Looking at the Mets pages over at Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs and I’m constantly surprised at the things that jump out at me. Here are 10 things that made me do a double-take.
Among players with at least 100 PA, Lucas Duda led the team with a .349 OBP and Kirk Nieuwenhuis was second with a .346 mark. Wonder what kind of odds Vegas would have given in the preseason for that daily double?
Eric Young Jr. made more outfield starts (65) than Chris Young (63). Overall the Mets did slightly better than their 10-year average for starts by their five most-used outfielders. Curtis Granderson led the way with 149 starts, while the average top guy on the team in the past 10 years had 135. Next was Juan Lagares with 105 (98) then Young Jr. with 65 (80), followed by Young with 63 (59) and Matt den Dekker had 41 starts (39).
Scott Rice had the worst BABIP among all Mets pitchers who threw more than two innings with a .359 mark. It made all the micro-managing to put him in the most advantageous spots worthwhile!
Opposing baserunners were successful on 10 of 11 attempts versus Juan Centeno and Taylor Teagarden. That made Travis d’Arnaud’s 19% success rate throwing out runners look good by comparison. Anthony Recker gunned out 37% of runners who tried to steal.
There were 23 Mets games this year where a team did not score a run. The Mets were shut out 12 times and their pitchers had 11 shutouts. Zack Wheeler was the only pitcher to throw a complete-game shutout. The other 10 were combo efforts.
Buddy Carlyle had the best K/BB ratio on the club with a 5.60 mark.
Bartolo Colon had 69 PA and recorded two hits. Jeurys Familia matched that hit total in three plate appearances. Carlyle got a hit in his only trip to the plate.
No one on the staff threw a curve more frequently than Vic Black, who broke one off on 26.9% of his pitches to the plate. His average curveball velocity was 81.8 mph while his heater checked in with a 95.6 average reading.
Dilson Herrera finished third on the team with a .186 ISO.
Thanks to a .217 BABIP, Josh Edgin held LHB to a .540 OPS. When the manager lost his mind and allowed him to face a RHB, they had a .536 OPS. And that was with a .318 BABIP.
Thanks, Brian! Great stuff!
Also, Nieuwenhuis (.828) had the second best OPS on the team, only trailing Duda by .002.
Thanks Steve.
Nieuwenhuis’ 2014 is pretty remarkable. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around him doing as well as he did. A .361 BABIP and a 30.0 K% is quite the combination. It’s sort of similar to what Starling Marte did this year.
The Steamer projections are up already! They predict Marte to follow up with a .343 BABIP in 2015. But they project KN to drop to a .285 mark.
Do you have any insight on the BABIP Projections…is it based on a forecast that uses the specific player’s history, or is there a subjective element to it?
The BABIP stat is really interesting. It’s a close cousin to the “clutch stats” that have been debated. I’m always thinking that it’s a result of some sort of “hard contact” tendancy for a player. For most players, that’s a complex and “compund” set of inputs and results. For a Barry Bonds, he could see few good pitches yet make superior contact (and of course, with power).
You might find this series enjoyable:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=10333
secondary importance for Herrera and that ISO? His BB%.
The combination of a high BB% and a high ISO, particularly for a young player, generally results in a top 20 player.
Small sample caveats, of course, apply.
I agree Jerry, those two stats speak volumes about Herrera’s potential. What’s also striking is how apparent the LHP numbers belie what TC did with the bullpen. I was also surprised to see Edgin’s had 8.2 IP against righties, much more than I would have guessed.
Posted this in the another thread, but since these are 2014 “surprising” numbers i’ll repost it here. Disclaimer: My intention is not to ignite a WAR debate.
For those who like fWAR for pitchers…
Overall, last in the majors.
SP: 25th/30
RP:30th/30. only team with a negative value…
I can sort of believe that the SP was ranked so low, but the RP being dead last with a negative WAR….? kinda hard to explain that. I thought the bullpen overachieved, but not to that extent that their peripherals would rank last.
Edit: Just saw that the Pirates and Giants were 29th and 28th in pitching WAR. Another reason to avoid fWAR when evaluating past performance for pitchers
For those who like bWAR, which doesn’t try to eliminate luck as much,
SP 23/30
Mets -0.9, avg is 1.5
RP 20/30
Mets is -0.7 avg is -0.5
Much more believable in my opinion.
And non-pitching : 9/30
Mets 2.0, avg is 0
Backs up my thinking that the pitching was the problem in 2014.
Is not too much difference the 19% of D arnaud with a 17% of Centeno, the problem is you put the 0% of Teagarden and add his % with Centeno and thats not correct,you have to put thats statistics separates for do not affect a player with your opinion.
Dilson Herrera- let’s relax. 66 PA’s does not a HOF career make. Obviously like the progression he’s shown through his minor league path, but I’m not counting on him as “the guy” at a major league level in 2015. Not in the 1st half anyway.