[DaddyTorgo]

hmm - beltre would be fantastic? really?

his slugging fell off a cliff after his "steroid-year" and then fell off the second cliff this past year (he was injured though i gather?).

call me crazy, but i find it hard to get excited about a guy hitting .265 and putting up 25 homers with a .327 OBP. Even if he's Omar frigging Vizquiel.

And Beltre, as good as he is in the field is maybe 11 runs better than Lowell (based on baseball reference's "Total Fielding Runs Above Average."). Lowell's OPS+ was like 24pts higher and hit .290 as compared to .265 in basically the same number of games. Lowell's 2009 VORP was 22.9. Beltre was 5.

Not that statistics are everything, but I don't see how Beltre (at the added cost of salary - $3m - Max R.'s salary) is a "fantastic upgrade" over Lowell.