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Adrian Beltre named Rangers player of the year

Rangers 3B Adrian Beltre took home team player of the year honors after a fantastic 2012 season.

By Bryan Kilpatrick
Ezra Shaw

Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre was named the team's player of the year on Wednesday by the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Beltre, 33, hit .321/.359/.561 with 36 home runs in 2012, while playing his usual Gold Glove-caliber defense. Widely considered the best third baseman of his era, Beltre led the American League with a .974 fielding percentage and finished fourth among players who appeared in at least 100 games at third base with a total zone rating of 6.

The Rangers finished second in the AL in team batting average (.273) and OPS (.780), but a late-season collapse cost them the division crown and forced the team to play a wild card play-in game against the Baltimore Orioles, which the Rangers lost.

In two seasons with the Rangers, Beltre has been a .310/.347/.561 hitter. He is signed with the team through the 2015 season, after which he'll be 36 years old.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.