My Favorite things
My Favorite Web Sites
Thank you for visiting my page at Angelfire.
Please come back and visit again!
Dear Editor
I am writing you in regards to your article “Carlos Beltran vs. Ditka” in this years Fantasy Baseball Index. My name is Kim Gardner and I am a huge sports fan, especially baseball and fantasy baseball. I have been playing fantasy baseball for about 5 years and use your magazine as one of my main sources of information. I very much enjoy reading your magazine, it has a lot of insight into who will and will not be players to watch in the up coming year.
I can see how Beltran would be a first round pick and a keeper in any league format. I do disagree however that he is the number one fantasy player in all of baseball. One thing you have to take into consideration for this year is the fact that the Royals have moved the fences out ten feet at Kauffman stadium to accommodate the young pitching staff, which they believe is the future of the organization. This will more than likely have a major effect on his power stats for 2004; he only hit ten of his twenty-six homeruns at home last year. Inevitably he will run less due to the fact he will be hitting in the two spot in front of Mike Sweeney and Juan Gonzalez, which will also effect his RBI totals.
The major problem I see with the comparisons to the other players in the article, i.e. Todd Helton is that even though his home stats are ballooned by Coors Field. Carlos Beltran’s stats are as well, Kauffman Stadiums the third best hitters park in baseball, according to Sporting News ballpark statistics, so how can you say Beltran’s stats as well are not ballooned as well? Taking that into consideration, and the fact that the fences are now back farther, I would have to take Helton over Beltran. Here is why, Beltran’s home stats from 2003 if he were to play every game at home would be 102 runs, 144 hits, 20 homeruns, 90 RBI’s, 42 stolen bases and a 333 average). Lets look at Helton’s stats if he played every game on the road 104 runs, 184 hits, 20 homeruns, 90 RBI’s, no stolen bases and a 324 average. The only things you gain are stolen bases and that is with Helton playing NO games at Coors Field. Steals are a major category in any fantasy baseball league but when you factor in how this year could be effected by the change of very friendly Kauffman Stadium you have to admit that there are other players that could easily out shine Beltran this year.
I do believe that Carlos Beltran is one of the top ten players in baseball, and he should excel with the players that the organization has brought in to play around him, not to mention the fact that he is in the “walk” year of his contract. There is no doubt that on paper he will put up big numbers and as a Kansas native I hope to see it happen in person a couple of times. I look forward to reading your magazine in the years to come and hope that it helps me as much in the future as it has in the past. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me and I hope will spark some future fantasy player lists, I hope to hear back from you with some constructive criticism.
Sincerely Kim Gardner
