The 2011 Mets do a lot of little things well. They get lots of baserunners, they excel at hitting with two outs and they have even come around to be productive with the bases loaded, a minor miracle compared to the past few years. But one thing they are absolutely dreadful at is getting production from the ninth spot in their lineup.
The Mets pitchers are last in the National League with a .089 AVG. They are last in the NL with a .122 OBP. And to complete the hat trick, they are last in the league with a .106 SLG. No team expects to get much offense from their pitchers. But the Mets have received the worst. Last year, Mets pitchers posted a .171/.208/.211 line, which is a .419 OPS or nearly 200 points higher than this year’s .228 OPS.
National League pitchers have scored 156 runs or an average of 9.75 runs. The Mets have scored six, which is one-third of the 18 scored by the Brewers and ahead of only the Pirates. NL pitchers have driven in 173 runs or an average of 10.8125 per team. The Mets have 6 RBIs, one-fourth of the 24 plated by the Diamondbacks and ahead of only the Cubs.
The only offensive category where the Mets pitchers aren’t dreadful is in sacrifice hits, where their 24 SH place them firmly in the middle of the pack. But that has at least as much to do with getting runners on base for the pitchers to bunt over as any skill in getting the sacrifice down. Baseball-Reference’s main split page does not give total sacrifices attempted. Just in last night’s game against the Reds, Jonathon Niese was unable to get a sacrifice down in the fifth inning and that’s hardly the only time recently that a Mets pitcher did not deliver a sac bunt.
R.A. Dickey leads the team’s pitchers with six hits. Dickey has a .171/.194/.171 line. If you recall, Dickey was a pretty good hitting pitcher in 2010, as he went 13-51 for a .255 AVG. But this year Dickey started off 1-25, a .040 AVG, and went 13 games (12 starts) without a hit. However, Dickey rediscovered his stroke here in July, with hits in four of his five games. Dickey has battled injuries, which likely hurt his batting numbers.
The next best hitting pitcher for the Mets is Niese, who has three hits in 40 at-bats for a .075 AVG. Niese has struck out 25 times this year or in 62.5 percent of his ABs. However, Niese did deliver one of the most surprising moments of the year for the Mets, as he delivered a pinch-hit triple in the 11th inning in a game against the Marlins.
Chris Capuano and Dillon Gee have two hits apiece for the Mets and combined they are 4-61 (.066), with Capuano having one extra at-bat. The title for the worst-hitting pitcher on the staff goes to Mike Pelfrey, who has managed just one hit in 33 ABs. Pelfrey had a career-high seven hits in 2010 but lifetime he is 20-236 (.085 AVG).
In addition to his fine pitching, Chris Young was shaping up as the best-hitting pitcher on the staff before he went down with a season-ending injury. Young was 3-9 with 2 RBIs and he had as many SH (2) as Pelfrey in 26 fewer PA.
Three relievers have come to bat for the Mets this year. Taylor Buchholz is 0-2 while Francisco Rodriguez went down hacking in his first career plate appearance. D.J. Carrasco was the other reliever and he successfully delivered a sacrifice bunt.
Finally, I thought it would be interesting to see who the best hitting pitcher in Mets history is. With a minimum of 25 PA, Pat Mahomes takes the honor with a .688 OPS. Mahomes had four doubles among his nine hits while a member of the Mets. Rounding out the top five is Mark Bomback (.615), Roger McDowell (.609), Mike Hampton (.586) and Skip Lockwood (.586).
Dickey currently has a lifetime .500 OPS with the Mets and ranks 13th in team history.