Show Me the Power

The 2008 Mets finished close to the middle of the pack in Homeruns and Slugging %.

Of the 16 National League teams, the Mets were 6th in Homeruns and 7th in Slugging %. Moreover, they only finished 12th overall in Doubles.

Despite the occasional frustrating lack of pop, they did manage to finish 2nd in Runs, 4th in Hits and had the 4th highest team Batting Average in the league.

But the question still remains--do they lack power?

Thus far, in 2009, the power has not shown up.

Jerry Manuel is emphasizing his version of small ball this year--let's call it Jerry Ball--and, as Marty Noble of MLB.com wrote back at the end of Spring Training, Jerry wants, "More Lemke, less McGwire."

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Among the defeats the Mets endured during their September slide last season was one that particularly distressed their manager, because he was certain that it could have been averted had his hitters not adhered to their routine practices.

That night, Jerry Manuel would have paid a princely sum for a swing that perhaps would have produced a foul ball to extend a critical at-bat. He would have been quite content with a ground ball to advance a runner rather than a perfect and mighty swing designed to create a hero.

For want of a small-ball component -- more contentious at-bats, a properly placed ground ball -- the Mets lost that night, prompting Manuel to lament during the postmortems: "There are things we can do to win games that we don't always try. ... There's more than one way to skin a cat."

But is this really accurate? Did the Mets need more "small ball" down the stretch, or was it the lack of big hits, power hits, that ultimately sealed their fate.

Let's look at the game logs from September and try to see if we can spot the flaws.

In the month of September the Mets his 29 homeruns. While that looks like a decent amount, of the 25 games they played, no homeruns were hit in 10.

The Mets went 3-7 in those games.

The Mets hit their third fewest amount of HRs in September. The worst month was March/April, followed by June.

Their record in those months?

14-12 in March/April
13-15 in June
13-12 in September.

On the season, the Mets hit 124 homeruns in wins, and only 48 homeruns in losses.

In 2009 the Mets have only hit 9 homeruns. Only one player, Carlos Delgado, has more than one.

The team stands at 5-5.

So while I applaud Jerry wanting his guys to use the whole field, move runners along, and keep the lineup rotating, there is something to be said for the good old fashioned 3-run bomb.

What the team really needs is to channel their inner Kingman.

Team Aggregate Stats: 2009
RK	TEAM	GP	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Texas	10	358	74	105	22	3	22	199	73	.293	.360	.556	.916
2	Toronto	12	436	82	134	30	2	21	231	76	.307	.370	.530	.899
3	Tampa Bay	11	377	57	100	28	1	19	187	55	.265	.337	.496	.833
4	NY Yankees	11	381	59	100	25	2	17	180	54	.262	.341	.472	.814
5	St. Louis	12	408	72	122	26	2	16	200	72	.299	.376	.490	.866
6	Cleveland	11	380	58	100	26	0	14	168	54	.263	.365	.442	.807
7	Chicago Cubs	10	338	52	88	19	0	14	149	51	.260	.360	.441	.801
8	Colorado	9	296	47	68	19	1	14	131	44	.230	.313	.443	.756
9	Boston	10	347	47	88	18	2	13	149	44	.254	.342	.429	.771
10	Chicago Sox	10	335	42	87	12	2	13	142	41	.260	.331	.424	.755
RK	TEAM	GP	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
11	Milwaukee	10	324	45	73	22	1	13	136	44	.225	.326	.420	.746
12	Detroit	10	338	59	95	15	3	12	152	58	.281	.369	.450	.819
13	San Diego	11	354	52	89	18	3	12	149	51	.251	.329	.421	.750
14	Baltimore	10	348	64	101	25	1	11	161	62	.290	.378	.463	.840
15	Atlanta	10	338	45	89	22	3	11	150	44	.263	.332	.444	.776
16	Florida	10	347	61	97	14	4	11	152	59	.280	.352	.438	.790
17	Arizona	10	328	38	75	20	2	11	132	38	.229	.297	.402	.699
18	Kansas City	10	335	43	82	21	4	10	141	42	.245	.326	.421	.747
19	Washington	9	325	44	91	19	0	10	140	42	.280	.359	.431	.790
20	Minnesota	12	408	50	103	18	4	9	156	49	.252	.313	.382	.695
RK	TEAM	GP	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
21	Houston	10	327	27	76	13	3	9	122	27	.232	.303	.373	.676
22	LA Dodgers	11	371	59	103	19	3	9	155	58	.278	.375	.418	.793
23	NY Mets	10	339	52	96	18	0	9	141	48	.283	.369	.416	.785
24	Philadelphia	9	310	49	85	21	3	9	139	49	.274	.345	.448	.793
25	Pittsburgh	10	340	41	88	20	4	9	143	40	.259	.318	.421	.739
26	Seattle	11	357	53	93	16	0	8	133	49	.261	.317	.373	.690
27	Cincinnati	9	280	38	62	13	1	8	101	38	.221	.330	.361	.691
28	LA Angels	10	344	45	91	18	1	7	132	44	.265	.332	.384	.716
29	San Francisco	10	321	35	76	17	2	6	115	30	.237	.293	.358	.652
30	Oakland	10	356	45	88	15	2	3	116	43	.247	.328	.326	.654
LEAGUE AVERAGES		GP	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
American League		11	364	56	98	21	2	13	161	53	.267	.344	.439	.783
National League		10	334	47	86	19	2	11	141	46	.256	.336	.420	.756
Major League Baseball		10	348	51	92	20	2	12	150	49	.262	.340	.429	.769