Beltre Will Hit Cleanup

It should not really come as a surprise to anyone, but Ron Washington has officially gone on record saying Adrian Beltre will be back in his cleanup role in 2012.

Michael Young hit cleanup last season for much of the year due to injuries and the fact that Young had such a great year at the plate. Despite hitting just 11 home runs, Young was an effective cleanup hitter with a career-high 106 RBIs as well as a career-high .338 batting average.

But Beltre is the prototypical cleanup man and even though he missed upwards of 40 games last season, he still managed to rack up his second-best home run and RBI total with 32 bombs and 105 RBIs. He got insanely hot in September after missing all of August with a stint on the disabled list.

"I'm going to do what I want to do, when I want to do it and how I want to do it," Washington told the Star-Telegram. "Our intentions are for Beltre to hit fourth."

As the team's cleanup hitter last year, Beltre hit .276 with 16 home runs and 55 RBIs in 69 games.


Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/03/03/3781778/texas-rangers-notes-adrian-beltre.html#storylink=cpy
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