Yep, Pete Alonso loves his home runs, and sure hits a lot of them. Some so far they should count for 2 long balls.
But his real lust is driving in runs. Why?
Because that’s what wins ballgames. Winners wanna win.
As I told everyone in these columns in the off-season after 2018, all games matter, and in 2018, Pete played 159 games in the minors and Arizona, and drove in 146 runs. That’s right, 146 runs. As in 46 more than 100, a lower than 146 number that very few hitters reach.
I knew right there, watching him drive baseballs at Route 146, that our Petey was different than your average Mets prospect, like, say, a Conforto. No offense, Michael. Only one of you is hooked up to a nuclear power generator.
As much as Pete lusts for RBIs, he just loves to play. Why?
He hates to not play, for one thing. Why, for Pete's sake, sit when you can play?
When you play every game, as he and Lindor are proving, you put up big numbers. The 2 have a combined 90 RBIs in the first 52 games. Wait, do Mets really do stuff like that?
With his perfect attendance record, it is no surprise to me in 2022 that Pete is driving in a prodigious amount of runs, because he is in love with RBIs, and he loves the big moment.
For those of us who sometimes nitpick about Super Pete, which even I have done now and then, we need to remember that in the big picture, he could turn out to be an 1,800 RBI career guy. Hopefully all as a Met. The same Mets team that, in 60 seasons, has never had a guy to compile even 1,000 Mets RBIs.
That is our guy. (Of course, Linder is on an absolute RBI tear, too. Almost neck and neck with the big fella in RBIs, and shutting everyone up who was griping or questioning.)
We have Pete on the Mets for one reason only…they broke with their tradition of drafting modestly tooled hitters and decided to actually expend a high draft pick on a guy with lethal power.
"Sick, stupid power", as his compadre Jeff McNeil once described Alonso to me in 2018.
My advice? Draft many such guys. If just a few can be close to as successful as Pete, we will prosper for many years to come.
Message to Pete:
We’d all like 150 RBIs from you in 2022. True “Big Boy” numbers. With this team, you can do it.
Of course, if you want to exceed 150 RBIs, I won’t complain. Go right ahead. You don’t need my permission, and somehow, I sense you know that, but if for some reason, you feel you do, you have it.
Pound away.
2 comments:
Pete is a very unique star in New York. He eschews the glitzy style unlike many prior NY stars. He embraces the power game, but also has been improving his eye so I suspect that his OBP will go up with more BBs and less Ks.
That's really the key to drafting a slugger - contact matters. Too many minor league hitters are racking up big HR numbers along with gaudy K/AB numbers. That spells trouble when you have to face the sick stuff that MLB pitchers can throw.
Paul, couldn't agree more.
Problem with the minor league guys - very few have Pete's natural power - and I suspect, very few have the same drive to excel and get better as he does. If you lack the natural power, and think HRs are your ticket, your ticket won't get punched due to strikeouts.
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