Mets Set to Embrace Analytics Under Steve Cohen

Get ready for more of the analytic New York Mets. Analytics are here and more teams are depending on numbers to make decisions for the manager. Whether or not you approve numbers that dictate game situations, this is the way baseball is being played.

 You see it. We all do.  Players on the field during this postseason are taking off their caps and there is a quick glance at index cards. Those are numbers, situations, and not scouting reports.

Yes, index cards that have the numbers. Numbers are telling players where to be situated on the field. Numbers from the increasing amount of analytic personnel that are employed by teams and have caused a decrease in advanced scouts that know the game.

And according to reports, the Mets will be more dependent on analytics. There will be an emphasis on analytics and the money will be there to decrease scouting and rely on numbers.  Incoming owner Steve Cohen is about numbers. He is all about analytics and takes that strategy from his experience as a billion dollar hedge funder. 

The Mets will be no different than the Dodgers, Rays, Braves, Astors. And they will be no different from the Yankees. They are organizations reportedly leading the pack with high-priced mathematical personnel that incorporate the numbers with less emphasis on scouting reports.

And the Mets will have the money to place emphasis on analytics, assuming, as expected, Steve Cohen gets the necessary 23 votes of owners next month to take control of the team. 

As dependence on analytics gets stronger the questions come quick. The lineups, strategy on the field, decisions from the dugout have changed the game. Some decisions backfire and many not determined from the manager. 

Last Friday night, Aroldis Chapman threw the heater.  Mike Brosseau hit the deciding home run and the Rays advanced to the ALCS. The Yankees for the 11th-straight year did not advance to the World Series.

But it was easy to understand why the Yankees were not headed to the ALCS and denied another championship as they continued to spend money and lots of it. Geritt Cole with the richest contract granted to a pitcher was supposed to be their ace in the hole.

And the Yankees have become more dependent on analytics. Chapman threw the heater. The numbers told him how to approach the situation.  Numbers are telling managers to go with percentages. It’s more than pitch counts and righty vs. lefty percentages.  

You can put the blame on mechanics and issues with Edwin Diaz. A failure to close games that cost the Mets their opportunity last year. Then again, you heard about the mechanics and how Diaz improved with his strikeout percentage during the 60-game sprint of 2020.

Yet, the average fan is in the dark about strategy. The average fan will blame Diaz and Chapman for throwing the wrong pitch and failure to locate or not have command of the fastball.

Think again, because the Mets will soon be more dependent on analytics as to when a pitcher is removed from the mound. The numbers game was always a part of baseball, but the strategy has changed with the math.

Monday night the Rays’ Charlie Morton tossed five shutout innings as Tampa Bay took the commanding 2-0 lead over the Astros in the ALCS. It took 96 pitches- 59 strikes, facing 22 batters.

But apparently the emphasis of analytics works. And it worked for the Astros and made Morton throw more pitches.

“It works for the batter because they are trying to look at more pitches to increase his pitch count which the analytics say puts that limit on a pitch count,” said a longtime baseball insider. 

He said, “That’s standard. But the analytic part of it at 96 pitchers they want to get him out. The Astros are one of those extreme analytic teams and told what to do with certain at bats.”

And more teams are losing their eyes on what scouts used to tell them. Perhaps this is what keeps Buck Showalter from managing another team. He, of the strategy that analytics takes away from managing and decision making.

But in the end, the Mets will place more emphasis on analytics as the way to win.. And they will depend on Jacob deGrom to provide them length and be removed based on pitch counts and innings.  

However you look at it, the Mets will have an entire Winter or more to go over the strategy, reorganize their baseball operations and hire more of those experts that deal with numbers.  

The Mets, and we know this, are going to spend money and fill in the gaps. They want to be where the Dodgers, Braves, Astros, and Rays are in October.  Analytics and more dependency on the numbers are saying this is the route to go.

And with more analytics that are combined with minimal scouting, the percentages are showing a winning formula. So next year, if Luis Rojas has the decisions, you can place the blame on analytics if the in-game situation goes wrong.

Reportedly, Steve Cohen wants this approach and so does the game of baseball.

Rich Mancuso:  Twitter@Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso