Fantasy Baseball 2016 > Rankings > Third Base > Adrian Beltre

#9 Adrian Beltre: Fantasy Predictions for 2016

The only concern we have about Adrian Beltre is that he’ll be 37 years old this season. The other concern we have for you, the fantasy baseball owner, is how you messed up in your draft to where you have to really weigh your options with Adrian Beltre. Will he kill you? No. Will he help? Actually, yes, but he won’t wow you in any way, at least not any more.
 
You can count on Beltre to hit 15-20 HR, although he’s not likely going to hit .300 ever again. Count on Beltre to just about duplicate his stats from last season… and we hasten to say this, but we also want you to be prepared with a backup third baseman. Turning 37 and playing every day is taxing on the body, and he’s been extremely durable for many, many years (he has played in 140+ games in 13 of his 17 full-time seasons).
 
Now, let’s back up: making sure you have a backup for Adrian Beltre is a trouble sign right there if you’re looking for Beltre to be your everyday guy. Beltre should be on your roster as a backup third baseman and a DH while he has a hot bat if there’s no on eels on your team who’s hitting up to par. Beltre will get you 3-4 runs per week, 1 HR every other week, and 3-4 RBI per week – that’s it – but he’ll do it consistently. If you can, you should have a guy in your lineup who’s capable of 6+ runs, 3 HR and 9 RBI every week. Not saying you’ll have a guy do that, but a guy capable of doing that. Adrian Beltre, unfortunately, is no longer that guy, unless he hits the PEDs really hard in the off-season.

Adrian Beltre Fantasy Stats and Indicators

Year	Age	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2011	32	124	487	82	144	33	0	32	105	1	1	25	53	.296	.331	0.561	0.892
2012	33	156	604	95	194	33	2	36	102	1	0	36	82	.321	.359	0.561	0.921
2013	34	161	631	88	199	32	0	30	92	1	0	50	78	.315	.371	0.509	0.880
2014	35	148	549	79	178	33	1	19	77	1	1	57	74	.324	.388	0.492	0.879
2015	36	143	567	83	163	32	4	18	83	1	0	41	65	.287	.334	0.453	0.788

Time may finally catch up with Adrian Beltre a bit in 2016, although he's still worth a pick this year.

Fantasy Statistical Indicators

*Age. Beltre will be 37 this season, and he's been playing since the age of 19. He's stayed healthy most of his career, but be leery at least a little bit.
*Significant drop in slugging with age is no surprise.
*Low strikeouts means he still puts the ball in play; should lead to good RBI and Runs scored.
*Doubles remain consistent while HRs drop: could also indicate that a drop in batting average is permanent.