By Jacob Resnick

One of the best parts of Pete Alonso‘s record-smashing rookie season was watching him light up the Statcast leaderboards on a nightly basis.

Every other day it seemed like Alonso was breaking another “Statcast era” record or coming close to it. Either way, many baseballs were harmed in the making of this superstar.

Thanks to the magic of Baseball Savant, here’s a look at some of the Statcast highs and lows produced by the Mets in 2019.

Hardest-hit ball

We were just being introduced to the Polar Bear when Alonso unleashed his might onto a Jonny Venters fastball at SunTrust Park on April 11.

It’s funny to think about the fact that, during a season in which Alonso destroyed baseballs left and right, it was a home run in just his 12th game that set the bar. Only three players in the majors (Giancarlo Stanton, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Aristedes Aquino) matched or exceeded Alonso’s 118.3 mph blast in 2019.

Weakest-hit base hit (non-bunt)

If Todd Frazier‘s 2019 season could be encapsulated in one video, I think this one would be it.

In late August, Tim Britton of the Athletic conducted one of the more fascinating investigations of the year into Frazier’s alarmingly frequent tendency to lose his bat on a swing. “It’s annoying, to be honest with you,” Frazier was quoted as saying. The unofficial final tally reached 15, which, according to Elias, is a single-season franchise record among third basemen.

And, as ugly as the process may have looked, he always seemed to get things done — just like on this ball that left the bat at 37.6 mph.

Fastest pitch

After throwing just six pitches above 100 mph in 2018, the Mets pitching staff turned up the heat this year, pumping out 16 such pitches.

Edwin Diaz provided 11 of those pitches, including this one at 101.6 mph that sailed up and in on Jean Segura on September 6. That fastball, in particular, underscores the overarching theme of Diaz’s season: he didn’t lose anything off his wicked stuff from an outstanding 2018 campaign with Seattle, but just when you thought he was beginning to right the ship in 2019, things seemed to always sail awry.

Slowest pitch

Love him or hate him, you have to admit this about Jason Vargas: it takes serious skill to survive in the major leagues with velocities that begin with the number six.

Godspeed (or lack thereof), Jason.

Highest spin rate

It wouldn’t make sense for anyone other than Seth Lugo to lead in this category, right?

Good, because this Lugo curveball, at 3,572 rpm, was the highest-spinning pitch spun by a Met in 2019. Number two? This Jeurys Familia sinker that came in at 3,571 rpm — exactly one revolution per minute less than Lugo’s breaker.

Worst pitch framed for a strike

It’s fitting that this video of Tomas Nido stealing a strike for Jacob deGrom on May 22 begins with Gary Cohen discussing that particular battery’s rapport with each other.

Although deGrom is a world-class pitcher with anyone squatting behind the dish, he was particularly excellent when working with Nido, posting a 1.88 ERA and 7.0 K/BB ratio in 11 starts. For comparison’s sake, Wilson Ramos oversaw a 2.39 ERA and 5.4 K/BB ratio in 21 starts. Imperfect metrics, sure, but not nothing.

Best pitch framed for a ball

Speaking of deGrom and Ramos, I’m not sure where this one missed.

To put it bluntly, Wilson Ramos is not very good at framing pitches. Statcast’s “runs from extra strikes above average” metric had him as the 13th-worst (-4) in baseball among 62 qualified backstops. (Yasmani Grandal was third-best, for what it’s worth, at +12). Baseball Prospectus, which uses a more lenient qualification threshold, had Ramos at 107 out of 123 catchers by their framing metric, “called strikes above average runs.”

Ramos is the clear-cut number one on the catching depth chart heading into 2020, but getting this area tightened up has to be at the top of the to-do list in spring training.

Most “inside” pitch

Thanks for the memories, Brooks Pounders.