Coming up through the minor leagues, something that made “Peter” Alonso so special was that he was able to have tremendous power, while also being able to crush balls for miles. Now, Pete Alonso has found his way and is paving the path to having the best offensive season by a Mets rookie in their entire history. His rookie campaign has been consistently compared to that of Darryl Strawberry’s, in which Strawberry mashed 26 home runs and 74 RBIs. If he remains healthy, Alonso can certainly top the home run mark within the next few days, and the RBI total within the next month. Alonso has already surpassed Strawberry in another important category: batting average.
In his rookie campaign of 1983, in which Strawberry won the Rookie of the Year, he has a batting average of .257. While this is not a bad batting average for a player with the power magnitude of Strawberry, it just goes to show how fantastic Alonso has actually been in his rookie season. Alonso is batting .275 so far in 2019, and that is impressive for a number of reasons. While the power has certainly been there the entire season, there were points in the season where pitchers had begun to figure him out. This happened during the month of May. In May, Alonso hit 10 home runs, but he also batted .232, struck out 31 times, and only walked four times.
At this point, people would not complain if Alonso was a .250 hitter simply because he hits 450 feet home runs. But the fact that he righted the ship on his batting average makes him that much more impressive of a rookie. After winning Rookie of the Month for April, Alonso should be a strong candidate to win the same distinction for the month of June. After hitting that abysmal .232 in May, Alonso has hit .313 in June. He has struck out only 15 times, while already walking nine times for June. Yes, he has only hit five home runs this month, but overall, Alonso has been a more productive batter in the month of June.
Taking a deeper look at things, Alonso has had an interesting go around when it comes to looking at his splits against lefty and righty pitchers. Batting average wise, Alonso is doing better against lefties with a .294 average. This is compared to his average against righties, which is .269. While the batting averages tilt clearly towards one end, his power numbers have been tilted in the exact opposite way. Alonso has slugged 17 home runs and 11 doubles against right handed pitchers, each more than double his total against left handed pitchers.
This could be looked at in a number of ways, but this writer thinks that it should be looked at in a positive manner. It shows that while in different ways, Alonso is effective against both left handed and right handed pitchers. This not only sets Alonso apart from other rookies, but other players as well. Alonso is more than just an impressive rookie, he is an impressive slugger.
And…he works hard & has a winner’s attitude towards hard play.
My only concern is the default weight upon his rookie shoulders for leadership on a team with Cano as de facto leader.
He can handle it! He’s easily the new “captain” and face of the franchise.
Alonso embodies all that is great in a person and player. its a privilege to watch.
Alonso is fantastic. It is so much fun to watch a young player with all of his energy and enthusiasm.
Alonso looking great, he got my vote for All-Star first baseman. I would quibble with the conclusion in the article that Alonso has better power against righties than lefties because his raw total of extra base hits against righties is more than his raw total against lefties. I’m pretty sure there are way more than twice as many right handed pitchers than there are left handed ones in the league so an SLG comparison would be more valid than a raw total comparison