Mets avoid opposite field to rekindle power numbers

Written by Mike Mariano | 02 March 2010

Apparently locker room bare-chest and bare-knuckle boxing wasn't the only damage Tony Bernazard caused the Mets last season.  Namely, it was his organizationally implemented "extreme opposite field approach" that sapped the power numbers and led to Citi Field seeing less homers than centerfield at the Polo Grounds.  The former executive was displeased with the teams ability to execute situational hitting, especially with runners aboard, and mandated this new approach to look to hit the ball the other way.

Now that he's gone, understandably the blame for this has been rest solely on Bernazard and that's fine.  It's irrelevant who's idea it was, all that matters is the philosophy is seemingly to blame and it has been changed.  That being said, I have trouble blaming the opposite field approach for the Mets struggles offensively.  Will it sap some power? Surely.  However, will it lead to better overall hitting?  Most likely.  Most pitchers work away because the majority of hitters naturally pull the ball better and look to do so if the count and pitches allow it.  It's harder to hit outside and there's less chance of beaning the guy and putting him on -- it's a safer area to pitch out away from the hitter.  Employing an opposite field approach allows the hitter to take that pitch and smack it for a hit instead of waiting for a better inside pitch that he may never get and possibly backing himself into a disadvantage count.

Can overemphasis of this approach lead to bad results?  Absolutely and that seems to be the consensus of what happened in New York, namely with David Wright (of course... reason no. 278 why his power numbers were down!).  But were his downsized power numbers the travesty the media made them out to be?  I say no.  In May and June, before Wright's reduced power became the talk of the town, Wright hit .378 and .365 respectively in those months.  My thought process as to why comes back to that notion of opposite field hitting.  Early in the season, Wright was lacing balls 2, 3, 4 inches off the plate into right field for singles as if it were child's play.  There didn't seem to be a way to get him out.  Who cares if he's not hitting jacks if he's hitting .370, his OPS was still near 1.000 which is phenomenal.

But you're screaming, and you're right, he struggled so mightily down the stretch, the approach had to have caught up.  His batting average on balls in play was astronomical in May/June, no wonder he hit for so high an average.  Then in July/August/Sept. that BABIP came crashing down to Earth, duh.  However, wasn't that July swoon right about the time that the media started stamping their feet and complaining that their big, bad three-hole hitter wasn't hitting home runs like he used to?  It didn't matter that he was hitting in the high .300's at the time, why the hell wasn't he hitting home runs.

And that's about the time that Wright started pressing for home runs.  The swing changed, the approach changed, and there's nothing worse for your swing that overswinging and trying to hard to hit home runs.  The stats reflect it.  Isn't your batting average on balls in play is going to be high if you're disciplined and hit the balls hard to all fields and going to dive-bomb when you dip and jack for the fence every time up?  So, he couldn't hit anything down the stretch, then he got beaned in the head and the rest goes down with '09 season in infamy.  Whatever happened in '09, I don't want to hear about the opposite field approach as being the problem, at least not for David Wright, unless they were docking guys pay for pulling balls or something illogical like that.  Then again, it's the Mets were talking here, anything is possible.

Added By Benny B.

The Hardball times did an analysis on the Mets Pull Vs. Oppo hitting and found that in the course of one season they went from the top 5 pull hitting teams (2008) to the top 5 oppo hitting teams (2009).  So it does appear that regardless of who implemented the philosophy, the Mets implemented oppo hitting hardcore in 2009.

This definitely could have contributed to the reduction power numbers.  And Wright--who got off to a blazing start--could have been over-swinging, over-thinking or whatever "over" moniker you wish to add.  However, the most obvious explanation for the decrease in power and Wright's July-September swoon was the utter lack of power and protection in the lineup. Beltran, Delgado & Reyes were all out for extended periods of time in 2009.  That's 3 core players; two of which protected Wright.

So there is no need to over-think this one.  When a lineup has no power, it's not going to hit for power.  When your only power hitter has no protection the pitcher has an advantage and of course Wright is going to natuaraly press and try make things happen; falling right into the pitcher's trap.  The oppo drill, spacious Citifield  & the "Over" fill-in-the blanks are all secondary reasons or a result of not having any power or protection in a lineup long term.