Tom Brennan - TO WALK, OR NOT TO WALK
William Shakespeare said, when thinking about NY Mets baseball 400 years ago:
"To walk, or not to walk, THAT is the question."
Barry Bonds, for one, walked every now and then.
In fact, Big Headed Barry walked 2,558 times in his career.
He strolled an amazing 232 times in 147 games in 2004. Few guys can get on base that many times in 147 games, much less than doing it just through walks. He fanned fewer than 1,600 times in over 12,600 plate appearances, too. I'll take him, warts and all.
Some guys in the Mets organization like to work the walk, others prefer to eschew the free pass and try to put the ball in play. Here are some major league Mets and top 50 Mets prospects in the walk department:
SORRY, I AIN'T WALKING:
Wilmer Flores - just 22 walks in 277 plate appearances. He has only fanned 25 times, which largely explains the low walk total - pitches other guys swing and miss at, or foul off, he puts in play. But it is why his OBP is only .318. Career-wise, only a walk every 19 times up. The thought of him walking makes me just want to tear up, how about you?
Amed Rosario came up to the bigs seemingly allergic to bases on balls.
When it came to pitch selection, his philosophy has been simple: select them all. While his pace of walks has picked up somewhat of late, he still has just 21 in 518 major league plate appearances. And 121 Ks.
Tomas Nido has walked just 8 times in about 235 plate appearances this year. It's like when you go the batting range, you pay for those 25 pitches and by gosh, you're swinging at ALL of them. You get your money's worth that way. "Thou shalt not pass."
Tim Tebow walked just 22 times and fanned 103 in 84 games, but still was having a very successful year before he sadly went all hamate on us.
Andres Gimenez has just 24 walks in 93 games in an otherwise fine season for the 19 year old. It will be an area to improve on going forward
Ronny Mauricio has just 5 walks in 34 GCL games, but is hitting .333, so he may or may not have an issue drawing walks - it may just be too easy for him to hit there.
He turns 18 in 8 months, so I'd say he has a little time to sort this out, wouldn't you say, but he better hurry, as we want him on the Mets before he turns 20 - if he is an opening day starting player for the Mets in 2021, he will be just short of 20 years old then.
LET'S TAKE A WALK, SHALL WE?
Michael Conforto - many were clamoring for him to be sent down to regain his stroke - but he has walked 57 times in 94 games, giving him a .353 OBP in a trying year, so my guess? He will close out 2018 with a flourish.
Brandon Nimmo is fanning a whole lot (102 times in 94 games) but he has strolled 44 times and been HBP 17 times, so that is 61 free (and sometimes also painful) passes that give him a strong .382 OBP. Besides, who would have thought at this point in the season, he have a .476 slugging %. GREAT JOB. Keep smiling, brother.
Jeff McNeil has walked 40 times and fanned just 45 times in 94 games, majors and minors, and hits like heck when he is not walking, too.
Peter Alonso has walked 62 times in 102 games this year. Take the free stuff, I always say.
Dominic Smith has walked 31 times in 64 AAA games - trouble is, that is one more walk than his RBI total there.
And in the majors, just one walk in over 70 plate appearances, so he probably belongs in the "SORRY, I AIN'T WALKING" category. I feel conflicted there.
Jeremy Vasquez has 50 walks (and 75 Ks) in 99 games this season, but is hitting less well for St Lucie since his promotion, so his career ceiling is not clear.
Matt Winaker in career year 2, playing all of 2018 in Columbia, is hitting just .244, but has walked 50 times in 90 games and 65 times in 111 career games, giving him a healthy career .372 OBP.
Scott Manea, Columbia catcher, has appeared in 76 games this year with 34 walks and 19 HBP. Ouch, but those are a lot of free passes.
Anthony Dirocie in Brooklyn and Kingsport has 15 walks and only 22 Ks in 30 games, which is why he is .300+/.400+/.500+ this season so far. Much improved from last year, when he recorded 93 Ks and only 14 walks in 61 games.
Jarred Kelenic has stalled of late with hits in Kingsport, but has walked 18 times in 31 games, so he is taking the right approach, clearly, and trying to nail down the strike zone right from the early onset of his career.
Luis Santana has 20 walks and just 14 Ks in 33 Kingsport games, which is why he is hitting .359. I thing we're gonna like this very young guy a lot in a few years. May he become a better Met than Johan Santana, that's my hope, and a lot better than Rafael Santana.
HEY! If you did not care for this article, go take a walk.
10 comments:
Walks are good.
Hits are better.
Hitting is a special individual talent that does not have a one size fits all approach.
Who wouldn't be thrilled to be as successful as Juan Gonzalez hitting?
He made it a routine to swing at and hit balls far out of the strike zone.
Heck, he would hit balls that bounced in front of of the plate.
Of course, the more a batter proves to be a successful hitter, the more stress is placed on the pitcher. That stress will often result in more walks.
Bonds, Sosa and Mcgwire are perfect examples of this.
Bob, so very true - and Yogi Berra is in the Hall of Fame as a hit everything guy.
Manny Sanguillen could hit anything from the ankles to the eyebrows, too.
I'll take a few Juan Gonzalez types, wouldn't you? Sure wish we'd taken Barry Bonds when we had a chance in his prime. That would have been a franchise changer.
Yes, hits are better than walks, but walks are better than outs.
Speaking of outs, Luis Guillorme added to his league leading 'most games in a row without a strikeout' last night.
Luis can definitely make contact - I am not sure which year of winter ball it was, but this past winter or the prior one, he fanned once - just once.
It is odd that Luis has fanned 3 times in 71 plate appearances as a Met, yet has only a .282 OBP, but in AAA, he fanned much more (33 of 206), but had an OBP 100 points higher.
3 for 6 and a walk since recalled, so maybe he will break out now.
His big negative remains lack of extra base hits in a homer-happy era.
Walks are definitely better than outs.
That is why you teach your pitchers to hunt for walks or the all defense ss/catcher type.
Walks are very valuable if, when you reach first base, you then are a threat to pilfer a bag, but, like defense, speed has not been a concern of the current regime.
Tom -
Luis' father told him that, if he struck out, he would throw a bat at him
It worked, obviously
Dog Days TB:
Tom, did you see Jeff McNeil last night? Holy macaroni man.
There are players who come up to the majors sometimes, maybe a little bit prematurely, yet they have shown enough promise to make it. They hit well for awhile, and then the league's opponent pitchers learn how to eventually pitch to them. They stop hitting like they had been earlier on, until at least they themselves figure out how to hit that one sure outpitch that the league now knows to throw them on a strike two count.
Then there are what I call the "professional hitters" that come up to the bigs. It looks this new second baseman Jeff McNeil may be one of those. However, they do not come up to the majors all that often. On all new players, time always does tell I guess.
To my eyes, Jeff McNeil may be the best second baseman who ever came up to this NY Mets team, at least that I have ever seen. He has all the tools, speed, power hitting, and can obviously hit for average.
We are indeed lucky (as fans to be seeing the very beginning of hopefully Jeff McNeil's long career as a NY Mets player. And I for one am really delighted by this.
I don't know how far his homerun may have travelled last night, but I think it was the furthest homer hit at Citi Field by a NY Mets batter in a long, long time. It darn near went out of the ballpark. If I had to estimate it, maybe 460-470 feet? But just guessing here only. No measurement was made that I heard on that homerun. But it should have been at least estimated by the announcers.
Jeff McNeil is a rookie of the year candidate on a full season of work. Are we Mets fans lucky or what? The boy brings lumber, and balls will travel out. One thing for certain though, I ain't sitting out there without a helmet on!
To Anonymous...Jeff was kept in the minors too long. He really appears to have all the tools.
Best 2B to come up ever? Alfonso, Turner, and Murphy are stiff competition - let's hope Jeff can out-perform them in the long term.
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