Fantasy Baseball: 3 Burning Questions About the Houston Astros
The Return of Mr. October
After a long time away, Carlos Beltran agreed to return to the Astros this season to the tune of a one-year, $16 million deal.
You may recall his epic postseason performance as a rental player back in 2004 with the organization, but as we fast-forward to today, the switch-hitter turns 40 at the end of April, yet still appears to have some pop left after an All-Star campaign with the Yankees and Texas Rangers.
Our projections don't give Beltran much of a chance to repeat last year's performance, but the opportunity for him to do so will be there. He's a well established player that is projected to hit cleanup behind the likes of George Springer, Correa and Altuve.
| nF rank | nF | name | POS | ADP | PA | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OPS | MIN | MAX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 133 | 0.54 | Carlos Beltran | OF-51 | 222 | 514 | 64 | 17 | 73 | 1 | .269 | .765 | 128 | 274 |
Beltran should get the bulk of his plate appearances at designated hitter, but has played some left field in Spring Training and spent 67 games in right field last season. Based on the players Houston has manning the the corner outfield spots, Beltran could also end up taking the field against southpaws.
Josh Reddick is being paid like an everyday player to hold down right field despite his issues facing fellow lefties (.155 average last year, .218 for his career). Meanwhile, Norichika Aoki is also left-handed, but carried strong reverse splits from 2013-15 prior to hitting .227 against lefties in 2016. Here's is how our projections are expecting them to produce this season.
| nF rank | nF | name | POS | ADP | PA | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OPS | MIN | MAX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 136 | 0.46 | Josh Reddick | OF-73 | 296.7 | 493 | 59 | 14 | 59 | 9 | 0.273 | 0.767 | 229 | 365 |
| 286 | -3.54 | Norichika Aoki | OF-109 | 496.6 | 321 | 41 | 3 | 24 | 8 | 0.274 | 0.694 | 420 | 593 |
Neither Reddick or Aoki looks particularly interesting for fantasy purposes, but their respective performances could slightly impact Beltran. This shouldn't be too concerning, though, since Beltran even being able to play some outfield at this stage in his career only highlights the fact that he's aging extremely well.
So, no, his age doesn't concern me -- he's a posted a .276 average with an .812 OPS since his age-35 season, and let's not forget about last year. Not only did Beltran put together a solid performance, but David Ortiz also ended his career (at age 40) in spectacular fashion.
He wasn't the only older player that exceeded expectations, either.
Last week, we called Victor Martinez the fine wine of 2017. The other player strongly concerned for that title was Beltran, who's going one round earlier. Why not pour yourself two glasses?
