Remember 1969: Remember's Reminiscing

 

Remember 1969: Remember's Ramblings

 

Remember's Reminiscing – Volume 1, Article 3 

October 29, 2024

  

My intention today was to continue my reminiscing session and take a look back at the week of October 29, but we seem to be entering the season where there hasn’t been a lot of activity on that date through history.   The only time the Mets were still playing this late was in the 2015 World Series against the Royals and October 29 was a travel day. 

So I am shifting gears a little to take a look at something that popped into my mind after reading a recent Reese’s Pieces article here on Mack’s Mets. 

In discussing the potential free agent bats that might be signed to strength the team, the article did a great job laying out the statistics of the various players.    What I then wondered was “What effect will New York City and Citi Field have on them?”

While I cannot get into the psyche of each player and whether or not they can play in New York, I decided to concentrate on the concept of how Citi Field is playing now for the hitters.   

Home Sweet Home! 

The data shows something that surprised me.   Both the 2023 and 2024 Mets teams actually hit more homers at home than on the road. 

In 2024, the Mets hit 5 more homers in 114 less plate appearances at home than they did away from Citi Field.  In a stranger anomaly, they also walked 70 times more often and struck out 22 times less than on the road.    Oddly, their batting average was 16 points higher away than in Citi (due to many less singles), which brought their team OPS just about even (.736 at home;  .732 on the road). 

In a down year 2023, the Mets slugged much better at home than in other ballparks, hitting 17 additional homers in 140 less plate appearances. 

2022 was rather weird, as it was the only year of the last 4 that the team had a higher OPS on the road than at home (.729 vs .758) .. BUT . . they also had their best home winning percentage of the four years in 2022, winning exactly two thirds of their home games.    While it is true that most teams have a better record at home than on the road, the Mets have had very good won-loss records at Citi Field, despite some poor overall records.

One other somewhat strange stat for the Mets is that they consistently have a higher stolen base success rate at Citi Field than when they are playing on somebody else’s field.  I have no explanation for that. 

What does all this have to do with attracting talent to play for the Mets?    Citi Field, while rating as a favorable park to pitchers year in and year out, it is not particularly terrible for the hitters either. 

To go back to the ability to play in New York, the Mets top free agent, Pete Alonso, has shown that he is made for the big stage.    His home/away splits for 2024 were stunning to me.   He had the same number of hits at home as on the road, but the only thing less was singles, as he hit more doubles, more home runs, had more RBI, scored more runs, walked more and struck out less at Citi.   He even had one more stolen base at home.   His home line of .251 avg, .351 OBP, .495 slugging, and .846 OPS is a pretty solid stat line.      I say this guy can do it – sign him up.

  

Born on this date:  October 29

The Mets have had four players that will be celebrating birthdays today.   Ender Inciarte is 34, Dana Eveland is 41, Karim Garcia is 49 and a special happy 50^th birthday to R.A. Dickey.

R.A. Dickey is worth a little more feature than the others as he is the only one of the four to win any major awards by winning the Cy Young for the Mets in 2012 (then being immediately traded away).     

As a relative late bloomer after developing the knuckleball, Dickey had a decent major league career, pitching in at least parts of 15 years, winning double digits in 7 of the 15 including the 20 in his Cy Young year.    He accumulated 23.7 bWAR for his career with his 120 wins in 400 games pitched (300 starts) and over 2000 innings.  While he never duplicated his 20-6 2012 performance, he went on to win another 59 games for Toronto and Atlanta until his retirement after the 2017 season.    

 Remember’s Ramblings

After the Mets lost last week, I no longer cared about the World Series and thought that I might not even follow it on a daily basis.   I must admit that I am too much of a baseball fan to not check the scores before going to sleep (I have no interest in watching it), and rather surprised myself by being glad the Dodgers won the first two games.   I guess I have to hope that they win the whole thing, but neither team moves the needle much for me.  

February 15 for pitchers and catchers cannot come too soon.   Let the off-season begin.  By this time next week, the Series will be over and the hot-stove officially started.