An Offensive Offense

Last night was a sad continuation of the Mets offensive struggles.

While they did face a very tough starter in Josh Johnson, the Mets also had their share of scoring opportunities, and they once again failed to capitalize.

Let's take a quick look at the offensive numbers for 2010:

.236 BA with runners in scoring position
.182 BA with the bases loaded
.222 BA with runners in scoring position and 2 outs

Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen were marveling at the Padres pitching during last night's broadcast, proclaiming the staff as the reason behind the Padre's success.  Yes, their pitching has been tremendous, but there's more.

Here's the dirty little truth--the Padres lead MLB in OBP with RISP--a robust .407.  Couple that with their .467 Slg % with RISP, AND their pitching and it's easy to see why they're winning.

For the most part the Mets pitching has been good enough for the team to be 5-6 games above .500.  Unfortunately, the Mets have a .332 OBP with RISP to go along with a putrid .366 Slg %, and they are losing the close games because of it.

After last night's game Jerry Manuel said he was going to tinker with the lineup.  That tinkering better include Reyes to leadoff and a bit of Chris Carter in rightfield.  Pagan must bat second, and Castillo needs to bat 8th.

We're all getting frustrated with the Mets lack of production and timely hitting, and Jerry can take command of this thing now and help right the ship.

It's certainly still early, and with the talent the Mets have, all can be right in the world soon.

Is It Time to Talk About Feliciano as an All-Time Great Met?

Pedro Feliciano came in last night and did what he seems to do every night--pitch, pitch well, and walk off the mound.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

As Gary Cohen is so fond of calling him, he really is Perpetual Pedro.

You won't find any Feliciano jerseys in the stands, his baseball card is worthless, he doesn't make the big bucks, and he can still walk around in the mall and hardly get noticed.

But he is a star for us.

In the last 4 seasons Pedro has averaged 79 appearances per year, and he has led MLB in appearances for the past two seasons.

For his career he has a sterling 3.21 ERA, and his ERA from 2006 through now is 2.92.

I asked on Twitter the other night, "Is it time to start calling Pedro an all-time great Met?"

The answers came back quite varied.  Some folks agreed, and others compared him to an NFL punter, ie, a specialist.

If we look at his career numbers we can see that he's actually faced righty's more than he's faced lefty's.  To be specific, he's faced a righthanded batter 743 times, against 645 for lefthanders.

But now comes the rub--

Righthanded batters hit .269 with a .781 OPS against him, whereas he dominates lefty's to the tune of a .210 BAA and .571 OPS.

That said, overall he has been outstanding.  His combined totals show a pitcher who gets guys out.  His combined BAA is .241 and the OPS against is only .683.

Looking at the top 5 Mets pitchers in appearances, we see Pedro already in 3rd place, just 19 games behind Tom Seaver.  He is 313 games behind John Franco, the all-time leader.

So while Pedro is not a dominant starter, or a closer of renown, he certainly is one of the premiere set-up men in the game.  He might just be the best set-up man the Mets have ever had, or at least in the top 2 or 3.

Though he developed primarily in the Dodgers farm system I'll call him a homegrown Met as he pitched extensively at Norfolk before honing his craft enough to stick in the big leagues.  I'll also add in the fact that he's only pitched for the Mets at the major league level.

Bottom line:  He may not truthfully be an all-time Met great right now, but he's certainly getting there.  In my book he is an "all-time good Met", and that is more than enough to satisfy this Mets fan.

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER
J Franco	48	56	3.10	695	0	0	0	276	702.2	683	279	242
T Seaver	198	124	2.57	401	395	171	44	1	3045.1	2431	953	870
P Feliciano*	20	13	3.21	382	0	0	0	4	322.2	292	129	115
J Koosman	140	137	3.09	376	346	108	26	5	2544.2	2281	994	875
J Orosco	47	47	2.73	372	4	0	0	107	595.2	480	207	181

Happy Birthday Gary Cohen

And a message from Gary, Keith and Ron....they have some great deals for a great cause!

A Big Happy Birthday to our own Gary Cohen!

52 years ago today, a baby boy was born in Flushing, Queens. And he never left.

Gary wants to celebrate by showing his appreciation for the GKR supporters he's gotten to know and love these past few seasons. On his day, he wants to give a gift to you!

We've still got tickets available for the final two GKR events of the season, the Pepsi Porch fest on July 29th and our extra special year-end event in the Big Apple area on October 2nd. With every order placed for GKR event tickets, you will receive a FREE GKR travel mug or a GKR recipe book - a value of over $20.00.

Don't wait - This one-time birthday offer is good only through May 13th. (Limit one gift per order.)

We expect to have a sell-out crowd at both events, so come spend an awesome day with your GKR friends. All net proceeds go toward the Nourishing Kitchen's resources for feeding New York's hungry.

Thank you, GKR-ers, for helping to knock hunger outta here!!!

Team GKR

Year 2 of David Wright Stance Changes

David Wright is back to his old tricks from 2009, changing his stance, messing with his timing mechanisms, pulling off the ball, and looping his swing back and around vice keeping it on plane.

People say he's changing his swing, but truthfully it's his stance that changes and the difference in swing is the result.

Out of spring training I thought he had gotten over the habits of making major changes, but it's back.  I don't mind small adjustments, hitters mess with their swings all the time, but they usually don't change their stance so much.  David Wright makes major tweaks and tinkers too often with his, and he goes too far.  Ted Williams he aint.

Long a frustration of mine, here is a blow by blow:

April 5th, 2009 I wrote:

Have you noticed that David Wright has opened his stance up about half a foot?

I'm very curious as to why he would do this right before the season opens. His stance this weekend was more open than I've ever seen it, and it's changed even since the WBC.

Could this lead to a bad start by our superstar third baseman?

Anyway, no alarm bells here, just something I'll be keeping a close eye on this week and as the season progresses.

On April 30th, 2009, I followed up with:

Well we are now one month into the season, and my worst fears have been realized.  That is not a typo...he is on pace for 208 Ks and 62 RBIs.

DW has actually closed his stance back up to last year's position, but his early struggles have obviously gotten into his head and the loop is there. This has thrown his timing off, and the results have been disastrous.

Thankfully DW is extremely hard working, and he is battling to groove his swing back to keep the bat on the correct plane and recognize pitches early.

This leaves the question of when is he going to break out of this slump? For all Mets fans, the hope is that the work he has been doing with HoJo will pay off this weekend.

 Finally, on May 30th:

It's been getting better and better and better, and he broke out of his slump a while ago. The next step was for him to get fully on plane and drive the ball--that's been coming too, and last night, it all clicked. DW had finally closed his stance back to the proper position, and it looked like he was taking batting practice against the Giant's pitchers.

Keith Hernandez noticed it in the booth and commented on what a "strong hitting position" Wright was working from now that "he closed his stance". Gary Cohen paid scant attention to that comment, but we heard it loud and clear.

Line drives are popping off his bat, the outside pitch doesn't look 2 miles away to him, and right field is his friend.

 There were more references throughout the year, but you get the idea.

What happened to David Wright?  Why does he continue to mess with the stance with the resulting changes to his swing and swing plane?

Coming out of spring training I wrote about how stable his base looked, which shortened his swing and kept his head steady.

He is now back to looping the swing and pulling back as he begins his arm "drop", which causes his head to bob and slows his bat while negating any possibility of him hitting the outside pitch..

That, and he has also abandoned the little timing mechanism that seemed to be working for him.

I love David Wright, truly we all do, but for him to regain some consistency he needs to abandon the major stance changes and swing adjustments he makes.

I would tell him to look at Albert Pujols.  The man has the same stance time after time after time, and he adjusts to the pitch with his hands.  Pujols also has a stroke with little wasted motion, a stable base, and no head movement.

Please DW, get your base stable and shorten that swing.  Close the stance back up and focus on driving through the ball and staying closed.

Ike Davis Gets a New Sponsor

Well he sort of got a new sponsor.

Like many of you, I am addicted to Baseball-Reference.com and their amazing stats, so I jumped at the chance to sponsor Ike Davis when his page was unveiled yesterday

My favorite page to sponsor is Keith Hernandez' page.  The other two on my sponsor "hit list" are Ron Darling and Mookie Wilson, but thus far I haven't been able to grab them.

For the sheer number of hours I spend on their website, sponsoring a page or two is a nice way of saying thanks for all of their great work.

When clicking through the various Mets pages, I see a lot of my friends and fellow bloggers sponsoring pages--Amazin Avenue, Ted Berg, etc.  Its really great to see....what I truly hate is when someone spoonsors a page for nefarious purposes, like Johan Santana's page for example.  That really pisses me off!

So here is a screen cap of the newest Met and his newest "sponsor".

Who do you have?

Gary, Keith and Ron Main Event: Free Tickets!

Our friends at Gary, Keith and Ron have just announced their latest offer, and it's a BIG one!

Click Here: FREE TICKET OFFER!

When you by 6 GKR t-shirts, you get two tickets to our October 3rd main event! (think Christmas gifts) Scrumptious appetizers and snacks... You will stand on the field's warning track during the National Anthem in your GKR gear. You'll have a chance to win thrilling, one-of-a-kind prizes in our $5 raffles, and now you might even have a chance to attend a player signing! Stay tuned for details!

Plans for the GKR 2nd year-end fundraiser get better by the day.

Not to mention they have more surprises in store for you...

Act now to (Click Here) buy your 6 t-shirts or your tickets to spend this glorious day at the ballpark with your GKR friends and fellow supporters. Please tell us in the message box at check out that you are taking advantage of our crazy offer !

AND - Our 476th ticket buyer wins a visit to the SNY broadcast booth!

David Wright's Stance, Part III

By jove I think he's got it!

Back during the WBC and in spring training David Wright's stance had me very concerned.

On April 5th, we wrote "David Wright's Stance":

Have you noticed that David Wright has opened his stance up about half a foot?

I'm very curious as to why he would do this right before the season opens. His stance this weekend was more open than I've ever seen it, and it's changed even since the WBC.

Could this lead to a bad start by our superstar third baseman?

Anyway, no alarm bells here, just something I'll be keeping a close eye on this week and as the season progresses.

Well, the alarm bells did go off, and he had some difficulties adjusting--on some night's he looked lost up there. Thankfully, DW is an extremely hard worker with a hitter's mentality.

On April 30th, we did another update, "David Wright's Stance, Part II":

Back in the WBC and Spring Training I noticed that David Wright's stance had changed from last year. He was open and stood a bit further from the plate.

At the time I worried that he would struggle early as he didn't seem able to drive the fastball to the gaps and make good contact with breaking pitches.

Furthermore his swing became very upright and loopy as he tried to "re-plane" his swing from the more open position.

Well we are now one month into the season, and my worst fears have been realized.

2009 Season Stats
SPLITS	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Season	21	82	15	23	4	1	1	8	12	27	3	2	.280	.372	.390	.763
Career	724	2732	479	842	187	11	131	497	352	526	95	24	.308	.388	.529	.917
Last 7	7	29	5	7	1	1	0	3	2	11	2	0	.241	.290	.345	.635
Projected	162	633	116	177	31	8	8	62	93	208	23	15	.280	.372	.390	.763

That is not a typo...he is on pace for 208 Ks and 62 RBIs.

DW has actually closed his stance back up to last year's position, but his early struggles have obviously gotten into his head and the loop is there. This has thrown his timing off, and the results have been disastrous.

DW is battling to groove his swing back to keep the bat on the correct plane and recognize pitches early.

This leaves the question of when is he going to break out of this slump? For all Mets fans, the hope is that the work he has been doing with HoJo will pay off this weekend.

At some point he has to hit, and that time is now.

It's been getting better and better and better, and he broke out of his slump a while ago. The next step was for him to get fully on plane and drive the ball--that's been coming too, and last night, it all clicked. DW had finally closed his stance back to the proper position, and it looked like he was taking batting practice against the Giant's pitchers.

Keith Hernandez noticed it in the booth and commented on what a "strong hitting position" Wright was working from now that "he closed his stance". Gary Cohen paid scant attention to that comment, but we heard it loud and clear.

Line drives are popping off his bat, the outside pitch doesn't look 2 miles away to him, and right field is his friend.

The last piece to this is the longball, and it I fully expect DW to hit a bunch in his next 10-15 games. In fact, I'll go ahead and predict he'll be at double digits by month's end.

Welcome all the way back David, it's great to see.

2009 Season Stats
SPLITS	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Season	34	130	24	43	8	3	3	20	19	38	9	6	.331	.417	.508	.925
Career	737	2780	488	862	191	13	133	509	359	537	101	28	.310	.390	.532	.922