| Christopher Reina. 13th April, 2008 - 4:18 am
 'Striking Out' is a new edition to RealGM's baseball pages this season which will touch on three of the most pressing issues (good, bad, and ugly) for all 30 major league teams.
1. Johan's Home Run Trend Continues
Johan Santana had the worst HR/9 in 2007 amongst pitchers with an ERA of 4.50 or better and the Mets' starter is continuing the long ball trend in 2008.
In his Shea Stadium debut on Saturday, Santana gave up three home runs, as Bill Hall, Rickie Weeks, and Gabe Kapler each went yard.
His 2008 ERA is a respectable 3.05, and his K/9 rate is superb as he's fanned 18 in 20.2 innings, but six of the eight runs Santana has given up have come on homers (two solo homers, two two-run homers).
"Early on he was a little up in the zone," Mets' catcher Brian Schneider told the Star-Ledger following the game. "But he settled down nicely through the game. He was cruising for a little while, but a couple of pitches -- the Billy Hall home run, he made a good a pitch. But (Hall) just did a good job of hitting the ball. The other two home runs were missed locations and he paid for it. He was just trying to get to one place and ended up in the wrong one."
Saturday marked the eight time in Santana's career in which he's given up three homers in a single game and the third time since August 24th of last year. On July 23rd last year, Santana gave up a career-high four home runs to the Blue Jays.
2. Last In Homers
The Mets are currently tied for last with the Royals in home runs with just four (102.3 AB/HR, which is 12 AB worse than second-worst Giants).
David Wright has two of the four, with Carlos Delgado and Ryan Church having one apiece.
3. Struggling Against The Righties
The Mets have been unspeakably horrible against right-handed pitchers so far in 2008. They are batting .227/.322/.286 against righties, which easily is last in the majors. The next worst slugging percentage is the Giants .341.
Meanwhile, the Mets are batting a very nice .327/.393/.500 against lefties, which gives them the third best OPS in the MLB behind just Milwaukee and Arizona. |
