The last week or so, none of the Mets’ hitters have distinguished themselves. But for many, the hitting woes have extended much longer than that. There’s been a fair amount of discussion on Brandon Nimmo‘s troubles since the All-Star break. And while no one in the mainstream media is talking about it, my efforts to point out how bad Harrison Bader has been verge on Herculean. But there’s another guy not hitting who is getting away without any criticism from anyone. In his last 113 PA, Player X has a .196/.274/.373 line. And if that .647 OPS wasn’t bad enough, he also has a 32.7 K% in this span. And for the cherry on top of this sorry sundae, he’s grounded into six double plays, too.
At least Bader gives you something defensively. Player X is a DH. Yep, it’s J.D. Martinez. Every player is allowed a slump. Preferably these slumps are over after 30 PA or so. When they reach into triple digits – it’s worrisome. Right now, the club’s best path is to keep trotting Martinez out there, hoping he breaks out. Yet at some point, the Mets need Martinez to produce a much-better OBP than Zack Short and a SLG that’s not hanging around Tomas Nido‘s mark before he was DFAd.
Martinez is here to hit and he’s just not doing it.
This team as a whole overachieved so far this year based on the pitching: early it was the bullpen, now it is the starters. The hitting has been sporadic as a whole, as best. Alonso has been invisible, one outfielder hit at any one time and two were a liability, the catching showed flashes, but only after June, and we know about McNeil/Lindor/Vientos/Inglesias.
It is somewhat incredible that the Mets have injected themselves into the WC race with the number of bats that haven’t contributed much during that span- JD HB and BN are culprits for sure but I can’t recall seeing much from Alvarez, Torrens, Marte, OMG, and even Pete. That’s a lot of stale lumber.
During an interview after a game, when Gelbs was talking with Nimmo, Nimmo said of a specific pitch that he regretted that he didn’t hit it out. Right then, I knew we’d have a problem. Nimmo hunting HR’s is not his way.
Unfortunately September is a pretty lousy time to both be in a WC hunt and going cold. The run they were on was unsustainable. Lets hope that there is more left in the tank because 7 games with Philly, 3 with ATL, and 3 with MIL does not bode well for a team going cold.
Meaningful games in September is big! Bravo! Can they make the playoffs? Sure. And if they do the rest is gravy.
On a different topic, does anyone know how Sasaki compares to Yamamoto?
From an article in FG today:
“Then [Kumar] Rocker got Brady Aiken’d by the Mets, spent a year in the wilderness of independent ball, then got drafted in the first round again, this time by the Rangers.”
Can somebody explain what they mean by “got Brady Aiken’d by the Mets” ?
Did the Mets do something stupid/bad/whatever?
Brady Aiken was also drafted in the 1st round, 1st overall actually, by the Astros who then didn’t sign him due to injury concerns.
This is super cool:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/41207124/mlb-2024-most-exciting-player-bracket-elly-de-la-cruz-bobby-witt-jr-aaron-judge-shohei-ohtani
Looks like Acuna getting the call up