Tom Brennan - K Culture in Mets' Minors

Mark Vientos is one of the High-Fanning 19

One clear cut factor in the major leagues is this:

MLB pitchers are very adept at striking hitters out.

Max Fried, for example, deftly worked the strike zone with an assortment of non-straight pitches, and on one at bat, busted Pete Alonso up and in with heat for a strikeout in a game in their most recent series, and on another AB, nailed him with a nasty screwball that broke off the outside corner.  You don't see pitches like that in the minors.

So, I took a look thru the Mets minors for guys who fan significantly more than once per game, and I found 19 such players on the 4 squads - here are the guys who have to go on a K diet, including some prospects and pseudo-prospects (stats thru Monday, July 11):

	Ks	Games	Avg	Notes
AAA:
Khalil Lee	73	50	.194	Regression from 2021
Cody Bohanek	82	64	.164	AA and AAA
Nick Plummer	41	34	.202	.262 OBP; regression
Quinn Brodey	65	54	.193	AA and AAA
Luke Ritter	100	75	.221	AA and AAA
Mark Vientos	83	63	.251	Huge power, too many Ks
AA:
Hayden Senger	67	55	.223	Low pop catcher
Manny Rodriguez	60	42	.179	AA, AAA and FCL
Brett Baty	84	69	.273	Baseball’s # 31 prospect
HIGH A:
Jaylen Palmer	106	70	.179	Self-explanatory
Sherveyn Newton	105	74	.217	Low A and High A
Joe Suozzi	58	47	.207	Dad lost his primary
LOW A:
Carlos Dominguez	111	65	.240	But he has power, Mack!
Omar De Los Santos	95	69	.272	Leads off a lot, so more PAs
Justin Guerrera	85	63	.184	Maybe "Guerrer" = K?
Greg Guerrero	16	11	.194	Maybe "Guerrer" = K?
Stan Consuegra	85	72	.237	Promo to Hi A; he's hitting
William Lugo	75	66	.257	Bad first K month (April)
Brady Smith	26	17	.194	Even catchers must hit

That's a total of 1,417 Ks in 1,060 cumulative games, an average of 12 per game.  High, high, high.

Eight of the 19 listed dudes are hitting below .200, and 5 more are below .225.  

The 4 who exceed .250 were hitting just .251 to .273.  

Ks suppress batting averages, one might conclude. Sometimes "negative" is factual.

Other Mets minor leaguers (not listed above), perhaps a dozen, are at, or slightly above, 1 K per game.

Fellas, cut the Ks. It's good for your career health.

It is always good to see an infusion of talent through the draft.  

May the new hitters make more contact, so this time next year, this "Mighty High K List" is much smaller than 19 players.