Showing posts with label Carlos Beltran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carlos Beltran. Show all posts

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Yankees, Brett Gardner agree to 4-year extension

The New York Yankees and outfielder Brett Gardner have agreed to a four-year extension worth $52 million, per Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News.

In addition, the Yankees have a team option at $12.5 million (with a $2 million buyout) for 2019.

Gardner hit .273 last season with an AL-high 10 triples, eight homers, 52 runs batted in, 81 runs and 24 stolen bases. In his career, Gardner has stolen 168 bases on 199 attempts for a success rate of 84 percent.

One of the faster players in baseball, Gardner will play left field this year with the Yankees signing Jacoby Ellsbury in the offseason. In addition to Ellsbury, the Yankees signed Carlos Beltran this offseason.

All three of those outfielders are under contract for at least the next three seasons: Ellsbury (2020), Gardner (2018) and Beltran (2016).

In my 2014 fantasy outfielder rankings, I currently have Ellsbury, Beltran and Gardner ranked seventh, 27th and 44th, respectively.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

MLB Announces N.L. All-Stars

Major League Baseball has just announced the starters, pitchers and reserves for both leagues for the 2013 MLB All-Star Game, which will be played on Tuesday, July 16th.

Here are the National League starters:


Here are the NL pitchers:
Here are the NL reserves:
In addition, there will be a final vote for one additional All-Star and here are the candidates:
Thoughts?  Snubs?

[Here are the A.L. All-Stars.]

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Trifone: N.L. Mid-season Award Winners

With the mid-summer classic tonight, it's a good time to hand out mid-season MVP and Cy Young award winners.  There are usually a handful of great options, leaving room for debate, and this year is no exception.

Mid-season National League Most Valuable Player

For NL MVP, I believe it to be a four-horse race.  Although guys like David Wright and Melky Cabrera are having excellent years, they fall a bit short when comparing them with the top contenders.

Losing Albert Pujols is clearly going to hurt a team, but Carlos Beltran has stepped up in a big way, hitting over .300 and yielding great power numbers, for the Cardinals.  He currently leads the NL in RBI's with 65 and is second in home runs with 20.

There was a lot of talk at the beginning of the year over what type of year Ryan Braun would have after his failed drug test was overturned due to a technicality in the offseason.  Braun has responded with a league-leading 24 home runs.  He also ranks second in RBIs with 61 and is hitting over .300, with 15 stolen bases to boot.

Colorado's Carlos Gonzalez ranks sixth in the league in home runs and RBIs and leads the league in runs.  He is also currently hitting an impressive .330, and with 11 stolen bases.  I believe Cargo is the most likely to finish the year strong, playing in a hitter's ballpark in Colorado.

At this point, I feel any of these three are great candidates.

As good as those three have been, however, Andrew McCutchen has been even better.  McCutchen is leading the majors with a remarkable .362 average at the midway point.  He is hitting for power with 18 home runs and 60 RBIs, but also is a threat to run, with 14 stolen bases.  If he keeps this up for the rest of the year, McCutchen could finish the season hitting .350 with 30 hrs, 100 RBIs, and 30 stolen bases.  Tough to argue with those numbers.  I'm not sure if he can keep it up, but to date he is the NL MVP.

[Matt Kemp was the clear front runner before his injury, and certainly deserves recognition for how he was playing, but because of the number of games he has missed, I chose not to throw him in the mix, even though his early pace had him way ahead of the pack.]

Mid-season National League Cy Young Winner

The mid-season NL Cy Young race was looking interesting for a while.  For a few weeks, I thought for sure it would be Cole Hamels, who had a great ERA and won seven consecutive starts after losing his first to start the year.  Then Gio Gonzalez kept winning, Brian Beachy looked great, and Matt Cain threw a perfect game.  Stephen Strasburg is becoming the phenom we all knew he would be.

And then there's R.A. Dickey.  What Dickey has done this year has been nothing short of incredible.

The guy threw consecutive one-hitters, has an ERA of 2.40, a WHIP of just 0.93, is second in the league in strikeouts with 123, has his opponents hitting .203 for the season, and by the way is 12-1.  Dickey has never been a great pitcher, but at 37, he seems to have found whatever he was lacking earlier in his career.  The knuckleballer is hands down the mid-season NL Cy Young award winner.

I'd say that Strasburg could challenge him for the award by year's end if not for his innings count.  My number two right now would Matt Cain, who at 9-3 with a 2.62 ERA and 118 K's is having a great season in his own right.  I think Cain could make it interesting by the end of the year, but at the break, Dickey is the clear choice for the mid-season Cy Young.

Tomorrow we will post my A.L. (mid-season) award winners.

[Editor's note: This post is by John Trifone (@JohnnyT0122), who also contributes at our NFL site: Eat, Drink and Sleep Football (see John's archives).]

Monday, February 28, 2011

Carlos Beltran moving to right field

Last year, Angel Pagan moved from center field when Carlos Beltran was ready to return from knee surgery.

This year, it's Beltran that will give up center field (to Pagan) in the hopes of prolonging his career.

"I want to play right," Beltran said, per Andy McCullough of the Newark Star-Ledger. "I think it’s best for the team. It’s going to be best for me also, best for my knee."

This weekend, Beltran will begin playing Grapefruit League games as a designated hitter.

Today Newsday's David Lennon tweeted that Beltran was "absolutely crushing the ball" during batting practice.

According to Mock Draft Central, Beltran is the 51st outfielder and 223rd player off the board, on average, in fantasy baseball drafts. Meanwhile, Pagan is the 58th outfielder and 241st player drafted on average.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Matthews Jr. named Mets' Opening Day centerfielder

Earlier in the spring, opinions seemed to differ between Mets manager Jerry Manuel and GM Omar Minaya as to whether prospect Fernando Martinez could become the Mets' Opening Day centerfielder.

In either case, F-Mart was sent down to Buffalo last week despite his .383 batting average this spring.

Therefore, in the battle to be Carlos Beltran's injury replacement to start the season, Gary Matthews Jr. beat out Angel Pagan, per Andy McCullough of the Newark Star-Ledger.

Matthews, who hit .250 with four home runs in 350 at bats for the Angels last season, will bat seventh in the order when the Mets face the Marlins tomorrow.