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BAGB

Edgy MD May 07 2014 09:08 PM

From Rubin's note about Flores being the potential callup: ESPN Stats & Information's Mark Simon computed early Wednesday that Mets opponents have a .278 batting average on groundballs -- highest in MLB. That's not likely to improve, with Duda now the fulltime firstie and Flores likely to steal perhaps something more than a standard backup's time at shortstop from Tejada. Maybe it's not that big a deal, but it's certainly a curiosity considering how much the team has seemingly invested in outfield defense. Maybe that .278 represents a smaller total of ground balls in the denominator than other teams. Maybe the team, considering the pitching staff and the ballpark, didn't think infield defense was as much of a concern. Maybe an even bigger philosophy of their suggests that infield defense should never be as much of a concern as outfield defense... and having infielders who can hit.

Frayed Knot May 07 2014 09:38 PM Re: BAGB

Not that anyone is going to mistake this group for the 1999 NYM infield, but I honestly haven't seen that many grounders that I think should have been fielded NOT be fielded. In short bursts this stuff can just be a string of bad luck and I think that's the biggest answer even if not the only answer. Casey McGehee alone seemed responsible for a lot of that as I swear every grounder he hit this week perfectly bisected the distance between two fielders.

smg58 May 08 2014 06:25 AM Re: BAGB

From the Fielding Bible, the Mets have +21 runs saved in the outfield so far this year and -10 every place else. I'm not entirely sure if there is necessarily a strategy in prioritizing the outfield, or if it was simply a case of taking what was available at a reasonable price. The one position in the infield that's a positive is (predictably) third base, and we're set there for a while. The biggest negative is second base, but Murphy's a free agent and that position will be addressed one way or another by next season. Obviously shortstop could have been addressed but wasn't. Alderson decided that Granderson was worth the price and Drew wasn't, and while that could be a case of emphasizing the outfield over the infield, it could also be a case of deciding that Grandy provides a more reliable bat and more defensive value for his position than Drew.

Frayed Knot May 08 2014 06:25 AM Re: BAGB

And on the other side of the coin, not only are enemy bats seemingly finding good luck lately, but NYM bats seem to be just the opposite right now, and not just lately but all season. Using info that sorts balls put into play as 'hard-hit' 'medium hit' or 'soft hit' - "The average major league hitter hits around .700 when hitting a ball categorized as hard-hit. The Mets as a team are hitting .592 on their hard-hit balls this season. As of Wednesday afternoon, only the Cleveland Indians (.586) ranked worse this season." And specifically in Miami -- "The Mets had nine hits and 10 outs (.474) on their hard-hit balls against the Miami Marlins, going 4-for-9 in a brutal loss in the series opener and 2-for-6 in the 1-0 series finale [while] The Marlins were 13-for-19." So, no, it didn't just seem that way to you (to me anyway), there really is some truth to it all. This stuff also linked via Rubin's column with some graphs and stuff accompanying it all. The above is one reason I wasn't all that down about this last road trip. I mean, yeah, 2-6 suxx anyway you slice it, but this was one where I did NOT feel like we were out-played and hopeless, we've had enough of those stretches over the last few seasons to where we know what they look like but I didn't feel that this one was one of those. When three losses come via walk-offs and a couple others are close, it's reasonable to think that 4-4 or even 5-3 were possible with just a few hits falling in (or not falling) here or there. And on the plus side, the traveling gets easier after the odd Philly-Denver-Miami route. 14 of the next 19 games are at home (not always a plus I know, but that trend has to break some time) and the only road trips for nearly a full month (24 games) are to Washington for 3, da Bronx for 2, and Philly for 5. They won't leave the time zone again until the road trip to Wrigley starting June 3rd.

Edgy MD May 08 2014 06:31 AM Re: BAGB

smg58 wrote: From the Fielding Bible, the Mets have +21 runs saved in the outfield so far this year and -10 every place else. I'm not entirely sure if there is necessarily a strategy in prioritizing the outfield, or if it was simply a case of taking what was available at a reasonable price. It may have just been speculation, but it was certainly reported that defense factored meaningfully into the teams pursuit of Granderson and Young and the concomitant push of Duda out of the outfield.

smg58 May 08 2014 07:27 AM Re: BAGB

I meant prioritizing outfield defense ahead of infield defense. A couple of weeks of Duda and Ankiel in the outfield together seemed to give them an epiphany as far as the value of outfield defense goes, and it didn't hurt that the next guy in line for playing time in center was Juan Lagares. But I'm not sure if they place less value on infield defense, or if the opportunity to make changes in the outfield simply happened sooner.

Edgy MD May 08 2014 07:36 AM Re: BAGB

So did I mean it. And I think they did prioritize it. As I wrote in the first post in this thread, I don't know whether they did (if they indeed did) (1) because the outfield defense was much worse last year, or (2) because they have come to the general conclusion that outfield defense is more important than generally thought and infield defense is less important than generally thought, or (3) they built their defensive values around their ballpark and/or pitching staff. But I think it's very interesting that they seemingly deliberately sought a defensive upgrade in one department, but they are showing a willingness to bite the bullet (on defense) in another. I don't know what to conclude, but it's interesting to see it unfold. And if Sandy Alderson was here, perhaps the first question I'd ask him is how he reconciles these two directions.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr May 08 2014 12:06 PM Re: BAGB

The team's starters do tend to list toward the flyball-y side of things, don't they? OE: Maybe not. Mejia is very much above (58% over the last two years) and Niese is slightly above (50-51%) MLB-average (44-45%) in batted-ball GB percentage. Gee and Wheeler (and Harvey) are about average. Colon's the big outlier the other way. The relievers, though, fit our outfield focus like a glove-- outside of Rice (and maybe Familia), everyone's a big-- like, Colon-big-- FB guy.

Ceetar May 08 2014 01:17 PM Re: BAGB

An interesting Beyond The Boxscore post about hard hit percentages. [url]http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/5/6/5678758/babip-separating-fact-from-fiction Spoiler: Granderson is getting pretty screwed by luck, Tejada maybe not so much.