When ESPN or others talk about the Mets the food chain of players mentioned is something like this:
David Wright --> Johan Santana --> Pedro Martinez --> Jose Reyes --> Billy Wagner --> Carlos Delgado --> Carlos Beltran
There's something inherently wrong with that order most notably Carlos Beltran's placement (although you could argue that Delgado and the MVP talk is beyond silly.) No Beltran's numbers aren't quite what they were last year yet league wide the power numbers are down. His on-base percentage is up to .369, topped only by 2003 and 2006 during his 11 seasons career. Beltran is walking more and striking out less than career averages and his 20.6% liners is higher than any other season since he was a Royal.
Last season Beltran's O-Swing% shot up to 25.73, his career average is 19.41, it seems as if he became more aggressive to combat the nearly 50% of balls seen being within the strike zone. If you recall we saw this same streak with Kevin Youkilis a week ago which was theorized as a reason his power numbers are up.
Defensively Beltran is still stellar, around 17 plays above the average centerfielder - or 14 runs. Combine that with the 24 runs above position offensively and Beltran is worth roughly 38 runs, or about the difference offensively between Alex Rodriguez and an average third baseman this season.
Joe Posnanski always talks about how you could feel that Beltran SHOULD be better because he looks so amazingly effortless, and I think some of that is still residual in New York. I've watched a handful of Mets games this season - Beltran is one of my favorite players to watch play - and he makes so many plays that 90% of outfielders can't make and you really do expect him to catch just about anything.
The media and fans should love him because of his talent, yet for some reason he gets buried on the Mets.