It's obvious that David Wright has been awesome this season. What's not so obvious is the degree of his awesomeness. How has he produced at the plate compared to the rest of the third basemen in the National League? This exercise aims to provide context to the Mets' offensive performance by position. Without context, statistics are meaningless.
Here is the Mets' OPS by position, along with the National League average OPS for each position.(Note: OPS = on-base percentage + slugging percentage; PH = pinch hitter):
Some bullet thoughts:
- Mets catchers aren't hitting and they're not impressing defensively either. As a group, they've thrown out just 22% of base stealers, below the league average rate of 28%. They lead the league in passed balls with 11. An idea for improvement is promoting Rob Johnson and demoting Mike Nickeas, as Eric noted yesterday.
- Daniel Murphy has earned enough goodwill that he should be given a chance to battle his way out of his prolonged slump. Remember when the only worry about Murph was his glove? Maybe there is reason to worry about his bat.
- Hat tip to Omar Quintanilla for filling in admirably for Ruben Tejada. He's no Chin-lung Hu. Still, there's a reason Quintanilla had just 92 big-league plate appearances from 2009-2011. He has slumped over the last week or so after a hot start. Tejada's return will be welcome.
- Wright is posting career-bests in walk rate, strikeout rate, all three triple slash stats, wRC+, etc. Didn't see this coming. The pessimist in me notes that he had a .924 OPS at the All-Star Break in 2010, before OPS'ing .770 in the second half of the season.
- Returns on the Angel Pagan for Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez trade are not great. Pagan has a .300/.339/.431 triple slash line, Torres has hit like Alex Cora, and Ramirez is on the DL. Maybe the clubhouse atmosphere has improved, or something. I don't know.
- Mets pinch hitters have killed it, thanks to Johan's Best Friend Mike Baxter (1.264 OPS off the bench) and Scott Hairston (.874 OPS off the bench).