He is not a perennial All-Star and his statistics as of now do not place him anywhere near Cooperstown. However, Adrian Beltre has been in the big leagues since he was a 19-year-old and combined with the fact that he was just signed to a six-year, $96-million contract by the Rangers to play in one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in one of the most fearsome line-ups puts Beltre in a unique position. The two-time Gold Glove winner and one-time Silver Slugger has a crack at two Hall of Fame thresholds: 500 career home runs and 3,000 career hits.
Here’s a quick look at some realistic projections for his six-years in Texas:
First 3 years – 30 home runs, 170 hits
Final 3 years – 25 home runs, 150 hits
= 165 home runs and 960 hits
At 38-years old, Beltre can enter free agency with 443 HR and 2,849 hits. He is not as far away from Cooperstown as we initially thought.
Michael Young began playing in the Majors at 24-years old, that’s five years later than Beltre. Even with five years of 200-plus hits and a .300 career average, he has no shot at the Hall of Fame. However, the bigger question right now is whether is he worth DHing. And what’s his trade value? The numbers say very low:
If we multiply his away stats by two this is what you get:
Projected stats away from Arlington
10 R, 72 RBI, 6 SB, .260 AVG.
A career .279 hitter on the road, compared to .322 at Texas, it is in Young’s best interest to finish out his career in the Rangers line-up.
As far as what a Hall of Famer looks like, here’s two who were voted in earlier this week:
Roberto Alomar, 2B
Hall of Famer
2,724 Hits
.300 career average
12-time All-Star
10 Gold Gloves
Bert Blyleven, SP
Hall of Famer
287 career wins
7 Seasons of 17 or more wins
8 seasons of 200 or more K’s
Post-season 5-1, 2.47 ERA, 1.08 WHIP