11
2012
Wright Is Batting Higher Against RHP In 2012
An article by 
In case you are unaware, David Wright has hit the ground running to start the 2012 season, and that’s putting it lightly. The franchise third baseman has been infamous for eating up the southpaws, but in what is shaping up to be a career year for David Wright, he has actually hit right handed pitching moreso than that of the lefties in 2012.
Wright is batting .376/.475/.554 on the year, ranking fifth in all of baseball in batting average, second on the NL in OBP and fourth in OPS. While being so locked in, one would assume he would be particularly tearing up the lefties, but the stats tell a different story.
Against lefties in 2012, Wright is batting .320/.538/.480, but against RHP, the 29-year old superstar is hitting .394/.449/.577. This tells us several things; one, that David Wright –although still doing exceptional against LHP– is hitting exponentially better versus the righties. His batting average is nearly 75-points higher when facing a righty, but he also has a much higher SLG percentage, but a lower OBP. This tells us that Wright is being more aggressive and swinging with more power to this point when facing RHP.
Another reason why the OBP against lefties may be so much higher is simply that opposing teams are walking him more when a southpaw is on the mound. Wright has five free passes when facing lefties as opposed to one against righties this year. Maybe faced with the fact that Wright is so locked in, teams do not even want to give him the chance to do even more damage when facing his preferred type of pitcher.
There’s no doubt Wright is locked in and having an MVP-caliber year, but what is interesting is that he has done most of his damage moreso against the right handed pitching. I would be very interested in seeing if this theme continues throughout the year.
About the Author: Clayton Collier
Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com
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Jinxed… LOL. Obviously I think the old David might be back but I don’t expect the great numbers vs RH to continue all year.
IDK Clayton, his WAR is 1.4 which is sub LOL..
I think he’s having a good season, but we need him to hit HR’s and Drive in runs, and as hot as he’s been, i am SHOCKED he only has 18 RBI, specially with people in front of him getting on base and the people behind him not hitting, he should put his OBP and plate discipline aside once in a while and be a little more agressive..
sounds like you want him to go back to what he was doing the last couple years, selling out and hacking to try and hit some more HRs?
some of the RBIs is just having teams not let him have the chance (hence all the walks, especially vs. all the lefties they have seen).
I’ll take this version all year. He is still on pace (not that it means much) for 20+, and anything over 20 is fine the way he is hitting. And RBIs often come in bunches anyway.
once in a while”
What part of once in a while you didn’t get?? That desert sun must be making your minds play tricks on you…
No, it is quite cool and pleasant out today, thank you.
Just be careful what you wish for. sometimes better to stay locked in with what is working, and not mess up the mechanics.
I agree, but my point is if ike davis and duda are not producing he should then “ONCE IN A WHILE” be more aggressive instead of just waiting for his pitch.. Not to get out what’s obviously been working for him for “once in a while” not take a walk but to be aggressive…
His OBP with RISP is 488 his SLUG is 476..
By the way he’s on pace for 17 HR.. Not sure which stat were you looking at
sorry. thought he had 4 HRs which projected to low 20s
but, still early in the season, nad projecting out doesn’t mean much. A 2 HR game, or a 4 HR week, and suddenly he might be on pace for 30 HRs again.
HRs also tend to come in bunches. So entirely possible (and quite likely) he happens to have one of those weeks soon where he hits a few in just a couple games stretch.
But, I would be very surprised if he didn’t end up hitting 20 something, probably right around 25, by the time the seaosn ends.
Stick, i want him to not hit 370, buit around 315-320 with around 25-30 Hr and 100-120 RBI.. I can care less if his OBP is 370..
I would rather he hit .370 too, which will lead to more production (runs and rbis) simply from more hits. And as high an OBP too (yes I care about it) meaning he is on more for Ike and Duda to drive home.
I personally wold rather see Wright increase his RBI nmbers than his OBP!
I would much rather have my cleanup hitter cleaning up!
Good, now if we can get Duda to start hitting our cleanup hitter will be.
Also, did you see the stats above/below wherever they are about how he has not had as many PA with RISP as you think and very few of them have came with a runner on 3B? Wouldn’t you say that could impact his RBI totals as well as the lack of team speed?
Yep but those Risp stats say more about the leadoff and guys ahead of him than what he himself is doing.
For fear of starting a bad commentary thread it speaks to just how valuable Reyes was in getting on base for Wright to get his RBIs
Look at the percentage of Wright’s RBI record and you will see almost a tenth of them were Reyes!
Torres is not the leadoff hitter of the future, tejada and Kirk certainly are not it.
So whoever they eventually get to take Torres’ spot should be someone who is a much better leadoff hitter than Torres and anyone we have. I don’t see that answer in the MiLs though.
But I bet Pete might be able to come up with a name or two.
“Yep but those Risp stats say more about the leadoff and guys ahead of him than what he himself is doing.”
Which is exactly my point. If a guy is hitting .333-.400+ in the 3rd spot the most logical reason for lower RBI would be the hitters ahead of him instead of the hitter itself. Which is why using RBI as a judge of a hitter’s ability can be very flawed. As for losing Reyes? Of course it’s going to hurt the production from the lead-off spot. I don’t think anyone guessed otherwise. What most of us, including me however, also assumed is that Ike and Duda could at least hit .400 combined.
Whoa where did anyone use RBI to judge a guy’s hitting? We have BA for that!
RBI is relevant to his Clutchness and ability to get the jobe done.
His success vs opportunities is where RBI is used.
And even if Duda and Davis hit .400 would Wright’s numbers have improved?
I think we just said earlier they were likely to go down and it would not be the fault of Wright or a knock on him if they did!
As mch as you guys want to dismiss RBI as not worth looking at it is no less useful or worse than the OBP you guys favor instead which is JUST as useless if the RBI’s don’t come after!
The difference you are not taking into account is that the RBI is a stat that shows a successful AB one that did some work towards the scoreboard when OBP does not and reqires that work to be worth something!
ALL RBI count towards the RS but only less than a third of OBP does!
So if it is a case of picking to increase the RBI or the OBP, you will always do better picking the RBI as that is the act that scores the OBP. But increasing the OBP does not!
It may increase the opportnities but without the RBI taking advantage of that yo have accomplished nothing!
This is the point lost on the OBP vs RBI argument!
Sure both are affected by each other but one is more important to the RS than the other!
You CAN get an RBI and RS without a guy on base but a guy on Base can’t get an RBI once he is on the base and can’t get the RS unless someone else gets the RBI to drive him in!
Metsie, to be exact 154 of wright’s 743 RBI were reyes scoring…
LOL of course a lot of Wright’s RBIs were going to be Reyes. They were teammates for 7+ years and Reyes always hit in front of Wright.
Wright has done well with RISP this year…he’s been getting pitched around in a lot of those spots though given how bad the guys hitting behind him have been.
Yep that sounds about Wright!
And whats even more telling is that I think close to 170+ RBIs of Beltran were Reyes as well!
And Beltran hit before Wright in the lineup at the time!
So those are all RBI’s Wright cold have gotten had beltran not already gotten them.
Can’t say that he would get all of them but it might be interesting to find out how many of Wright’s RBIs were Beltran!
And I know your feelings on Wright, Can’t really say I blame you for it when you look at the two previous years.
I don’t care if he hits 30+ HRs as long as he is close to 100 RBI and hits for average he will do the damage he needs to do to be important.
When it was a choice of Reyes or Wright on who to keep I would have taken Reyes and now that he is gone the choice is Wright or no Wright and if thats the choice I wold take Wright over whatever else they think is going to replace him.
When he strikes out 3x in a game every “once in a while” with risp u will be the first guy to kill him for not being clutch.Lol!!!!
Hey, he’s proving me wrong so far.. Has had his unclutch moments this year, but he’s been better than he’s been last few years..
Alex, you are such a lovable goofball even with all of your flaws and predispositions.
What more do you want Wright to do with RISP?
.333 .488 .467 .954
.370 .493 .500 .993 with Men OB
.455 .667 .636 1.303 with RISP2/O
.455 .625 .545 1.170 late and close
.522 .633 .826 1.459 in high leverage… uh oh!
Just a side note, with two outs instead of flailing like before he is batting .515 .610 .879 1.489 that’s honestly quite ridiculous.
Back to the RISP he has a .333 BA, 10 hits in 30 AB with 14 RBI.
Now that being said it’s been 10 singles and 4 doubles. Why? Because he is going to RF again!!! That is huge. So when pitchers are bearing down and trying to get him out with the breaking junk off the plate he is serving it to RF and driving in runs. That is the old Wright and you want him to change back to the Wright you hate? Not me.
Honestly I can’t understand how you can find any fault with Wright currently. He is hitting so well right now that even I am impressed. I am sure he will calm down soon enough and you can go back on your normal barrage but for now can’t you just give him his due and walk away?
18 RBI…
So as I am asking you, what more do you want him to do with RISP than have a .333 BA? Don’t you think it’s also possible that the Mets lack of team speed plays a role in that or having guys who are not experienced base-runners?
Again, you never cease to amaze me. Just give your nemesis some credit when he is doing well. Isn’t that what you want us to do when he is playing poorly? To get all over him? The guy is having an incredible season lets just leave it at that and enjoy it while it last.
Just out of curiosity have you looked at how many RBI he is on pace for? My quick math sees a little over 100 RBI. Isn’t that what you said you wanted above?
TRS yes, 102 RBI… But quite frankly how truth will that be if he hits 17 HR’s? He’d have to hit 50+ Doubles to accomplish that feat wouldn’t you say?
Just depends Alex. A guy hitting in the 3 spot hitting .376 will have a lot of RBI either way as long as the guys ahead of him are getting OB. Keep in mind that Ike has more PA with RISP than David.
Just to dig a little deeper into those number thingies I noticed something odd.
Wright has only had 14 PA with a runner on 3rd base in general this season. Compare that to 21 for Ike, 18 for Duda, 20 for Freeman, 25 for Freeze… I did not look at all of the top 10 in RBI but I am sure there is a little correlation unless you are a big power hitter. With the Mets lack of team speed and most of the RISP for Wright just being at 2B it’s easy to see why his RBI are not very high. Also you can’t really get a Sac Fly RBI if there is no one on 3rd so what good would flailing at a pitch out of the zone do when the runner is at 2B?
By the way in those 14 PA with runners at 3rd he is 4/9 with 5 RBI. Again, this is why the RBI stat is so much dictated by those around you.
Read above my comment on what i want him to be to your buddy from the desert blog… Stop trying to turn every of my comment into a debate ok..
Uh… it’s a blog. Not sure if you noticed or not but when you make a comment on this style of blog their is a reply button. Thus instead there would just be a run of statements. Is that what you come here to do? Make statements or discuss? LOL
Also as I said, he’s still on pace for your RBI numbers but he is also on pace to hit .376. I will take that ANY day. If he keeps hitting .376 in the middle of the order RBI will happen.
Don’t confuse him with the facts, dude.
some other things to note about his splits :
Most of his K’s are against Righties not lefties (15 vR 1 vL)
Most of his walks are against Lefties 2:1 (12 vL 6 vR)
Most of his Hits are against Righties 27/5/1/2 vR 8/1/0/0 vL
But I think these numbers say less about Wright than they do about Davis and Duda who are struggling lefties usally batting behind David.
Lefties are intentionally walking him @ 4:1 compared to Righties, but a lot of his BBs are actually non-intentional intentionals trying not to give David anything good to hit even if it means walking him to face the weaker lefty that follows him in the lineup.
That said Wright looks mch more like the Wright of old, his swing much more in control and he is not getting beat by those low outside fishing expeditions he used to make last year.
David’s History is one where he get notoriosly hot in Late May and June.
If he gets hot from where he is now he will simply be a monster!
I agree about Davis and Duda. IF those two get hot then not only will Wright’s numbers get better but the Mets offense would take off tremendously. With the lack of team speed and the guys behind him struggling I just can’t see how you could expect him to do any more than he is.
Well I won’t say they will get better if they start hitting they will however change.
His High OBP and BA is a direct case of the walking and pitching around they are doing to get to the strugglers.
Those Walks and walk arounds will reduce bringing his BA and OBP to a more realistic and reasonable number but the results will increase in his hits, and ebh (2Bs, RBI and HRs) with maybe an uptick in K’s as well.
Thats fine though if you ask me. As long as he can keep his K’s below his BB he is doing just fine! He will get his hits and homers as per his average which is more than enogh if Duda and Davis come back to thier’s
This is who DW is. He is primarily a right center hitter, who abandoned this approach after the HR Derby some years back and tried to jerk the ball. That, combined with the introduction to Citifield, buried him. he is not Barry Bonds or Albert Pujols. He is not a franchise player. But he is back to being a much tougher out than he has been in recent years. That is how I measure a hitter: how tough of an out is he. Some guys beat the hell out of the stats but can never get a hit against a Cliff Lee or a Halladay or a top closer. Give me the tough out every time.
The HR Derby??? Thats the silliest of explanations. He had the best year of his career in 2007…the year after he did the derby, and hit a ton of balls to RCF that year
metsie, RBI is really a team stat, reflecting scoring opportunities. you can be a devastating hitter but have low rbi because nobody is ever on. you can also be a historically horrendous hitter like ruben sierra or frenchy and have quite a few RBI.
show me a low OBP guy with lots of RBI, and i will show you a team that isnt making the playoffs because they are missing tons of scoring chances and a terrible jerkass is getting lots of AB when a real hitter could be racking up RBI at a far quicker pace.
again, for the milliont time, OBP is what you want from your batters a man with a high OBP in the middle of a linuep with other dues on base is devastating and scores tons of runs and has plenty of RBI.