Mets Second Basemen Are Second To None

Mark Simon of ESPN is one of my favorite stops when I surf for Mets news each day. It’s not only that he always makes great points and draws logical conclusions, but the depth of effort and research he puts into each of his posts is unmatched. Today I found a Mets post filled with more of his gems including this one:

Mets second basemen had offensive numbers that were almost unprecedented.

The following data shows how Mets second basemen fared against the MLB average 2B in 2010.

	Mets	MLB
BA	.226	.265
OBP	.307	.330
Slug Pct	.285	.389

Not only did they rank worst in baseball this season with a .592 OPS (next-worst was the Indians, .624), but you could argue that they were the worst in club history.

The only year in which Mets second basemen had a worse OPS than they had in 2010 was in 1968 (.556).

But if you look at their positional OPS+ (comparing their OPS to that of the average second baseman that season), the 2010 squad had a positional OPS+ of 66.

The 1968 second basemen rated significantly better compared to their positional peers (albeit still bad), an 80. That’s our justification for calling the 2010 group the worst offensive combo the Mets have ever had.

At least Luis Castillo, Ruben Tejada and Alex Cora can take heart that there is a group of players worse off than them with the bat. Mets second basemen slugged .289. The only team who got worse pop from a position was the Orioles, whose shortstops slugged .272.

Here’s the thing I wonder most about. I really am a big fan of Ruben Tejada, but I wonder if playing him everyday will produce similar results or maybe even worse results.

Can the Mets as currently constructed afford to give up offense at second base with so many questions at many of the other positions?

I guess this would be one of the big questions a new GM will have to tackle.