When Sandy Alderson took the job as General Manager of the New York Mets, we knew this ballclub would likely take a few more pitches and maybe have the feel of the Moneyball Oakland A’s to an extent; but if you check the stats, you will see that the effect of Alderson in Flushing has already produced results, particularly on the offensive side of things:
The Mets are leading the National League in walks with 534, second in the league in OBP and Hits, but most importantly rank the third lowest in the NL in strikeouts. What all this means is the Amazin’s are walking more, getting on base and putting the ball in play, creating a better offensive game.
To compare this with 2010, here are some splits of New York’s offense over the past two seasons:
The bottom line is simply runs, and the fact is that the Mets are 6th in the league in runs scored in 2011. That in comparison to 2010 when the Amazin’s were 13th in the the NL — only ahead of the Pirates, Astros and Nationals — and it is safe to say there have been significant improvements to the Mets offense.
At the end of 2010, the Mets were 6th in the NL in ERA and the offense was seen as the biggest problem, now one year later that idea has taken a complete-180.
Is that simply due to Alderson implementing his sabermetric approach to the game? Bearing down on players to take more pitches? In turn creating a small-ball offense that manufactures runs? …I think so.
