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<\/p>\nNEW YORK \u2014 Not much has gone right for the New York Mets. But nothing has gone as wrong as an offense that has severely underperformed preseason expectations. On Wednesday night, the Mets fielded a nine-man starting lineup with fewer combined home runs (15) than the Nationals\u2019 duo of James Wood and C.J. Abrams (17).<\/p>\n
There are times when a team-wide offensive slump can be rationalized away by looking at advanced metrics. In the past, many Mets slumps have involved underperforming with runners in scoring position, or not sequencing hits properly, or hitting into bad luck.<\/p>\n
There are no easy rationalizations for this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll our metrics are not where we want them to be,\u201d director of major-league hitting Jeff Albert said bluntly.<\/p>\n
Entering this week, here\u2019s where the Mets ranked in some primary categories:<\/p>\n
Batting average: 27th
\nOn-base percentage: 30th
\nSlugging percentage: 30th
\nOPS: 30th
\nwOBA: 30th
\nwRC+: 30th<\/p>\n
The expected numbers haven\u2019t been much better:<\/p>\n
Expected batting average: 18th
\nExpected on-base percentage: 29th
\nExpected slugging percentage: 29th
\nExpected wOBA: 28th<\/p>\n
The Mets also ranked 25th in chase rate and have been the sport\u2019s worst team against pitches above 95 mph.<\/p>\n
However you felt about David Stearns\u2019 offseason, nobody expected the offense to be this bad this swiftly. Strange things happen in baseball over the course of a month, but this is a month that justifiably leads to questions about the viability of New York\u2019s offensive group, not to mention the injury uncertainty surrounding Francisco Lindor, Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr.<\/p>\n
So when everything goes wrong, how do hitting coaches work to make it right? To find out, I sat down with Albert on Wednesday afternoon, more than five hours before first pitch. Albert leads the Mets\u2019 trio of hitting coaches, which also includes Troy Snitker and Rafael Fernandez. We talked about being on time for the fastball, stepping to the plate with the proper intent, and reasons to trust (and not trust) the Mets\u2019 lineup to revive.<\/p>\n
The conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Jeff Albert wants the emphasis on driving the ball. \u2018And I don\u2019t mean just slugging home runs, but putting the ball in the gap, hitting the ball hard.\u2019 (Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
So when an offense this talented goes through something like this for as long as it\u2019s been, what runs through your mind?<\/p>\n
The biggest thing on my mind is keeping the focus, mentality and confidence of the group in the right place. That gets harder to do when you\u2019re underperforming and outcomes aren\u2019t where they should be or where expectations are.<\/p>\n
How much do you point to areas where you\u2019re not performing? Or do you not want to highlight the negative and keep it more positive?<\/p>\n
Now more than ever, there are so many metrics, and you\u2019re really trying to filter out what\u2019s important and not. In this case, all of our metrics are not where we want them to be. That\u2019s what I mean about going back to the basics of controlling the strike zone, being on time \u2014 just fundamental things that these guys have done well through their careers that you need to be a good major-league offense.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s not one or two metrics you look at and really want to improve at. It\u2019s a bigger-picture mentality to go up there and get a good pitch to hit and drive the ball.<\/p>\n
How do you explain it going this far south the way it has?<\/p>\n
If anyone had a clear explanation \u2026<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been on the other side of a long winning streak (17 games with the 2021 St. Louis Cardinals), and at that time, I couldn\u2019t explain that, either. We\u2019re not playing our best, and then you have some added pressure. I don\u2019t want to talk about luck, but that\u2019s happened going back to L.A., where we\u2019ve been in the game (and hit it hard at someone). A couple things like that, times when we felt the mindset and competitiveness were going in the right direction, and then you have one or two outcomes that can feel deflating. That\u2019s baseball. These guys have dealt with that before. It\u2019s continuing what we want to do in the long term and just having the mental toughness to keep working and fighting when things are not going our way.<\/p>\n
Obviously, going through this at any point is tough for a player. It\u2019s tougher when your team is not hitting, it\u2019s tougher when your team is not winning, it\u2019s tougher when it\u2019s all going on in New York. How do you prevent all that pressure from snowballing on a player?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to acknowledge all those different things. We have new players, we have young players, we have new coaches. You can keep looking at all these external or peripheral things and pile those up. I don\u2019t mind acknowledging those things because by acknowledging them, you start thinking about a lot of the distractions or noise for an individual player or us as a group. The more you acknowledge what those things are, then you can make a decision about where to put your focus.<\/p>\n
Add to that where it\u2019s more magnified at the beginning of the season. I\u2019ve been on teams that have had rough patches in the middle of the season, where it doesn\u2019t feel good to go through that either, but it\u2019s just not as magnified as it is now. A lot of those things in combination are happening externally. The work and preparation have been good; everybody feels good about that. That\u2019s pushing us to focus on the mentality and perseverance of the group.<\/p>\n
Clay Holmes said last night, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of new here.\u201d How does going through this right away this season affect the way you build relationships with new players?<\/p>\n
It accelerates the process because you find out a lot about who you are and what adjustments need to happen, both physically and mentally. One of the really positive discussions has been, essentially: Don\u2019t waste it. I know from my experience and players I\u2019ve worked with, when you go through a rough patch and can figure out what the adjustments are, we want to make sure not only that we get to the other side as soon as possible, but also that we can turn that into long-term consistency. Hopefully, we can shorten that learning curve when those adjustments need to happen in the future.<\/p>\n
One of the things that jumps out is how much you have struggled against fastballs. What\u2019s behind that in your mind, and how do you improve in that area?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I mean in referencing the basics: being on time. Even going back to spring training, the ball is on the ground a little bit and going to the opposite field a little bit more. But on the fastballs in particular, we\u2019re seeing more of them, we\u2019re making contact and the damage on the contact that this group is capable of hasn\u2019t been there. That speaks to the mindset of our intent, our focus, our commitment to what we want to do \u2014 that\u2019s what we\u2019re really trying to improve. It\u2019s not necessarily how we\u2019re being pitched or how another team is attacking us, but much more about us being clear and in command and executing on the things we want to do.<\/p>\n
In spring training, you hear a lot about timing and how it takes reps. When you\u2019re this far into the season and the timing is off, how do you get that back as a hitter?<\/p>\n
Yeah, I don\u2019t think anymore that it\u2019s early. What\u2019s tricky about spring training with so many new guys is you\u2019re still trying to learn what\u2019s happening, so you\u2019re not jumping to conclusions about outcomes in the game. We have enough information now.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to describe: It\u2019s not so much looking at the stats on production against the fastball and the metrics on your swing. The way that has played out points more to the intent, the mentality of the group and us really trying to define who we are, what we\u2019re good at, and to go out there and execute and play our game versus what another team is trying to do to us.<\/p>\n
You mentioned intent. What do you want your hitters thinking as they go into the box?<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s important to have the mentality that you\u2019re going to drive the ball. We\u2019re maybe top 10 in lowest strikeout rate. We can get the ball in play, but there\u2019s a difference between contact and the quality of contact. The strike zone and chase rate, we\u2019re aware of all those things. It\u2019s hard to be productive if you\u2019re not doing damage on pitches in the heart of the zone that you need to drive. And I don\u2019t mean just slugging home runs, but putting the ball in the gap, hitting the ball hard and driving the ball.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re able to control the middle of the strike zone and be on time there, that\u2019s a great place to start. If you\u2019re driving the ball, teams have to be more careful and here come the walks. If you\u2019re driving the ball early in the count, you\u2019re not getting to two strikes, or you\u2019re getting ahead in the count, and it snowballs.<\/p>\n
Some pitchers have gone deep into the game against us, and it\u2019s not because we\u2019re not getting the ball in play. We\u2019ll get the ball in play early, but it\u2019s hard to drive up somebody\u2019s pitch count when you have two or three hits. If you\u2019re driving the ball, that means you\u2019re getting a good pitch. Go up there, look for a pitch in your strength, a pitch you can drive, and build the rest of your game around that.<\/p>\n
What gives you hope that you will be the offense you thought you could be?<\/p>\n
The talent of the group and the way the coaching staff works together. Despite all the outcomes so far, there\u2019s a lot of togetherness among the group. Not just the work the guys are putting in, but the way the group is trying to work together. I don\u2019t want to say, \u2018We\u2019ll be fine, we\u2019ll be fine.\u2019 There\u2019s a certain amount of urgency to not wait around for an outcome. It\u2019s a grind mentally to be positive when positive outcomes are not happening.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s managing what adjustments are good. What things do we need to stick with? But it\u2019s encouraging to me that the players and the coaching staff are really working together to make that happen.<\/p>\n
What concerns you that it wouldn\u2019t happen?<\/p>\n
That it\u2019s not happening now. That\u2019s always a reality. It\u2019s Major League Baseball. We\u2019re in the middle of that reality right now.<\/p>\n
You ask about the relationships with new people; you learn a lot about guys. Are we going to come together? Are we going to fight? Where\u2019s our mental toughness? I don\u2019t know how else to say it: It\u2019s a reality in baseball that you can fail. That\u2019s there every day, and you have to acknowledge that and then go out and choose what you want to do and how you want to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Not much has gone right for the New York Mets. But nothing has gone as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,1830,85],"class_list":["post-640124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}