I've Had It With Adrian Beltre

(Originally posted yesterday on Seattlest)

Until recently, the rabid M's fan blog Lookout Landing sported this tagline: "If You Think Adrian Beltre Is Bad And/Or Overrated, I Hate You And Find You Stupid."

Fair enough. Beltre isn't bad or overrated. A Gold Glover and above-average offensive player, he's the best third baseman in Mariner history.

He just stinks at the craft of hitting a baseball.

A child prodigy (he was signed--illegally--at age 15 by the Dodgers), Beltre retains the free-swinging approach of a young hitter. It's as if Bill Gates still used punchcards.

Despite possessing the best power and bat speed combo of any Mariner hitter this decade, Beltre's poor habits have consigned him to be just a mediocre offensive producer.

And after four-plus seasons of watching Beltre's haplessness at-plate, our frustration meter has climbed to "bitchy."

Come, live the pain of a Seattle Mariners fan.

Thursday afternoon, Beltre came to bat in the tenth inning with the go-ahead run on second base.

The previous hitter, rookie Mike Carp, had worked a walk, laying off some tempting offerings near the outside corner.

Beltre got the same careful approach--and struck out on three pitches.

Adrian Beltre: Fourteen years of major league experience, earns $13M/year, sculpted physique.

Mike Carp: Two days of major league experience, makes the league minimum, stomach flops above his belt when he runs.

And Carp has the better batting eye.

What kind of God allows this to happen?

Ted Williams, another preternaturally talented hitter of Latino descent (Williams' mother was Mexican), was baseball's greatest student of hitting. To illustrate his philosophy, Williams created a chart consisting of 77 colored baseballs. In the middle, .400--what you'll hit if you swing at perfect pitches. On the perimeter, .260--what you'll hit if you swing at crappy ones. The philosophy, as another hitter* once put it: "You wait for a strike, then you knock the shit out of it."

Ted Williams would vomit if he saw Adrian Beltre hit.

The pitches Beltre swings at don't even make Williams' chart, they're so far from home plate.

Which makes it all the more incredible that Beltre has consistently hit major league pitching--the most difficult task in all of pro sports--despite lacking the hitting knowledge of the rawest major league rookie. That's how talented Beltre is.

And that's why it's so frustrating. If Beltre would exhibit an iota of plate discipline, he'd put up All-Star numbers. If he exhibited Williams' discipline, he might match Teddy Ballgame and hit .400.

If only some old-school bastard had forced a young Beltre to learn the twin tasks of pitch recognition and plate discipline, he could've been legendary.

Instead, Beltre swings and swings. And when his "plan" puts him at a disadvantage, he swings more.

In Beltre's 12-year career, he's dug himself an 0-2 hole in 1,272 plate appearances. In those plate appearances, he's worked back to get a walk only 13 times. 13! In 12 years!

Russell Branyan--hardly a Ted Williams--has already worked four such walks just this season.

During those 12 years, despite his impatient approach, Beltre has put up some outstanding numbers. In 2004, Beltre hit 48 homers for Los Angeles. He was a free agent that winter, and the Mariners signed him to a 5-year/$64 million contract. As a Mariner, Beltre hasn't approached his '04 numbers, but he has averaged more than 20 homers over four seasons--the best sustained offensive performance by a third baseman in Mariner history.

But now, as Beltre inches into his thirties, his impatient approach isn't getting the job done. Plagued by a recurring shoulder injury, and perhaps slowed by age, Beltre's power has deserted him. He has just five home runs this year.

If Beltre's power loss is permanent, and he just keeps swinging away, he'll be just another no-bat, good-glove third baseman. And as a free-agent at the end of this season, he may find himself taking a multi-million dollar paycut--if he gets a job offer at all. If Beltre doesn't change his approach now, his career may be over.

And over at Lookout Landing, the Beltre line is gone. The site's tagline is now "The Official Website For People Who Dream Of Doing Naughty Naughty Things To Russell Branyan."

*Stan Musial