BY THE NUMBERS – Adrian Beltre

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What a great day for the Angels yesterday! The signing of Scott Downs adds another left arm to the pitching staff along with Hisanori Takahashi. With a team whose pitching staff is considered to be a middle-of-the-road affair (14th in the majors in ERA, 16th in the majors with 39 saves out of 56 opportunities, 16th in the league with 651 earned runs given up), Downs and Takahashi are welcomed additions. If Reagins can get Rafael Soriano to sign on the dotted line, the off-season reconstruction of the back end of the bullpen will have been a success!

Now, the main focus for Los Angeles will now be on offensive side of the ball. Let’s take a look at some of the offensive ranks the Angels achieved last season and where they sat compared to the rest of the league:

19th in runs scored (681)
19th in runs batted in (656)
21st in slugging percentage (.380)
22nd in hits (1363)
25th in team average (.248)
27th in on-base percentage (.311)

Yeah, not so good. Reagins is going to have his work cut out for him.

As all Angels fans know, one big focus is going to have to be on Adrian Beltre. With the Angels in need of a major upgrade at third base, Beltre fits the bill really well.

Throughout the majority of his career, Beltre has never really shown himself to be a high batting average guy. Before playing for Red Sox nation last season, only one other time did he have an average over .300 (2004 with the LA Dodgers, .319). Though he did bat .290 with the Dodgers in 2001, only twice in his twelve year career did he bat over .275.

With the Red Sox last season, Beltre’s career resurfaced with a .321 batting average, 28 home runs, and 102 RBI. Great numbers for Beltre, but the question is… will he will be able to repeat those numbers with his new team?

With the Angels in desperate need for offense, Beltre is their guy. Besides the low batting average numbers, Beltre has more than made up for that statistic with his offensive output. He has hit 20 or more homeruns in eight of thirteen of his major league seasons while hitting over 85 RBI in eight of his thirteen seasons. You can’t argue with that kind of production.

Beltre is also known as a great defensive player as well as a great locker room guy. If Beltre is added to the Halo lineup, he will make this team significantly better.

Halo nation is waiting on you, Reagins. Make it happen!