Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projections are a good measure of what to expect from players in the upcoming baseball season. We'll take a look at the Rangers' projections on a position-by-position basis. Szymborski can be found on Twitter at @DSzymborski.
Today we'll look at the projections for the Rangers third baseman. Last year saw Adrian Beltre get off to a slow start in April and May before he turned it on despite a fairly serious thumb injury he played (played even better, perhaps) through. Adrian Beltre is just awesome.
Beltre: 547 plate appearances, 27 doubles, 3 triples, 16 home runs, 70 RBIs, .289 batting average, .342 on-base percentage, .452 slugging percentage
Beltre overcame a pretty awful start to his season and then a torn ligament in his thumb that never really healed to still hit .287 with 18 homers and 83 RBIs, numbers that were buoyed by a huge, epic 40-something game stretch to end the season.
Entering his age 37 season, you can't expect Beltre to keep playing through his annual bumps and bruises (and tears and hernias) like he always does, but when have you ever seen Beltre just do what's expected of us? Never. These projections are likely pretty dead-on, and the Rangers will take it gladly, but don't be shocked if he outperforms them either.
