.

It's tedious to do anything too repetitively.  Charles Barkley famously rebuked the NBA for scheduling back-to-back-to-back games:  "I don't even like to have sex three nights in a row."

Not every post is "objective analysis," LrKrBoi29.  That would be tedious.

....

Beltran wants "three-plus" years.  Without making this a "study" as to the Return On Investment (ROI), let's first ask whether this idea is worthy of consideration in the first place.  Obviously, Beltran could hit the wall in 2014; that's stating the obvious.  Let's noodle around for a moment, asking whether he could play well in 2014-16, and if so, whether that's likely enough to investigate.

We know, we know, Beltran is turning 37.  

At ages 37 and 38, the Edgar OPS'ed 1000.  His age 38 season, you might remember the 116-win team.  At ages 39 and 40, Edgar also hit 300/400/500.   Here, let's throw The Edgar's last four good seasons into a table:

We might not have wanted to miss those four seasons in Edgar Martinez' career.  But, hey, why not?  We missed the last thirty years of Randy Johnson's career.  In 1999, there was the possibility of paying for deadwood Big Unit seasons, and we wisely stepped around that land mine.

For those who just joined us, The Edgar stopped being good in 2004, and so did the Mariners' offense.  It never got good again.  There is just no overstating the value of a .400 OBP, .500 SLG engine at the heart of your order.

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Aging

Of course, Carlos Beltran was never AS good a hitter as Edgar Martinez was, and his OBP is nowhere near .400 any more. But he is still posting 130 OPS+ performances at the plate.  There are a couple of Mariners who do not.

Aging?  There are lots of reasons to be concerned, starting with his second half of 2013 and with his EYE -- it has dropped from .8 to .5 to .4 as he turned from 34 to 35 to 36.  

And there are lots of reasons not to be concerned, starting with his switch-hitting, power index, and what the scouting eye says.  (The Yankees, among others, are very interested.)

Beltran's comps, on b-ref.com, look terrible after age 37.  That's not the end of the discussion.  Those 10 guys (including Bobby Abreu, Dave Winfield, and Billy Williams) are not THE ten guys.  But still.

Basically, the numbers say that Beltran's curve is alarming (but not conclusive).  The scouting eye says that he's fine.  Take yer pick.

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Comps

Assuming that Beltran's bat has not slowed (much), he's giving you a (switch-)hitting comp for 

• Evan Longoria
• Jose Bautista
• Justin Upton

That is, he hits close to .300 with 60+ walks, 30 doubles, 25 HR and 100 RBI.  Edgar Martinez-type hitter, minus a biscuit in every category.

But M's fans are laser-focused on right hand power; Beltran gets a (giant foam-sized) thumb on the scale there.  For his career he hits better right than left -- .523 SLG all time vs left hand pitchers.

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vs. Choo

If you took Shin-Soo Choo and you:

1. Traded some BB for some PWR, keeping it even, value-wise
2. Made him slower
3. Smoothed out Choo's wide platoon specialty, Choo being great vs RHP but bad vs LHP
4. Created some risk as to age arc

Then you'd have Beltran.

I'm guessing that those are adjustments, #1 and #3 that M's fans would want to make to Choo.  For many M's fans, #3 is non-negotiable -- they feel that the Mariners MUST zero in on right hand hitting.

#1 is a wash, probably ... Would you pay #2 and #4 to get #3?