Friday, June 10, 2005 |
Beltre Bothered By Beltlessness
"Sometimes I sit in my house and say, 'Why am I not enjoying life? Why am I not happy? I have everything I can ask for,' " he says. "Sometimes you don't get it, because you care about it. I care about the score, and I care about this team here, and these people here. They trust me to come here and … "The penalty, I might add, of having Scott Boras as a manager. But is there something wrong with that home run swing?...
"If I have a bad game or we lost or whatever, I go to the house and just look at the ceiling," he says. "When I go back to the house and my wife is here, that helps me a lot. I can play with our baby, and she's the right age to play with her. The next day, you come here and it's the same thing. Sometimes it's not fun. Sometimes I hate baseball."
He shrugs and grins, as if to say, "It will be OK." It is almost convincing.
"Sometimes I don't really enjoy this game," he says. "The failure. Sometimes when you're not doing good and the team's not doing good you have no reason to be happy. I mean, inside of baseball. When you're doing good and the team's doing good, you can't wait to come to the ballpark. Last year, I couldn't wait to get to the ballpark. Sometimes here I don't want to come to the ballpark."
Beltre is convinced he ran off course during his first games at Safeco Field, when balls he believed would have landed in the Dodger Stadium bleachers were instead warning-track outs. He says he "juiced" a few swings after that, straining for 10 more feet. That's when pitchers went to the far side of the plate, soft and tantalizing, like they did when he was younger. He lost right-center and right fields, and the swing that got him there. Weeks later, he continues to search.Ah, Seattle -- hell on earth for right handed power hitters. The only problem with that is his .243/.281/.391 away line, which shows he's regressing to his old bad 2002-2003 self: swinging at the low, outside slider. I've seen it myself. You'll have five years to think about all that money you're supposed to be earning, Adrian, the crushing weight of expectations on top of your bat. He might turn it around yet. But with more bad years than good, I'm inclined to think he's the biggest one-year wonder in baseball history.
Beltre's problem probably is his swing, and for a young guy, losing your hitting (or pitching) coach is actually one of the understated problems with switching clubs. (As long as the As hitting staff preaches a linear swing, they will *never* be a great hitting team.) He's an incredibly strong person, but he has a bad habit of straightening out his back arm before the pitch comes to the plate. Meaning, he can't adjust to the low and outside slider.
: 6/10/2005 10:05:00 AM
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.