28
2011
End Of An Era – Carlos Beltran’s Franchise Records And Rankings
An article by 
In less than seven full seasons, Carlos Beltran has worked his way up the Mets career leaderboard in virtually every category. What makes Beltran’s achievements more impressive is that he’s 17th on the franchise’s all-time games played list, but ranks in the top ten in the majority of the cumulative stats. (doubles, home runs, RBI, runs scored, etc.)
To celebrate Carlos Beltran Appreciation Week on MMO, I have gone through the record books (also known as baseball-reference.com and Ultimate Mets Database) to compile a list of Beltran’s single-season and career achievements with the Mets. His high rankings in some categories should be obvious to the casual Mets fan, but I’m sure I’ll be able to surprise even the most die-hard Mets fans with a Carlos Beltran stat or three that’ll cause them to say “wow, I didn’t know Carlos was so good in THAT category!”
Let’s start by discussing Carlos Beltran’s single-season achievements and where they rank on the Mets’ all-time leaderboard:
Carlos Beltran stands tall among the all-time Mets greats.
Tell me, Mets fans. Who do you think holds the team’s single-season record for runs scored? If you said Jose Reyes, you get a big red “X”. The correct answer is Carlos Beltran. In 2006, he set a new club mark by crossing the plate 127 times, breaking Edgardo Alfonzo’s record of 123 runs scored. Carlos also scored 116 runs in 2008, which is the sixth-highest total in team history. Beltran is one of only six Mets to have multiple seasons with 100 or more runs scored. The others are Darryl Strawberry, Howard Johnson, Edgardo Alfonzo, David Wright and Jose Reyes.
The Mets have had a number of great power hitters. Guys like Dave Kingman, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Piazza and Carlos Delgado have all had multiple seasons with 30 or more home runs for the Mets. But none of them hit as many as Carlos Beltran did in 2006. In that magical season, Beltran tied Todd Hundley atop the single-season home run summit by slamming 41 homers. Whereas Hundley only hit 33 HR over his next two seasons, Beltran hit almost twice that amount, blasting 60 HR in 2007 and 2008.
Mike Piazza and David Wright can both boast seasons in which they drove in 124 runs, a Mets’ single-season record. But Carlos Beltran came close to that number three times. In 2006, Carlos collected 116 RBI, good for sixth highest total in club history. The following two seasons, Beltran picked up 112 RBI each year. Although he doesn’t hold the franchise record for RBIs in a season, Beltran is the only Met to record three seasons of 110 or more RBI and his 340 RBI from 2006-2008 are the second-most by a Met in any three-year stretch (David Wright had 347 RBI during the same time period).
Carlos Beltran is currently the National League leader in doubles with 30 (through Sunday’s game). Reaching 30 doubles is nothing new for Carlos, as 2011 marks the fifth time Beltran has reached 30 doubles in a single season for the Mets. He has reached that figure in every season in which he’s played at least 95 games, (In 2009, Beltran played in only 81 games, but still collected 22 doubles.) with a single-season high of 40 two-baggers in 2008 (tied for 7th best in Mets history). Beltran is one of only two Mets (the other is David Wright) to produce at least five seasons with 30 or more doubles.
So what do you think of Beltran’s single-season achievements? Impressive, huh? As great as those numbers are, he’s even better when it comes to the career rankings. It would take forever to name them all and add some commentary to each one, so I’ll just summarize it all in one tidy package, listing each category (including the sabermetric stats) followed by where it ranks on the all-time career leaderboard. Ready? Here we go!
- Batting average: .280 (12th)
- On-base percentage: .369 (6th)
- Slugging percentage: .501 (5th)
- OPS (on-base plus slugging): .870 (5th)
- Runs scored: 548 (8th)
- Hits: 877 (13th)
- Total bases: 1,566 (10th)
- Doubles: 208 (6th)
- Triples: 17 (17th)
- Home Runs: 149 (6th)
- RBI: 557 (6th)
- Bases on Balls: 446 (9th)
- Stolen Bases: 100 (11th)
- Extra-Base Hits: 374 (6th)
- Sacrifice Flies: 37 (7th)
- WAR (Position Players): 32.2 (2nd)
- Offensive WAR: 27.8 (5th)
- Defensive WAR: 4.4 (3rd)
These numbers look even more Amazin’ when you consider that Beltran ranks 13th in plate appearances and 17th in games played. A number of players played more games and came to the plate more often than Beltran did, but very few surpassed his career numbers. In fact, had Beltran collected the same amount of plate appearances as the players ahead of him in some of the categories, he’d rank much higher on the career leaderboard. Here are some examples:
Only seven players have scored more runs than Carlos Beltran in team history. All seven had at least 4,307 plate appearances (Mookie Wilson had that figure). Carlos Beltran scored his runs in only 3,630 plate appearances.
Of the 12 players ahead of Beltran in base hits, all but two (Mike Piazza, Keith Hernandez) achieved their totals in fewer than 4,000 plate appearances.
Mike Piazza is the only player to finish his Mets career with more total bases than Carlos Beltran in fewer than 4,000 plate appearances.
There are five players ahead of Carlos Beltran in doubles. Every one of them did it in at least 4,449 plate appearances (Edgardo Alfonzo had that total). Fonzie collected four more doubles than Beltran, but needed over 800 more plate appearances to reach that figure.
Dave Kingman is the only Met to hit more home runs than Carlos Beltran in fewer plate appearances. Of course, Kingman also struck out 128 more times than Beltran did, despite having more than 1,000 fewer plate appearances than Carlos.
The only player to collect more RBIs than Carlos Beltran in fewer than 4,000 plate appearances is Mike Piazza. Even David Wright, who has a 131 RBI lead on Carlos Beltran, needed almost 900 more plate appearances to achieve his total.
Need more proof that Carlos Beltran is among the best players in franchise history? No? Too bad. I’ve got more Carlos Beltran facts for you.
Holy Moley! Carlos Beltran has been a dynamic player for the Mets!
Carlos Beltran is one of only four players in franchise history to reach the 100 HR/100 SB plateau. Darryl Strawberry, Howard Johnson and David Wright are the other three.
Speaking of stolen bases, Carlos Beltran has swiped exactly 100 bases in his Mets career, while being caught only 16 times. His 86.2% success rate is by far the best in franchise history. (Lenny Dykstra is second with a 82.3% success rate, stealing 116 bases while being caught 25 times.) Let’s put this into perspective. In 2007, Jose Reyes stole 78 bases and was caught 21 times. Reyes was thrown out five more times in one season than Beltran has been caught over his entire seven-year career with the Mets, despite the fact that Beltran swiped 22 more bases in those seven seasons than Reyes did in the year he was caught stealing 21 times.
In 2006 and 2007, Carlos Beltran won the Silver Slugger Award for being the best hitter at his position. He is one of only six Mets to win the award more than once, joining Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry, Howard Johnson, Mike Piazza and David Wright.
In nearly 50 years of Mets baseball, Carlos Beltran is the only outfielder to win multiple Gold Glove Awards for defensive excellence, taking home the coveted prize in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Prior to Beltran, the only Met outfielder to win a Gold Glove was Tommie Agee in 1970. In addition, Beltran is one of only three Mets at any position to win at least three Gold Glove Awards. Keith Hernandez won six Gold Gloves as a Met from 1983-1988 and Rey Ordoñez took home three Gold Gloves from 1997-1999.
The only time Carlos Beltran made the playoffs as a Met was in 2006. Although Carlos “only” hit .278 in ten playoff games versus the Dodgers and Cardinals, his on-base percentage was .422, reaching base 19 times in those ten games (ten hits, nine walks) and his slugging percentage was .556. The fact that he made the final out of the NLCS shouldn’t take away from the fact that he had a fantastic postseason. Without his two-run homer in Game 1 of the NLCS (accounting for all the runs in a 2-0 Mets victory) and his 3-for-3, two homer performance in Game 4 of the NLCS, the Mets might not have made it to a Game 7.
It seems to me that Carlos Beltran has proven himself repeatedly for the Mets since he became a charter member of the “New Mets” in 2005. He has excelled both offensively and defensively and has been one of the most complete players in franchise history. When other players have not performed, Carlos Beltran has done his best to carry the team on his back. For example, when the team crumbled in the final month of the 2007 and 2008 season, Beltran did not. Carlos had 8 HR, 27 RBI and 22 runs scored in September 2007 and followed that up with an outstanding September in 2008 (.344, 6 HR, 19 RBI, 22 runs scored, .440 OBP, .645 SLG).
Carlos Beltran might not be a member of the Mets for much longer, but he will always be one of the biggest leaders the team has ever had. You don’t need to look at his name all over the Mets’ leaderboard to know that. He’ll be missed when his time in New York is over, but his contributions will never be forgotten.
About the Author: Ed Leyro
Ed Leyro was hatched in the Bronx, but spent most of his youth in Queens at Shea Stadium. Apparently, all that time spent at Mets games paid off as Ed met his wife (The Coop) for the first time at Citi Field during its inaugural season. Guess the 2009 season was good for something after all. In addition to his work at Mets Merized Online, Ed also owns, operates and is head janitor at Studious Metsimus, where he shares blogging duties with Joey Beartran. For those not in the know, Joey is a teddy bear dressed in a Mets hoodie. Clearly, Studious Metsimus is not your typical Mets blog.
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I say to you sir, well done. Well done indeed.
Agreed. Sometimes a little perspective is a powerful thing.
Carlos is by far the best all around position player this team has ever had. By far.
The fact that he is a consummate professional only accentuates his accomplishments.
I can only imagine the debates that would have raged if Carlos played in NY at the same time as Willie, Mickey and the Duke.
Agreed.
Couldn’t have said it better.
A masterpiece. Well done Ed.
good bye beltran.. nice knowing you were a met and now i will have to see you august 6th and 7th at citi field wearing #51 for the braves while playing Cf.. ugh..
Bronze this post and put it up on a pedestal sir.
Worth the read and he will surely be missed… I hope people finally realize how important Carlos Beltran was these past few years.
Oh, also, Ed. In my MLB The Show game for ps3, this umpire keeps wringing me up on check swing strikes, and he bares a striking resemblance to you. I’m developing an animosity. Lol.
Fantastic research, great post, loved reading it.
No doubt, Carlos is an great player, that’s why he got the 100+ million contract. Over seven years you would expect him to rank up leader type numbers. But did he really give the Mets enough in return to justify the contract? With Boros as a agent, it is not suprising the Carlos has always done what is best for Carlos with the most obvious example being last years unauthorized surgury. Carlos had three impressive season (06 – 08), the others were either average or injury riddled. He is great this season as well, not suprising that he would put full effort into his walk year. And now he puts up his trade requirements as a road block to Sandy/the Mets getting value in return. Great player, yes. Team player, no. Wait, wouldn’t a great player have smacked that ball in ’06 and put the Mets in the world series?
By unauthorized surgery, you must mean the one where he had signed documentation from the team saying their insurance is covering it. The one that Minaya convinced him to put off for several months so they could sell a couple more tickets in 2009.
And people can keep saying the Walk Year Myth, but that doesn’t make it true. A professional athlete would have to be an idiot to try something like that. Especially in baseball, which is all about refined technique. You don’t let your skills dull for a year or two in the hopes that you can go full bore in your walk year.
“Wait, wouldn’t a great player have smacked that ball in ’06 and put the Mets in the world series?”
Wouldn’t a great player be the main reason they even got that far? And you do know who was pitching there, right?
Is that you, Pomes?
Unauthorized surgery?
Can you back allegation up with facts, please?
Amazing how people believe the smear attempt. Unbelievable.
You’re sounding a lot like ‘Lifelongmetsfan.’
This is what he said on July 19 at 11:00 pm –
Lifelongmetsfan says:
July 19, 2011 at 11:00 pm
Carlos Beltran is a guy who in 2010 took the year year off to increase his value for entry into the free agent market in 2012. I think a player who chooses to have elective surgery without the consent or knowledge of his team knowing full well he will not be available for the entire season following the surgery deserves a few “written word whacks.”
Our star player taking 3 days off because of the “flu” declaring himself unavailable to even pitch hit while his teammates battle the division leading team deserves a few “written whacks.”
How many days off do players get off for the All-Star break, three.
Hmm.. How many days did Beltran need off becasue of the “flu”… three.
WOw… Could it be possible that Beltran and his agent said,
“Carlos played in the All-Star game and did not get his Collectively Bargained Agreed on (3) All-Star game days off, so He’s going to take (3) days.”
It wouldn’t surprise me.
Excellent post here to commemorate the legend of one of the greatest players in New York Mets history. Aside from the mediocre 2005, Carlos has been a joy to watch day in and day out. He’s a hard worker, he seemed to play through injuries almost yearly and he’s easily the best center fielder in the history of this franchise (both offensively and defensively). Watching him run down fly balls in center in his prime was just pure art and that swing was a thing of beauty from both sides of the plate.
We’re going to miss you Carlos. I’m still holding out hope that you come back for 2 more years. We still want to see you walk up to the plate with El Esta Aqui playing and wearing a Mets uniform.
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to read and comment on my Beltran piece. I had no idea it ended up being this wordy until I was ready to publish it. Then again, I’m glad it was that long because it goes to show just how much Carlos Beltran contributed to the Mets both defensively and offensively. Thanks again!
Huge Beltran fan, and will go down as one of the most under appreciated Met ever.
However, how many fans, many right here on this site, were ready to let him go last year, thought Pagan was the way to go and said he’d even ruin the “chemistry” of the team once he came back.
Love the outpouring love for the guy, well overdue, but seems like now that he’s got one foot out the door everyone’s got a different story to tell.
Ive always loved Carlos Beltran. I always will. I see what you are saying, its funny that way. But the love coming from Joe D, Ed and myself has always been there. I know for a fact that we three have always supported him from the beginning. Best of luck to him in the rest of his career and who knows, he could be back!
That I have no doubt and I do remember you being a huge fan too, but thinking last year and even when he was hurt, there wasn’t quite the love fest.
I am sure going to miss him, but this had to be done for the future of the organization, which ultimately, is my first passion.
Carlos Beltran was the most Talented player in Met history. He was an elegant man which does not bid well to the NY media. A quiet Team leader who was underapreciated in my opinion. Thanks for the article and setting the record straight about Carlos Beltran’s Met Career
GOOD BYE CARLOS, THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU DID FOR US…
Nice, Ed, nice!
I will miss you CB.
Going to be tough without you. Best of Luck, just not against us!
[...] MetsMerized has Beltran’s final statistical rankings as a Met. [...]
[...] Carlos was so good when he was healthy, that you may not realize how highly he is ranked on the Mets all time stats lists. Just Look at his career rankings below courtesy of Ed Leyro from MetsMerized, who wrote an excellent article on Beltrans time in Flushing, that you can check out here. [...]