One of the most talented baseball players of the last 10 years may be facing season-ending and possibly career-ending microfracture surgery on his right knee. Beltran has had a recent history of knee injuries, including arthroscopic on both of his knees following the 2007 season. Microfracture surgery has been used on several athletes, most notably basketball players, with somewhat mixed results.
Beltran signed with the Mets following the 2004 season. Beltran became a hot commodity in the 2004 playoffs after playing in obscurity while with the Kansas City Royals. He burst on the national scene with 8 postseason HRs, including 5 games in row with a home run. He also supplied the Astros with stellar centerfield defense. The Yankees and the Red Sox balked at showing Beltran a big contract, and he opted to play in Queens instead.
His time with the Mets has been up-and-down, mostly due to injuries that he has suffered. His first season with them was derailed following a head first collision with fellow outfielder, Mike Cameron. Beltran would suffer vertigo as a result of the head knocking. He would then suffer from quad injuries and end up having career lows in just about every major statistical category.
He would rebound to have an extremely successful 2006 season, which saw the Mets just miss out on the World Series. Beltran would hit 41 HRs, which tied a Mets a record.
Beltran had 2 solid seasons since, even though the Mets would end up collapsing down the stretch each season.
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Will this be breaking news on SC tonight?
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Well f-in’ A…time for Fernando Martinez to step it up.
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what is interesting is that the 2 guys that the post use as examples for cases that didn’t pan out were 2 that had the surgery earlier on than the others.
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of course, he is on my fantasy team.
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How appropriate that the ad below the post is “Knee Injury? Click Here.”
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I sent this to a friend of mine that is a Mets fan and nhe is off his rocker about how wrong you are about Beltran, Sparty. Tried to get him to comment but he won’t.
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wrong about what?
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Beltran, great player…report that his knee may be messed up beyond repair. what am i missing?
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He doesn’t like your characterization of his Met career as up and down.
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his first year was plagued by injuries, had career lows. That is the truth. blew up in 2006 and followed that up with 2 strong seasons. where is the up and down?
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That’s what he wants to know, you characterized his career as up and down.
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i guess i shouldn’t have used that term earlier. but he hasn’t been as great as he could have been since he was injured, a lot. i never said his play was shitty.
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Yeah don’t worry about it, he’s a Mets fan, they are sensitive.
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i prefaced it by saying that it was due to injuries. he has played through a lot of them, and it caused him to not be as great as he could have been.
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Not as good as he could of been? His stats match and stay pretty consistent throughout his career in my view. Only thing he hasn’t done as much of in NY is steal bases, but his hitting power and everything is as good or better than it was in KC and Houston.
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so you think that if beltran never had knee issues or any of his leg problems his stats wouldn’t have been better?
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No I don’t, I think he really earned his attention with the 2004 playoffs where he hit 8 homeruns in the 2 series he was involved in. He was always a (around) a .275 30 homerun, 110 RBI 25 steals type guy and he more or less stayed around that even when he played 162 games. Guys get injuries all the time, but thats really the type of player he was going to be, and still is, in my opinion. Unfortunately stereotypes shadow him and even I was guilty of that until I looked at his trends and saw he produces in the same areas as he always has.
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he had 3 straight season over 40 SBs prior to coming to the Mets. and…he was entering his prime with them.
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Yeah I was kinda being hypocritical because I said that he didn’t really steal much in NY and then said he was always a 25 steal guy, my bad. But yeah thats the only thing he hasn’t done in NY in my opinion is steal 40 bases, and honestly with Reyes usually hitting leadoff, thats been more than fine as hes become more of a power bat anyway.
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look, the guy is no slouch. he could have been greater if not for his leg injuries.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/06/30/2009-06-30_beltran_second.html
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