Ever watch those sci-fi flicks, where the behemoth is almost impossible to kill, because there is no soft underbelly?
Usually someone figures out to go for a javelin in the eye or some other dramatic action to take the beast down.
The Mets have been a truly successful 2022 beast - but one with a big, soft underbelly.
So far, that underbelly has not been gored. So far.
Several hitters have flat out carried the Mets offense this year, including Pounding Pete, Lindor, Marte, McNeil, Nimmo, Canha, Guillorme Gwynn, and to a lesser degree, Eduarrrrr-do Escobar.
Collectively, those 8 have done just fine. Really fine, in fact.
Then the soft offensive underbelly begins.
In the “soft, but not completely soft” category, JD Davis is hitting .240 with 3 HRs, just 19 RBIs in 192 PAs. Pretty soft.
Then true softness follows:
All nine other hitters so far…Smith, Nido, McCann, Jankowski, Lee, Plummer, Mazeika, Inciarte, and Cano, thru Wednesday July 12, have done this:
551 at bats, 7 HRs, .192. That’s 18% of all Mets at bats. .192.
Add in JDD’ soft ABs, and you’re up to 24% of all Mets at bats.
That’s a mighty big, mighty soft underbelly. All are spokesmen for Mr.Softee. Dom Smith may not be humorless, but he is homerless.
Time for Steve Cohen to ditch the icy cream puffs and order some solid reserve armor. Because strong opponents will gore the Mets in its soft offensive underbelly without some effective fortification.
STRENGTHEN THE BEAST!
METS?
RAINED OUT IN THE WINDY CITY.
MINORS?
Carson Seymour may be angling to get on Mack’s Red Prospect list…6 shutout innings, 2 hits, 11 Ks for Brooklyn last night, which nonetheless lost 2-1, after an Acuna 2 run HR, as the Clone hitters managed just 4 hits. Who does Seymour think he is....Max Scherzer?
Greenville has 150% more HRs (120) than Brooklyn’s 48; 3 league teams are averaging 2 runs more per game than Brooklyn; and the Cyclones’ .216 team average is 49 points behind the league’s highest average team.
Another way to say it is Brooklyn doesn’t hit well. At all.
Junior Tilien’s second straight 2 hit game.
The recently returned Binghamtonian Ronny Mauricio smacked his 16th in 73 games during which, despite hitting just .242, he has 36 extra base hits.
In his last 2 seasons at ages 20-21, 181 games, 34 doubles, 6 triples, 36 HRs. What exactly will he do when he is 22-23?
St Lucie lost, 4-0, and Binghamton got hammered - down 9-3, then a 9th inning 3 run shot from rebounding Carlos Cortes (6) made it more respectable, with a 9-6 final.
Messrs. Alvarez and Vientos headed off to Futures weekend and predictably, without them, Syracuse was shut out, 4-0.
INCIARTE DFA'D:
Is that a career Ender for him? Just wondering.
May your Mets' joys never end.
14 comments:
I'm still trying to understand why folks are so down on Ronny Mauricio.
Not folks
Just me
Alvarez,Baty and Mauricio for Soto.
Dom, McCann, and Citifield
Mauricio has had much more power than I ever expected at his young age. His average is lower than I expected.
Baty, Mauricio, Alvarez and Vientos would all be major leaguers already if not for 2020 being cancelled.
Let the Soto sweepstakes begin. Baty, Mauricio and Vientos, but not Alvarez.
How about Corbin, Strasberg, Soto for Baty, Vientos and Ramirez? Corbin is owed $60+MM, Strasberg is owed $120MM…
If Strasberg has to be included, any deal is off
Back to the subject of the article, I would like to see where the Mets #9 through 18 hitters rank against the other 29 teams. While JDD and Dom have not hit as well as we all want, I still want those two guys on my bench ahead of Almora, Inciarte, etc.
Bill that would be an interesting analysis - but a better one - and perhaps I can leave it to you, as I won't have the time - is to do that analysis for the top 10 teams in baseball.
Gus I wonder if we will ever see just how far Cohen is willing to spend.
Mets win 2 small ball games, while managing just 11 hits in 21 innings. Jankowski, Smith, Davis, Nido, and Mazeika go 2 for 18. Those 5 have been abysmal with the bat. What will be done to fix?
Mazeika is staying until a better option is available. He is a #3, and even that has value. Smith got hurt, out a while. Davis bought some time. Janikowski is what one would expect, so there isn’t any upside. Nido, well, so much for that hitting coach he paid a few years back.
Gus, good points, but my take is, if the Braves were not being relentless, you could simply wait and hope these guys turn it around. But the Braves are relentless - I think 33 of their last 43. Wishful thinking says they've been hot and now for their next 40 games, they will play .500 ball.
Even with Max back and deGrom returning, it hurts the pursuit to have 5 under-producing hitters, which will cost them wins.
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