More Beltran Speculation

At 100 Million for 6 years or 110 for years, Beltran is a relative bargain.  We tend to always look at the negative aspects of a multiple year deal, but securing a quality ballplayer in his prime can have its advantages too -- and if the markets just follows the rate of inflations; saving an extra 2 mil or so a year isn't a bad thing.

Assuming of course that the team has done its homework.  You could make a case that Beltran is among the top 5 players out there (at least based on last year's numbers) and considering his age, speed and defensive prowess, he could maintain that position for a long time, but then again, there were people who made similar comparisons to the likes of Richard Hildalgo or even Magglio pre-injury.  In any case, I don't see many better candidates coming on the market in the next year or two -- and they certainly won't come down in price -- and I'd rather pay a small premium for that top tier guy -- vs. near-top dollar for a guy without that top-tier potential who's more likely to fall flat on his face.

Beltran wishing

Seems to me that beltran may falling into the mets hands, much like the arod and vlad ops, but hopefully minaya doesn't ley this op slip by.  I'm not one of those critical of the other moves -- arod was clearly overpaid and Vlad still has a fair amount of risk-- and figure we'll need to overpay if the yanks get involved, but if we can skate pass this weekend and pay fairly, this could be the start of a wonderful relationship.
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