|
|
|
This season, David Wright is batting .343 
when the Mets are trailing or tied in the game, during which he has driven in a run 17 percent of his at bats.
However, he is batting .347 when the team is winning, while driving in a run also 17 percent of his at bats.
In other words, Wright is hitting roughly the same in games when the team needs him most, i.e., when they’re losing or tied, as compared to when they are winning.
Wright is batting .345 overall this season.
…thanks to Mets Walkoffs for helping me with the data in this post…
Further evidence that the idea of a “clutch” hitter is mostly a myth. The fact is, most players emulate their annual figures in smaller samples throughout all situations (in other words, a .300 hitter probably hits .285-.315 regardless of RISP, late in games, trailing, etc… I’d love to see further analysis on this though.
Food for thought: “Mr. November” Derek Jeter… career BA: .315, career playoff BA: .309
Love to see DWright driving the ball!! We dont need a homerun every at bat. The mets seemed to be swinging for the fences a lot in the beggining of the season when we all complained about hitting w/RISP.
Something must have changed because now they seem to be playing to their strengths, speed, stealing bases, hitting balls in the gap, bunts, moving runners over, etc.
Homers are nice, but the way the mets are built, as well as the way that CITI has been playing, the mets dont need the longball to win.
Lets go Mets!!!
It seems like Wright is hitting the quietest .345 in recent Mets history. If you compare him to the team leader Beltran, their stats are very close. Beltran is 62 for 169, 31 runs scored, 31 RBIs. Wright is 59 for 171, also 31 runs, 30 RBIs. The key difference that makes it seem like Wright is slumping is obviously strikeouts. Wright’s 50Ks are almost twice as much as Beltran’s 26. By the end of the season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wright leading the team in average. It would be that much easier if he reverted his swing and approach at the plate to mirror last year’s D-Wright. You watch a highlight of his swing from last year and this year, and you should be easily able to tell that there’s a vast difference there.
Tonight is an important game for him. He looked awful on Wednesday, fouling off hittable pitches and then getting caught with (hanging) breaking balls when he was clearly looking fastball. It was reminiscent of his slump earlier this season when he was fouling everything off. Let’s hope he tees off against this rookie going tonight for the Fish.
Have to love that consistency. I am a little worried about the lack of power but as long as he keeps his average up Im not going to complain much. This also helps to rest any notion of Wright’s supposed “un-clutchness.” I think he does tend to press at times but when he is in a relaxed groove I dont think the particular circumstances of his at-bat affect him at all.
So much for Wright only hitting when it doesn’t matter….Especially considering that the Mets have been blown out in all of one game.
So in other words; David Wright is NOT “clutch”! He is the very model of consistancy, and plays @ the same “way” above average level regardless of score or pressure situtation.
Day after day, week after week, same consistant numbers.
My kind of player.
He defines consistant.
It’s a pleasure to watch him mature and grow into a premier player and leader of this ballclub, something I though we had in the mid eighties but lost to drugs and injury.
Yes the clutch Wright is back. People forget he almost single handedly got us into the playoffs in 2007 despite the rancid bullpen
To be fair, lets see what happens in a 4 game set in Philly in September or when the Mets need a sac fly against the Nationals or Astros in the final week.
Statistically everyone knows Wright is a good hitter, now the larger body of Met fans just want to hang their hat on some bigger moments, not much to ask.
he’s been awful in bases loaded and 2nd and 3rd situations…basically any big potentially game-breaking situation. i mean we’re talking less than 20 PA in these situations obviously. but these ABs are the ones that stick in the memory.
i’m sure he’ll be fine, but he hasn’t been as good as your numbers indicate, matt.
If D could ever get into the mindset that it is the pitcher in trouble rather than him in those big situations, there will be no stopping him. You can see that when he’s up in those situations, he worries about producing.
I still think that he feel’s he’s an overachiever rather than a star, and always needs to prove himself. If he can ever get to the point where he genuinely feels he’s a star, I think his numbers will explode even more than they have already, as he’ll just let the game come to him.
He’s a good, modest kid, but sometime he’s got to realize how good he really is, and approach his game that way.
WOW! Excellent point I’ve always felt similarly but have never seen anyone write about it. I’m hoping that the killer instinct that Gary Sheffield has will rub off on DWright.
He has 8 at-bats with 2/3 and 8 with the bases loaded. The bulk of which happened when he was slumping, so lets relax on that.
Let’s be fair, now. Wright’s hitting .354 with an OPS of .957 with RISP and has driven in 28 runs in those situations. I’ll give you that his perceived stats are much lower than his actual stats, but fortunately the actual stats are what matters. Bottom line is that despite what it feels like, Wright gets the job done in scoring situations at a completely reasonable clip.
Good he had a day off yesterday, though. Looked like he was starting to guess too much rather than react.
I think Wright is actually going to have a huge 2nd half, as I think he’s still trying to figure out what kind of hitter he is going to be at Citi, and is pressing there. Once he gets comfortable hitting there, I think he’s going to come up even bigger than now.
And I don’t worry about the power–he’s been here before, too. I expect 25-30 HRs from him by season’s end. He’ll go on one tear and we’ll forget all about his low power stats.
The bigger concern with Wright (for me, at least) is the strikeouts. Wright has 50 strikeouts through just 46 games, a pace that has him striking out 176 times this year. Now I don’t think the number will be quite that high, but that projection is a substantial deviation from the 112 he’s averaged over the past 4 years. If he can find a way to rein in the whiffs just think of what he could do…
He has 171 ABs this year, so with 50 Ks, he’s put the ball in play 121 times. Of those 121, 59 have resulted in hits, for a BA of .345 and a ridiculous BABIP of .488. If instead, he were striking out at his normal rate, he’d have just 32 Ks. Assuming the same BABIP, that would leave him with a BA of .398! It’s amazing that he can be hitting .345 and still be frustrating.
David has proven to be good when he has enough rest. He hasn’t needed a lot of rest, just a couple of off-days each season. When he gets into a funk he gets out of it but even when he is in a funk he still doesn’t go many days without getting a hit or getting on base.
Couldn’t this post simply have said “Wright hitting?” His stats are the same across the board.
This shows that he is becoming comfortable at the plate and is realizing that no matter what the situation his goal should still be the same, put the ball in play.
David will be fine, hopefully the day off yesterday refreshed him, he has been looking pretty exhausted and its no wonder, being the only player to only have been out for one inning so far this season.
He underestimates his own strength and he tries too hard, he completely mashes lefties, so i think he will do well tonight.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved what DWright has been doing for the team lately. But my biggest knocks on him is his incredibly large amount of strikeouts & what I consider as awful defense from what is supposed to be considered a Gold Glove caliber 3rd baseman. I’m sorry, I’m a HUGE fan of DWright but his D has been horrible this year & I don’t know why!?!
Can someone forward this post to Craig Carton so he can stop with the D-Rod comments?