Keith Hernandez was on WFAN’s Benigno & Roberts today to promote Combos Habitat For Humanity and talk about the Mets. Some of his observations was that Ollie may be 1 or 2 starts away from maybe losing his spot in the rotation and that Takahashi may be the one to replace him. He also discusses Wright’s struggles at the plate at one point saying he has not seen him (Wright) make any progress now in 2 years to correct his swing and start hitting line drives.
Keith Hernandez
Monday, May 10th – One of the great all-time defensive first basemen and SNY analyst, joins Joe and Evan to talk about the Mets, David Wright’s struggle and the “nap heard ’round the world.”
Audio courtesy of WFAN.com
21 comments
dirtysanchez
5/10/2010-2:26pm at 2:26 pm (UTC -4)
well, 2 years ago wright was one of the most feared hitters in the NL. The guy was hitting 30 hr’s and 100 rbis, at some points making it look effortless. I dont know whats wrong with Wright and im sure at this point, I dont think hojo does either.
ceetar
5/10/2010-2:37pm at 2:37 pm (UTC -4)
I’m sure if it was as simple as any of the reasons fans throw out there, it’d already be fixed.
oleosmirf
5/10/2010-2:57pm at 2:57 pm (UTC -4)
Keith has made very subtle comments over the course of the past 2 years about HoJo.
he made one comment about how HoJo had the same problems throwing to first as Wright did/does and its curious he’s working with HoJo to fix it.
he also pointed out how HoJo had biggest drop off from 38 HR to 7 HR in Mets history and that Wright experienced similar drop off last season.
prismo
5/10/2010-2:58pm at 2:58 pm (UTC -4)
Uhhh I don’t get it. Everyone is complaining that Wright isn’t hitting…but look at his numbers.
His OPS is .928 (career .908).
He’s on pace for 36 home runs and 114 RBI (avg/162 games of 27hr and 108RBI).
His K rate of 38% is obviously way too high, but I’m sure it’ll drop as the season progresses.
I just don’t get it…yeah, he doesn’t look comfortable at the plate, but overall he’s producing. I think people are scrutinizing him too much.
ceetar
5/10/2010-3:00pm at 3:00 pm (UTC -4)
are you sure it’ll drop? 4 Ks yesterday was bad, even against Lincecum.
prismo
5/10/2010-3:00pm at 3:00 pm (UTC -4)
If you want, I’ll bet you $100 that it’s under 38% at the end of the season.
ceetar
5/10/2010-3:10pm at 3:10 pm (UTC -4)
It’s the Ks, and no longer being the “best 2strike hitter” that worry me. He seems to have become a little less well rounded and a little bit more slugger.
ceetar
5/10/2010-3:10pm at 3:10 pm (UTC -4)
which just makes me miss Beltran that much more.
prismo
5/10/2010-3:12pm at 3:12 pm (UTC -4)
The Mets need a slugger with Jason Bay hitting like a punk.
I think Wright being on pace for 36hr/114rbi is about the least of the Mets’ worries at this point.
But if you do want to dwell on it, I’d like to blame HoJo. Never really liked him as a hitting coach…he doesn’t seem to be – how do I say it? Intelligent.
ceetar
5/10/2010-3:19pm at 3:19 pm (UTC -4)
yaeh, I’m not real sold on HoJo at all.
not really dwelling on it, more concerned with Bay and how much Frenchy may or may not revert.
Reyes is about to go on a crazy tear though.
prismo
5/10/2010-3:22pm at 3:22 pm (UTC -4)
I agree with all of that.
prismo
5/10/2010-3:04pm at 3:04 pm (UTC -4)
If Jason Bay was producing half as much as Wright is, this offense would be about 10 times better.
Mr North Jersey
5/10/2010-3:11pm at 3:11 pm (UTC -4)
Can you honestly say looking at Wright that he is clicking on all cylinders?
He is getting the Hr’s and rbi’s but every at bat with him is either feast or famine. Wright is not ok at the plate he looks lost at times up there.
prismo
5/10/2010-3:13pm at 3:13 pm (UTC -4)
No, but bottom line – he’s producing.
Mr North Jersey
5/10/2010-3:19pm at 3:19 pm (UTC -4)
Thank God for that but the fact remains he is still not right at the plate hence the reason why people are concerned.
GravediggerHebner
5/10/2010-4:17pm at 4:17 pm (UTC -4)
I’m inclined to agree with Prismo that Bay is much more the problem than Wright.
There are 10 hitters in the majors with 35 or more strikeouts.
Of those hitters Wright has the most walks, 24. The next most is 19, Mark Reynolds.
Among them Wright has 29 hits, Adam Lind also his 29, Matt Kemp (35), Rickie Weeks (37) and Austin Jackson (49) have more.
Wright has 7 HR, Kemp also has 7, Reynolds leads with 10.
Wright has 22 RBI, only Reynolds has more (27).
Wright and Will Venable lead the group with 8 steals.
Wright is batting .269, Kemp at .278, Weeks at .282 and Jackson at .371 are higher.
Wright’s OBP is .400, only Jackson at .420 is higher (420 dude).
Wright’s .528 SLG is highest of the group, next is Reynolds at .522.
Wright’s .928 OPS leads the group, Jackson at .927 is 2nd, they are the only 2 over .900.
What I take from that is that he is getting more production across the spectrum of offense statistics than other players with similarly high K totals. What that means I have no idea but it made me feel good that he wasn’t Justin Upton, Kyle Blanks or Cameron Maybin, the other guys in the top 10 in Ks but who are not contributing a lot at anything except striking out.
stickguy
5/10/2010-4:23pm at 4:23 pm (UTC -4)
well, what I take away from this (excellent research BTW) is that, if the K pace keeps up, that Jackson and Wright will have the biggest drop offs in overall production.
Jackson in particular can’t possibly keep up this pace.
ANd Wright seems to go into the K funk and everything else stops, so if he keeps King, his other numbers will drag down.
although I doubt Wright is going to keep up his current (recent) 300+ pace, I expect he wil easily blow past 200 this year.
That race with Bay is going to be neck and neck all the way!
Mr North Jersey
5/10/2010-4:34pm at 4:34 pm (UTC -4)
I am concerned with Bay also but my understanding is that Bay is known to go into stretches like this and I don’t recall where I read this but I thought I read somewhere that he had a stretch similar to this last year also.
I am concerned but not knowing Bay I am waiting to see if he will turn it on soon and finish strong but don’t be fooled both Bay and Wright are of major concern.
stickguy
5/10/2010-4:43pm at 4:43 pm (UTC -4)
the numbers have been posted a few times, and he was smart and had a scorching start (april, and I think early may). He then went into a slump and put up worse numbers than he currently is through much of May and most of June. then he got hot again.
It is esepcailly noticeable now (just not uncommon), since he is on a new team, and did it to start the season.
Getting 8 HRs early on can make your numbers look OK for a long way into the season! Just ask DW>
metsfan4decades
5/10/2010-4:29pm at 4:29 pm (UTC -4)
Bobby O has been pretty vocal in his disagreement with HoJo and HoJo’s assessment of Wright’s swing right now.
I’m not going to pretend to be on the ‘inside’ of anything related to the Mets so can’t tell if it’s just a disagreement between HoJo, Bobby, Keith, etc. I do know that HoJo is getting paid to be the hitting coach though and with so many people analyzing the ‘wrongs’ of Wright’s swing, his obvious struggles with Ks and his own frustration, I’m thinking HoJo might be the scape goat for this perceived problem before too much longer.
gategem
5/10/2010-5:53pm at 5:53 pm (UTC -4)
I got this from the 4/25 issue of Bleacher Report (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/384273-a-look-at-the-mets-babip-and-ld-percentage)
“David Wright 3B – AVG: .230, OBP: .415, SLG: .426.
2010 BABIP: .306, Career: .344, 2010 LD%: 17.9, Career: 23.5.
The fact that Wright’s BABIP is .040 points lower than his career makes me believe that he will improve his average this year, but his line drive rate has dropped. This means that he could catch up eventually, but it makes me think that it is possible that people who talk about him dropping off after getting hit in the head last season might be on to something.â€