Tom Brennan: Hitter Tiers; Fastballs; Innings Eaters; Hondo R.I.P.

 

The More Top of the Heap Mets Hitter Types the Mets Put on the Field, the Better

We complain about the Mets’ offense a lot, but the team’s hitters can be broken down into 3 tiers:

1) Those 4 who did admirably and shouldered the offensive load. No complaints.

2) Those 4 who were mediocre, or in one case a strong marginal player.

3) Those who really underperformed (or, in a few cases, were traded).

The top tier came down to just 4 players, which is part of the Mets’ problem. By comparison, Atlanta had probably twice the tier 1 type hitters on their team.

The Mets’ tier 1, obviously, was Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Francisco Alvarez,  and Brandon Nimmo, who did this:

2,144 ABs (40%), 340 runs, 97 doubles, 126 HRs, 347 RBIs, .246.

The Mets’ tier 2 included Jeff McNeil, Vogelbach, Stewart, and Marte, who did this:

1,335 ABs (25%), 167 runs, 49 doubles, 39 HRs, 157 RBIs, .254.

The Mets’ tier 3 included every hitter other than the eight above, who did this:

1,884 ABs (35%), 210 runs, 75 doubles, 50 HRs, 188 RBIs, .222.

5,363 total team at bats equal out to almost 600 ABs for 9 positions, so how did each tier produce over 600 at bats?

TIER 1: .246, 95 runs, 27 doubles, 35 HRs, 97 RBIs.

TIER 2: .254, 75 runs, 22 doubles, 18 HRs, 71 RBIs.

TIER 3: .222, 67 runs, 24 doubles, 16 HRs, 60 RBIs.

Had Pham and Canha more properly been added by me to Tier 2 instead of Tier 3 by me, the difference between Tiers 2 and 3 would have been much wider. Tier 3 without Canha and Pham had 1400 at bats and hit about .200, making the output from the true Tier 3 far more impotent.

The overall conclusion is that, if possible, expanding Tier 1 has obvious positive benefits. Maybe McNeil and at least one of the 3 remaining Baby Mets climb into Tier 1 and rev up the 2024 offense.

Or we get Juan Soto, immediately boosting Tier 1 output greatly.

If we want to win, we simply need less tier 3 hitters, who are like an anchor.

The Braves by comparison had 9 tier 1 hitters; 2 productive tier 2 hitters in d’Arnaud and Pillar, who combined for a fine 23 doubles, 20 HRs and 71 RBIs but a .270 OBP; and VERY FEW TIER 3 AT BATS, only about 275 total tier 3 at bats, constituting 5% of the team’s at bats, far less than the Mets’ tier 3.

Even if had I shifted all Pham and Canha ABs into tier 2, that would have left over 25% of the Mets’ total at bats coming from tier 3, which is way too high for a team desiring to make the playoffs.

Hopefully, this article hasn’t left you in tiers.

WHICH (ON ANOTHER TOPIC) HAS THE TOP-RANKED FASTBALL?

Which of these three pitchers has the highest rated fastball?

Blade Tidwell

Calvin Ziegler

Nolan McLean

According to the Mets’ top 30 prospects list on the Mets’ site, Tidwell and Ziegler both have “60” fastballs. 

McLean? A “65”.

Hitters will likely Die Hard With a Vengeance when McLean pitches next year.

IRON MAN TOM SZAPUCKI

How many outs did Iron Man ex-Met Szapucki record in 2023? 

Majors, minors, wherever?

Answer: 

One out was recorded, by the Szapper, in spring training. 

Five runners reached base, one out recorded, season over.

He is the definition of a Partial Inning Eater.

Hie 278 career innings starting in 2015 are 268 innings more, though, than those of 10 career inning Matt Allan, whose minors career started in 2019.  In comparison, recently deceased septuagenarian Rob Gardner once threw 15 shutout innings for the Mets in a single outing in the 1960s (of course, being a Met, he got an ND, as the game ended in a 9-0 15 inning tie).

Szapucki and Allan. “We” sure know how to pick ‘em.

HONDO R.I.P.

Frank Howard, a giant of a power hitter, has died at age 87. He was a Mets manager and coach from 1982-84, welcoming rookie slugger Darryl Strawberry in 1983, and being on hand when Dwight Gooden exploded on the baseball stage in 1984.

It was reported once that as a Dodger in 1960, he hit a ball over the left-field wall at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh that was found alongside a parked car some 560 feet from home plate.

Batting against Whitey Ford in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series, at the original Yankee Stadium, he hit a drive that landed, in fair territory, just to the left of the monuments to Yankee greats in center field, about 460 feet from home plate. He lumbered only as far as second base in what has been called the longest double in Yankee Stadium history.

In Game 4, he hit a 450-foot homer off Ford into the left-field mezzanine at Dodger Stadium, in a 2-1 victory that completed a Dodger sweep of the Series. 382 career homers.  

R.I.P.

Before I wrap up, Hondo serves as a perfect note of caution about giving Pete Alonso a really long contract. 

From age 31 to 33, over 3 seasons on average, Hondo had 44 HRs, 115 RBIs, hit close to .290, and in one of those three seasons had 132 walks. He was an early age 30s beast. Pete neither hit for average or walked like that last year, at a younger age, although the power numbers were equivalent.

At age 34, Hondo slipped fairly significantly to 26 HRs, 83 RBIs, .278.  

At ages 35 and 36, in his final two seasons, he got up a total of just 547 times, with 22 HRs, 69 RBIs, an average of 11 and 35 per season, and .250, a far cry from his annual average production at age 31-33, and then retired. 

Let the long-term buyer beware. Pete may look like Hondo now, but could resemble an albatross later.