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According to Baseball-Reference.com, the Mets pulled 26 percent of the balls they hit onto the field of play or over the fence in 2008, hit 59 percent up the middle and hit 15 percent the opposite way.
In 2009, they’ve pulled 25 percent, hit 56 percent to the middle and 19 percent to the opposite field.
In 2008, David Wright pulled 29 percent, hit 55 percent up the middle and 16 percent to the opposite field. In 2009, he’s pulled 26 percent, hit 48 percent up the middle and 26 percent to the opposite field.
Wright and others have suggested the team has adjusted its approach to cater to Citi Field. I took stabs at interpreting the data and what it means at SNY.tv today, but be warned: I drew very few meaningful conclusions.
One theory that I have had as to why this team hits more to the opposite field is that drill that Manuel installed in the offseason. The curve ball drill was installed so the players could go the other way and get base-hits as opposed to always going for the homerun. That being said I think that drill has had an adverse effect on the Mets offense. When watching games most of the hitters are late when hitting the fastball, best evidenced by the amount of times Wright has either fouled off or swungand missed at a hittable fastball. It seems to me that the players just can’t get around on the fastball and have become solely breaking ball hitters.
I don’t know but maybe that drill was the cause for the lack of power. The only player that has been hitting homeruns is Sheffield and he wasn’t around for spring training. Might be a crazy hypothesis, but you never know.
No disrespect to the writers on this site but who really cares about this post??? How can we compare to different years when the lineup (due to injury) is substantially different.
I rather here more inside information on trade rumors or when our guys are coming back healthy than which direction we hit the ball compared to last season
two*
Is a 4% overall increase in balls hit the other way really statistically significant? Especially since they’re pulling about the same number of balls. The difference in “up the middle” and “other way” could be 10 to 15 feet one way or the other.
David Wright’s #’s could be more significant, but the question is whether it’s a problem that he’s hitting more the other way. I can’t imagine any of us are qualified to make that determination. Isn’t that why we have hitting coaches?
Over half a season at that…so statistically insignificant. I understand that this is a slow time for posts, but come on.
“I have analyzed fairly meaningless numbers and drawn meaningless conclusions. Here is a post for you to waste your time reading my article, but be warned: It is totally worthless. Thank you for your time.”
That’s the jist of it. That is why I hate slow news days.
We all have too much time on our hands and start looking to entertain ourselves by digging into the nooks and crannys of our bellybuttons.
I do feel that the team is going the other way alot, but that would be a good thing if we had someone who can clear the tablesetters. Lots of blops, but no blasts.
You know, there’s a school of thought that says there’s more to be learned from inconclusive findings than from ill-drawn ones.
Maybe more people would’ve clicked the link if I said, “BREAKING NEWS: METS SUCK AT CITI,” but since that’s not what’s actually true — despite what you may have read — that’s not what I’d publish.
I noticed something I thought was interesting and I investigated further. I didn’t want to falsely represent it as anything more than that here.
Ted:
You did fine, you even concluded w/ your personal interpretation.
I’m not much of an obscure numbers person, but it’s obvious that the entire team is going opposite field. The power will come around, it always does.
I still hate slow news days, probably almost as much as you guys do. After all it’s your livelyhood.
Great response Ted. Haha. I’m guilty of being a petulant commenter. You actually do a great job here and at SNY…thanks!
+100
No worries, Berg. I was just having some fun with you. :P
But yes, ill-drawn findings do sound bad.
I think you need to look at distance of hits. The Mets have shortened their swings, thus producing more singles than extra base hits.
The Mets have an average of .391 total bases per at bat this year. Last year it was .420.
Here’s what I see in the first half stats…
Our OPS+ with RISP and 2 outs is just 86, meaning we’re well below league average as a team. That’s despite the fact that our OPS+ with RISP overall is 109, which is above average. And our OPS+ with 2 outs overall is 104, which is just above league average. Makes me wonder why that doesn’t translate to that very important RISP w/2 outs situation.
The Mets have a solid LD% (10th in baseball at 19.2%), but our OPS+ on line drives is just 84, well below average. It’s not like you can say we’re unlucky because our BABIP is 8th overall.
The scariest stat is that we’re dead last in all of baseball in HR/FB ratio. Just 6.3% of our fly balls go over the fence. The Phils, for example, hit 12.9% of their fly balls over the fence. And before anyone yells “ballpark,” I’d like you to explain to me why the Mets have hit more HRs at home (28-24) and why the Phils have hit about the same HRs on the road as at home (62-60).
Plate discipline doesn’t seem to be the problem. The Mets swing at the third fewest percentage of pitches outside the zone… and the Mets have the highest contact percentage of any team in baseball.
This offense just doesn’t seem to be very good. Beltran, Delgado and Reyes can’t get back soon enough!
Those were wonderful and I’m sure are very meaningful, but can you please explain that in layman’s terms?
Basically all I got from that is that we…, you know I didn’t get that @ all.
Never mind, I don’t want to know.
The Mets are fourth in the div and are 1/2 dozen games back, and they aren’t hitting home runs or scoring very often.
One trend in this info is that the Mets hitters are of typical, average skill when it comes to choosing which pitches to swing at and making contact. The problem is that the talent level isn’t there are most of the good contact is going into lazy and routine fly balls instead of homers and balls over the outfielders. Its not a lack of focus or confindence, more its a lack of physical ability and talent.
Thanks for this insightful info BPHelp.