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Douglas's avatar

Adjusting how they hit the ball to advance runners isn't a thing they do. They swing the same way whether runners on or not. Videos of teams that advance runners would help? If capable, simply bunting players over could help. No one bunts anymore. Or is this just who the Mets are. Alvarez, Marte and O'Neill are rally Killers now.

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Vincent Connors's avatar

It’s time for some change or there wont be enough time. Even the also ran WC will be a battle this year. Without Soto and Lindor catching fire, all is lost. But others need better production or all is lost too. I don’t know where you fit Mauricio but you have to; Mets could be an also-ran too before you know it. Please no Homer “it’s early” and force people to take receipts. You stink-until you don’t; you’re good-until you’re not. Right now, they’re mediocre-until they’re not. We’ve seen this movie before

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Vincent Connors's avatar

By the way Andrew, this piece is as objective as I’ve ever seen from this venue. Good job. Some of the pitching is regressing too, as expected, making the inconsistent hitting problem more glaring.

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Steve's avatar

The metsdup pod has a good episode today breaking down the team’s hitting issues and some individual hitters based on baseball savant data. The 2 things that stood out to me the most is we’re 1 of the worst teams in the league at hitting pitches thrown down the middle. Those are the pitches we should be crushing. And most of our hitters have a slower swing speed than last season and seem to be trying to hit the ball to the opposite field.

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Jack's avatar

Yeah well, maybe a little emotion might help - just calling it as I see it. Hey, that may get me an umpire spot! LGM

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Joel's avatar

It's very painful. The list of guys performing well below expectations is quite long. For reference, I looked up league-wide batting average with RISP and its about .245. The Mets had to struggle when they won the first two games and you just know the Phils would have pulverized the Sox. Speaking of which, every time I look up the Phils score 7 and they're looking like a formidable team. The Luzardo trade was a steal. I don't see a major trade or callup helping us. But they may have to let Marte go. I'm realizing how big a part of the team Vientos was last year. Hope this thing runs its course...I can't get the phrase "come down to earth" out of my head when I think about Canning. Haven't researched it, but his first 9 starts this year must be far far better than any previous interval in his very mediocre career.

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Jack's avatar

Something definitely needs to change on offense - this team is just too talented for this to continue. Unfortunately for the batting coaches, the team can't fire the players or even send down the likes of a Soto. Lindor seems to go through this every season. As Douglas pointed out, Alvy, Marte, and McNeil may be lost causes at this point. Certainly, Soto's indifference at the plate is hurting the front four. He looks totally lost - and worse, it looks like he doesn't care.

I do think that if Soto ever does wake up the lineup will gel and take off, but let's hope that happens soon.

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Joel's avatar

I don't go for the "looks like he doesn't care" stuff. Different people get different expressions on their faces when dealing with frustration, anger, etcetera. Some people laugh when they feel anxious, which bothers me but that's the way they are (not referring to Soto here).

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