Here are some tidbits that I find interesting.
Travis d’Arnaud has a .313/.313/.313 line since returning from the DL
James Loney has hit safely in 21 of 25 games since joining the club
Neil Walker is within four points of last year’s AVG and one point of his OBP but has a 29-point SLG lead
Wilmer Flores has a .291/.352/.430 line since he began playing regularly
Asdrubal Cabrera has a .405 SLG, exactly what Mets360 predicted before the beginning of the year
Yoenis Cespedes has a 1.219 OPS versus LHP
Curtis Granderson had an .821 OPS last year with a .305 BABIP. Since May 27, he has an .828 OPS with a .291 BABIP
Noah Syndergaard has a decision in 11 of his 15 starts this year
Bartolo Colon ranks fourth in ERA (2.86) among 22 pitchers to make at least five starts at age 43
Matt Harvey has a 2.25 ERA with 5 BB and 25 Ks in his last 32 IP
Jacob deGrom has thrown 98-103 pitches in seven of his 13 starts and six of his last nine
Steven Matz has allowed 2 ER or fewer in 10 of his 13 starts this year
Jeurys Familia has 13 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 4 BB and 14 Ks in his last 13 games
Syndergaard needs to take the Greg Maddox Approach to Baserunners..F’em! He can alter his cadence on delivery, but not the delivery itself.
He seemed too hung up about baserunners and pitching against “type” last night. Bad Command, as he never established his FB and he didn’t dominate counts.
OK… through it away and Next Fish.
It’s a difficult morning to think about the Mets:
* It will always be about the starting pitching for this team. The elbow concerns are worrying.
* Gilmartin looked extremely tentative last night. Pitched scared. Not good.
* Boggles my mind that d’Arnaud bats 8th. He should bat in front of Cespedes, in the thick of things. Such a waste, and such a strange & misguided evaluation of the hitter. He simply can’t impact the offense hitting in that slot, below Nimmo, Flores, Loney. It strikes me as willfull and crazy at the same time.
* Nowadays people examine the offensive failures of the Mets team from increasingly sophisticated (and obscure) perspectives. RISP, BABIP, etc. I keep looking at BA and thinking, “They can’t really hit so good.” I know that BA is antiquated and flawed and incomplete, but I still consider it a very good statistic, and one that takes in the largest sample size (besides OBP). Pains me to see it relegated to the trash heap. Mets are tied for last in team BA in entire MLB. All other offensive stats flow from that central fact. Not rocket science.
Contact is not an emphasis, or a strong skill set….for this Roster.
I hate to talk about “Little Ball”, but some of the situations of the game indicate a more Contact Oriented Approach. Lack of Skill Set+Lack of Mindset are deadly when everyone approaches ab’s like a 50 pound hammer.
This makes for easy prey against good pitchers, or “professional pitchers” having a good game. If they get healthy, they will still be “stuck” with the roster….but maybe the approach can modify. Otherwise, two capable opposing pitchers will doom them in any playoff series, or any critical series along the way.
>> Contact is not an emphasis, or a strong skill set….for this Roster. >>
Which is why, alas, TJ Rivera has no chance for consideration.
Unless the plan is to roll out a dominant pitching staff and try to win low-scoring games, 3-1, 4-2, 2-0, etc.
I felt that a mediocre offense would be enough, and I believed that with d’Arnaud and Duda they could be league average. Didn’t foresee Conforto’s crash and burn. With him, I’ve been a True Believer.
To your point, Murphy was baseball’s #1 contact hitter last season. Letting him walk could turn out to be the mistake that defines the 2016 season. Or not! Only time will tell. Lot of baseball left.
Not only are the elbow things worrying, we continue to get complete obfuscation of the health situation of practically injury on the team. Sure, the Hospital for Special Surgery should be relocated to the Chop Shops across from Citi Field, but some honesty would be welcomed.
TdA batting position was discussed in chatter. My question is, just how many 7-hole hitters can one team have??
As for BA, its a classic, and it is what it is. No single metric is worth much and can only be utilized to the scale the metric permits. One concern I have is how much overanalysis of specific metrics goes on, with data not permitting the level of interpretation. As for BA, the Mets are terrible, but it partners with other things that make it stick as real. Flip the coin, the Dbax and Rox have great team BA, but no record to show for it. No one thing tells the story of a team, but this is sad. I was at the ATL game the other night and the scoreboard had the starting lineups on the board…not a single .300 hitter on the team.
Chris, more than the .300 hitter, this team sorely lacks someone who could steal a base consistently. Get some more fastballs for the middle of the order and distract a pitcher some. Is there another team without a single double digit steal guy?
Orioles, White Sox, Tigers, Mariners, Blue Jays, Cubs, Dodgers, Mets, Cardinals, Giants, Rockies, Marlins, Rays.
That’s 13 teams, 10 of which are over .500 and three are division leaders.
I meant for the year. We don’t have a single guy expected to have double digit steals: some speed.
I wasn’t really expecting double digits already, besides, that’s a 25 sb year. And that would be hilarious as an expectation from any of this group.
Ill take the BA, but a steal threat would be nice.
The team doesn’t owe anybody except it’s players clarity or honesty in it’s injury reporting—see the NE Patriots.
When Lagares returns, he should be in center, Cespedes in left and in right, whoever is hotter, Granderson or Nimmo. Juan’s hitting was coming around and his defense is crucial to improving the outfield.
TDA needs to produce more than a 626 OPS. In his injury shortened 2015 he ranked second to Posey among NL catchers.
Granderson needs to produce that line for the remainder of the season.
Harvey needs to produce that line for the rest of the season.
As long as Flores maintains those numbers then he should remain at 3B and Reyes goes to LF.
Conforto, Granderson, TDA (and Plawecki), Harvey and Bastardo are players that were relied on who have disappointed yet the Mets are in the thick of the playoff hunt. These players need to fufill the Mets expectations soon or alternatives need to found at the trade deadline.
I wouldn’t put Granderson in that grouping. He’s been what we expected/hoped for nine weeks of the season and he was absolutely dreadful for three weeks in May. Overall, the season numbers look down compared to a year ago. But that’s not what we’ve gotten from him the last month-plus and it’s not what we got from him in April.
Meanwhile, Neil Walker has lost 85 points of OPS since June 4th. The hits aren’t falling in for him and he has just three XBH this month. He was playing so well before that, so an optimist can say it’s just a slump he’s going to break out of any day now. But so far, batting fourth has not agreed with him.
Any insights on Reyes? Like many others I was in the fence about signing him but since he’s here, I’m hoping for a comeback player of the year award. God knows they need some energy. To me, seeing only photos, he looks scrawny. He was never a big guy obviously, but he looked strong before and now he looks like a civilian. Those in the NY area are probably getting sports reports on TV. Any news worth sharing?
Love Mets360. This community is the best.
He looks healthy and motivated. Hopefully he can provide a spark. At the very least he’ll lengthen the lineup and the bench.