In 153 PA since April ended, Carlos Beltran is hitting .296/.340/.507 with a 134 wRC+, a .302 BABIP and a .211 ISO.

Arbitrary endpoints are not so great to use in baseball analysis because they can paint a misleading picture. The entire body of work is what is most important in evaluating a player. But when the possibility exists that the player changes something at the plate, endpoints can be meaningful. What makes me feel OK with using this endpoint is that one of Beltran's key processes at the plate, hard contact, has improved dramatically since April ended:

April, 74 PA: % of balls in play classified as hard hit: 22.9%

May 1-present, 153 PA: % of balls in play classified as hard hit: 31.7%

League average for that stat is 28.6%, so Beltran went from significantly below average in April in generating hard contact to well above average after April concluded.

As for why he's hitting the ball harder? Beltran played all of last year through an elbow injury and had elbow surgery in the offseason to fix it. He's 38 years old. It's possible that April was just a month he needed to get going. Beltran's line in that May 1-present endpoint closely resembles his last full healthy season, 2013, where he hit to a 131 wRC+ with a .195 ISO and .314 BABIP.

He's only 27% owned in Yahoo leagues. I just picked him up in mine to fill in for the injured Wil Myers. If you need a bat, I think he's a very playable option. He's in a great home park in a great run scoring division, and now that the warm weather is here, baseballs will be traveling well.

And if you're playing Daily Fantasy Baseball over on FanDuel today, Beltran faces one of the least effective pitchers in the game, Kevin Correia. The matchup takes place in Yankee Stadium, and he's priced at just $2,900. With a short slate of games to choose from, Beltran is entrenched into my FanDuel lineup today. The matchup, price and ballpark run scoring environment are all excellent.