Everyone goes thru bad streaks.
Using the Baseball-Reference span finder, a search was done for the worst span of 20 games for players on the 2022 Mets, using OPS as the barometer. Turns out that 14 of the 15 worst spans were produced by Travis Jankowski. Limiting each player to just one span, here are the Mets this year, from worst to best:
.133 – Jankowski
.309 – Darin Ruf
.338 – Tomas Nido
.404 – Eduardo Escobar
.407 – Patrick Mazeika
.414 – Jeff McNeil
.425 – James McCann
.467 – Luis Guillorme
.475 – Dominic Smith
.479 – Francisco Lindor
.496 – Tyler Naquin
.544 – J.D. Davis
.562 – Pete Alonso
.579 – Mark Canha
.582 – Daniel Vogelbach
.583 – Brandon Nimmo
.608 – Starling Marte
When every games means so much, it’s hard to take a big-picture view of things. But it’s important to understand that as much as Vogelbach is struggling right now, Alonso had a 20-game span where he was worse. So did Canha, Lindor, Guillorme, McNeil and Escobar. What the 29-year-old Vogelbach is going thru is not some unprecedented streak that means he will never hit again. The lifetime track record of an .813 OPS versus RHP over 1,210 PA is more important than what he’s doing in the throes of a cold spell.
Maybe it’s another story with the 36-year-old Ruf.
Question: Would Vientos be eligible for a postseason roster?
As I recall — and maybe things have changed — he would not be because he wasn’t on the 26 before September 1st.
Am I imagining that?
He’s eligible because he was on the 40 man roster on August 31.
That’s right. The other part is that anyone who was on the 60-day IL at the end of August is eligible, too. So, Lucchesi and Megill are both eligible.
What is important is that the Braves lost today. Time to go out and blast the Cubs tonight.
I have a completely unrelated question. I was listening to a Mets talk show today and Keith Hernandez mentioned that games are about an hour longer now than they were when he was playing. Can anyone tell me why this is the case? Thanks.
Commercials
Pitching Changes
Knowledge that you can get starters out of the game by driving up their pitch count
Pitchers like Bassitt taking forever to throw the ball
Batters like Alonso stepping out after every pitch to adjust their batting gloves
There’s not anything that’s ever going to be done about commercials. But the pitch clock will help tremendously with the final two items. A long time ago, I was one of those people who said that part of the beauty of the game was that it had no clock. But it needs a clock here in the 21st Century. It will be a better game next year with the pitch clock. My expectation is that it will cut out 15-20 minutes of dead time from a game. I think it’s been more than that in the minors with the clock.
Thanks, Brian. I hadn’t realized that the game was shorter when I was young so Keith’s comment caught me by surprise. Much appreciated.