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11/9/23

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.



20 comments:

  1. G’day, Mates. I hope you hit at least 100 points above the Mendoza line today. You're all .300 hitters in my book.

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  2. We all have to hope DS knows this and will change our trajectory in the near future. Huge winter for our New Yorker GM to be sure but not to be defensive Tom I've heard nothing about the fences.

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  3. Gary, I expect no movement on the fences. Maybe next off season?

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  4. Mets former third base coach Joey Cora will not be returning to the club for the 2024 season as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic announced that he will be joining the Detroit Tigers coaching staff.

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  5. Also, DO NOT expect DB to be able to sign Ohtani. The Dodgers check all
    the boxes for what he will be looking for: money, location, one player away contender.
    And don't blame the FO for that, either.

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    Replies
    1. Have to respect the dead money in play in 2024 here

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  6. Morning Tom

    I read a piece on Baseball America where they speculate on the Mets starting lineup in 2027

    They had Pete as DH

    1B?

    Brett Baty

    Hmm...

    If that's the plan then send him back to Syracuse next season to learn the position

    You can split 1B/DH duties with Schwartz or just slow pace JT

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  7. Hey,it was the hitting! The starters were injured,the BP was bad but the hitting was the #1 problem. How many games did they score 3 or less runs.

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  8. I am really confused about the home/away splits of Batting Average. I get the home runs with the smaller parks, but why BA? Every hit that would attribute to a higher BA cannot be the lost home runs.

    Who has the answer to this perplexing question?

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  9. Saw a betting odds chart that HEAVILY favored Ohtani to Dodgers. I flew to Japan from Kennedy once - it was 14 hours. My guess is 9 hours from LA. Big difference.

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    Replies
    1. Flew 36 hrs from JFK to Juno to Masawa AFB Jpan to Saigon in 67

      Not doin THAT again

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  10. Baty at first base? He needs to learn to hit like a first baseman, then. First basemen that are good HIT!

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  11. Woodrow, the Mendoza boys and the slo-mo Vogelbach are going to add up to bad offensive run production.

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  12. Bill, I think long flies caught that do not become home runs OR DOUBLES make up the batting average difference. It's both.

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  13. Clenney has done well for himself in Arizona. Although he took the loss yesterday on an unearned run, he has only given up a single earned run in 9 innings pitched for an ERA of 1.00. Would love to see that over a full season at AAA.

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  14. Mack is just getting over the jet lag 56 years later.

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  15. Paul, Clenney and Trey McLaughlin (0.00) both - I was disappointed neither made the ASG. Both should have.

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