Tom Brennan - SUBS AND SCRUBS - METS HITTERS IN 2018

Tom Brennan - WISHFUL THINKING ON METS OFFENSIVE SUBS AND SCRUBS PLAYERS

Most delis have delicious heros a/k/a "subs."  De-lish.

Aside from food, every team has offensive starters - and subs.  

Hopefully, the starters play like starters, stay healthy, and minimize the need for subs to play.

The Mets had to use subs more in 2018 than they might have hoped, due to injuries to the likes of guys like Cespedes, d'Arnaud, Plawecki, Frazier, and Lagares.

Contending teams understand that injuries are part of the game, and have solid alternative scenarios to not let a spate of starting position player injuries deep-six their teams.

The Mets always skimp when it comes to subs and scrubs.

The Mets employ a lot of wishful thinking. 

And it really costs them.

Don't believe me?  

Look at the subs and scrubs hitting stats, then.

Let's run down the list - really positive stats are highlighted in blue, while sub-par stats are highlighted in yellow:

J. Bautista: 245 AB, 37 R, 50 H, 13 D, 9 HR, 37 RBI, 41 BB, 75 K, .204

J. Reyes: 228 AB, 30 R, 43 H, 12 D, 3 T, 4 HR, 16 RBI, 22 BB, 39 K, .189

A. Jackson: 198 AB. 17 R, 49 H, 9 D, 1 T, 3 HR, 19 RBI, 12 BB, 74 K, .247

D. Smith: 143 AB, 14 R, 32 H, 11 D, 1 T, 5 HR, 11 RBI, 4 BB, 47 K, .224 

T. Nido: 84 AB, 10 R, 14 H, 3 D, 1 HR, 9 RBI, 4 BB, 27 K, .167

L. Guillorme:  67 AB, 4 R, 2 D, 0 HR, 5 RBI, 7 BB, 3 K, .208

J. Lobaton:  49 AB, 3 R, 7 H, 2 D, 1 T, 0 HR, 4 RBI, 7 BB, 15 K, .143

J. Reinheimer: 30 AB, 4 R, 5 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 5 BB, 9 K, .167

P. Evans: 21 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 8 K, .143

M. Dekker: 18 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 9 K, .056

T. Kelly: 11 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K, .091

K. Kaczmarski: 4 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, .000

TOTALS OF THE ABOVE SUBS AND SCRUBS:

1,098 AB, 121 R, 218 H, 52 D, 6 T, 22 HR, 103 RBI, 108 BB, 309 K, .198.

That's a whole lot of yeller, fellers.

Those 1,098 at bats represent 20% of the team's 5,468 ABs for the year, in which the team hit a dead last at .234.

The 80% of the team not comprised of the subs and scrubs hit .241, so the subs and scrubs hit 43 points lower than the rest of the hitters.  

Even worse, exclude pitchers from the team totals (42 for .300, .140) as well as subs and scrubs, and the rest of the team's  offense hit a (still low) .248, so the hitter subs and scrubs actually hit 50 points lower than the starting position players!

CONCLUSION:

A team that really, truly, honestly is serious about contending cannot have 20% of its line up attempts (the aforementioned subs and scrubs) hitting .198.  

Off the top of my head, that subs and scrubs number needs to go up at least 30 points to .228 to have any serious hope of competing for the Division title or a Wild Card.

Of the subs and scrubs, only Joey Bats and Austin Jackson were both solid enough for subs - the rest simply were not.  

The rest, collectively, were gosh-awful.  

And where did that Subs & Scrubs hitting deficiency show up?

IN A SUB .500 WIN/LOSS RECORD, THAT'S WHERE.

SOLUTION:

YOU CANNOT GO CHEAP ON SUBS AND SCRUBS.

 DOING SO WILL KILL YOU AS A TEAM.

"Wishful thinking" franchises, like the Mets, have been hoping that the number of Subs and Scrubs at bats will be no more than 500, and that they will predominantly be taken by the better hitters.  

There must, however, be a much better plan to get Subs and Scrubs collectively hitting at least around .225 or higher.   Not too difficult a goal to ascribe to, I'd say.

Simply, sign subs who can hit, who will produce more blues, and less yellows.

Going cheap here will save a few bucks in the short run, perhaps, but cost you playoff revenues come October.

The Mets' approach leads to a bottom line that is SUB par.