MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

[Screenshots for the end of September]

I mean, what could go wrong for…the Mets.

 

Yes, this is true, but the Mets have also noted, almost to a man, how much freer and less bogged down they feel this year. And that's with the most info-obsessed manager in the game. There is absolutely something to guys who have done the tasks they're teaching presenting the information so that it doesn't sound like whackadoodle theory. But that's what happens when your hitting coach sounds like a fake porn name (where art tho, Hugh Quattlebaum).

So Maddon's not wrong, though I'm starting to think he's not right, either, since he worked with Mets GM Billy Eppler the last two years and has been surrounded by former players as coaches throughout his Anaheim tenure.

 

THIS TIME things will turn out just fine, just you watch!

 

My suspicion with baseball managers is that the best ones only probably add a win or two to the ledger; it's more that the bad ones fucking kneecap you bad, whether we're talking about turning prospects into duds or continually losing close games in the latter innings. Like most good managers, Maddon won with good organizations (quant-filled Tampa Bay before their executives got hired everywhere else, Cubs with Epstein and an open checkbook) and didn't with a bad one (the Angels, with Moreno chasing the dragon of the 2000s success with money and little else).

 

Dick Williams, a pretty good manager, told me once that if a manager added five wins in a season, that was an MVSkipper performance.

 

I have similar thoughts when it comes to "clutch" hitting and pitching, by the way, if anyone would like to subscribe to my newsletter. Meaning - It's not so much that some guys just have IT and play better in tight situations. It's that some play worse, whether it's a hole in their skill set that can be exploited only by the best players, or because the anxiety finally gets to them in this specific circumstance vs. others.

 

I'll still subscribe to your newsletter but this doesn't explain the Mets. With RISP and two outs from 2009-21, they ranked 29th in the majors w/174 HRs, 24th in RBIs w/2,314, tied for 25th with a .226 average and 27th with a .685 OPS. This season, they're still not hitting for power in those situations (tied for 24th w/four homers), but they're second in RBIs w/85, fourth in average at .269 and tied for sixth in OPS (.769). And eight of the 11 guys with at least 10 at-bats in those situations are holdovers from last year. Yes, a single good year in clutch situations can be fluky. But it's not fluky when a team annually sucks at it, or when it's suddenly good at it after a decade-plus of sucking at it.

 

You know, Angel Hernandez is not the only bad umpire in Major League Baseball, but he is the only one who seems to enjoy being an asshole about it.

 

Another reason not to watch the Angels

 

Having shitty players might have something to do with it

 

Angels have lost 14 straight — started in 2nd place, still in 2nd place

 

Eight of the players who've batted 10 times w/RISP & 2 outs played on the team last season.

Seven of the players who've batted 10 times w/RISP 2 outs have been on the team since 2019.

Mets players per season w/at least 300 PAs and an OPS+ of 100 or higher:
2009: 6
2010: 5
2011: 5
2012: 4
2013: 4
2014: 6
2015: 3 (plus Cespedes, Conforto & Wright arriving/returning in July and August)
2016: 5
2017: 7 (plus Neil Walker at 299 PAs)
2018: 5
2019: 7
2021: 5