CBRACKE
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Before I dig deeper into this post, I should profess the fact I’ve never been an Adrian Beltre fan. It seems like he’s a one year wonder who put up an incredible year in 2005 with the Dodgers and has been largely average in each of his other nine seasons. It’s not as if I needed another reason to move him down my rankings, but yesterday, I got just that.
Beltre will play the 2008 season with torn ligament in his left wrist.
“If I had known that in October, I would have had surgery,” Beltre told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Monday. “But it was December when I found out about it. If I had surgery then, I would have missed a month now, maybe two. So I didn’t have surgery.”
Beltre will now attempt to make it through the entire 2008 season before having surgery, which should be challenge considering he continues to have pain in the wrist. While it’s promising that the injury hasn’t gotten any worse, it doesn’t get a chance to heal since he’s trying to play through it.
“It hurts to hold the bat; it hurts every time,” Beltre added. “There’s always pain.”
What a ringing endorsement. The reality of the malady is that the problem is exactly where the bat sits in his left hand, between the thumb and forefinger, and right-handed hitters like Beltre generate all of their power with the left arm. It’s tough to say what to expect considering his best season in 2005 came despite bone spurs in his ankle that made it so difficult for him that he had to adjust his stance at the plate. He’s played through injuries in many of his seasons and it’s certainly a positive sign that he’s hit reasonably well this spring and done so without the injury getting worse.
Consider me among the skeptical. He plays half his games in a pitchers park and the majority of his fantasy value comes from his ability to produce decent power numbers. It’s pretty hard to generate power with a bum wrist, making topping last year’s 26 home run season nearly impossible in my mind.
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