Tom Brennan - Breaking Down Some Interesting 2021 Mets Stats

All Broken Down for Ya.

In a season where the Mets spent 103 days in first place, but thereafter collapsed and finished 11.5 games out, which is peculiar enough in and off itself, some other peculiar stuff happened:

Jake deGrom, a pitcher, was 12 for 33 (.364) at the dish. Tony Gwynn II.

Meanwhile, "hitters" Almora, Maybin, Lee, Sisco, and Hager combined to go 10 for 116.  That's Point Zero Eight Six, or .086, if you prefer digits.

Funny how that works, huh?  

Then it hit me...they can't hit.

Meanwhile, hitters Pillar, Almora, Guillorme and Drury combined to throw 3 innings and allow 7 runs.  Bad, sure, but... 

Not much worse than Szapucki’s 6 runs in 3.2 IP and Hartlieb’s 7 runs in 4.1 innings.  But who's keeping score?

Marcus Stroman led the team with 179 innings, 179 more than he threw in 2020.  An infinite year-year increase.  Good for him.

Reliever Miguel Castro had the 5th most innings of any Mets pitcher, with 70.1 IP.  Fans may not like him much, but I do, and facts are facts.  Good ERA, he's a keeper.  He could even close in a pinch and convert some saves, which would make him a Castro Convertible, as I see it.

Jake deGrom threw 92 innings with a 1.08 ERA before the All Star break. 

After the break, he threw batting practice a few times.  And even gassed up at BP a few times.

Everybody gushed over Jake’s numbers, but Aaron Loup’s 6-0, 0.95 ERA were even better.  At least I think so. 

LOUP LOUP LOUP!

Mets starters were an unsightly 32-57, despite a 3.89 ERA, and were a dreadful 25-55 (.313 W/L %) excluding Jake deGrom. 

Mets relievers, however, were 45-28, despite a virtually identical 3.90 ERA. Many, many fans trashed guys in the bullpen, but they had the 9th best ERA of any reliever team in the majors. Bottle up that vitriol, will ya?    I know, I know, 45-28, 9th best ERA sucks...but get over it already.

If the starters were 9th best and the run producers were 9th best, and then you add that to wg=hat was baseball's 9th best bullpen, and you've got yourselves a division champion.

The Mets were 25th in home runs, with 176 (no doubt, over 75% of the franchise's seasons, they've been in the bottom 5 in long balls,  Their strategy historically has been to eschew the long ball in favor of not scoring with the short ball, either). 

Yet, they were 14th in road homers, with 99. Not very fond of home cooking.  We can have some "deep" conversations about Citifield hitting conditions.  I say that the Mets should donate their current outfield fence down on the Mexican border and install a new, closer-in one in Queens.

Can somebody...please...say, "road trip"?

JD Davis had one of the best slash lines of any Mets player (.285/.384/.435) despite being hampered all season by a hand injury that will require post-season surgery.  

Most fans seem to want JDD to leave, seemingly without considering how well he might have hit this year with a healthy hand.  Probably drastically better than Michael Conforto, who many fans want to stay.  

Could a healthy-handed JDD hit .300/.400/.500 in 2022?  Why not? 

C Tomas Nido walked just 5 times, raising his career total to 18, or about how many times Barry Bonds might walk in a 4 game series.  

Nido's .261 OBP in 2021, though, helped raise his career OBP to .244.  Jake deGrom’s OBP lifetime is .238, just as a point of comparison.  And, after all, Nido was an 8th rounder and the lowly Jake was a mere 9th rounder.  

The same people who like Nido and his .244 OBP seem to not like Khalil Lee and his AAA .451 OBP.  The difference between a .451 and a .244 over 600 plate appearances?   About 125 more times on base is what.  

But, Nido can frame pitches well, so I get it.  No, really, I do.  No, really, I don't.

Team runs? 

23rd best on the road, with 333.  

Last in home scoring with 303, despite a late-season scoring pick-up.  

“Houston, we have a scoring problem.” 

Team Houston, though, did not have a scoring problem, with the Astros scoring 863 runs, or 227 more than the Mets. I wonder if that helped Houston win 18 more games than the Mets.  Somehow, I think there is a degree of correlation there.

The Mets and the 106 win Dodgers both had the following in common…neither won their divisions. 

Although, had LAD been in the NL East, their record was 17.5 games better than the Division-winning Braves.  Location, location, location.

For all the grief directed towards Dominic Smith and Michael Conforto, they were 3rd and 4th in Mets team RBIs, with 58 and 55, respectively. 

Of course, for perspective, 5 major leaguers had as many or more RBIs as the two of them combined.  Dom and Michael kind of hit like the likable Eddie Kranepool and Ron "Rocky" Swoboda, who I liked except for their low luster RBI hitting.

I have a Hispanic friend of mine with a heavy accent who says Conforto should get a "multi-jeer" contract.  I agree with the "jeer" part.

I did notice that the Mets love daytime.   

The Mets were a commendable 31-23 in day games, but a reprehensible 46-62 at night.    

I dunno, little power naps in the afternoon might help win those night tilts.  Want them to win a pennant?  On days with night games, around 3 PM, give them some milk and cookies and tuck them in for a little nappy.  

I know I was left snoring watching them lose night games, maybe they were snoring too.

Other than noting that I am batting 1.000 on deranged articles this year, I'm fresh out of Mets stat oddities and anomalies.  

Which weird stats did I miss?  You must have a few.