Giants built for another championship run with acquisition of Beltran
Fans knew this was coming. Carlos Beltran has been moved, trading the East Coast for the West in joining the Giants. (REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine)
The San Francisco Giants pulled out a 2-1 victory over the only NL team with a better record, the Philadelphia Phillies, on Wednesday night. This victory epitomized their season: poor hitting, amazing pitching. Offensively, they rank 28th out of 30 teams. In the pitching department, they are tied for first, with the Phillies, of course.
This combination of bad and good somehow won them a World Series in 2010. Their average wasn’t anything to write home about, but they did the little things consistently–moving runners over, driving in rbi’s with hit-and-runs, well-placed groundballs and sacrifice flies. And with their pitching, one perfected strategy could be the difference.
The aging, yet inexplicably fascinating Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff hit a few of those, and once in a while a runner was on base to watch their moonshots sail over fences. These two have scuffled this season, and others who performed well during the Giants unexpected run are either gone or similarly a shell of their former selves.
That hasn’t mattered, considering how good the pitching of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, among others, have been. Offensively, the numbers the leaders in all the main statistical categories have put up is astonishingly terrible. Miguel Tejada leads all San Francisco hitters who have at least the qualifying amount of plate appearances with a .242 batting average. Huff leads the team with nine homers, 47 rbis, and 89 hits. There are 127 hitters in major league baseball, with the qualifying amount of at-bats, with an average better than Tejada’s. There are 103 with more homers, 69 with more rbi’s, and 87 with more hits.
This putrid offense is about to get a big lift, as the top offensive player on the trade market, the New York Mets’ Carlos Beltran was acquired for the rest of the season. The Mets were originally looking for a top prospect in return for him. The baseball world said there was no chance that was happening. It did. They parted with prized prospect Zack Wheeler, pitcher and 38th-ranked player in the minors, to get him.
San Francisco is confident he will be worth the price tag. During the All-Star Game, their incredibly entertaining closer Brian Wilson pleaded Beltran to come to the city by the bay. Fear the Beard was on to something there. The deal has been accepted by the 32-year-old, and Wilson and the rest of the Giants couldn’t be happier.
“Having a guy like Beltran obviously adds a lot of positive energy,” he said, as documented by ESPN. “With that kind of hitter, you’re going to start seeing guys in front of him, guys hitting behind him, getting more pitches.”
“He’s a complete player,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy added. “Carlos has all the tools that you look for in a player. He has great instincts for the game. Plays the game hard, plays the game right. I still remember when Houston got him and the job he did there.
“He’s a tremendous all-around player. He’s one of the elite players of the game.”
He is hitting .289, with 15 homers, 66 rbi’s, and a .391 on-base percentage, enjoying a bounce-back season after serious injury cut his previous two disappointingly short. As Wilson and Bochy say, and as his statistics and health suggest, he will bring plenty to the table for the Giants.
And he will join an offense that is currently and shockingly in the midst of a positive stretch. Outfielder Nate Schierholtz is hitting .325 in 21 games this month, while Pablo Sandoval, Andres Torres, and Tejada have been similarly effective. If even more Giants can join the mix, Beltran will be on a team that would be dangerous in all facets of the game.
San Francisco has the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks nipping at their heels 3.5 games behind, but with him in the fold they can certainly extend this advantage and undoubtedly turn what is deemed a two-month rental into a satisfying three-month one.
