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What a hitter. An absolute beast who would have totally thrived in a DH environment as he couldn’t field a lick. He started behind the plate, was moved to SS–which speaks to his underlying athleticism–and ended up at 3B, RF, and 1B.

The overall career arc is a little odd, honestly: he was essentially an impact player from age 20 on, which is fine, there are a lot of those out there (with most of them in the HoF). But he also cratered hard, essentially hitting decline in his early 30’s and then falling off the cliff within a few years. This is always a challenge to model, as the factors in those decline are often external to his performance and potential. But there is something here that remains compelling to me about it, about seeing Beckwith as a comet that burned bright enough to challenge for the league lead in important offensive categories (WAR, HR, SLG, OPS) and then burns out.

Beckwith may have been even better than this draft–think Edgar Martínez with more power and fewer walks–but we’re pretty happy with this as a baseline. He would finish his career in the mid 1930’s top 5 all time in HR; top 10 in 2B with an outside shot at the 500/500 club.

Batting Projections

Pitching Projections