With the trends in baseball over the past 20-30 years, it’s an interesting debate over what makes for a memorable game watching experience. Some folks would think that a home run is the only base hit worth noting. Others think that the strikeout is the only pitching achievement that is memorable.
Maybe it’s a testimony to my age, but I seem to recall a great many other achievements that are just as important and that get automatically committed to your brain cells as if it was yesterday. Who can’t unsee a steal of home plate? What about a triple play? What about a bunt for a base hit that sets up a run? What about the long throw from anywhere on the field to nail a baserunner who gambled he could advance one more bag? What about the way in which some pitchers take away the strong swings and make the best offensive players capable of weak popups or grounders? What about the delayed steal from 1st to 2nd that dupes the other team into trying to nail that runner while the guy who was on 3rd can pretty much walk home?
As we begin the new year rather than focus on what the Mets haven’t done and instead think about the plays in the games we look forward to seeing as the 2021 season arrives. I’m not as interested in launch angle or strikeouts as I am in steady contact from the hitters and weak contact induced by the team’s pitchers. You can’t hit every ball out of the park just as you can’t strike out every single batter. Many people forget about aspects of the game like baserunning, hitting behind the runners, defensive positioning and forcing the other team to make mistakes.
Right now the Mets do have some pretty interesting hitters who regularly make contact but they don’t get the accolades the way sluggers do. For all the hoopla that surrounds the prospective contract of D.J. LeMahieu, why is it that no one thinks Jeff McNeil who has a higher career batting average by 14 points is worth just as much? It is a case of overvaluing someone who accomplished offensive production with another team and undervaluing the folks who do it on your own team already.
Brandon Nimmo is another player who gets either celebrated or condemned by the Mets fans for what he does with the bat. His greatest attribute as everyone knows is not swinging it which leads to his amazing on base percentage which has twice exceeded the .400 mark and has led to a career OBP of .390. Everyone knows that getting on base is an area in which he excels. However, do they also know he has shown decent power with 17 HRs during one full season? Or are they aware that he is only a .258 career hitter? You can go either way on Nimmo, but he’s not what you’d call a difference maker on a good ballclub. When you factor in his extremely substandard centerfield defense, you have to think he perhaps should be among the names the team bandies about in prospective trades.
I won’t rehash the whole shortstop question again but I do want to pay some attention to J.D. Davis. No matter where you try to hide him on the field, he’s simply not a good defensive player. The Mets have faced this challenge in the past with guys like Dave Kingman and Roger Cedeno whose offensive abilities were strong enough to let them withstand what they gave back in defense. The question is whether or not Davis can consistently perform where he did in 2019 or is he also someone the Mets should be marketing to other ballclubs (particularly in the AL) where a DH role is probably his future?
One area where I think pitchers struggle mightily is in eluding the opposing hitters’ bats. Everyone loves to see a guy who can strike out 17.5 batters per 9 IP (unless his name is Edwin Diaz). However, I grew up greatly admiring the sidearmers and the screwball pitchers and the guys who worked up and down as well as in and out around the strike zone. Yes, everyone loved seeing a Billy Wagner or an in-his-prime Armando Benitez or Jeurys Familia blow the ball by everyone, but those careers are often derailed by injury or control. Remember the Tomato Farmer, John Franco? He was likely never the top of anyone’s best reliever in the league lists, yet he finished his career with a winning record, a 2.89 ERA and 424 saves. By comparison, the guy they gave up that everyone loved, Randy Myers, finished with a losing record, a 3.19 ERA and 347 saves. I think the little guy with the funky delivery proved you don’t have to strike out folks in huge numbers to be successful.
So, going into the new baseball season there are a lot of things that can change for the better for the Mets that are not necessarily named George Springer or Trevor Bauer. Everyone wants to see a winning ballclub, but there are many ways to make that happen. I remember vividly the good team filled with solid but not necessarily All Star players that easily beat the Mets in the 2015 World Series. I won’t rehash what the New Yorkers did wrong but instead point out that good defense, smart baseball and contributions from everyone was what made it happen for Kansas CIty. Maybe it’s time to think beyond the fantasy box score.
9 comments:
You sound like an old guy but, from the perspective of another old guy-me, I agree with all you say. Strikeouts and home runs are not the begin all and end all of winning baseball and, above all else, I want to see the Mets win and I'm not concerned with how they do it.
Winning by any and all means necessary is the key. Remember Ali’s win over George Foreman? He formulated a strategy that those watching were aghast at. But win he did. If he fought the conventional way, he would have had to be lifted off the canvas.
Let Bob Murphy’s cry ring out often in 2021 as they play to win....THE METS WIN! THE METS WIN THE DAMN THING.
Very fitting, too, as the aforementioned John Franco was pitching.
Geez, I must be getting old too :-). I long for the days of the good defensive, good fundamental, good baserunning, good bunting teams along with the three run homer. I long for the days of a pitcher throwing nine innings and winning 1-0.
Like holmer above, I want to see the Mets win, but I do care how they do it. I don't want them to 'win ugly', and I don't want them to win just because the other team was worse. I want them to build a team that is a joy to watch and plays the game the way it was meant to be.
Yes I agree 100 percent. I love a game that is engulfed in Speed, Defense and pitching, sort of like our nemesis the 80’s Cardinals teams had. They really didn’t even have a 20 home run guy in the lineup, the closest was Jack Clark, but watching them play was strategic like a chess match.
You also have to have players suited for your ball park. I feel Lemehau is a big product of the 2 main parks he has played in to help his stats and it makes it even more incredible how McNiel has played in ours,. Which is still a little bit of a pitchers park and isn’t made as much for hitters. I wonder what numbers McNiel would be putting up in Yankees stadium if he played all his home games there?
Nimmo is a good player and yes he gets on base, I just feel if he is worth anything of value we should trade him now before he leaves in free agency. No fans talk about extending him and his contract is going up this year and next. I feel we can sign someone a little less valued of a player in free agency and get a pretty good prospect to help us down the road. Plus you have to factor in Dom may need a place to play because of no DH this year. So hopefully we sign Springer and give contract extensions to McNiel, Conforto and Dom while waiting for our youngsters to fill out the rest of the positions down the road.
Oh I miss the days of having Ellis Valentine or Darryl in RF with those tremendous cannons they had out there.
Also I always thought Roger Cedeno was ok defensively? I could be wrong?
I know I'm repeating myself, but I I'll say it again:
We had a guy who did a GREAT job in Brooklyn for the past few years, and taught sound fundamentals to his players, but then was let go.
He seems to be in the Witness Protection Program somewhere, but the current Mets roster NEEDS FONZIE. Bring him here, Sandy!!
Zozo - spot on. McNeil in Yankee Stadium would be scary. Those mid-eighties Cardinals teams were the best - Ozzie Smith and Tom Herr at the keystone. What was that 100 ribbies and no homers for Herr or something like that. Now that is situational hitting!
I love the big arms in the outfield as well.
Yes, bring back Fonzie! I was hoping he would get the bench coach job, altho the one that Tarasco just got was probably a better fit. Perhaps the director of Minor League player development or something of that nature.
Reese, as usual, you bring up some very valid issues and surround them with cogent analyses. But before I comment, talk about being old and witnessing exciting games, the very first major league game I attended, with an uncle, I saw Jackie Robinson steal home and Stan Musial hit a booming double off the big right field scoreboard in Ebbets Field.
Re: Nimmo, I like him, but as you say, he hasn't been a difference maker. I just commented in Tom Brennan's previous article, that I could see him being platooned with Drew Ferguson, or even supplanted by Ferguson, making him a very valuable trade chip. Coupled with Rosario, and a pitching prospect, wouldn't he be able to snag Lindor from Cleveland?
Also, I like Davis's potential, but he is a liability in the field and the Mets have more than enough possible DHs. So I would have no objection to trading Davis and playing McNeil at 3B, where he is stronger defensively than at 2B and moving Gimenez to 2nd.
Nimmo is one of those guys that I like probably more than his total baseball value, altho if he were to play left field and get out of center, he would be more valuable with his elite OBP skill.
Besides, who wouldn't love to see the smiling Nimmo in the same lineup as the smiling Lindor. Baseball at its best!
Speaking of smiling, I must admit that I am enjoying the new, improved, optimistic Reese. I hope he sticks around. 😅
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