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A year ago today, Brandon Belt was named the NL Player of the Week. This came on the heels of his longest-ever at bat, a metric s**t ton of home runs and this very odd factoid that Bryan uncovered at the time (emphasis mine):
Brandon Belt’s week began with a 3-for-5, a home run, a double, and 3 RBI in the Giants’ 10-7 win against the Reds, which, if I’m reading Baseball-Reference correctly, was actually a game where his contributions lowered the Giants’ win probability -0.002%.
Such has been his career. Brandon Belt does amazing things on a baseball field and it’s never enough to satisfy the craven needs of fans, pundits, and math. He went on to homer in his next three games (and added one more on Sunday to give him 5 for the week) and put up a 1.574 OPS in 30 plate appearances. The first baseman also had an outfield assist.
Sadly this year has not gone quite so well for Belt, who appears to be continuing to struggle with the same knee pain that ended his season early last year. But it’s still comforting to know that he’s not that far removed from it.