IT IS TOUGH HITTING IN THE TRUE WINDY CITY
I have written on this subject on a few occasions of late, but let's look at minor league player 1 and player 2 and see how each is doing so far this year:
PLAYER 1: 63 G, 38 for 215, 4 HR, 17 RBI, .176/.242/.265
PLAYER 2: 78 G, 97 for 307, 22 HR, 78 RBI, .316/.375/.615
Enormous difference, huh?
Player # 1 is clearly awful, and should be in dental school or something, while Player # 2 should be negotiating for Fernando Tatis Jr. money based on impending greatness.
Except for one thing:
Player # 1 is not actually one player - it is the combined HOME totals of Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and overlooked prospect Luke Ritter.
Player # 2 is not actually one player - it is the combined ROAD totals of Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and overlooked prospect Luke Ritter.
The contrast is simply jaw-dropping.
I again, when I try to visualize these 3 players, have to remove the home stats from these ballplayers. Brooklyn is hitter-unfriendly, to be kind.
Perhaps a better read on the players would simply be to double their road stats, as if their entire season so far was played on what is for them a friendly road. If you did that, this is what each would look like for 2021 instead:
Brett Baty:
56 games, 10 HR, 48 RBI, .363/.455/.598
Ronny Mauricio:
48 games, 14 HR, 46 RBI, .303/.333/.604
Luke Ritter:
52 games, 20 HR, 62 RBI, .283/.336/.635
How excited would you be about the 3 of these prospects if those were their season numbers? Me? I'd be doing cartwheels.
Instead, overall, the 3 are hitting about 60 points lower than their road totals: .312 (BB), .222 (RM), and .244 (LR), respectively.
If I were the Mets' GM, what would I do?
Get them all up to Binghamton after the All Star Break, do them a huge favor.
Take them out of the wind tunnel.
Alvarez has not been in Brooklyn long enough for me to have added him to that discussion.
ReplyDeleteRitter on the road so far? 26 games, 10 HRs, 31 RBIs? Intriguing to me. Very impressive
Ritter the hitter looks like the next Jeff Kent but with a better attitude and glove. Get him to Binghamton pronto!
ReplyDeleteI went with my wife yesterday afternoon to a Suffolk County beach - man, was the wind blowing hard. I got up out of my beach chair and the wind blew it over. No way a hitter would have wanted to hit there.
ReplyDeleteCyclone Stadium is on the beach, too.
Promote the good guys - like Ritter - ASAP - John, it's a must.
Will Ritter fan a lot? Probably. Then he'll adjust.
Then move that team in Brooklyn to Albany. Never mind what Ralph Kiner once said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a winter in Albany"
ReplyDeleteActually what he said was "the coldest winter i ever spent was summer in San Francisco."
DeleteAlbany or share Ducks Park in Central Islip.
ReplyDeleteI remember as a kid hitting into a stiff wind. Seeing shots stop dead. We had a solution…we turned around so the wind was our back. The Cyclones can’t do that.
Sincere question: why would Kiner stick around Albany in the winter? Goodness the guy was dating Marylyn Monroe and Jane Russel. And they weren’t here.
ReplyDeleteIt is cold here tho.
The first 10 days I lived here the High temp was ZERO.
Thankfully that never happened again but it did make me question my sanity.
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
-Mark Twain.
Rick from Albany
Rick, John from Albany can answer you better, but I do know that it stops falling below zero in Albany by mid-May, typically.
ReplyDeleteKidding aside, as I recall it, and it may not be accurate, the first indoor Blue Jays game in their history it was good it was inside as it was minus 2 that morning.
Ray, long time since I was in San Fran, but it sure was San Frigid. Then I drove to nearby Napa Valley and it was 95, dry, and sunny. That cold ocean effect in Frisch.
ReplyDeleteRick,
ReplyDeletePittsburgh used to have a Double-A team in Albany. Kiner played there one summer (he joked that it was the coldest winter he ever had).