7, 2009 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

We were going back and forth on it in this thread

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2009/5/4/865140/when-you-win-you-have-energy-and

by All Shook Down on May 7, 2009 6:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks.

by JohnPeterson on May 7, 2009 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also, I'd hate to participate in ad hominem argument

Actually, no I wouldn’t mind, but what did Cerrone do prior to MetsBlog? I remember reading once that he worked in politics, which I find totally unbelievable. That stuff is total B.S., but you have to be sharp to actually work in it and not get fired.

Also, I think he’s become to irksome is that he’s like a ‘bot’. His vapid meanderings are unlike any fan posts I’ve ever read. They’re largely pensive and even-keeled, so the fact that he’s not a complete loon and is just subtly dumb makes him hard to digest. It doesn’t ever seem like his truly happy or upset about anything that’s going on. Perhaps that’s just bad writing.

by All Shook Down on May 7, 2009 6:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cerrone-like first sentence of that second 'graph

*Also, I think the reason why I find him so irksome is that he’s like a ‘bot’.

by All Shook Down on May 7, 2009 6:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

speaking from personal experience

you don’t have to be too bright to work in politics. Also, I don’t think Cerrone’s dumb, I just don’t think he’s a great writer or an in-depth baseball analyst, which is funny considering his line of work.

"This is the beauty of baseball. In basketball, at the end of the game, you want to put the ball in your best scorer's hands. But in baseball, it's up to a rookie like McGlinchy and a journeyman like Franco with the entire season on the line. Baseball history is dotted with names like Al Weis and Brian Doyle, men who have taken their name out of the agate type and placed it into the headlines, because it was simply their time."

by cjmulrain on May 7, 2009 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't think he's dumb

I lauded his business acumen previously, but he’s just not sharp in the way that most bloghosts are.

by All Shook Down on May 7, 2009 6:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not sharp?

So he doesn’t have… an edge?

by SQUAD on May 8, 2009 2:23 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

DEFINITELY NOT

by All Shook Down on May 8, 2009 5:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

faux pas?

Au contraire! We’ve complained about Cerrone’s … crappy … punctuation … here for a long while.

by anonymous on May 7, 2009 6:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's all I used to do on my old blog.

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on May 7, 2009 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Umm, Mays had a lot more power than Grady Sizemore

He’s very young, but in four seasons Sizemore has averaged about 27 homers. By the time he was Sizemore’s age, Mays had already hit 51 in a season.

by Prince on May 7, 2009 6:59 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

true

but they had to pick somebody and there just isn’t a CF playing today who has the power that Mays did

by JoshNY on May 7, 2009 11:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tran has more that Sizemore, for one.

by DevonEdwards on May 8, 2009 1:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

also true

my point is just that you could say “Mays had a lot more power than X” for any CF playing today who you plugged in as X

by JoshNY on May 8, 2009 1:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You could probably say that

Mays had a lot more power than Insert virtually any MLB player regardless of position here.

by SQUAD on May 8, 2009 2:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not Erstad

He was a punter for the Huskers

by deadspy3 on May 8, 2009 5:25 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

+1

by JoshNY on May 8, 2009 8:54 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

what's crazy

is that Duke Snider might have been better than any CF playing today, and he was only the 3rd best CF in New York City in the 50’s. Snider was a 9.3 WAR player in 1955, and he had at least two seasons prior to ’55 where he was better with the bat. I would bet that if the WAR database went back to ’47 Snider would have had at least four 8.0+ WAR seasons, which would be four more than Beltran (as it is he was an 8.0+ player in ’55 and ’56 before starting to decline).

by cjmulrain on May 8, 2009 5:30 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs