“We’re always playing the tug of war of harnessing that aggression in the right way and targeting it toward selective aggression.” “We have an aggressive group,” hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum said earlier this month. The Mets don’t see a lot of pitches to begin with (3.80 per plate appearance this season, 14th in the NL), and they’re seeing even fewer (3.75) in August. It’s not just that New York didn’t get to a 3-0 count Thursday it didn’t even see a three-ball count against seven Los Angeles pitchers. No team in the NL has seen fewer 3-0 counts, and the Mets are hitting only. That has created a double whammy: The Mets don’t get into good hitters’ counts often (they’ve had the fewest plate appearances in the National League that end with the batter ahead), and they don’t capitalize on them when they do (they’re 14th in the NL in OPS when ahead in the count). The Mets have the eighth-highest chase rate in baseball. Discipline was one of those keywords that owner Steve Cohen mentioned in his tweet Wednesday, and yes, the best offenses are more disciplined than New York’s. That’s where the Mets are with more players than McNeil, who’s a proxy here for their larger efforts to modify plate approaches that have not excelled this season the way they have in the recent past. We want him to be ready to hit, but which pitch are you looking for? That’s where we are with him.” We don’t want him to predetermine to take the first pitch. That’s where we come from with the process of hitting with him. “We don’t want him to change his identity, but we do want him to slow things down so he can be more disciplined in the zone. “He’s a free swinger we know that,” Rojas said. The Mets like his aggressiveness, but they want it to be more refined. It’s about being more selective within the zone.
It’s not as simple as swinging in the zone versus out of it McNeil’s chase rate is actually at a career low this year. The Mets think that’s because McNeil has not been discerning enough about which pitches he swings at. 825 slugging percentage on the first pitch. 569 slugging percentage), they pale in comparison with his production on the first pitch earlier in his career. “Tonight, I saw the bat just leaving the zone too quick, and he’s missing some pitches he usually hits,” Rojas said.įurthermore, although McNeil’s numbers when he characteristically puts the first pitch in play look good on the surface (.333 with a.
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