“You non-core guys? PLEASE be more productive hitters.”
The Mets have a core of 5 hitters.
Alonso, Lindor, Marte, Nimmo…and Taylor.
Yes, anyone hitting .327 with 13 RBIs in 49 ABs, as Taylor is, is core.
Those 5 have 62 RBIs in the Mets’ first 24 games. Not bad.
DJ Stewart is not core, but has done well - he started slowly but he has been a fine support for those core 5.
The other 8 hitters?
Some say they’re doing good. Me? A friggin’, all-too-familiar Mets malady:
Power Brown Out Syndrome. A/K/A Power Putridity. Pukey Power.
You get the point. Let’s run it down here:
Alvarez surprisingly has had lower power results than I’d have expected, with just 4 doubles and a HR. (And, sadly, none of us expects any RBIs from him for the next 6-8 weeks.)
Then you have Bader, Baty, McNeil, Wendle, Short, Narvaez, and Nido.
Combined, those 8, including Alvarez, have had 351 at bats.
Combined, they have 16 doubles, 0 triples, 4 HRs, and 34 RBIs.
Add in 30 walks and HBPs, and 381 PAs makes their power #s look worse.
As usual, the back half of the Mets’ offense offensively - well - sucks.
Sure, combined they are hitting .250. Sounds pretty good. But…
An XBH ratio of one every 24 plate appearances?
And a HR every 95 plate appearances?
Good teams do better with their outside-the-core hitters.
You may also ask me:
Alvarez and McNeil and Bader are not (in my mind) core offensive players?
Why?
Alvarez homered on July 8, 2023, raising his average to. 248. He hit poorly thereafter, ending up at .209. His 2024 hitting was only fair prior to his recent injury. We all want him to be a core hitter. Starting July 9 last year, he has not been much of a core hitter since.
Bader is, yes, hitting .278, but with just 3 XBH and just 6 RBIs. Fair.
McNeil, in 737 PAs this year and last, has just 62 RBIs. Just not enough run production to be “core”.
Baty just 2 XBH in 81 PAs this year? Just not adequate power-wise, clearly.
The remaining 4 (Wendle, Short, Narvaez, and Nido) come in with low offensive expectations. And are meeting those low expectations dandily.
As in just 14 for 71, 4 RBIs.
Lots of “Just’s” in there. I just want better. So…
“JD MARTINEZ? Please make the Core 5 a Core 6.”
The Citi is a Pity:
As you know, if you read my articles over the years, I often rail against the fact that Citi field is a decidedly pitcher-friendly park.
So does that hold true for 2024? So far, yes.
In 2024, to date, the Mets have played 12 at home, 12 on the road.
They’ve hit .222 at home .269 on the road.
Draw your own Conclusions.
TONG TERRIFIC
We Mets fans had our brilliant Tom Terrific.
Now, we have Tong Terrific.
Jonah Tong, that is. Another brilliant St Lucie outingThursday. He fired off a 6 inning, 2 hit, no run, no walk, 9 K gem.
In 2024, he has 18.2 innings pitched, allowed a scant 12 baserunners, allowed no earned runs, and racked up a preposterous 36 Ks.
Geez. We got a hot one here.
TYLER STUART JOINS THE K CLUB
After Hamel and Scott continued their high K ways, along with Tong Terrific, Tyler Stuart got fired up and fanned 12 in 6 innings allowing a run and 4 hits for Binghamton.
LUCCHESI LABORS ON
Lucchesi threw 5 innings of 1 earned run ball. The roof, however, caved in on Wild Man Fujinama and Hartwig late in the game. Fuji has walked 11 and hit 2 batters in 5 innings. Steve Blass says that guy is WILD!
MINORS HITTING BROWN OUT
The 4 minor league teams combined for just 16 hits in “We Forgot How To Hit Thursday”. Every time you think the hitting is kicking in - it stops.
BILL METSIAC CATCHES MY OVERSIGHT
On a night of minors non-hitting, one did hit, and Bill Metsiac pointed out my oversight, as follows:
“I'm surprised you didn't mention my minor-leaguer-to-keep-an-eye-on of the early season, young Senor Ramirez. 3 more hits last night, including 3 doubles, plus a SB. He's now batting over .360!!! His numbers are screaming, "get me to Syracuse ". If he keeps hitting there, this Winter we may be asking, "Soto who?"”
Bill is right. Alex Ramirez has left his struggling 2023 season IN THE DUST!
22 comments:
Excellent analysis
Mets62, thanks. Keep the comments coming.
Your usual fine analysis. I'm surprised you didn't mention my minor-leaguer-to-keep-an-eye-on of the early season, young Senor Ramirez. 3 more hits last night, including 3 doubles, plus a SB.
He's now batting over .360!!! His numbers are screaming, "get me to Syracuse ". If he keeps hitting there, this Winter we may be asking, "Soto who?"
Not hitting is our default setting and DS and the hitting lab HAS to change it. Hey the DS Brew crew are kicking butt so there's hope. O.K. so when Tong makes the show and strikes someone out will they hang The Tongue from the Stones album Sticky fingers from the rafters?
Is it too soon to start calling him "A-Ram"? 😆
It must be something about us that seems to always leave us with horrendous production from the catching position as the road is littered with failed players behind the dish and by the way another dumb as a rock move to let TDA go as he's "only hitting" .293 with 5 HR's and a 1.019 OPS at 35 and yes I won't let it go. Also Alvy has to show me much more to convince me he's the real deal as the hype machine was in overdrive so show me Francisco. One more thing as I'm on a roll shouldn't he be wearing a sliding glove or not because it's not cool?
Bill, yes, my faux pas on leaving out Ramirez. Saw it, but forgot to add it. I will add it now. With credit to you.
Gary, TDA, we were both saying “NOOOO!” when the Mets prematurely let him go. He was rusty…but healthy. The day they let him go, he had worked all the rust off. Wilpon stupidity at its finest.
I disagree with your omission of Jeff McNeil as a core hitter. In the last three seasons, McNeil has had a superior batting average and OPS with runners in scoring position to Francisco Lindor. Why does he not have the RBI's? Because the Managers keep putting him seventh in the lineup for a reason that evades me.
Lindor 2024: 23 AB; .130 BA; .554 OPS - McNeil 2024: 19 AB; .368 BA; .952 OPS
Lindor 2023: 136 AB; .250 BA; .777 OPS - McNeil 23: 129 AB; .318 BA; .862 OPS
Lindor 2022: 168 AB; .286 BA; .816 OPS - McNeil 22: 143 AB; .336 BA; .803 OPS
I'm not trying to make the case that McNeil is better or more valuable than Lindor as a Met, but I certainly think that McNeil is part of the core hitters.
I agree about McNeil, but everyone has their own definition of "core".
I remember in the 1990s, when the Yankees (minus George) brought up a group of young players who certainly would fit anyone's definition. There were 5 of them, all performing well, but the group was known as the "Core 4". No one I knew had any clue as to why their fine CFer, Bernie Williams, "failed to make the cut".
Has anyone heard from Marco Vargas? Is Jeremy Rodriguez going to Extended Spring training? How is Jett Williams doing? Is Reimer out for the year? I’ve lost track.
Sounds like a good topic for the next post, Gus.
until then, check the "Stats" link on the menu bar - it connects you with all the minors team stats for the season.
Tom it's a long list but Bay over Holliday and not signing Wheeler and Murphy are but a few but under SC not signing Correa and Baez and cutting bait with Max and Justin are winning team moves. Wilpon was frozen in place after Madoff but of course his wasting 10 years of our Met fan existance paid off handsomely so crime does pay. Selig you don't get off the hook here as you should have forced the sale.
Gary, my brother is strongly convinced that if we are paying most of Verlander salary post-trade, the deal should not have been done. We got two guys back (Gilbert, Acuna) which he is suspicious of, in terms of long term achievement, and significantly under-sized. He would have preferred keeping Verlander.
Gus, all I can say on Jett is he is still on the active list. We’ll see if he plays tonight.
Gus, I recently saw Reimer had pulled his hamstring and it must have been bad, but at the time, I think they expected him to return in June. He’s out, and Jaylen Palmer is back. Ugh.
I haven't checked that list, but I do check the box scores daily, and my untrained observation us that very few of the "top tier" prospects acquired last July have shown any success since then.
The production of our own prospects (Scott, Stewart, Ramirez, Lavender, et al) has been far superior.
I disagree with your brother. True, the guys we got are (so far) relatively unproductive, but you don't build a system for the long-term by keeping an injury-prone veteran instead of possible future stars.
Let's hope JV doesn't pitch 140 innings this season if/when he resumes pitching.
Bill, my bother’s eyeball check of the two led him to believe the duo will be below average major leaguers. Time will tell. I am a lot more guarded on the two short fellas than I was when the Mets got them.
Tom,
Short has been designated for assignment.That seemed to be their best option when Martinez was activated.
Tom, the guys they got were Clifford and Gilbert from the Astros. Acuna came from the Rangers for Scherzer. You can’t keep throwing good money after bad. It was a good move because the bullpen was crappy and a run into the playoffs seemed vain.
I'm disappointed in their numbers since July, but I'm not certified as a scout, or even a mere POBO.
What "eyeball check" determines a player's future, short of a photo of the player confined to a wheelchair or having had a limb amputated?
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