Surprising

[Centerfield]

There is no way in hell I'd say the Mets were in the pennant race (4 games back division, 1 WC) if, going into this season, you told me:

1. Beltran would miss the entire first half.
2. Perez would suck and get hurt.
3. Maine would suck and get hurt.
4. Castillo would suck and get hurt.
5. Bay would not be very good (.779 OPS).
6. Murphy would miss the whole year.
7. Franceour would suck (.695 OPS).
8. Reyes would be disappointing (.731 OPS)
9. Mejia would not become a dominant reliever and end up back in the minors.

I had thought that the Mets were not very good going into this year. And if they had any chance to compete, everything had to break just right for them. Yet, here they are right in the thick of things. Imagine that.

[metirish]

Fuck, but the Mets suck.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

They've been a little lucky nobody has run and hidden yet.

7 things that have surprised me on the upside:

1. Ike Davis coming as fast as he did
2. Rod Barajas and his home run tear
3. R.A. Dickey being a Remarkable Athlete
4. Strong bounceback season for Wright
5. Angel Pagan playing better than we'd have signed up for from Carlos Beltran had he been available all year
6. The magnificent third-base coaching of Chip Hale
7. Hisanori Takahashi's mastery of the MFYs

[Guest Edgy DC]

Mets
84 SB
19 CS
81.55%

Opponents
31 SB
12 CS
72.09%

League Average
53.13 SB
20.81 CS
71.85%

Not a great percentage, but they shut them down so well early that folks just stopped running on them for a while there. Meanwhile, they run all the time (except when they bunt). They lead the league by nine steals.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The percentage dropoff's probably due in large part to Blanco's achiness/increased number of rest days.

Leave aside all the other percentages for a minute, though. Why does a team that runs this well sac bunt so damn much?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Here's a surprise: they're merely tied for fourth in sacrifice hits, with 44. Joe Torre and his Dodgers have successfully maid 54 such intentional outs.

[Centerfield]

I have no evidence of this, but I feel like it's not for a lack of trying.

They've fucked up a lot of sacrifice attempts as well as the ones they've pulled off.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Actually, I think the attempts declined once they got Pagan settled into the 2 hole and Castillo onto the DL.

[Centerfield]

Other nice surprises:

1. Niese
2. Pelfrey

[Guest Edgy DC]

Good point on why the bunties declined.

I have to say I'm not particularly surprised by the Mets' success. I loved thier restraint in the offseason market and I'm glad it's paying off to some degree in the short haul.

Jerry still makes me frustrated.

[smg58]

It's not always the injuries, so much as who you have to replace them. In the case of Perez and Maine, the replacements have not only been better in general, but have been better than the optimistic expectations for those two. Davis is at least as good as Murphy would have been and is only going to get better.

And we've gotten improvements from guys who were here last year too. An up-and-down Reyes still gives us a lot more than we got from shortstop last year. Pagan has been super, and hey, it's nice to see somebody exceed realistic expectations once in a while. His recent starts notwithstanding, this year's Pelfrey is still a big jump ahead of last year's Pelfrey. David Wright has been David Wright again.

[Centerfield]

Great point smg. 2009 may have just been an outlier. Everyone focuses on what went wrong, but as we demonstrated this year, plenty goes wrong even in a competitive season.

It's just that in 2009 absolutely nothing went right.

[Ceetar]

smg58 wrote: It's not always the injuries, so much as who you have to replace them. In the case of Perez and Maine, the replacements have not only been better in general, but have been better than the optimistic expectations for those two. Davis is at least as good as Murphy would have been and is only going to get better. And we've gotten improvements from guys who were here last year too. An up-and-down Reyes still gives us a lot more than we got from shortstop last year. Pagan has been super, and hey, it's nice to see somebody exceed realistic expectations once in a while. His recent starts notwithstanding, this year's Pelfrey is still a big jump ahead of last year's Pelfrey. David Wright has been David Wright again.

I think Murphy probably would've put up similar numbers to this point as we've gotten out of 1B (factoring in the Jacobs era), but I definitely have a lot more faith in Davis getting better. Plus, while I thought Murphy would be a decent-good 1bman, you can't underrate what Davis has done there as a natural, lefty, glove.

The fill-ins for Maine and Perez have definitely been the key in my opinion. We haven't really had to go deep to guys like Misch and Stoner and what not. I expected more out of Maine and Perez, but not what we've gotten from Dickey and Takahashi, so that's the biggest surprise to me.

They're in surprisingly good position considering there have been injuries to CF, 2B, SS, 2-3 pitchers and C.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm becoming concerned that the Pelfrey we're going to see the rest of the way may be a lot less than the one we've seen so far.

Hopefully he'll turn it back around quickly once the break ends.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm becoming concerned that the Pelfrey we're going to see the rest of the way may be a lot less than the one we've seen so far. Hopefully he'll turn it back around quickly once the break ends.

If they're giving him the two extra days, maybe that helps the supposed dead arm. Maybe the cooler SF air helps.

[metirish]

Surprise

The Mets have learned how to handle their injured players

[batmagadanleadoff]

Centerfield wrote: Great point smg. 2009 may have just been an outlier.

"May have just been"? Were you expecting the return of Cory Sullivan and Angel Berroa?

Anyway, I think that one of this season's turning points was the removal of Maine and Perez from the rotation. Those two pitchers killed the Mets when they started.

Edited July 13, 2010 by Guest

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: Surprise The Mets have learned how to handle their injured players

Wish this was true.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I imagiane the evidence of recent history is really scant that they're worse or better than other organizations.

[Willets Point]

Ceetar wrote: Wish this was true. _________________ -Ceetar, the Optimistic Mets Fan

Something here does not compute.

[Fman99]

metirish wrote: Surprise The Mets have learned how to handle their injured players

I had thought that until the Mets started jerking Reyes around the past 10 days. What a wasted chance to just put him on the DL for 15 days and get him rested.

[Gwreck]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: 7 things that have surprised me on the upside: 1. Ike Davis coming as fast as he did 2. Rod Barajas and his home run tear 3. R.A. Dickey being a Remarkable Athlete 4. Strong bounceback season for Wright 5. Angel Pagan playing better than we'd have signed up for from Carlos Beltran had he been available all year 6. The magnificent third-base coaching of Chip Hale 7. Hisanori Takahashi's mastery of the MFYs

I agree with all of these, except #4. I don't think that was much of a surprise.