Who Is This Carlos Beltran?

There's a beast playing center field for the Mets this April. Not sure who this guy is, but the announcers keep telling me it's Carlos Beltran. Can't say I'd recognize him if they didn't say so.

Beltran, in his first few years with the Mets, has had a propensity for getting off to a slow start. This usually sparks the calls to talk radio that Beltran isn't any good, that he's soft, that his mole is dragging him down, yada, yada, yada.

But this year, Beltran is a man on fire. He's batting over .400 and leading the league in hitting. Keith Hernandez made a telling statement during yesterday's game when he remarked at how difficult it is to hit .400 for an entire month which is just what Beltran has done.

There are still times when Beltran looks like he's only half trying out there (i.e. not sliding into home), but his numbers don't show it. When Manuel moved Beltran to third in the lineup, I didn't like the move, but now I can't see any reason why you wouldn't keep him there. He's hitting the ball hard every time up and even his outs are difficult to handle.

I would like him to try and steal some more bases, but you can't have everything you want because that's just not what Mets fans get. But I can honestly say for the first time in April that Carlos Beltran looks like one of the best players in baseball.

I'm fully prepared for him to go 0 for 5 now that I've written that.