Interesting contract note on Former Astro Beltran's Contract

Who? Booooooooooooooooooooooooootran

 

After Taveras had better numbers than Beltran Last year..i could care less....Definitly not worth the money that he wanted. He is having a better year this year..but still nothing too great.

Taveras 2006 Salary $400,000

2005 Stats

Hits: 172
Runs: 82
Doubles: 13
Triples: 4
HR: 3
RBI: 29
BB: 25
SB: 34
AVG: .291
OPS: .666

Beltrans 2006 Salary $13,571,429

2005 Stats

Hits: 155
Runs: 83
Doubles: 34
Triples: 2
HR: 16
RBI: 78
BB: 56
SB: 17
AVG: .266
OPS: .744

 

Of course, this year, Beltran has been ridiculously good and has RBI/Run/HR/OPS numbers comparable to Ensberg even though he missed a few weeks early in the season, while also playing superb centerfield.

 

yeah, but Beltran $ucks

 

Not to mention that if we had signed him we probably would have WON the WS last year.

DD

 

Or we might never have made the world series last year...

 

So, Taveras has more singles and stolen bases, so he put up better numbers than Beltran?

 

In the end, Beltran led us on when he had apparently no intentions of returning. So, good riddance.

 

The keyword there is "apparently". Outside of his family, no one really has any clue what his intentions were. From reports, people close to him thought he was coming back to Houston.

 

Beltran is a good player...very good...but not worth the money.

And I hate him.

 

Beltran makes more money than Albert Pujols... and even the Astros were ready to offer him more money than Albert gets paid.

He was amazing for those 2 weeks... but over the long haul, he isn't worth it... unless he was going to play like he did in October 2004 forever.

 

Of course, he also makes just $2M/year more than Berkman if I'm not mistaken. And while we think of Berkman as this phenomenal slugger, he hasn't hit more than 30 HR's since 2002 - Beltran's actually about equal in power to Berkman. Berkman gets on base more, but Beltran plays gold glove caliber defense at a far more demanding position and has speed on basepaths.

I would say if you think one is overpaid, you should think both are (or vice-versa).

 

Also, virtually everyone in baseball that's not under club control looks overpaid compared to Pujols. They were extremely smart to sign him long-term while he was still under club control, and its paid off ridiculously as he's kept on developing.

 

Beltran has been good, but not worth the contract he has. I know I wouldn't want Ensberg on this team if we had to pay him what Beltran was getting.

 

What about Berkman?

 

I'm fine with giving them in the $12-15 range, but not the $18-$20 Beltran is going to be getting in a few years.

 

Beltran doesn't deserve to be paid in the highest bracket like he is today. There's only a few select players that can warrant the $18MM annual tag, and that's limited to guys like Pujols, Manny Ramirez, and A-Rod.

 

Berkman's averaging $15MM, Beltran is averaging $17MM. To me, the differential there isn't enough to matter (it would be different if its $1MM vs. $3MM, of course). In fact, I think you could argue Beltran is more valuable than Berkman due to his defense, baserunning and position value. You can find a decent hitting 1B for cheap (Lamb, for example) much easier than you can find a decent hitting CF for cheap. So if you have $20MM for the two positions combined, you'll probably get about as much with a $17MM Beltran + $3MM 1B as you would with a $15MM Berkman and $5MM CF.

 

Beltran isn't getting paid like those guys right now. This year, he's ranked #21 in salary:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5480226

Between Abreu and Delgado. Berkman is #14 and Bagwell is #5. Clemens will slot in at #2. Players like Magglio Ordonez, Mike Hampton, and Chan Ho Park are making more this year.

Beltran's salary certainly goes up over the next several years - but so do other players'.