30
2012
Warthen Must Confront The Bad Habits Exhibited By Mets Pitchers
An article by 
Bill Petti of Baseball Nation penned a post on how much Park Factors play into a team’s success. He noted the following about the Mets since their move to Citi Field:
After opening Citi Field in 2009, the New York Mets saw a significant decline in their ability to score runs. The team averaged 681 runs scored per year from ’09-’11 compared to 812 over the previous three seasons. Additionally, management worried that pitchers were developing bad habits while pitching at their spacious home park that led to worse performances on the road.
The decline in run production is no surprise and has been well documented. It is no doubt tied into the decrease in home runs. But wouldn’t that also hold true for Mets opponents?
What bothers me more is that the starting pitchers picked up bad habits. In fact, I believe Terry Collins addressed that a few months ago and he suspected that his starting pitchers and bullpen got far too comfortable and it led to too many mistakes. They forgot how to pitch and simply challenged everyone with fastballs down the middle believing that the park would contain any damage.
Where was Dan Warthen while this went on and why was it not addressed? It’s obvious he knew this was going when he made this comment:
“We got into being a little bit mentally lazy and overly secure. I think that caused a lot of the homers this year. I really do. [The new dimensions] will help us focus and concentrate and not be so ready to go out there and throw a fastball away and hope they hit it to center field.”
That explains why opposing offenses had no problems hitting the ball into the Mo Zone or over the Black Monster in left field.
In a way it may also explain why so many of our pitchers have regressed in the last two seasons.
R.A. Dickey offered up these comments after the news broke that the Mets were bringing in the walls:
“A guy might hit a triple or a double in the gap, but the chances of him hitting a bomb out of left-center are probably pretty slim. I remember a few times where I would roll the dice and say, ‘Here’s a 3-1 fastball. I’ll take my chances of you hitting it at somebody. I know you’re probably not going to hit it out’. A couple of times it would burn me, but sometimes it paid off.”
It is much easier for a pitcher like Dickey to succeed with such a strategy because batters typically slow their swings down against a knuckleballer and by the time they realize it’s a fastball coming in, it’s too late to adjust.
But imagine how this bodes for starters like Mike Pelfrey, Dillon Gee or Jon Niese?
Maybe I’m just grasping at straws here, and I hope I’m wrong, but unless Pelfrey, Niese and Gee make some serious adjustments to their overall pitching philosophy, they may be in for a rude awakening in 2012. There’s nothing wrong with challenging a hitter from time to time, but if you do it all the time you lose the element of surprise and hitters are cocked and ready, and sitting dead red on a fastball.
Lets see what Warthen says at Mets camp in a few weeks… He will need to address this and it’s definitely something to watch for this spring…
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 25 | 18 | .581 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 21 | .523 | 2.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 23 | .477 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 17 | 24 | .415 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 12 | 32 | .273 | 13.5 |
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I have no expectations that Warthen will actually do anything constructive.
Me either. Warthen should have been kicked to the curb when Gangsta got the boot.
Me too. I’m still trying to figure out how he survived the bloodletting when they axed Minaya and Manuel.
I still ask the Question, Why is Warthen still here?
Yes the Pitchers like him…isn’t that the first hint that maybe he isn’t the best guy for the job?
Doesn’t that show they are a bit TOO comfortable with him?
Considering two years of Pitching decline I fail to see why Warthen was retained while other coaches were let go for far lesser failings!
The only person who I question keeping more than Warthen is the Strength and Conditioning coach who has been here since 2009 and still manages to lose half our starting roster every year due to injury!
I think the pro and anti’s can all agree that we have no idea why Warthen is still here.
Yup. We may have finally found the one thing that every poster here can agree on!
Wrong, I don’t think Warthen has done as bad as some make it out to be. They pitched better than many expected 2 years ago and last year they had stretches where they pitched well as well.
Now how much or how little is due to Warthen can be debated surely but I don’t see the failings stricly a result of Warthen.
Right or wrong, how has he been the only one to survive though?
They liked him better than the alternatives at the time.
I see your point but you could make that same argument for other coaches that got fired.
Unlike other coaches like hitting coach for example I have always been of the opinion that a pitching coach does have more value and have a greater impact on pitchers than say a hitting coach on hitters.
I think there is one more pointwe all agree on…
the MLB team this year is NOT as good as the team LAST year….
The only difference between us is some think thats a good thing and is justified and others think it’s a bad thing because it means just that much more left to do in the next 5 years before we are a winning team again!
We had a good hitting team last year and it was about to get back one of it’s best bats this year.
What it needed was Pitching and instead what we got was Wheeler and two 2nd or 3rd round picks for all that hitting we gave up and lost a closer!
All because people are worried about the Wilpon’s making thier rent!
He was shredding documents for the Wilpons.
Here’s a different way of looking at it too…If I’m a Mets pitcher, I know that I’m not going to get any run support. So I know that I have to be perfect to have a chance for a win. You start trying to be too fine,,,trying to hard to paint the corners, too afraid to challenge a hitter with my best pitch. When you try to be too perfect, it tends to lead to mistakes, especially when you’re dealing with mentally weak, inexperienced and/or average pitchers.
The Mets numbers get worse once they let runner on base…To have success, you can’t be afraid to fail…if you’re afraid to fall, then you don’t have the ability to step up and achieve greatness.
But the problem is that they were challenging hitters all too often. They weren’t trying to be too fine or selective they were simply pitching to contact and getting burned instead of missing bats.
I see it both ways. Early in the count, they’d try painting and fell behind…then, once down 2-0 or 3-1 they would throw that fat pitch down the middle.
The problem as I saw it was balance…Some games they would challenge challenge challenge and get burned and in others they would nibble nibble nibble and walk the guy!
Pitching scared!
The Pitching coach needs to instill in them the balance, If you want to nibble most of the day thats fine provided you do eventually challenge them when they are busy protecting that low outside corner.
Most of our Pitching problems are not due to stuff and mechanics (which is probably what Warthen is best at), it is all about the Strategy and Thining man’s part where our Pitching has failed miserably!
Sure he can get into their mechanics but we also need a coach who can get into thier heads!
And tell Gee not to abandon his best pitch, or tell Pelfrey not to play games and challenge a guy!
“Pitching scared!” great way to describe it.
I wish that the Mets would offer Bobby O the pitching coach job. I don’t know if he’d be interested, but that dude is one of the smartest guys working on SNY (the main reason to watch the PGS) and I think his approach would be perfect for this staff.
If the coaches know what the problem is, why don’t they address it with the players rather than the media? It doesn’t make any sense. Are we supposed to applaud Dan Warthen for saying his pitchers were mentally lazy? Why wasn’t this addressed while it was happening? He may have the title of coach, but he certainly doesn’t behave as one. He also does far too much talking to the media. I remember he publicized a problem with Johan Santana once, and went to the media about Oliver Perez being out of shape, said Mejia wasn’t cutout to be a starter, and some other stuff. He’s always yapping about something. Sorry, I guess I needed to vent.
Yes he might be more valuable than say a coach who got fired because they didn’t like the way he positioned the outfielders in that cavernous football field we have out there.
But doesn’t that make holding him accountable to performance all that much MORE important as well?
I think a Hitting and Pitching coach are equally valuable though.
A Hitting coach is the guy who is supposed to stop extended slumps by keeping mechanics in check in much the same way a pitching coach is supposed to do that for pitching.
How many times have we heard Terry say this guy gave up on his (insert pitch here) and why didn’t the Pitching coach go out there and ask him why BEFORE it cost him the game?
The Pitching coach has it much easier as he can go out during the game and talk to his player when he sees something wrong.
A Hitting coach can’t walk out to the batters box and tell a batter what he is doing wrong he has to wait till the AB is over.
Warthen got better going out to the mound last year but I suspect that has as much to do with Terry sending him out than it does with Warthen all of a sudden deciding to go out there more.
Warthan is a terrible pitching coach…We had a damn good one in Rick Petersen and we threw him away..Stupid stupid Typical Mets move..Ugh I am so frustrated with how the Wilpons run things.
I still don’t understand how Warthen is the pitching coach. The pitchers throughout his tenure have mostly regressed and injuries have plagued the pitchers since he joined the team.
I also did not like his comments to the media on John Maine. I don’t care if it was the truth, no reason to call the man a habitual liar to the media. And last year he made it known to the public that the organization thought Mejia would be a relief pitcher. Again it’s fine that the organization believes that and quite frankly so do I but why make it known? Especially when you are still trying to get him to be a starter. You killed any value he has as a starter if they did for whatever reason decide to trade him. And I’m sure it didn’t help Mejia’s confidence grow as he was starting games.
The fact that he is still the coach shows the continued mismanagement from this front office. He should’ve been sent packing last year!
Warthen is the pits and there is no rhyme or reason for him to be the pitching coach. With all the declining performance of the pitching staff, how has he not gotten canned? It is inexplicable. He’s here because PELFREY likes him. Who the hell is Pelfrey? Some mental mdiget who makes the same mistakes over and over. Doesn’t the pitching coach speak to him about holding runners on base? Doesn’t the pitching coach speak to him about maintaining compsure when a runner reaches second? No, Pelfry likes this pitching coach because Warthen is a wuss. What this staff needs is a task master for a pitching coach. Ojeda would be a good start, but I’m sure there is some experienced coach out there who eats 10 penny nails for breakfast that is capable of reading the riot act to guys like Pelfrey. Let them deal with fire from the pitching coach. Shake them up and let them fear what they will hear when they reach the dugout after screwing up. Bring me a disciplinarian for the next pitching coach. Bring Seaver in from the vineyard and use Marine tactics. Too bad he’s into grapes in California and the good life.
Viola for pitching coach, Wally for bench coach and hire the North Shore LIJ doctors as the medical staff. LETS GO METS!!!