The Intangibles: Adrian Beltre

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, I’ve been pretty sick lately. Now that I feel better I’m ready to get back in the swing of things with a post about Adrian Beltre and his 2011 campaign.

Or should I say Adrian Beltre the Magical and the Web Gem mania that was his first season with the Texas Rangers.

Most of us already knew how good his defense was after watching him play in Seattle for a few years, but no one ever expected it to be this good.

In 208 attempts he had only 11 errors for a .965 fielding percentage. Now, those numbers don’t seem spectacular, but how many of those plays would other third basemen have made. Not very many, I would guess. With him we saw it all, throws from the knee, diving grabs to take away doubles, and wide ranges to his glove hand that definitely helped out Elvis Andrus. His 6 year, $96 million signing was, and will continue to be, a great investment for the Rangers.

His offense was equally as impressive this past year, he had a line of .296/.331/.561 with 32 home runs in 525 plate attempts. Wow. He hit cleanup at the beginning of the year, and moved to the 5 hole after a short stretch on the DL and excelled at that as well. His playoff run was marred by a knee bruise from a foul ball but still included numerous defensive gems, clutch hits, and a very memorable 3-HR game in Tampa Bay. I believe his contributions were just as important as any veteran Ranger on the team, and just as memorable.

Hopefully his 2012 campaign is just as impressive as his performance this past year, and will continue to be for the years to come (well, atleast for another 5 years). Until next time, Go Rangers.