In this two starts in the majors, it is understandable why Mets fans would have little patience for P.J. Conlon.  He is a pitcher who tops out around 87 MPH.  In his two starts, he was knocked around the ballpark not getting out of the fourth inning in either start.  Because of that, as a starter, Conlon sports an 11.12 ERA and a 2.469 WHIP.

Really, those are ugly numbers for a starting pitcher, and if we are being honest, Conlon has not given much hope that he could become the next Jamie Moyer.

The interesting thing about Conlon was he was never supposed to start for the Mets.  As previously reported by MMN, Conlon was supposed to make the switch from the starting rotation to the bullpen this season.  The anticipated move shouldn’t have surprised anyone as the Mets have given Conlon a chance to join the Mets bullpen as the second left-hander in the bullpen in each of the past two Spring Trainings.

Really, when you look at it what is surprising is the Mets have yet to move Conlon to the bullpen.

They didn’t do so after his two Major League starts.  They also haven’t done it with him struggling in Triple-A where he is 3-7 with a 7.26 ERA and 1.708 ERA.  Now, we shouldn’t be too swayed by those Triple-A numbers.  After all, Seth Lugo had a 6.50 ERA with Las Vegas in 2016 before getting called up, saving that season, and this year becoming a bullpen ace.

And that’s where we are with Conlon – can he become the bullpen ace Lugo became?

Arguably, this is where he belongs.  Consider that at the end of the 2017 season, the Mets did transition him to the bullpen as Binghamton made a push for the Eastern League playoffs.  In his six relief appearances and one three-inning spot start, Conlon did not allow an earned run.  Over that stretch, opposing batters hit just .189/.250/.216. Conlon struck out 12 and walked three in 10.1 innings pitched as well.  It should be no surprise to see him thrive out of the bullpen like this.  In fact, entering this season, Baseball America said of Conlon:

He sells an excellent changeup with arm speed and a deceptive delivery that prevents batters from easily picking up the ball out of his hand. Conlon will bounce his fringe curveball in the dirt as a chase pitch, but relies on his changeup when going offspeed. The Mets moved him to the bullpen in August, and they intend to keep him there after he allowed a .192 average and struck out 9.8 per nine innings in six relief appearances. Conlon could see big league action in 2018, and has a ceiling similar to that of fellow lefty changeup artist Wade LeBlanc.

For a point of reference, since pitching in Japan in 2015, LeBlanc is 15-4 with a 3.99 ERA, and a 103 ERA+.  Put another way, LeBlanc has been an effective Major League reliever.

Getting back to Conlon, he has a quirky delivery, good changeup, and good control, which allows him to hide the ball well.  It’s also a detriment as batters see it more in a game and get more comfortable, it makes it easier to get a read on him and put a good swing on the ball.

Just look at his two starts.  Against the Reds and Braves, he pitched a scoreless first, and both teams scored multiple runs against him as they turned the lineup over.  Compare that to his one relief appearance where he pitched two scoreless innings against the Phillies with three strikeouts.

Just breaking it down that way, we see Conlon has shown the ability to get through a lineup once.  Considering he not only has that ability, but also is capable of eating up some innings in the event a starter cannot go deep into a game, it would seem Conlon could be an interesting piece for the Mets bullpen.

However, for us to truly judge that, he’s going to have to get his chance.  Considering where the Mets are in the standings and their already stated intention to see how their younger arms will play out in the bullpen, it would seem logical to give Conlon a chance.

The post MMO Prospect Spotlight: Conlon Deserves A Chance in Mets Bullpen appeared first on Metsmerized.

Sunday night I came away with the same impression of David Wright as everyone else did. He looked done. He couldn’t catch up to the fastball. He couldn’t get anything on his throws. It’s just really hard to play baseball when you have a fork sticking out of your back – it’s worse when you have spinal stenosis. Buster Olney of ESPN even penned what seemed like a somber obituary about the Mets Captain.

With all that said, there are some reasons to have some patience here. Other than Curtis Granderson‘s fly ball out to start the game, no Met was able to hit the ball into the outfield against Edison Volquez. In fact, Volquez only allowed two hits over six innings. He was making all the Mets hitters not named Michael Conforto look bad. Keep in mind, Wright did show a good eye, and he was able to work out a walk. As for not hitting Wade Davis, who does?  As a reliever, the man has a career 1.32 ERA in 287.0 innings.

As for Wright in the field, it was a mixed bag. What everyone is pointing to is his poor throws. His inability to get anything on those throws led to two base hits. However, what we are ignoring was Wright’s range. He got to Eric Hosmer‘s bunt when the shift was on. He got to ball Omar Infante hit down the third base line. Yes, a good throw (or even a slightly below average throw) would’ve gotten those runners. However, Wright got to two balls that required some range. That is a good sign.

Even with these facts brought to light, yes, Wright’s arm looked weak, and his bat looked slow. Fact is he may still need some more time to get ready.

Remember, Wright started preparing for the season much later than he usually does. He didn’t play in a Spring Training game until March 18th, which is less than a month ago. He didn’t play in a full game until last Tuesday. He didn’t play multiple games in a row until last week. Couple that with his taking less batting practice and infield practice, and you have a player that may still need more time to get ready for the 2016 season.

And if you look back at the 2015 season, there is room for hope. Before Wright went on the disabled list, he was hitting .333/.371/.424. This was before he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and learned how to address it. Keep in mind, he didn’t suddenly acquire spinal stenosis with one awkward slide. When Wright was diagnosed, and he returned from the disabled list, he hit .277/.381/.437. So no, Wright didn’t forget how to play baseball.

Furthermore, Wright has learned he has to listen to his body. He’s not going to push it. He’s going to play when he’s healthy enough to play. This should result in him being a better player on the days he does play.

Overall, he just needs to play more than one game before we begin to judge him. He may need a week or a month before he returns to the David Wright of old, or at least the David Wright of last year, who was a damn good ball player.

Wright’s earned the right for the fans to have a little patience with him before we say that he’s done, especially since no one can honestly say that after one game.

The post David Wright Is Not Done Yet appeared first on Metsmerized.

The dust has settled, and the New York Mets are in the playoffs and will face the Los Angeles Dodgers sans home-field advantage beginning Friday, October 9.

With the postseason beginning next week, Terry Collins addressed a number of topics regarding the NLDS at his final regular season post-game press conference. Here are some of the highlights:

1.  The fun is only just beginning

“90 wins is a big step, it’s a huge step from where we’ve been and all the things we went through and to see the expression on their faces that they accomplished something. Even though they accomplished it last week, knowing what we’ve got ahead. I just talked to (Cespedes) and he said ‘the fun is just starting,’ and he is right. We’ve worked hard to get there and we’re going to enjoy it. We’re going to get ourselves ready this week and go out to LA and play like we know how.”

2. Bartolo Colon will be a “steadying influence” in the bullpen

“He brings a lot to the table and he’s going to be a steadying influence in that bullpen, we’ve got a lot of guys that are going to be in that bullpen in Los Angeles, so to have him sitting out there will help a lot.”

3. The Mets are confident in the rotation they’ve set for the NLDS

“I think Game 3 in a 5-game series is the pivotal game. So I told Matt a week ago, if we get in, you’re going to pitch Game 3. It’s big, it’s going to limit you obviously to the number of times that you’re going to pitch, which is part of the whole plan behind him saying ‘hey, I want to go out and pitch as much as I can at the end of the season.’

“And then we went with the guy who’s pitched the best all year, and that’s Jake deGrom. To have him start Game 1. Noah, who after his rest in September has been absolutely brilliant, he can go Game 2 and we’re going to come home and we have Matt taking the mound, so we kind of like the way it sets up and we’re going to let them go pitch their games.”

4. Terry appreciates the fan base’s patience, support

I sat here last October and told our fan base that their patience is going to be rewarded, but it was time for us to win. So I just wanted to go out an applaud them for all of their support. The last month, those series against the Nationals here. The energy in the stadium, I have never been around it, and the players talked about the importance of it all and so I just wanted to go around and thank everybody. You can’t shake everybody’s hand but just to let them know that we knew we were there, we appreciate their support and we promise to show them a good time come Friday.

5. Jim Leyland likes to throw stat books

“In ’92, we were getting ready for the playoffs against Atlanta when I was with Pittsburgh and all the information was not on a computer, it was in a binder that was about *this* thick. Jim Leyland at the end of the meeting took the binder and threw it up in the air and papers were flying all over the place and he said ‘understand something, this game is played by humans, who make mistakes.”

“So all the information we have is legitimate, but now we have to go out and execute it, and I think we have the guys who can go out and do that.”

The post 5 Things We Learned From Terry Collins Today appeared first on Metsmerized.

Denver beat reporter Tracy Ringolsby of MLB.com writes about how patience has paid off for Mets manager Terry Collins who is a big league manager for the third time.

He is having fun, writes Ringolsby, and it is not just because the Mets are in first place in the National League East. Mainly it is because Collins is so much more comfortable with his situation.

“I am much more patient,” Collins said. “That time in Houston if we lost a game I felt like it was my fault. I thought I had failed the team. The players could see it and they thought I was upset with them. I was mad at myself, but if affected the team. Now I make a decision. Some work, some don’t.”

“One thing I wanted to do here, was I told myself to enjoy it,” Collins said. “I told myself to have fun. It doesn’t change the way I do my job. I still work to find that edge every day, but this has really been fun.”

Fresh off the heels of consecutive 14-9 wins against the Colorado Rockies with a chance to sweep all seven games of the season series, Collins says his team is simply doing what good teams have always done – that is beat the bad teams.

“This is how a lot of teams win pennants. They beat teams you’re supposed to beat,” Collins told reporters after Saturday night’s game. “You come in here, and they play very good in their park. They’re tough to play here. You know what? We’ll go in tomorrow, hopefully Logan can give us five or six, and we’ll see where we’re at.”

“But this is a good stretch. It’s a stretch you’ve got to make hay, because we’re going to run into the Yankees, we’re going to run into the Nationals. We’ve got our work cut out for us. That’s why we’re taking each one we can get, because you don’t know what’s going to take place tomorrow.”

The post Terry Collins: This Is How You Win Pennants appeared first on Metsmerized.

What a breakout game for Michael Conforto who busted out in a huge way only a day after making his major league debut on Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Conforto, 22, picked up his first major-league hit and then some going 4-for-4 with two doubles, four runs scored, and a nice running catch in left field.

“I got a little lucky on the first one, and that took a little load off and I could just relax,” Conforto said. “I guess I was confident to begin with, and that’s what helped me play well today and get those four hits.

Conforto is the first Met in franchise history to record a four-hit game within his first two career games and the second player in major league baseball to do it this year. Kyle Schwarber of the Cubs also did it in his second career game on June 17 at Cleveland.

“This game takes it to another level. I have expectations and so what I want to do is have good at-bats every time I come up to the plate. That’s the goal.”

He is the fifth player in the last 100 years to score four or more runs in one of his first two major league games.

Matt Harvey was as impressed in his new teammate as anyone else in that clubhouse.  “It didn’t look like he was having any pressure at all,” Harvey said

“I mean, four hits. Spraying the ball to left field, center field, right field. We have the same agent. Hearing from Scott [Boras] what kind of hitter he is, what kind of hitter he seems him, he’s definitely coming into his own.” (ESPN New York)

“This is more of what I was dreaming about,” Conforto said. “Couldn’t have pictured it any better tonight. Obviously all the bats were going and we were scoring a lot of runs, and I got that first win for myself.”

“That’s pretty cool to be a part of that, to be part of the winning effort as a team. A lot of firsts tonight so that’s a good thing.”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing out there on Saturday, he was up there with all the poise of a 10 year veteran. And call me crazy, but he looked like a vintage Keith Hernandez out there.

The ball just jumps off of his bat, and I just love his approach at the plate. I love that he doesn’t go up there trying to pull everything that he sees.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed, and hoping that what we’re seeing right now is just a sign of great  things to come. But wow, what a show he put on in front of a packed Citi Field crowd.

July 25

Top Mets prospect Michael Conforto made his major league debut on Friday and while he went just 0-3, he made solid contact in each at-bat and picked up his first MLB RBI.

“It was like a dream for me,” Conforto said after the game. “This whole day was like a dream for me. I was just so excited.”

Conforto, 22, displayed a fluid and level swing, excellent balance, very quick hands, and most importantly, an ability to make contact.

“I thought he looked good,” manager Terry Collins said. “He’s got a good stroke. That’s the same stroke we saw in spring training. He’s got a nice approach, some patience at the plate. I was very pleased with what I saw.”

“I had a lot of fun out there. It didn’t quite go the way I probably dreamed it, but I think I did a lot of good things out there tonight. I got that first RBI. I felt comfortable out there, so that’s the most important thing. It just makes me want to come back tomorrow. I’m excited. I felt good.”

The Mets struggling offense could use any sort of spark and they are hoping that their top position prospect player could provide that.

However, Terry Collins says they are not looking for Conforto to be a savior. “I think he will be a nice piece and a nice addition, but we will be careful to keep the pressure off him.”

“He’s not going to play every day. But he will not be in a platoon either. There will be some days he’ll play and some days that he won’t.”

“He’s not going to play every day. But he will not be in a platoon either. There will be some days he’ll play and some days that he won’t.”

Conforto was the Mets first round draft pick (No. 10) last year. He has fewer than 600 plate appearances in the minors but he has been producing and really tearing it up at every level.

Conforto hit .331 during last summer’s pro  debut for the Brooklyn Cyclones. This season he skipped Single-A Savannah and began the year at Advanced-A St Lucie, batting .283 which is still impressive considering the Florida State League is a difficult place to hit.

That earned him a promotion to Double -A Binghamton, where he batted .312 and displayed an excellent approach at the plate with a good power stroke. After 45 games the Mets made the decision to call him up after Michael Cuddyer was placed on the DL.

Overall Conforto has posted a very respectable .471 slugging percentage in his brief minor-league career, striking out just 90 times in 520 at-bats, while walking 56 times. And as a left-handed slugger, he’s batted .280 vs southpaws.

Collins and Sandy Alderson had a little pep talk with him before last night’s game. “We told him that there will be a lot of eyes on him. But that the reason he is here is because he belongs.”

The post Conforto Electrifies Packed Citi Field With Four-Hit Performance appeared first on Metsmerized.

I wanted to address some of what’s been written about Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins and the Panic City Mets.

Joel Sherman – While upper management has insisted the dollars are there, executives from other teams say their Mets counterparts tell them that the budget is either tight or non-existent. Is that gamesmanship by the Mets to try to get competitors to lower demands or honesty? Because if it is honesty, that means the Mets brass is lying to their fan base through the New York media by saying they can spend.

Joe D. – This has been an issue for years now. It was back in 2012 that Fred Wilpon came to Spring Training in Port St. Lucie and proclaimed the financial problems were in the rearview mirror and that Sandy Alderson had no limits and could sign anyone he wanted. It wasn’t true back then and it’s still not true today. Unfortunately you still have too many writers and bloggers who twist and turn over Alderson, Collins, and the team in general, that shouldn’t be taken seriously because they’re either oblivious, willfully ignorant, or in cahoots with the Wilpons or MLB.  At this point, you have to be an ass-hat if you don’t know how negatively team ownership impacts this team.

Mike Vaccaro – Day after day, week after week, the Wilpons and their chief henchman, Alderson, have allowed the good will of a hot start and the patience of a fiercely loyal fan base and the daily magnificence of their pitching staff to disintegrate to the point where there’s no longer rage as much as resignation – to another lousy season, another year when a little aggression and a little imagination might have made a difference.

Joe D.  – While the team has played some awful baseball that has included way too many heartbreaking losses and punches in the gut, I disagree that team brass is already resigned to another losing season. It may very well turn out that Vaccaro is right, but I need to see what happens between now and the July 31 trade deadline before I throw Alderson completely under the bus. It’s still early and I don’t see many teams proclaiming themselves sellers yet. That’s not to say Alderson doesn’t deserve some blame. The $125 million he has had to spend has been largely wasted on the likes of Francisco, C. Young, Cuddyer, and aside from two hot weeks in two seasons, Granderson too. And he has yet to pull off one trade, that didn’t backfire, to acquire a top MLB offensive player. He’s been living off the good vibes of three smart dumps for prospects, while riding the coattails of Harvey, DeGrom, Familia and Matz, three of whom should be All Stars this year and neither of them his doing.

Joel Sherman – We have seen this con with this organization before. It often comes up when the Mets leak that they are monitoring a player in free agency, then the player signs elsewhere and they criticize how much the player was paid. It is all misdirection. “Monitor” is a fake-out to try to gain points from their fans for actively pursuing someone they had no intentions of signing and then the overpay is to shift blame to a greedy player rather than a parsimonious organization.

Joe D. – It’s amazing that you still have some Mets media and sites that are used as propaganda machines for the Wilpons. They’ll post rumors that the Mets are after Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gomez, etc. for weeks on end and never include the quotes from opposing GMs who laugh and say they haven’t spoken to the Mets in months, or that it’s a complete web-created fabrication. The problem I have with what Sherman says here is not that it’s not true, it’s a completely accurate description of business as usual for the Mets. My issue with this is that Sherman is a huge part of the problem and he’s like the pot calling the kettle black.

Bottom line? Collins has borne the brunt of the incoming fire for years now while Alderson has been the Teflon Don, making wisecracks, alienating many, and doing his thing. He’s in the fifth year, said he expects 90 wins, and also asserted he’d be disappointed if this team failed to make the postseason. He said these things to the team’s top customers, the season ticket holders.

He even implored one ticket-holder who said he was dissatisfied with how he addressed the offense in the offseason to please withhold judgement until we get a chance to see the offense play this season.

Alderson has a lot of explaining to do. And so do the Wilpons.

That’s all for now, more later…

The post Our Baseball Maverick Is Under Fire, Can He Revive Mets Season? appeared first on Metsmerized.

Today former Mets General Manager Steve Phillips discussed his decision to acquire Mike Piazza in a blockbuster trade with the Florida Marlins on MLB Network Radio (Metsblog). He explained that the best trade is often the one that you don’t make.

“Back in 1997, 1998, we had a good little team with the Mets, but we knew we needed some star power,” he explained, telling a story from his time as GM of the Mets. “I remember sitting in the owner’s box with Mr. Doubleday and he would say, ‘Fans here love stars, they love super stars,’ and so did Mr. Doubleday. And he said, ‘If we get a super star, we’ll fill this stadium up like we did in the 80s, so I really want you to focus on getting that super-star, marquee player.’”

“We kicked the tires on Kevin Brown, Gary Sheffield, and other guys that were out there,” Phillips said, speaking about his winter after the 1997 season. “But, it wasn’t until Mike Piazza came around (early in 1998) that we felt, after a bit of hesitation, let’s get him. And, it was the right move to make. In other words, we were better served having not gotten the other guys, even though we may have been able to put a deal together, because the right guy came along at the right time. So, there is a level of patience you have to balance with patience in order to move your franchise forward.”

Thoughts:

This was easily the best move of Phillips’ tenure as GM. Piazza performed like a true superstar, and he was arguably the greatest Mets hitter of all time. Phillips dealt three top 100 ranked prospects in order to bring Piazza to Queens, but Preston Wilson was the only one who achieved any success in the majors.

While the perception of Phillips’ time with the Mets is unfavorable, the one attribute I admire about him was his aggressiveness. He made a lot of bold moves, and he wasn’t afraid of making any mistakes. Even though his risky decisions to acquire veterans like Mo Vaughn, Roberto Alomar and Bobby Bonilla backfired severely,  his boldness also propelled the Mets to success during the late 90’s and early 2000’s. His acquisitions of key players such as Piazza, Al Leiter  Robin Ventura and Mike Hampton resulted into one of the most exciting and memorable eras in Mets history.

The post Steve Phillips Recollects Acquiring Mike Piazza appeared first on Metsmerized.

In their annual MLB General Manager Rankings, The Sporting News has Mets GM Sandy Alderson slipping all the way to No. 23 out of 30.

Patience is a virtue, to be sure, but the Mets under Alderson have not shown great ability to do much more than add young pitching to the organizational talent pool. The lineup remains as much of a nightmare as ever, and the list of players who have been mishandled in one way or another by the organization is long, from young players like Ruben Tejada to veterans like Kyle Farnsworth to those in between like Ike Davis. The philosophy is right. The execution is troubling.

Billy Beane ranked No. 1, and rounding out the top five were Ben Cherington of the Red Sox, Dave Dombrowski of the Tigers, Brian Sabean of the Giants and Andrew Friedman of the Rays.

Ruben Amaro Jr. of the Phillies was ranked as the worst GM.

The post Alderson Ranked No. 23: Philosophy Is Right, But Execution Is Troubling appeared first on Metsmerized.

Don’t look now, but among Mets players with 20 or more at-bats on the young season, shortstop Ruben Tejada is second on the team in batting with a .286 average and he pairs that with an impressive team-leading .400 on-base percentage.

The young Panamanian native has taken a lot of flack over the last six months, but to his credit he’s been quietly going about his job and trying to put an abysmal 2013 season behind him.

Before last night’s 4-0 victory over the Braves, manager Terry Collins spoke about his starting shortstop’s performance thus far.

“I think Ruben certainly had some work ahead of him in spring training,” Collins said. “He’s started out this season probably the way you’d like him to. Confidence is up, his at-bats have been good, he’s played good defense. I think as we get into it and towards the warmer months, I think he’ll get better if we can keep him healthy. He’s going to play a lot. We gotta figure out some days off for him coming up here beyond this road trip, but he’s played very well so far.”

Tejada went 2-for-3 in Tuesday’s contest, driving in two runs and scoring another pair, but what has been tough to ignore is his growing confidence at the plate. He’s having some solid at-bats and squaring up the bat evenly against the ball.

Another thing worth noting is his patience at the plate which was on full display in his first at-bat against Braves starter Aaron Harang when he drew a five-pitch walk.

All in all it’s been a good start for Tejada who has hit in six of the team’s first seven games.

Defensively, Tejada committed his first error of the season in last night’s game, but he’s shown some significant improvement from the shaky defense he had exhibited this Spring and much of last season.

I’ve gotta tip my cap to him…

The post Ruben Tejada Leads The Mets With A .400 OBP appeared first on Metsmerized.

There was a nice Q&A over on Metsblog with Mets’ hitting coach Dave Hudgens, who gave a little insight into what the Mets’ hitting philosophy is. Hudgens also spends a little time talking about Ike Davis and his recent woes, and seems pretty confident that he can turn things around.

Matt Cerrone highlights one quote in particular from Hudgens: “We want hitters to look for their strength, especially early in the count, from the first pitch to the fifth pitch, to the sixth pitch, when we’re in hitters counts we want to be aggressive on our pitch,” he said. “I mean, obviously, I’d rather see a double in the gap with two guys on than a walk. But, there’s sometimes during the game, David Wright‘s not going to get his pitch. I would rather him take the walk as opposed to swing at a marginal pitch and hit into a double play.”

I have one main concern with this quote—the player who qualified with the most pitches per plate appearance (P/PA), in 2013, was Mike Napoli, with 4.59. So nobody averaged five pitches per plate appearance last year. I was surprised to see that Eric Young Jr was the Mets’ player with the fourth-highest P/PA (minimum 100 games played). Young saw 3.74 pitches per plate appearance in 2013, which ranked him behind only Wright, Ike Davis, and Lucas Duda. I am starting to see why the Mets are enamored with him hitting leadoff—but he has to show me he can get on base more before I jump on board.

Here is my major issue with what Hudgens said—why is Hudgens talking about the fifth and sixth pitch in an at-bat? Simple math tells you that by the time a hitter see five or six pitches, they will have two strikes and naturally be more defensive, not aggressive. It’s impossible to get to the sixth pitch in a count without two strikes on the hitter.

Pitches seen and success varies greatly. Curtis Granderson saw just under four pitches per plate appearance in 2013 (3.99). Chris Young, Davis and Duda also averaged over four pitches per plate appearance. What do these four guys have in common? All four of them have a tendency to strike out.

The terms “discipline at the plate” and “patience at the plate” come up quite often when discussing hitters’ approaches at the plate—especially if you are a Mets fan. This notion that the organization is teaching their hitters to be more patient is a questionable one to say the least.

The two terms sound like they mean the same thing, but actually are quite different.

Patience refers to working a pitcher, seeing all his pitches, and waiting for the right pitch to jump on. The hitter basically is waiting for the pitcher to make a mistake. Some hitters excel using this strategy, while others flop. Patience naturally leads to a higher propensity to strike out, since you are taking at-bats into deep counts. The count itself is in the pitcher’s favor—three strikes versus four balls—which is more likely to occur?

You have to have an incredible amount of skill and mental toughness to hit using the strategy of patience. I would argue that this skill cannot even be taught. Being patient forces hitters to hit from behind in the count often, which also contributes to higher strikeout rates for patient hitters. So while patient hitters tend to pile up the walks, they also pile up the strikeouts. You either have what it takes to hit using this strategy, or you don’t.

Patience should be reserved for top-of-the-order hitters. The batting lineup is designed the way it is for a reason and is technically a division of labor. The top two hitters’ jobs are to work the pitchers and get on base. The middle-of-the-order hitters’ jobs are to drive in the top-of-the-order guys. The tail end of the lineup is generally reserved for defensive minded players, so not much is expected.

You cannot force your 3-4-5 hitter to be patient at the plate. Patience is not a strategy that can be forced on every player and that is why speed is not the only determining factor for guys hitting at the top of the order. Those middle-order hitters should show good plate discipline, but not be patient.

Discipline at the plate is the ability of the hitter to lay off pitches that are close, only swinging at pitches in the strike zone. This can be taught to hitters, and as they gain more experience at the plate, their plate discipline will improve. Of course, as with everything else, some hitters are better than others in this area.

So which is better to have, strike-zone discipline or patience at the plate?

The answer is that it depends on what slot in the batting order the hitter is in. For my one and two hitters, I would prefer them to be more patient. I want them to get on base as much as possible, see as many pitches as possible so the heart of my order gets a good look at what the pitcher is bringing. This also gets the pitcher tired. We know being patient comes with a higher propensity to strike out, but it’s a necessary evil.

The rest of the guys in the batting order should have good plate discipline. This means that they aren’t swinging at pitches out of the strike-zone, and not giving away at-bats.

The Mets were tied for third in the major leagues with strike outs in 2013—1384 total. That number was good for one in every four at-bats. The Mets also had the sixth-lowest OBP in baseball last season (.306). They gave away a ton of at-bats.

One could argue that the Mets are being overly patient, which is not attributing to the team getting on base more, or scoring more runs. They should focus on being more disciplined, which means not chasing balls out of the zone, and not patience, which has attributed to higher strike out rates and lower on base percentage.

The post The Mets’ Offensive Philosophy: Discipline vs Patience appeared first on Metsmerized.