Gammons Gives Beltran His Props

Peter Gammons of ESPN, had an interesting article on defense, and how it may be one of the reasons why Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreu are making teams think twice about them. In his article he praises Carlos Beltran. Nowhere is it more evident than in center field. Most of the clubs that discussed the subject had Minnesota's Carlos Gomez rated the best defensive center fielder in the game last season, in most cases followed by the Mets' Carlos Beltran. Now, although Beltran's low-key personality sometimes frustrates fans, he is a tremendous five-dimensional player -- a top-three defender and great baserunner who's reliable and so much an offensive weapon that during the past three years he has averaged 34 homers and a .912 OPS. It's not often that we get love from ESPN, so we better enjoy it when we get it. Gammons ends his article in defense of the Mets not forking over the big bucks for Manny Ramirez. It's a pretty good read for a slow news day.