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June 4, 2007
Month in Review: May
Month in Review is MetsGeek’s monthly state of the Mets address, examining every aspect of the team’s performance over the last thirty days. To see our April installment, check here. After a 15-9 start to the season in April, the Mets had an extremely impressive 19-9 stretch in May, tying for the best month they’ve had since I started this feature. While the competition could have been more difficult, there weren’t too many pushovers, either. Here are our team-by-team splits: Team W L RS RA Arizona 3 1 21 12 Atlanta 1 2 5 10 Chicago 3 1 20 20 Florida 4 1 27 16 Milwaukee 2 1 17 17 New York 2 1 15 15 San Francisco 4 2 22 22 The runs scored/allowed are interesting; while they beat every team except Atlanta, they only outscored two of their opponents. We’ll take a closer look at that below. Home/road: Split W L RS RA Home 10 5 69 69 Away 9 4 58 43 Last month, the Mets were much better on the road. This month, they look equally good at home at a glance. However, if you examine the runs given up and scored, the Mets performed better on the road again due to a couple of home blowouts. Run splits: Split W L 1 run 5 1 2-3 runs 7 3 4-5 runs 4 2 6+ runs 3 3 The Mets had a great record in one-run games, which is surprising because the bullpen didn’t have a great month (see below). The Mets did very well across the board, but got blown out three times. Comings: Lino Urdaneta, Jorge Sosa, Brian Lawrence (signed to a minor league deal), Carlos Gomez, Ambiorix Burgos, Jason Vargas, Ben Johnson, Guillermo Mota Last month I lamented the loss of Heath Bell. Can Burgos take his spot on the AAA-MLB shuttle? Injuries: Moises Alou, Shawn Green Stat April May Runs Scored: 132 127 Runs Allowed: 84 112 Team OBA: .361 .341 Team SLG: .448 .411 Team BA with RISP: .245 .279 Opponents’ OBA: .321 .294 Opponents’ SLG: .363 .386 Opponents’ BA with RISP: .191 .230 Starters’ ERA: 3.43 3.60 Starters’ K/9: 6.9 6.0 Starters’ BB/9: 3.7 3.2 Starters’ HR/9: 1.08 1.04 Relievers’ ERA: 2.09 4.02 Relievers’ K/9: 7.6 7.7 Relievers’ BB/9: 4.7 3.2 Relievers’ HR/9: 0.34 1.38 Neither the offense nor the defense was quite as effective as it had been in April. The offense did a better job of hitting in scoring position, but had fewer opportunities to do so since the team OBA was down twenty points. Mets pitchers, luckily, did the same to their opponents: a higher average with runners in scoring position, but a lower OBA. Still, the team allowed an extra half a run in May than in April, thanks to the bullpen. Actually, it was mostly thanks to Scott Schoeneweis. Remove his “contributions” and the bullpen numbers improve to a 3.16 ERA and 2.5 walks per nine innings. Longest Winning Streak: 4 (three times: 5/2-5/5; 5/16-5/19; 5/25-5/29) Longest Losing Streak: 2 (twice:5/6-5/7; 5/20-5/22) Three four-game winning streaks are usually a pretty good indicator that you’ve had a good month. Pitchers “Beaten”: (Not necessarily the pitcher who took the loss) Anibal Sanchez, Micah Owings, Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Matt Cain (2), Matt Morris, Jeff Suppan, Chris Capuano, Jason Marquis, Rich Hill, Angel Guzman, Andy Pettitte, Darrell Rasner, Chuck James, Sergio Mitre, Wes Obermueller, Scott Olsen, Tim Lincecum Pitchers “Beaten by”: (Again, not necessarily the pitcher who got the win) Ricky Nolasco, Livan Hernandez, Barry Zito (2), Ben Sheets, Carlos Zambrano, Tyler Clippard, Kyle Davies, John Smoltz Best Hitter: Paul Lo Duca had a tremendous month, hitting .393/.441/.488. A couple of Mets (David Wright, Carlos Delgado) slugged higher, but Lo Duca’s OBA was 73 points higher than any other Met’s. All-in-all, it wasn’t a great month for Mets hitters. April winner: Jose Reyes Worst Hitter: Carlos Beltran. He and Jose Reyes were the Mets’ best hitters in April, but both struggled mightily in May. Beltran hit just .234/.368/.351. The OBA was respectable, but nobody on the team had a poor OBA in May, and the slugging percentage is anemic. He managed just seven extra-base hits. April winner: Carlos Delgado Best Pitcher: Oliver Perez. I started out the season by calling Perez “Slot Machine,” but that’s inaccurate now. He’s been downright consistent, only having two bad starts this season. Perez made six starts and pitched forty-and-a-third innings, going 4-1 with a 2.01 ERA, 35 strikeouts against just eleven walks. The one knock against him: his seven homers allowed led the team. April winner: John Maine Worst Pitcher: Scott Schoeneweis didn’t throw many innings—just ten—but they were terrible. He allowed eleven runs, twelve hits, three homers and nine walks while striking only four. It appears to me that Willie Randolph just doesn’t know what to do with him. He doesn’t trust him in higher leverage situations, and he’s too ineffective against righties to use in long relief. Right now, it’s not looking like Omar Minaya’s better signings. April winner: Mike Pelfrey Best Pitching Performance: Oliver Perez’s May 13th performance. He pitched eight-and-a-third innings and allowed just one run and four baserunners while striking out six. He was taken out in the ninth inning after giving up a homerun to Bill Hall. Otherwise, it might have been the first complete game for the Mets this season. His game score of 79 ties him with John Maine’s April 4th performance for the highest of the Mets’ season. April winner: John Maine Best Defensive Play: Jose Reyes’s stab in the fourth inning of the May 2nd game against the Diamondbacks. The most incredible thing about the play is that Reyes was able to make a perfect throw to first while off balance. Reyes’s emergence as a hitter has been extraordinary, but it often overshadows the fact that he’s become a good defensive player also.April winner: Jose Valentin and Jose Reyes Biggest Surprise: I don’t see how I can award this to anyone other than Oliver Perez. There have been other big surprises this month—Jorge Sosa, for one—but Perez’s continued success is the most shocking. While I thought he’d at least be serviceable, he has been the best pitcher on the team, refining his control beyond what it had even been in his best season in Pittsburgh. April winner: Joe Smith Biggest Disappointment: Carlos Beltran. He’s the primary driving force behind the Mets’ offense, and when he’s not hitting the team’s hitting suffers greatly. It will be nice to have a month where both of the Carloses are operating at full strength. April winner: Carlos Delgado Luckiest Player: Aaron Heilman. Heilman somehow went 4-0 in May. In two of them, he retired fewer than three batters, and in one he threw just one pitch (May 14th). Relievers don’t often have months like that. April winner: Shawn Green Unluckiest Player: Jose Reyes had a rough month, hitting just .268 with just seven extra-base hits despite maintaining a very good line drive rate. I fully expect him to come around next month. April winner: Paul Lo Duca What’s in Store for June: The Mets start off June with three against the Diamondbacks before welcoming the Phillies into Shea. Interleague play resumes after that with a three-game set against the Tigers in Detroit, followed by three more in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. The Mets get a day off after that before the second Subway Series in the Bronx. The Twins come to Shea next, followed by the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals. Finally the month ends with three games against the Phillies in Philadelphia. This will be a very tough month for the Mets. The only pushovers are the Cardinals and several other teams are quite scary. The Mets will need the outfield to get healthier, and at least two more bats should come alive. It’ll also help if Willie Randolph uses his better judgment with regards to Mr. Schoeneweis. Otherwise, the month could be brutal. References: You can see the double play at Mets.com’s Top Plays archive. 5 Responses to “Month in Review: May”Leave a ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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Uno
Nice review as always. June is going to be a tough month, especially since the Mets are limping into it. Will be interesting to see how they exit it (hopefully on a roll!)…
Good analysis. Despite the solid May record, this month was pretty average for the Mets looking at the stats. I mean, they were beaten by some good pitchers, but also by Ricky Nolasco, Kyle Davies, Tyler Clippard and the 2007 version of Carlos Z. And the schedule was not very tough. It seems like the Mets offense is still not fully clicking, in large part due to injuries they have suffered.
The best part? They still won almost every series. But this month they are going to need to wake up the offense to keep winning. They are facing some strong offensive teams this month. Should be interesting to see where the teams fall at the end of this month.
Its really odd. I mean we had a better month record wise however our batting was down (except with RISP), our pitching wasnt as good (both starters and relievers) yet we had a better record. Really odd looking at the run differentials and seeing outside of dominating florida and arizona, we played everyone else close. Alota of games could have gone different ways. It will be interesting to see how the Mets play in June.
I think we can all agree it will be an “interesting” month, haha. The Mets have not been dominant, but they are winning, so let’s just hope that continues.