Cha Seung Baek was the latest pitcher to shut the Mets down, on Saturday night.
And thus continued a trend that is rather disturbing in this rather unpleasant 2008 campaign.
The Mets are not beating righthanded starting pitching. And that's a very bad sign.
The Mets are 16-23 in games in which the opposition starts a righthanded pitcher. That seems rather odd considering that they can throw out a lineup in which six or seven bats will bat from the left side of the plate, and remember how concerned we were about this team being too lefthanded.
Last season, an NL team, on average, faced a righthanded starter 112 times, and a lefthanded starter 50 times. Translate the pace that you set at 16-23 too 112 games and you get a record of 46-66. You know where teams that finish 46-66 against righthanded starters finish?
Last place.
And yet, the Mets have beat up some righthanders, like Chien-Ming Wang and Brad Penny pretty well this year. But they're not doing it on a consistent basis.
Baseball-Reference.com allows you to drill down and look at how a team's lefty hitters are doing against righthanded pitching. The Mets lefty hitter have FAR more at-bats against righthanded pitchers than any other team in the NL. Here's how they rank:
Mets Lefthanders vs Righthanded Pitching
NL Rank, 2008 Season
BA: 9th out of 16
OBP: 13th out of 16
Slug Pct: 10th out of 16
But they're not the only ones to blame. David Wright, as often the lone righthander facing a righthander needs to shoulder some of the load as well. These numbers are admittedly a bit distorted by the fact that Mike Pelfrey and John Maine couldn't hit if you gave them 100 strikes, but they're still awful (there are plenty of teams out there with bad pitcher-hitting, so that's no excuse).
Mets Righthanders vs Righthanded Pitching
NL Rank, 2008 Season
BA: 16th out of 16 (.202!)
OBP: 16th out of 16
Slug Pct: 16th out of 16
So as this team continues to flush this season down the toilet, perhaps the person who assembled it would take the care to fix this flaw this coming winter. I don't wanna read that he might. I wanna read that he added might.
And thus continued a trend that is rather disturbing in this rather unpleasant 2008 campaign.
The Mets are not beating righthanded starting pitching. And that's a very bad sign.
The Mets are 16-23 in games in which the opposition starts a righthanded pitcher. That seems rather odd considering that they can throw out a lineup in which six or seven bats will bat from the left side of the plate, and remember how concerned we were about this team being too lefthanded.
Last season, an NL team, on average, faced a righthanded starter 112 times, and a lefthanded starter 50 times. Translate the pace that you set at 16-23 too 112 games and you get a record of 46-66. You know where teams that finish 46-66 against righthanded starters finish?
Last place.
And yet, the Mets have beat up some righthanders, like Chien-Ming Wang and Brad Penny pretty well this year. But they're not doing it on a consistent basis.
Baseball-Reference.com allows you to drill down and look at how a team's lefty hitters are doing against righthanded pitching. The Mets lefty hitter have FAR more at-bats against righthanded pitchers than any other team in the NL. Here's how they rank:
Mets Lefthanders vs Righthanded Pitching
NL Rank, 2008 Season
BA: 9th out of 16
OBP: 13th out of 16
Slug Pct: 10th out of 16
But they're not the only ones to blame. David Wright, as often the lone righthander facing a righthander needs to shoulder some of the load as well. These numbers are admittedly a bit distorted by the fact that Mike Pelfrey and John Maine couldn't hit if you gave them 100 strikes, but they're still awful (there are plenty of teams out there with bad pitcher-hitting, so that's no excuse).
Mets Righthanders vs Righthanded Pitching
NL Rank, 2008 Season
BA: 16th out of 16 (.202!)
OBP: 16th out of 16
Slug Pct: 16th out of 16
So as this team continues to flush this season down the toilet, perhaps the person who assembled it would take the care to fix this flaw this coming winter. I don't wanna read that he might. I wanna read that he added might.
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