Taking solace in the little things...

From Joe Posnanski's typically good column in the Kansas City Star:

Right now, there's a guy to watch in center field. Most people around the country � even most people in Kansas City � may not think of Carlos Beltran as one of the great players in baseball. But he is. He is, in fact, the most complete player in the game right now, a five-tool wonder, a guy who breaks records without anyone noticing.

I'd like to congratulate a team that should have won this division by 15 games for finding a sack and pulling it out of their asses with a 10 game winning streak in the last week. Being a diehard fan of the sport, and, having something to cheer about with regard to my boyhood hometown team for the first time in 10 years, I am of course a little bitter that we didn't pull it out in the end. The Twins of course, should go very far in the playoffs, opening against the Yankees, a team they have dominated the past few seasons...oh wait a minute...that's not right either, is it? Having grown up a Royals fan, if EVERY SINGLE ONE of the Yankees walked out of their dugout and broke their ankles on their way onto the field, I would point, laugh, and begin cheering wildly. There is not a more supremely evil franchise at any level of sport, and everything bad that happens to them is a good thing. It would be funny if the Twins beat them, but this current incarnation of the Twins tends to shit down its leg when playing the Pukes in the Pinstripes, so you shouldn't hold your collective breath fellow citizens.

But, back to Posnanski's column. I have been having a play argument with one of my friends; he just tries to goad me into arguing whether Torii Hunter is better than Carlos Beltran. The good thing that Joe's column points out is that, not only is Beltran better than Hunter, he's better than everybody. Posnanski, as a hometown columnist may be biased, but the good thing about baseball is that numbers don't lie. Some highlights:

But one interesting new fielding statistic is �STATS Inc.'s zone rating.� It attempts to judge the percentage of plays made in that player's particular zone. I don't know how good a statistic it is, but it makes sense.

And Beltran's zone rating of .928 is the highest in baseball.

At any position.

So that old rumination about Torii Hunter being the best defensive Center Fielder in the game--something I admit even I ascribed to until this morning--is really false.

How fast is Beltran? Check this out: He has been thrown out stealing by a catcher once all year (he has been picked off twice). With one more steal, he will become just the fourth player to steal 40 bases and get caught fewer than five times.

No need to embarrass Torii by quoting his steal numbers.

You can play all sorts of fun number games with Carlos Beltran. For instance, take a look at Beltran's first five years next to another guy you might recognize.

Carlos Beltran: .287 average, 106 home runs, 461 RBIs, 490 runs, 148 stolen bases.

Barry Bonds: .265 average, 117 home runs, 336 RBIs, 468 runs, 169 stolen bases.

Last year, Carlos Beltran set an American League record for most extra-base hits by a switch hitter. The old record belonged to Mickey Mantle. Nobody made a big deal about it because nobody noticed.

Understand, I realize all of this is a lot of bitter chest puffing, now that the Twins have won the division and are moving on to the playoffs. But, I will take solace in the fact that going into next year, the Royals have the best Manager (Pena), the best Rookie (Berroa), and the best Player (Beltran) in the entire game of baseball. If they can find just 3 starting pitchers to have an average season for a FULL season, the Twins will not be able to limp and then back into a division title again.