Bases on Balls

In a somewhat controversial blog post, Harold Reynolds basically bashes power hitters like Adam Dunn and Adrian Gonzalez because they walk and "clog the bases." He also writes that he doesn't like OPS because a pitcher's fear leads him to walk power hitters and drive up their on-base percentage.

Well, that's a darn good reason for a stat to go up. Walks are extremely valuable. I did some research on the subject and concluded that on occasions that Adam Dunn walked this year, he had 2 RBIs and scored 7 runs.* There were also occasions in which he extended the inning and one of the following batters drove in other base-runners.

All-in-all, walks are not remotely worthless. Batters who draw a lot of them (for any reason) should be rewarded in the statistical record. If they have value, it should show.

*I'm not entirely certain, because I checked these numbers a while back, but I believe that there was also one instance in which he was pinch-run for and the pinch-runner scored.

Closing In...

Carlos Beltran is now hurt. He joins the ever-growing list of wounded Mets that includes such ballplayers as Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, J.J. Putz, Oliver Perez and John Maine. Oh, and don't forget Gary Sheffield. Yet, believe it or not, the Mets are closing in on first place.

Under almost any circumstances, winning three games in a four-game series is impressive. With all those All-Stars on the shelf, it's nearly unfathomable.

So how did the New York Mets, in their current crippled state achieve the unachievable? How did they face off against a first-place (and darn good) St. Louis Cardinals team for a threee-game set and emerge victorious?

A lot of it had to do with starting pitching. Over the four games, Mets starters pitched 27 innings, in which they allowed nine runs (only seven earned) on only 23 hits. Their strikeout to walk ration was a pedestrian 1.36, but the walks didn't hurt all too much and the defense did pretty good work. Was there a luck aspect involved? Probably, but what do you want - this is baseball.

But it was more than that. In the nine innings that the bullpen worked they gave up nothing. 3 hits and no runs. And remember, J.J. Putz, the setup man, is disabled, and Bobby Parnell, his replacement, has been so overworked that they vowed to rest him for the first few games. No runs in four games! It's an impressive achievement, to say the least.

But there's some more credit to pass around. David Wright had 6 hits and 4 runs, Fernando Tatis, who is hopefully out of his seemingly interminable batting slump, had 5 RBIs over the four games. Ryan Church contributed runs and RBIs at the rate of 3 apiece, and the middle of the order, while it may not have scared the Cardinals too much, certainly hurt them.

Tomorrow the Mets take on the Yankees at Citi Field with Mike Pelfrey taking on Yankee ace C.C. Sabathia.



Poll Update: In our last poll, we asked you "Who should play right and left field for the Mets?" with the choices being Gary Sheffield, Ryan Church, Fernando Tatis, and Fernando Martinez. Coming in first was Ryan Church, with Gary Sheffield and Fernando Tatis tied for second.

Weekend Notes

After a really tough loss to the Yankees at their new "wiffle ball stadium" on Friday night (capped by a Luis Castillo error), the Mets rebounded last night by beating the Yankees 6-2. Gary Sheffield likes going back to being a designated hitter - he's 4 for 10 with two home runs and a double in the last two games.

David Wright, if you didn't know, is leading the major leagues in batting average.
Carlos Beltran is not far behind.
Fernando Nieve pitched solidly in place of the injured John Maine.
The Mets had 17 hits today.
They are not dead.
Trust me.

Interesting Note: It might just be me, but it seems as though there is an inordinate number of former Mets second basemen floating around the Major Leagues.

1. Melvin Mora, BAL - played 8 games at second base with the Mets in 1999-2000 before being traded (with others) to the Orioles for Mike Bordick.
2. Ty Wigginton, BAL - played 37 games at second base with the Mets in 2002 and 2004 before being traded to the Pirates in 2004 in the Kris Benson deal.
3. Marco Scutaro, TOR - played in 51 games at second base for the Mets in 2002-2003 before being waived in 2003.
4. Anderson Hernandez, WAS - played in 18 games at second base for the Mets in 2005-2006 before being sent to the Nationals in 2008 to complete the Luis Ayala deal.
5. Kazuo Matsui, HOU - played in 105 games at second base with the Mets in 2004-2006 before being traded in 2006 for Eli Marrero.
6. Jeff Keppinger, HOU - played in 32 games with the Mets at second base in 2004 before being traded in 2006 to the Royals for Ruben Gotay.
   

Ruben Gotay (who played 37 games at second in 2007) does not make the list. He might soon, considering he is a AAA infielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks and his on-base percentage is currently more than 50 points higher than what the Diamondbacks are getting from their second basemen.

Coincidence? I Think Not

It sure is good that we posted this post when we did. Today's lineup has Beltran and Wright batting third and fourth, followed by Ryan Church, and then in the 6-hole the slumping, aged Gary Sheffield.

Could it be a coincidence that Jerry takes our advice to heart? Nah.

Note: Luis Castillo is batting ninth in this game. Alex Cora is occupying the lead-off spot. It'll probably stay that way for the remainder of the series.

Batting Order Blues

As put forth so nicely here, David Wright is leading the National League in batting average and on-base percentage, which brings forth the question of why he is batting 5th in the batting order. Now, it been scientifically proven that the order of the batters makes a very slight difference, but still - the Mets lost two games in extra innings over the last 48 hours. Just one extra Met run by the ninth inning in either game would have them 2 games out of first right now instead 4.

While I haven't written about it, this has been an issue that has been on my mind for a while - essentially since Wright's batting average escalated and Carlos Delgado went on the Disabled List. I also think that it's quite a waste for the Mets to have two of the top three (the other is Carlos Beltran) batting averages (and two of the top five on-base percentages) in the National League, and not take advantage by batting those players back-to-back.

I asked somebody about this a few days ago, and he said, essentially, that Gary Sheffield's value goes up because he's being protected by Wright (as opposed to, say Fernando Tatis or Daniel Murphy). Now, I can hear that. But I still can't stomach Jerry Manuel's separating his two best hitters - by what has turned out to be an out machine in Gary Sheffield, no less.

The solution, perhaps, is to have Sheffield bat third. Then, Wright and Beltran could protect him in the fourth and fifth slots.

I just don't see how it can hurt to have your best hitters batting back-to-back.

Welcome

Good Morning, and welcome to our new blog address. We hope you're as excited about the change as we are.

Enjoy!

What'd You Expect

The Mets just lost two out of three games to the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies, which places them 4 games out of first place. Well, what did you expect? The Phillies are a good team - they currently have the second-best record in the major leagues (behind the Dodgers). Their pitching, while not great, is good enought that when combined with their amazing offense, good defense (they have the best Fielding % in the National League) and fine baserunning makes for a pretty darn good team. (By the way, they're also defending World Champions.)

So the Mets can live with losing this series. Especially the way they did. Missing key performers Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado, it certainly wouldn't've been inconceivable for the Mets to have been embarrassed by the Phillies in the 3-game set. They absolutely were not. The Phillies only outscored the Mets by three runs over the whole series, and both of the Mets losses were in extra innings.

As such, this series lose was excusable. But they can't start duplicating it with regularity. Especially facing a tough stretch of division-leading and other good teams, the Mets cannot let down their guard and just wait to start winning when the big boys come back. They're not playing the Washington Nationals this weekend - their opponent is the revamped version of the New York Yankees, and anything less than a stellar effort by the Mets will likely result in their figuratively being torn to shreds.

But, with their good starting pitching, better base-running, and just a bit of clutch-hitting by the big bats, they should withstand their obstacles.

Those Tricksters

Our poll of "Until Carlos Delgado's return, who should man first base?" ended in a tie between Fernando Tatis and Jeremy Reed. The Mets, in a move that has a lot fo merit, turned erstwhile outfielder Daniel Murphy into a first baseman, essentially nullifying our poll. Considering it leaves leftfield to Gary Sheffield, who has become the team's cleanup hitter, the position change makes a lot of sense.

Meanwhile, the Mets stand 3 games behind the division-leading Phillies after splitting the first two games of their weekend series with the Nats. With a injury-plagued team, the Mets are struggling to put out a major-league caliber lineup every night, which probably has a lot to do with their being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates this week.

But help is on the way. Ryan Church, who had been out with a strained right hamstring, should be coming off of the disabled list on Sunday, and should provide a defensive upgrade, at the very least.

Here's the key for the Mets: With key offensive contributors like Messrs. Delgado and Reyes sidelined by injury, the way to victory for the Mets essentially lies with the starting pitching. The offense is weak, but with quality pitching by Santana, Pelfrey and Co., the offense should perform well enough to win most of the time.

And that's good enough.

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New Poll: Our new poll asks you to select the two outfielders who you believe should be flanking Carlos Beltran in the outfield. The options are Gary Sheffield, Ryan Church, Fernando Tatis and Fernando Martinez. Please only pick two.