Weird Stuff at the Break

[Edgy MD]

David Wright has eight fewer walks than Duda and 10 fewer walks than Tejada. When did that happen?

Kirk Nieuwenhuis is slugging .690. Rilly?

Guys that were 2014 Mets that I can't summon a single 2014 memory about: Omar Quintanila, John Lannan.

Three 2014 Mets have hit grand slams. None are currently 2014 Mets.

Andrew Brown seems to be a shoe-in for the Mike Howard Award --- given to the opening day hero that becomes a trivia question by mid-season, either by playing himself out of the picture or simply getting boxed out. Multiple Howard Award-winner Kaz Matsui will be presenting the award at a private ceremony this year.

Of the Mets at AAA threatening to crack the rotation as the season progressed, raise your hand if you thought deGrom would be locked in at the top of the Queens rotation by mid-season, with Montero making an indifferent four-start cameo, and Syndergaard still searching for himself in Las Vegas.

Scott Rice: tenth in the league in appearances in 2013. Will he even return in 2014? Ever?

Bartolo: Has his bumps, but he hasn't missed a start.

Mets pitchers as hitters: .087 / .127 / .110 // .237.

[Edgy MD]

Mets pitchers not named Jacob deGrom as hitters: .054 / .084 / .074 // .158.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Starting Baseball threads The Non-Baseball Forum
is pretty weird too. But it's the break.

Mets seem to like their ballpark for seemingly the first
time really since it opened.

[seawolf17]

Intentional Walks Leaders
Rank Player Pos Team At Bats Intentional Walks
1 David Ortiz DH BOS 337 16
2 Giancarlo Stanton RF MIA 353 15
3 Victor Martinez DH DET 302 13
4 Prince Fielder 1B TEX 150 11
5 Ruben Tejada SS NYM 245 9
6 Jose Abreu 1B CWS 322 9
7 Robinson Cano 2B SEA 353 9
8 Paul Goldschmidt 1B ARI 357 8
9 Evan Longoria 3B TB 373 8
10 Chris Davis 1B BAL 281 7
11 Anthony Rizzo 1B CHC 345 7
12 Ryan Howard 1B PHI 354 7
13 Nelson Cruz LF BAL 356 7
14 Albert Pujols 1B LAA 373 7

one of these things is not like the others...

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, Pujols is huge tool.

[Ceetar]

Sorta like 2001.

Rk	Player	IBB	G	PA	HR	OPS
1	Sammy Sosa	37	160	711	64	1.174
2	Barry Bonds	35	153	664	73	1.379
3	Manny Ramirez	25	142	620	41	1.014
4	Jason Giambi	24	154	671	38	1.137
5	Luis Gonzalez	24	162	728	57	1.117
6	Vladimir Guerrero	24	159	671	34	.943
7	Carlos Delgado	22	162	704	39	.948
8	Chipper Jones	20	159	677	38	1.032
9	Cliff Floyd	19	149	629	31	.968
10	John Olerud	19	159	679	21	.873
11	Mike Piazza	19	141	573	36	.957
12	Rey Ordonez	17	149	505	=#FF0040]3	.635
13	Todd Helton	15	159	697	49	1.116
14	Moises Alou	14	136	581	27	.949
15	Brian Giles	14	160	674	37	.994
16	Jim Thome	14	156	644	49	1.040
17	Fred McGriff	13	146	586	31	.930
18	Gary Sheffield	13	143	618	36	1.000
19	Mike Sweeney	13	147	632	29	.916
20	Jim Edmonds	12	150	608	30	.974

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/17/2014.

[smg58]

If anybody asks about how well our pitchers are hitting, just mention DeGrom.

Given DeGrom's minor-league track record before this year (live arm, so-so results), I figured he was destined for the pen like Parnell was. I don't mind being wrong sometimes.

I'm not panicking about Montero or Syndegaard. The raves about his arm have preceded great results with Syndegaard too, but he's 21 and overcoming some adversity in advance of the call-up won't hurt him.

Tejada had a .360 OBP batting almost exclusively 8th in 2011, so this isn't new really. I'd be careful expecting similar results at a different spot in the lineup.

[Edgy MD]

The thing about Syndergaard is that he can go through whatever shit he's got to go through at AAA, because thanks to some guys stepping up, the team hasn't needed him, and that's beautiful, and it speaks well not only of the guys who have stepped up, but the organization that corralled them.

[Frayed Knot]

#8 hitters drawing IWs is nothing new, it just seems like our #8 hitters get IW'd more often than usual.
Throw in the non-intentional intentional walks (pitch-arounds) and it adds up to Ruben getting his OBA fluffed up a bit.

Part of Sandy's reasoning in NOT going after Stephen Drew (his public reason anyway) was that he expected a regression to the mean for both Drew & Tejada that would shrink the gap in their 2013 performances to more what they were in 2012, a gap that wouldn't come close to justifying the $22 million or so price tag that Drew/Boras were then asking for.
The Drew hold-out makes it tough to gauge where things would have been with a full Y-T-D season, but the evidence so far backs up Sandy's gamble.

Drew 2012 - .223/.309/.348 over 287 ABs
Tejada 2012 - .289/.333/.351 -- 454 ABs

SD 2013 - .253/.333/.443 -- 442 ABs
RT 2013 - .202/.259/.260 -- 208 ABs

SD 2014 - .151/.218/.269 -- 93 ABs
RT 2014 - .237/.353/.294 -- 245 ABs

[ashie62]

The Mets are in contention...

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Three 2014 Mets have hit grand slams. None are currently 2014 Mets.

Gary pointed this one out the other day.
After going so long a few years back just trying to hit a GS, you'd think they'd want to hold on to those few who could pull off such a feat.



Baseball Prospectus targets Zack Wheeler in their look at a handful of players who could be in store for a big second half

Wheeler had a rocky first half. He battled inconsistency, struggled with pitch command, and traded disaster outings with clean starts. But the young right-hander is on the upswing, having displayed incremental improvement over the past couple of months, and he could be in store for a big second half that reminds the world why he was such a highly regarded prospect just 12 months ago.
Wheeler has walked more than two batters just twice in past 11 starts (after cracking that threshold five times in his first eight games), and he entered the All-Star break with a string of three consecutive starts in which he pitched six or more innings and surrendered just a single run. He has also honed his stuff since last season, adding 0.5 mph to his fastball (which is now averaging 95.9 mph) and diversifying his pitch mix. He has doubled the frequency of his change-up, and though it is still the weakest offering in a repertoire that features a pair of plus breaking pitches, Wheeler has the potential to be dominant if he can refine el cambio. He has also kept the ball on the ground this season, upping his ground-ball rate by 10 percentage points while surrendering just seven bombs across 108.3 innings (only two homers have come since he turned 24 on May 30th), while his component stats have all trended in positive directions. The Mets are a long shot to make the playoffs, but a second-half breakout by Wheeler could make things interesting in the NL East.

[seawolf17]

[Edgy MD]

That's an interesting table, but who among us does not feel random incoherent violent thoughts upon encountering the term "Diaper Dandies"?

[RealityChuck]

seawolf17 wrote: Intentional Walks Leaders Rank Player Pos Team At Bats Intentional Walks 1 David Ortiz DH BOS 337 16 2 Giancarlo Stanton RF MIA 353 15 3 Victor Martinez DH DET 302 13 4 Prince Fielder 1B TEX 150 11 5 Ruben Tejada SS NYM 245 9 6 Jose Abreu 1B CWS 322 9 7 Robinson Cano 2B SEA 353 9 8 Paul Goldschmidt 1B ARI 357 8 9 Evan Longoria 3B TB 373 8 10 Chris Davis 1B BAL 281 7 11 Anthony Rizzo 1B CHC 345 7 12 Ryan Howard 1B PHI 354 7 13 Nelson Cruz LF BAL 356 7 14 Albert Pujols 1B LAA 373 7 one of these things is not like the others...

Mets pitchers as hitters: .087 / .127 / .110 // .237.

Spot the connection.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Edgy MD wrote: who among us does not feel random incoherent violent thoughts upon encountering the term "Diaper Dandies"?

I don't, and have no idea what you mean.

[ashie62]

seawolf17 wrote:

Would not have expected Collin McHugh to be here....