Tom Brennan: Mgr. Mendoza & Mets’ Sub-Mendoza & Near-Mendoza Guys

Well…there he is…I see the new manager. 

Finding well-above-Mendoza hitting support is the next thing to locate.

Welcome aboard, skipper.

OK, now that we’ve got that warm welcome out of the way, let’s look at Mets 2023 hitting deficiencies. 

We’ve all heard of the Mendoza line, which is hitting under 200.

Well, the Mets had these 4 hitters in sub Mendoza territory in 2023: 

Nido, Mendick, Almonte, and Arauz.

Combined, the unfeared foursome went 28 for 195 (.143), with 13 RBIs. Opposing pitchers trembled at the sight of them…trembled with glee, that is.

Let’s move on.

“Near Mendoza”? 

“What’s that, Professor Brennan?”

I’d define that as hitting at least .200, but under .220.

The Mets had six players in that category: 

Ortega, Alonso, Baty, Vientos, Narvaez, and Alvarez.

This Near Mendoza group was much more dangerous than the sub Mendoza group, because of Pete and Francisco combining for over 70 homers, but nonetheless, their combined average was like something out of 1968 Mets lore.  

In 1,763 combined at bats, the six hit just .214. 

The 1968 Mets may have scored just 473 runs (exactly just half of the runs, BTW, that the Braves scored in 2023), but those 1968 Mets at least hit .228.

Getting .214 from 6 players totaling 1/3 of the team’s total at bats is - wait, I’m trying to think of the right word - unacceptable.

Don’t expect Mendoza to win as manager if you have six hitters with 33% of the Mets’ at bats hitting .214, in near-Mendoza territory, and another 4 hitters racking up 4% of the team’s ABs hitting a way-below-sub-Mendoza .143.

Of course, there is the “playing in Queens” effect. (Here I go again).

Dave Kingman in his Mets career hit a near-Mendoza .219. 

Funny, in the rest of his career, playing for other teams, he hit .250. 

Fellow slugger Pete Alonso? 

Career, .236 in Queens, .265 on road.  Funny, huh?

Thank you for “listening”. 

You, too, David Stearns.

A WHIFF OF ARIZONA…

In last night’s game our 3 Mets hitters reached base 5 times, and our 3 Mets pitchers allowed 1 unearned run in 3 innings, a productive night, but with it, the Mets’ Nolan Clenney allowed that unearned run and took the 2-1 loss in a 31 K affair (15 Ks for one team, 16Ks for the other). Our hitters and pitchers remarkably contributed few Ks to that huge #.

Glendale used 9 pitchers, including the Mets’ 3, and the opponent used 7, as the fall season winds down.