Preliminary Report Card: Twenty Games In The Books

By Johnny Lowe
Posted Friday, April 27, 2007

As the Mets prepare to be hosted by the Nats in D.C. this evening, we thought it was an appropriate, if a bit early, time to take a look and assess The State Of The Team this far.

Currently situated on top of the NL East, a mere half game ahead of the dreaded Braves, there shouldn’t be a great deal to fuss about and, in general, this is the case. It’s how the Mets have raced off to a 13-7 start that has some fans surprised.

The formula, or recipe if you will, was supposed to call for lots of offense and mediocre pitching, led by the staff’s relievers. Hasn’t been so. While true that the Mets are a scant one run off the league leading total of the Marlins – in one fewer game - most of the burden has been carried by half of the group of usual suspects, with Carlos Delgado and David Wright so far abstaining from any meaningfully consistent contributions.

Rather, it has been the combined performances of Shawn Green, Moises Alou, Jose Valentin, and even Ramon Castro which have given the team the horsepower which is responsible for the Mets’ strong start. They have more than filled the void which currently sits firmly in the heart of the team’s batting order.

Kudos to all three allegedly over-the-hill veterans for ignoring all the talk of their impending downfalls and just going out, day in and day out, and getting the job done. Overall, the team is hitting .295, which is twenty-two points better than the second best total in the league. Simply outstanding !

As for the pitching, guess what? The Mets also lead the NL in team ERA at 2.88, and while the relievers as a group are at least partially responsible for such a lofty placement (an astounding 2.27 as a group) it has been the surprising performances, collectively, of the starting staff – which trails only the SF Giants starters’ ERA by a margin of 3.08 to 3.21.

Anyone who says they expected this to be the case, with a straight face, is either lying through their teeth or would make a fantastic Texas Hold ‘Em player. Three Met starters currently rank in the top 18 in the NL in ERA, and Ollie Perez (3.31) would sit at #22 if not for being a few innings short of qualifying at this point. If his start tonight is a good one, the Mets will have all four eligible starters within the top 20. Again, Simply outstanding!

Fielding? With nine errors on the season, the Mets have accumulated fewer than anyone in the league save for Florida and Colorado (8 and 7, respectively). They have turned the most double plays (28) in the fewest innings and their DER (Defensive Efficiency Rating) is numero uno. They’ve allowed only ten stolen bases while catching five would-be thieves for a 33% caught stealing rate - which is significantly better than the .278 league average. Remerber the days when …….. never mind.

And why have only six players attempted steals against the Brewers, anyway? Oh, well ……..

So there you have it; the first twenty games from purely a statistical standpoint. I’m sure our resident Saber-Professor Himelfarb will point out that the team’s GLURP and FLARK numbers could use some improvement, but I seldom know what the hell he’s talking about anyway.

 

Johnny Lowe is Dean Of Asparagus and *62 in the forums.