Last night, Mets GM Sandy Alderson joined SNY and talked about the team's weak offense, saying:
'We've looked at pitches-per-plate appearance, from the first half and second half, and they're down significantly in the second half. I think that sometimes has to do with a mix of personnel. If you go back and look at who we had in the lineup consistently over the last year and a half ' because, really the buy-in (to our offensive approach) was over the last year and a half - and when you don't approach it that way, it can have an effect on the overall approach (of the team). That's not an indictment of anybody, but there are certain players we've had playing over the last two or three months that don't reflect our approach as well as others. ' We didn't hit with men in scoring position with two outs, and a lot of other things in the second half. But, it really underscored some of the things we need to do. For example, power-wise, if you look at the last four games we've won, we've out-homered the opposition in every one of those games. We cannot win consistently at the Major League level if we don't have some measure of power. We haven't had as much as we need.'
In regards to how he plans to improve the roster, he said:
'Without naming names, we're looking at defensive metrics, we're looking at offensive metrics. What kind of offense we have to get from player A in order to justify playing time if the defensive metrics aren't there? Is somebody more valuable to another team at another position than he is for us? What is coming through our system, and what is available in the free-agent market? What talent do we have at certain positions that we might be willing to trade, so to shore up at other positions? It's a complicated process, but I think something every team goes through. We're doing that currently, trying to assess exactly what we have and try to be in a position ' not to move quickly ' but be confident in the direction we take over the next six to eight weeks.'
Matthew Cerrone, MetsBlog.com
It's fairly obvious (based on these words and his track record over the last two decades) that Alderson wants a lineup full of guys who work counts, get on base and who hit home runs ' hopefully you do all three, but the least you can do is one or the other. The thing is, I don't know who that even describes in this lineup. It's just such a light-hitting group, I have no idea how he puts his ideal order together (given the free agent and trade market). It's going to be an interesting trick, especially since he's getting zero production from at least a third of his starting lineup).