The Beatles once sang, "getting better all the time..."
As I write this on Thursday AM, with 4 games left in the season, I am aware of several Pete Alonso things:
1) He is a rookie.
2) As a rookie, he has 51 homers and 30 doubles and 118 RBIs.
3) His performance has been incredible.
Pete is a machine, focused on getting better.
He badly wants to improve.
He can improve.
Three areas I see that he can improve in:
A) 175 Ks, 4th in the majors. While a 20% reduction would be nice, a 10% or better improvement in 2020 should be a realistic goal.
B) He was hitting just .219 at home, but .297 on the road. That seems to happen a lot to our hitters at Citifield. He needs to think about why there has been such a disparity. Is he putting too much pressure on himself at home? Whatever it is, he needs to figure out how to relax and pound even more at home.
C) As a righty, logic tells you he should hit lefties better, but he is hitting .238 vs. lefties, but .269 vs. righties. Last year, in the minors, he was almost dead even between hitting against lefties and righties. It is great he hits righties as well as he does. But he should be able to do better against lefties, and it should be an area of focus this off season.
So...whaddya think??
7 comments:
I understand that when Pete cooks, his eggs are always served runny.
Clean that up buddy.
Pete's been awesome.......I think his glove work is almost as shocking as his power display. His defense has been steady, which is NOT even close to what was "predicted" by the experts. I would like to see him continue to get better defensively....with his work rate, you know he will put in the effort to do so.
I agree with you, Tom.....cut down on the K's! But his short/direct swing to the ball is ideal for a power hitter, so maybe just getting better at pitch recognition?
I would also expect some regression to the mean......in other words, I don't see him jacking 50+ bombs every year. Aaron Judge had a monster rookie campaign (52 HR's), but followed up with "only" 27 last year and 26 so far this year. Yes, he has missed time, but his AB/HR rate dropped from 1 every 10.41 AB's in 2017, to 1 every 15.92 AB's in 2018 and 1 every 14.30 AB's this year.
I think Pete will follow a similar path.....but even a ratio of 1 HR for every 14 AB's would yield over 40 HR's in a full season so he's not turning into Brett Butler, either!
2019 Rookie of the Year = The Pounder in a landslide.
Mike
I followed him in college and his defense was HORRIBLE.
He always had the power.
I give him more credit for the glove work.
Mack, after he had his eggs, he scrambled to take grounders at first base.
I anticipate him being better, not worse, in 2020 - because he's Pete, that's why.
Mike, I don't necessarily see a HR per at bat tail off from Alonso, because often guys who hit a lot of homers in a season have a real tear stretch of games they go on...Pete has been really consistent month to month in the # of long balls hit.
Maybe, in 2020, he'll be similarly consistent...AND go on a tear too.
Consistency is the key. He's not as streaky as Conforto, but still streaky.
He's been simply amazing and although you can't expect him to match this year next year his work ethic is off the charts so it wouldn't surprise me. I certainly think he's pressing now and the long season has to be wearing on him but could you really ask for a better player AND he's a team first David Wright kind of guy which is quite a feat. The big question going forward for me is given all that has gone right this year DeGrom, Alonso, Rosario, Davis, McNeil, Wheeler, Ramos, Lugo, Conforto why are we still just fighting to stay above .500? The BP has been a disaster but can we put it all on them? Also what we do with Wheeler and Thor will be critical because we really need both because we have no in house replacements. Hopefully a very interesting and successful winter for Brodie and crew.
Gary, lots of questions for a successful 2020.
One, I brought up in the article - why has Alonso hit 78 points lower at home? Is there something that can make our hitters feel more relaxed and dominant at home? Over many years, not sure about 2019, the Mets have hit worse at home. JD Davis has hit great here. I wonder.
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