{"id":1839,"date":"2012-03-01T08:20:25","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T13:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=1839"},"modified":"2012-02-29T21:45:11","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T02:45:11","slug":"the-best-offense-in-the-nl-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2012\/03\/01\/the-best-offense-in-the-nl-east\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Offense In The NL East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- NOTE: some names the b-r linker matched have multiple, possible              player id matches.  Leave this as is or search for \"results=\" to              select a desired player\/id pairing. You may remove this comment. --><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/mostly-mets\/id448682290\" target=\"_blank\">Mostly Mets Podcast<\/a> discussed offense in the National League East in episode 33. \u00a0 The Mets scored the most runs in the division last year, and Toby, Patrick and Ted agreed that they&#8217;d probably lead again this year, although the Marlins have gotten real close.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in terms of runs scored the Mets scored 718, the Phillies 713, NL Average was 668, Braves had 641, Florida 625, and the Nationals 624. \u00a0 The Phillies offense is heavily influenced by the park they play in, and without <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/player_search.cgi?results=howarry01,howard002rya&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan  Howard<\/a><\/strong> indefinitely plus another year of age for Rollins and Utley it doesn&#8217;t seem like the Phillies will score as many in 2012. \u00a0Can the addition (And subtraction) of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/player_search.cgi?results=reyesjo01,reyes-004jos,reyes-016jos,reyes-017jos,reyesjo02&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Jose  Reyes<\/a><\/strong> account for 92 runs of difference between the two teams? \u00a0 The Marlins offense is heavily lopsided with Reyes, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ramirha01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Hanley  Ramirez<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/player_search.cgi?results=stantmi03,stantmi02&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Mike  Stanton<\/a><\/strong> making up most of it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Mets drop off from Beltran to Duda shouldn&#8217;t be too great, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/torrean02.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Andres  Torres<\/a><\/strong> can probably give the Mets what <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paganan01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Angel  Pagan<\/a><\/strong> gave them last year. \u00a0Replacing Jose  Reyes&#8217; production is a little tougher. \u00a0Luckily most of his at bats will be made up with more at bats from <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisik02.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Ike  Davis<\/a><\/strong> and a little more <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tejadru01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Ruben  Tejada<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wrighda03.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">David  Wright<\/a><\/strong> will get more at bats as well, and all of them with a healthy back. \u00a0This will all keep the offense churning, even if <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bayja01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\" target=\"_blank\">Jason  Bay<\/a><\/strong> exhibits no signs of life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If I had to pinpoint one player to worry about, it&#8217;d be Tejada. \u00a0He&#8217;s still young though, so there&#8217;s still plenty of hope he&#8217;ll improve. \u00a0Last year&#8217;s OBP was partially BABIP\/AVG fueled, but he did improve on his strikeout and walk rate. \u00a0Keep improving there and even if he gets lucky he&#8217;ll still maintain a very helpful rate at getting on base.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One other factor to consider that makes the Mets clear-cut favorites: power. \u00a0The Mets got on base more than anyone else in the National League except the Cardinals, but they had league average slugging. \u00a0This translates to a lot of runners stranded that otherwise would&#8217;ve been runs. \u00a0In 2012 the Mets will have more power. \u00a0Duda is already impressing people with his power this spring, and Davis will join him to tattoo the Pepsi Porch all year long. Add a healthier Wright and even a 20% bounce back from Jason  Bay towards his career norms and the Mets will be a very dangerous threat. \u00a0This is all without even mentioning the walls. \u00a0The Marlins addition of Jose  Reyes will likely raise their on base percentage, but not enough to make up the difference.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m confident the Mets will have the best offense in the National League East this season. \u00a0It&#8217;s one step towards a successful season, and it&#8217;s also a step that isn&#8217;t going anywhere. \u00a0The Mets offense is controlled through 2013 at least, with prospects prepared to fill in at some of the weaker positions soon. \u00a0The Mets offense is great and will stay that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mostly Mets Podcast discussed offense in the National League East in episode 33. \u00a0 The Mets scored the most runs in the division last year, and Toby, Patrick and Ted agreed that they&#8217;d probably lead again this year, although the Marlins have gotten real close. &nbsp; Speaking in terms of runs scored the Mets &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2012\/03\/01\/the-best-offense-in-the-nl-east\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Best Offense In The NL East&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1248,19,259,3],"tags":[1400,2494,4,48,913,1340,2964,1659,190,2493,1645,40,550],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1839"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1855,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839\/revisions\/1855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}