Tom Brennan - Simple Observations and Starved for Offense

I’m like Gomer Pyle when I look at stats…SHAZAM!

“HEY! WE’RE STARVING OVER HERE!” 

One run scored in the last two games? Offense-starved.

Wasting great starting pitching against a tough Jays offense? 

For shame.

When I was a kid, I knew all the stats, watched all the Mets’ innings.

I was a walking, talking 12 year old Elias Sports Bureau. All kinds of stats. 

Like Jerry Koosman going 11-35 in a two year span despite a mid 3s ERA. WHY?  The Mets’ offense was in Awful Mode those years. Then he won 20 the next season, as he had also done in the season prior to his 11-35 nightmare.

Nowadays, not as much on consuming any and all baseball data.

I find it interesting to look them there stats sometimes and make observations (thru Friday), like…

1) Tampa was a house on fire offensively early on, runs galore. After Friday’s games, Texas has passed Tampa’s 340 runs with 348 (which would make Jake deliriously happy, if of course he ever pitched), and LAD was close behind at 327. 

The Mets were in 19th, at 253 in 58 games. Oakland last with 200 runs. Metsies much closer to top team than bottom team. 

This Mets offense must do better.

2) Tampa Bay has 103 HRs, the Dodgers 100, the Mets 18th again with 65. 

But…Cleveland? 33. They must have moved to old Forbes Field.

3) I know Lindor is far from one dimensional, but hitting .212? 

And Pete leads MLB in HRs with 20, but is hitting just .231?

Combined .220?

Que passa, hombres? 

At least they were 9th and 4th, respectively, in RBIs. Not for long, hitting like that.

4) If someone told you in the off season that two months in, James McCann would be hitting .187 with 5 RBIs, few would be surprised. 

He, of course, looks like Mike Piazza compared to Tomás No Mas Nido. 

Affectionately known to me as the .125, One RBI Guy. 

On June 4, 1 run…batted…in.  Super duper. I’m almost 70, and Nicole Kidman thinks that I, swinging with Eyes Wide Shut, would have at least one RBI myself.

But maybe not. 

After all, Daniel Vogelbach had his first RBI in his last 17 games played last night. I wonder how Hack Wilson ever had 190 RBIs in a season.

DRAFT TIDBIT

I like to wax philosophical about guys we passed on, round after round, like Mr. Round 13, Albert Pujols. Couldn’t risk a 12th round gambit on THAT talentless bum, huh?  Well…

In the 12th round, in 2022, the Astros drafted IF Nick Dezenzo. Unlike most Mets draftees, who can’t hit a lick, even with melting ice cream nearby, Nick (despite his lofty 12th round selection) is hitting .404 thru 31 South Atlantic League games. Funny how that works, huh? Keep in mind that this is the very same league where Kevin Parada is nicely hitting .250 with decent power, but the rest of the Cyclones are hitting around .202, of half as high as Astro Nick. Gee, how did we miss Astro Nick, whose average is in height orbit, for 12 rounds?

Lastly…What do you call a guy who has stolen 89 bases in 157 games? Normally, GREAT. 

That’s Omar De Los Santos in 2022-23. 

But he has fanned 223 times in those 157 games.  Which is not so great great. Imagine those stolen base numbers if he only fanned 123 times in 157 games? I’m guessing 110 steals. 

Come on, coaches, figure out how Omar can make a lot more contact. You’re the experts.

SMOKY

I did not verify this fascinating info, but saw it on Facebook:

“When it comes to dominant pitching seasons in major league history (Doc Gooden's-1985, Greg Maddux's- 1995, Bob Gibson's 1968, any of Koufax's last 4 seasons, etc),people, at least on this page, rarely seem to bring up Smoky Joe Wood's 1912 season as a member of the Boston Red Sox.  

Throughout his career Wood suffered a myriad of freak injuries that included a foot injury wrestling Tris Speaker in a hotel room, a line drive off his ankle pitching batting practice, courtesy of  Harry Hooper, that resulted in a blood clot and breaking his thumb slipping on wet grass while going after an infield grounder.  As a result, he only managed two seasons in which he made 30+ starts.  But those two seasons were of the highest level.

In 1911 Wood went 23-17 with 25 complete games,  5  shutouts and a 2.02. E.r.a(162 e.r.a. plus) while also leading the league with 7.5 strikeouts per 9 innings and finishing 2nd with 231 strikeouts. 

As fantastic as that season was his 1912 was even better.  That year he went 34-5 with a 1.91 e.r.a  (177 e.r.a.+), 35 complete games, 10 shutouts and 258 strikeouts.  Interestingly, when asked if he was the hardest throwing pitcher in baseball Walter Johnson was quoted as saying "Can I throw harder than Joe Wood?”  “Listen, mister, no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood.”

Wood's full time pitching career (he did make 6 total appearances on the mound over the next two years) came to a close after the 1915 season (15-5, league leading 1.49 e.ra. in 157 innings) due to arm injuries and he was forced to move to the outfield.  His first year as a full time outfielder in 1918 saw him hit 296 with 5 homeruns and 66 rbi's (120 ops+).  In just 66 games in 1921 he knocked in 60 while hitting an astounding 366.  His final season in 1922 he hit 8 homeruns and knocked in 92.  

Wood was able to completely reinvent himself as a position player after being one of the best pitchers in the league and, as such, deserves more credit for what he did as a hitter.

Woods final career pitching line was 117-57 2.03 e.r.a (146+) with 28 shutouts.  As a hitter he slashed 283/357/411 (ops+ 110) compiling 553 hits and 325 rbis.   

Smoky Joe  Wood is a name that is fairly well known, in part to being one of the ghosts that emerge from the corn in that one movie with that guy we all know from Dances with Wolves but, in the pantheon of the greatest seasons a pitcher has ever, had I think that his 1912 season ranks amongst the very best and that his career as an outfielder should be lauded.”