double trouble

by pj on May 1, 2005 11:58 AM EDT

The mets are killing themselves with double plays this year. The team total is 22, which is good for 3rd highest in the NL. The problem has its roots in the bottom of the order; Diaz (5), Wright (4), Minky (4), and Castro (3 in 21 ABs!) are the major offenders.

Is this something that willie can correct with a switch in the batting order (team speed is at the top of the order) or by being more aggressive with the hit and run (the culprits are generally good contact hitters)?

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Double Plays

Is this something that can be fixed by switching around the batting order a little? Somewhat, probably. You could alternate faster hitters with the slower ones like this:

Reyes
Wright
Beltran
Piazza
Floyd
Minky
Matsui
Diaz
Pitcher

Granted, you're still going to have Diaz (or whichever slow poke you have hitting 8th) and the pitcher hitting back to back but you're going to have to have 2 slow people back to back sooner or later.

The problem with this sort of lineup however, is that by alternating the fast and slow guys, you also (unfortunately) alternate the good and bad hitters, for the most part. There's going to be a lot of holes and a lot of outs in such a lineup. Staying out of the double play is useful, yes, but it's use is limited when you need to use bad hitters to do it. It's a far better idea to bunch the better hitters together -- they may hit into a couple more double plays, but on the whole they'll be creating fewer outs and will be more able to drive each other in. Not that Willie seems to care about that anyway.

Also, I doubt this pace will keep at quite this rate. There's probably been some bad luck here also.

by Alex Nelson on May 1, 2005 4:27 PM EDT reply actions