Mets Making the Most of Their Swings in 2011

by Bill Petti on Aug 16, 2011 12:01 PM EDT

Over at Beyond the Box Score, I published some research regarding the most productive hitters in terms of wOBA per swing this year. The basic idea was to tease out which hitters did the most damage when they actually swung the bat. The analysis only included qualified hitters through August 13th.

Two Mets popped up in the top 25--Jose Reyes (.216, second overall) and Daniel Murphy (.179, sixteenth overall). Carlos Beltran was also lurking in the top 30. It got me thinking about what the rankings would look like if grouped hitters by their team (or most recent team, given the movement at the trade deadline).

When we do this, the Mets come out on top.

This doesn't mean the Mets as a team are simply swinging less than in 2010. It's true, as a team they have cut down their swing percentage from 46% last year to 44.6% this year.

However, the correlation between swing percentage and production per swing is decent, but not great (-.30, with an r-squared of only .09). The correlation is even worse for walk percentage (.14).

Patience is key, but it's more about recognizing pitches that you can handle well and then executing on those pitches. The Mets, at least their qualified hitters, are seemingly doing that better than anyone else this year.

Now if only the pitching staff could magically be fixed...

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Boss

Nets Mets Giants ALL DAY

by netsareboss on Aug 16, 2011 12:17 PM EDT reply actions

OT question:

Is there a way when you fanshot a gif, to have the gif actually be the main picture and not have to just post it int he comments?

How do you like them home run apples?

by KaaMets on Aug 16, 2011 12:41 PM EDT reply actions

depends on the gif

if it is too big then it will just post the first image. Sometimes, the smaller ones have worked.

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on Aug 16, 2011 2:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Than mine probably won't work

it’s pretty big and about 40 frames. By the way astromets, I saw RA tweeted to you today! I was looking at his tweets and happened to see the tweet he sent to you.

How do you like them home run apples?
"I would like to be in the habit of awesomeness." -The Blessed R.A. Dickey, in a tweet to me!

by KaaMets on Aug 16, 2011 3:11 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah, asked him a few questions late last night

benefits of being on the west coast when he here too, I suppose. Going to keep trying to ask him questions, can’t believe he spends this much time answering us

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on Aug 16, 2011 3:48 PM EDT up reply actions

I know it's really awesome how much time

he’s already devoted to responding to all of his fans.

How do you like them home run apples?
"I would like to be in the habit of awesomeness." -The Blessed R.A. Dickey, the one who saves Antelopes from Cheetahs, in a tweet to me!

by KaaMets on Aug 16, 2011 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions

#blameDaveHudgens

In lobby for: Jaime Cevallos, Zack Lutz, orange unis and Rickroll as the 7th inning song.
The Unwritten Rules of AA

by Michkin on Aug 16, 2011 1:21 PM EDT reply actions

I'm not sure I quite understand the table,

is the whole team involved, or (for example with the Mets) is it just 5 players on the team? What is the ‘# of Hitters’ column about?

Assuming it’s the whole team, it’s an interesting bit of analysis and I guess what I take from it is that wOBA/swing means little in the W-L column.

by guyfish on Aug 16, 2011 1:34 PM EDT reply actions

It's the number of hitters that qualified in the sample from each team.

wOBA/swing relates to the W-L column on as far as it relates to runs scored, which the Mets have not had a problem with this year.

Just using the subset of regular players, there is a .65 correlation between total runs scored per team and the wOBA/swing above. If I get the time I’ll rerun for the teams as a whole, but I suspect the relationship will be similar.

Columnist at Beyond the Box Score. Contributor at Amazin' Avenue.

by Bill Petti on Aug 16, 2011 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions