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2/15/20

Reese Kaplan -- Bring Back Small Ball



It seems that every year in Spring Training you get the same swath of stories.  There’s the “I’m in the best shape of my life” story about the guy who was unable to walk, let alone run or swing the bat the year prior.  There’s the “I’ll play any position just to make myself a more valuable member of the team” from the guy who swings a bat as if it’s made of balsa wood.  There’s the “I’m working on location, not speed” from the guy who can’t break glass with his fastball.  Then there’s the “I’m just one of the guys showing up to camp in a different car every day” story. 


The fact is that while most baseball fans accept these trite and well-worn stories without question, many others actually care about winning games and who is going to play on the team when the standings start to count in late March or early April.  Being a year of multiple managers the “How different is the Rojas camp” stories are somewhat relevant and interesting to both sides.  However, more people should probably be interested in how well people are hitting, pitching, fielding and running than whether or not the interior of someone’s three-wheeled motorcycle looks like the stitching on a baseball.

We’ve already discussed many of the internal stories for the Mets, such as who will play centerfield, who will be in the starting rotation and is the bullpen strong enough to feel confident they can save ballgames.  A great many feel this winter was incomplete without any big trades and second tier free agency being used to address shortcomings on the roster.  We won’t know whether or not the failed impending sale of the team tempered the roster manipulation or if it was the lopsidedness of some of the deals from last year or even the fact that the late season finish was pretty impressive given the early months of mediocrity. 


Next week the practice sessions are taking place on both sides of the field with pitchers striving to prove they belong in their desired roles, and batters trying to show why they do belong (or still belong) in the big leagues.  We will find out how much value Luis Rojas places on fielding, baserunning, getting on base and holding opponents to shutout innings.  Several of these aspects of the game were questionable under the previous two managers, so there’s definitely room to improve.  (Carlos Beltran gets a pass with a record of never having lost a game, but never having won one either.)


I know I’m in the minority here, but I always treasured small ball.  There’s something thrilling about seeing pitchers and catchers all aflutter when a solid baserunning threat is on the bag.  Hitting the opposite way to move runners over, shifting fielders into favorable positions given an opponent’s hitting profile, and BUNTING are all little things that make a game much more exciting than simply waiting to find out if the batter is going to strike out or put one over the wall.  How much fun was it watching Mookie Wilson, Rickey Henderson, Roger Cedeno and the rare times he got on base, even Eric Young, Jr. wreak havoc on the opposition?  Dave Kingman moments are thrilling the 30+ times they happen per season, but the majority of the time the at-bats are entirely forgettable.  The club now has many of the multifaceted players who could dramatically increase the competitiveness of each pitch, each batted ball and each fielding play if Luis Rojas isn’t afraid to embrace small ball once again.

8 comments:

  1. This is a great topic because it's a byproduct of everyone's favorite topic, analytics. Home runs and walks are all that matter in math-world, the effect of one human pressuring another into a mistake or breaking the opponents concentration is meaningless to people who have never played the game and think anything they can't quantify doesn't count. I live in South America and watch a lot of winter ball, they bunt in Venezuela and hit and run in the D.R. Rojas is clearly an analytics guy but his personality (what I've seen so far) and breeding make me think he'll be aggressive. Look, this team is not exactly the Dodgers of the 60s or the Cardinals of the 80s either but even last year you saw them going to the opposite field and up the middle. Hell, Alonso hit more than half his HRs to center and right. They are not going to steal a lot of bases or bunt the 2nd hitter after a lead off single in the 1st but they should be able to hit and run a certainly beat a shift with a bunt now and then. I think Rojas overall Rojas is going to manage the game more like a Bobby V than like a Joe Torre. Those old enough to remember know his dad was also an aggressive manager.

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  2. Okay, let's start with two facts:

    In 2019, MLB saw an ALL-TIME RECORD for HRs with 6,776, a power surge that makes the steroid era look anemic.

    The Mets are a slow team. Outside of Rosario, there's really no plus-speed on the roster.

    You have to manage the team you've got, not some fantasy ideal of how you wish baseball ought to be.

    What we most miss is speed -- which has a direct connection to defense (more so than productive offense).

    Jimmy

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  3. Being an Alou, having managed in the winter leagues. Hes actually been trained to be a manager, like his father before him who despite a very good playing career spent 14 years managing in the minors before becoming a very respected MLB manager.

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  4. Unknown and Jimmy. I hope you are right about Luis Rojas. It sure would be great to emphasize small ball again.

    Not to beat a dead horse but Fonzie mastered small ball last year in Brooklyn and won a championship. He also lead the league in defense. It was a thing of beauty. The fact that he is no longer a manager in the Mets system does not give me hope for this style of play returning to the Mets.

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  5. A mix of small ball and big ball is good - just keep in mind that small ball guys tend to be injured-while-stealing guys. The Lou's and Ricky's of the baseball world are few.

    I wonder if David Wright's career would have been different if he never tried to steal.

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  6. How about stealing signs? That worked for others with no risk of injury.

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  7. No injury yet - unless their is a beanball coming their way. So far the only injury is to their reputation, championship legacy, and managerial jobs.

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