>Things We Know About the Mets so Far

>28 games into the season, and an off-day yesterday, seems like the perfect time to dive into the 2010 Mets baseball-reference page and see what it can tell us about this lovable group of second place losers. I also just figured out how to import B-R tables – and by “figure out” I mean follow the easy directions of the site – so I’m going to be going overboard with that. Here’s some stuff I find interesting.

Leading Off: I generally don’t think where people hit in the order makes all that much of a difference over 162 games, but maybe it is time to stick Reyes back in the lead-off spot. Batters making the first plate appearance in each game are hitting a combined .115/.179/.192 in those 28 first inning plate appearances, though I’m guessing that .130 BABIP is bound to go up.

Split	G	GS	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BAbip
1st Batter G	28		28	26	3	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	3	.115	.179	.192	.371	.130

Men on, Men Off: The Mets have an OPS of .713 with runners in scoring position – basically they’re hitting similar to how Ryan Theriot hit in 2009. That sounds bad
, but is actually impressive when compared to how they’re hitting with no one on base – their .666 OPS with no one on means they’re hitting comparably to 2009’s version of Kaz Matsui.

Split	G	PA	AB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
RISP	28	293	234	.231	.332	.380	.713
—	28	606	552	.236	.304	.362	.666

Home Sweet Home: Mets pitchers have apparently been using Citi Field to their advantage over their first month, or they’re just getting hammered on the road – 19 of the 25 home runs they have allowed have come away from Citi Field. In the pitcher’s defense, I should note that the Mets have already played in hitter parks Coors Field, Citizens Bank Park, and Great American Ballpark – in fact, 13 of those 19 road home runs allowed were just surrendered on this last six game road trip through Philadelphia and Cincinnati – and since they didn’t allow any home runs Friday night, 13 home runs were just hit off Mets pitching in their last five games. In other words, a week ago, the Mets had surrendered six home runs at home and six on the road – twelve in total. One week later, they had allowed six at home, and nineteen on the road – twenty-five in total.

Split	G	PA	HR	SO/BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Home	66	611	6	1.64	.229	.329	.335	.664
Away	55	506	19	2.13	.269	.345	.454	.800

Just Bull: Mets pitchers have thrown 253.1 innings, and 103 of those innings have been by the bullpen. If this current rate of bullpen use continues, Met relievers will throw 545 or so innings – for comparison, last year’s Dodger team used its bullpen for 571.1 innings and made the playoffs. On the other hand, five other teams used their bullpens for 540 or more innings and did not play into October. Most of them had awful rotations. I have no idea if bullpen overuse is indicitive of anything other than starters that don’t go deep into games, but the bullpen is being used a lot.

Split	ERA	IP	SO/BB
as Starter	4.11	153.1	1.86
as Reliever	2.71	103.0	1.78

Speaking of Innings Pitched: Jon Niese leads the team in innings pitched, just inching out Santana. John Maine has somehow only gotten four less outs than Mike Pelfrey.

	IP
Jonathon Niese*	35.0
Johan Santana*	34.0
Mike Pelfrey	30.0
John Maine	28.2
Oliver Perez*	26.2
	IP
Francisco Rodriguez	12.2
Hisanori Takahashi*	18.2
Fernando Nieve	16.2
Jenrry Mejia	13.0
Pedro Feliciano*	13.0
	IP
Raul Valdes*	12.2
Ryota Igarashi	6.2
Manny Acosta	5.1
Tobi Stoner	2.1
Sean Green	1.0
Team Totals	256.1
Rank in 16 NL teams	2
	IP

Swing Away, Frenchy: Oh boy. Remember all that stuff about Jeff Francoeur learning to be more patient at the plate? Here’s the percentage of first pitches swung at by the starting eight.

	Age	PA	Pit	Pit/PA	1stS ▾
Jeff Francoeur	26	110	366	3.33	46%
David Wright	27	121	530	4.38	31%
Jason Bay	31	119	461	3.87	29%
League Average				3.86	25%
#Jose Reyes	27	110	430	3.91	25%
Rod Barajas	34	83	285	3.43	25%
*Ike Davis	23	57	236	4.14	21%
#Angel Pagan	28	101	391	3.87	13%
#Luis Castillo	34	96	364	3.79	9%
Team Total		1080	4153	3.85	25%

Ike Davis, controlling the strike zone – anyway, how does Francoeur compare to the entire National League?

Rk		Age	Tm	PA	Pit	Pit/PA	1stS ▾
1	Jeff Francoeur	26	NYM	110	366	3.33	46%
2	*Kosuke Fukudome	33	CHC	95	364	3.83	43%
3	#Pablo Sandoval	23	SFG	116	376	3.24	42%
4	*Carlos Gonzalez	24	COL	106	335	3.16	41%
5	Mark Reynolds	26	ARI	119	493	4.14	40%
6	Yadier Molina	27	STL	103	373	3.62	39%
7	*Ryan Howard	30	PHI	120	440	3.67	38%
8	Hanley Ramirez	26	FLA	120	417	3.48	36%
9	Brandon Phillips	29	CIN	122	446	3.66	36%
10	Ryan Ludwick	31	STL	121	482	3.98	36%

Gotta lead the league in something, right? Now how does the French god of walks compare to entirety of major league baseball? Actually, a bit better. Vlad Guerrero takes over the lead by a sizable margin. I have no idea what the hell they’re teaching them down in Tampa.

Rk		Age	Tm	PA	Pit	Pit/PA	1stS ▾
1	Vladimir Guerrero	35	TEX	111	337	3.04	52%
2	*Carlos Pena	32	TBR	113	439	3.88	48%
3	B.J. Upton	25	TBR	108	417	3.86	47%
4	Jeff Francoeur	26	NYM	110	366	3.33	46%
5	Vernon Wells	31	TOR	124	395	3.19	44%
6	Delmon Young	24	MIN	87	293	3.37	43%
7	*Kosuke Fukudome	33	CHC	95	364	3.83	43%
8	#Pablo Sandoval	23	SFG	116	376	3.24	42%
9	*Carlos Gonzalez	24	COL	106	335	3.16	41%
10	*Carl Crawford	28	TBR	117	435	3.72	41%

Two Headed Catching Monster: Henry Blanco has thrown out everyone who has attempted to steal off him. Rod Barajas has thrown out no one who has attempted to steal off him.

	SB	CS	CS%
Rod Barajas	6	0	0%
Henry Blanco	0	5	100%
Team Total	6	5	45%

Okay, that’s all I have for now. Just thought it would be fun to see a few things that have been happening which you may not be aware of. And now you know . . .