NY Mets hitting coach changes the team’s stretch drive approach with dramatic results

Steve Gelbs of SNY reported during his segment on Tuesday night’s broadcast that during a New York Mets team meeting on August 12, hitting coach Eric Chavez shifted the team’s approach to looking for fastballs and adjusting to breaking pitches. Gary Cohen then led a discussion with Gelbs and Keith Hernandez that even though the league’s pitching is more off speed heavy than ever, the controllable nature of the fastball means that you will most likely see one in every 5 to 7 pitch at-bat and probably see one worth hitting at least once a game.

Hernandez also added that it’s easier to sit on a fastball and adjust to a slower pitch than the other way around, which is what the Mets had been doing. He believed that this was a positive step in the right direction.

The numbers speak for themselves

Looking at the team’s hitting statistics, the Mets’ team batting average stood at .241 on August 12. Since that date, the team total batting average has risen to .251, or an increase of ten points in three weeks. The comparisons can be a bit more dramatic when you specifically compare the individual groups of games. Over the first 118 games of the season, the Mets averaged 4.35 runs, 8.2 hits, and 1.25 home runs per game. In the 22 games since August 12, their hitting have increased to 7.57 runs, 10.14 hits, and 2.14 home runs.

It's not that Chavez had them sitting on off speed pitches, but it’s more that they were trying to guess hit (like "he throws a changeup 49% of the time in this count, then slider 23%, so look changeup or slider.") Which tracks with what we saw, deep counts and taking far too many fastballs for strikes. Now they are looking for the fastball and adjusting otherwise to stay alive.

Explain it all to me - and keep it simple

Essentially, the hitting approach had been to first look off speed, but then hitters were not able to adjust quick enough for fastballs. So after talking to the analytics guys and crunching numbers on fastballs, they are changing the approach to be look fastball first. If you are a glass half empty guy, you may ask why this change took so long to see, I'd prefer to try to ride this wave into the playoffs and then some. Better to be late than not at all.