The Mets Meet Anibal Sanchez
Days like today prove that the best results are sometimes the most unexpected ones.
The Mets have about a gazillion regulars on the disabled list and are playing for 2010. The Marlins have a slimmer of playoff hopes and sit pretty at second place in the National League East. Anibal Sanchez isn’t great (4.72 FIP and 5.38 tRA in 41 innings this year) but against the Mets lineup, it looked like an easy victory. I mean, really, look at this morbid crew:
Angel Pagan CF .343 wOBA
Wilson Valdez SS .248
Daniel Murphy 1B .307
Jeff Francoeur RF .299
Cory Sullivan LF .330
Fernando Tatis 3B .314
Omir Santos C .300
Anderson Hernandez 2B .278
Tim Redding P .056
Of the eight batters, two can be called league average hitters or better. That’s it. Three-fourths of the Mets lineup consisted of below average hitters, and yet, they went out and scored 10 runs on the Marlins.
Hernandez contributed three hits on the day and scored twice, Valdez knocked in a run and had two hits, Murphy had a pair of hits and three RBI, Sullivan had two hits, Tatis popped a solo home run, and so on. Every Mets starter A) had a hit, B) had two.
For Anibal, his final line after 3.2 innings pitched: eight hits, two earned runs, three walks, two strikeouts, and one bewildered glance at the scorecard to see whether such a pathetic looking group actually knocked him around. Cristhian Martinez relieved Sanchez and didn’t fare much better as he allowed six hits and four earned runs in three and a third innings.
Fans of the Mets don’t have much to look forward to when batting nowadays, but for once they weren’t the ones vomiting at the results.
Someone should really comment on the fact that since he’s come to the Mets, Francoeur has put up some reasonable number. Since coming over from the Braves his slash line has been a respectable .302/.329/.503, good for a 116 OPS+. The trade to the Mets may have really rejuvenated him.
.329 isnt good
No its not. But, he’s put up a solid .503 slg. Considering the amount of criticism the Mets got for the trade, Frenchy has done well for himself.
302/503 is, its called knocking in runs instead of taking a walk. You don’t pick up RBI with walks. It’s called being accountable as a cleanup hitter. Sheep. Get outside the box a little.
You also don’t score runs or keep the inning alive by making outs, which is also the job of the cleanup hitter.
@Melkman
OBP is THE most important single measure in offensive baseball. It measures whether you got out or not. If you’re out, you hurt the team in the majority of circumstances. If you’re NOT out, well done! Guys with low ISO-patience (OBP-BA) are probably going to be more vulnerable to offensive peaks and valleys because they swing at bad pitches more often then not and get themselves out. This is the exact profile for Francouer’s career and will continue to be so until he changes his approach. Yes, he’s played relatively well, but he’s essentially the same player as before.
Accompanied by abysmal defense, continuing the replacement level production he provided Atlanta prior to the trade.
He’s not a good baseball player.
Francouer has always been a solid defender. I would say that -5 UZR doesn’t accurately reflect his contributions this year.