How the Mets Fare When Their Starting Pitcher Homers

Bartolo Colon, Slugger.  (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)

It.  Has.  Happened.

Bartolo Colon accomplished what was thought to be impossible, crushing an offering by Padres' starter James Shields into the Western Metal Supply Co. building.  It was the 266th tater served up by Shields in his career, but the first he had ever allowed to an opposing pitcher.  Colon's two-run shot gave the Mets a 4-0 lead in a game they ended up winning, 6-3, which continued an odd two-decades long winning streak.

Beginning with former No. 1 overall pick Paul Wilson's homer against the Phillies on September 20, 1996, the Mets have now won 14 consecutive games in which their starting pitcher homered.  That includes blasts by beloved and respected pitchers (Rick Reed, Johan Santana, Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey), pitchers who are among the team's all-time top ten in victories (Bobby Jones, Steve Trachsel), pitchers who were barely on the Mets (Armando Reynoso, Jeremy Hefner) and a pitcher who had better success hitting a Roger Clemens pitch than he did at hitting Roger Clemens with a pitch (Shawn Estes).

The Dirty Baker's Dozen, BC (Before Colon).

Interestingly enough, prior to Wilson's round tripper, his former Generation K teammate, Jason Isringhausen, was responsible for the team's two previous homers by starting pitchers, going deep twice in a five-week period during the summer of '96, but the Mets lost both contests, dropping a 6-5 decision to the Pirates on June 19 and a 7-6 game at Coors Field against the Rockies on July 24.  And before Isringhausen, Dwight Gooden was the last pitcher to homer in a game, doing so against the Marlins in 1993.  Yup, the Mets lost that game, too.

For a time, the Mets could only lose games in which their starting pitcher hit a home run.  Now, they can't lose when the pitcher trots around the bases.  The Mets' decades-long winning streak when the starting pitcher homers is now up to 14 games, and it was extended by the unlikeliest candidate in hefty hurler Bartolo Colon.

Death, taxes and the Mets winning ballgames when the starter goes yard.  There are currently no surer things in life.

Gary Sheffield's 500th HR Almost Didn't Come as a Met

So here I am alone on a lovely Sunday afternoon in New York while my wife is down with O.P.P.  (Other People's Pets.  She's a pet sitter and walker, you know.)  I have two choices.  I could take advantage and go outside to enjoy the comfortable 70° temperatures or I could stay inside our apartment pondering statistical data about a player who spent just one of his 22 seasons in the big leagues with the Mets.

Naturally, I decided on the latter option.

As you may or may not know, Gary Sheffield played 21 seasons in the major leagues before signing with the Mets just before the start of the 2009 campaign.  Sheffield, the nephew of Mets legend Dwight Gooden, entered his final season in the majors needing one home run to join the exclusive 500-HR club - a fraternity that guaranteed Hall of Fame induction prior to the steroid era.

It took Sheffield just six games into his Mets' tenure to club his 500th homer, as the bat-wagging slugger took Milwaukee reliever Mitch Stetter deep at Citi Field on April 17, 2009 - exactly seven years ago today.  A joyful Sheffield trotted around the bases and received an ovation only a New York crowd could give.  But Sheffield's landmark blast might not have occurred in the Big Apple had it not been for Mother Nature's interference just seven years earlier.

This reaction might have come in a Detroit Tigers uniform had Mother Nature not paid a visit to Shea Stadium in 2002.

In 2002, Sheffield was a member of the Atlanta Braves when the Mets' hated division rivals visited Shea Stadium for a four-game series in late June.  The Braves took two of the first three games in the series, with Sheffield providing the game-winning grand slam off Mets reliever Scott Strickland in the third game on June 26.  (That was career home run No. 327 for Sheffield, for those keeping score at home.)  The next night, Sheffield crushed a two-run homer in the first inning off Mets starter Pedro Astacio to give Atlanta an early lead.  But before the game became official, it was washed out by an early summer thunderstorm.  That wasn't the only thing that was washed out, as Sheffield's 328th career homer had to be removed from the record books as well, since the game was called before the conclusion of the fifth inning.

Because Sheffield lost a home run at Shea Stadium due to the elements in 2002, he came to New York as a member of the Mets in 2009 with 499 career homers rather than an even five hundred.  As a result, Sheffield made home run history as member of the Mets, just seven years after a home run he hit against the Mets was removed from the history books.

Today, Mother Nature is giving New Yorkers a taste of her sweetness.  But over a decade ago, she showed Gary Sheffield her other side - the side that washed out a potential home run that would have prevented him from making history in a Mets uniform.  And because of that side, I'm spending a lovely day inside my apartment sharing that story with you when I could be spending it outside with all the Gary Sheffield-loving Mets fans frolicking in Central Park.  (I'm sure there's more than one.)

It's a good thing I'm not as fickle as Mother Nature.
 

Lucas Duda Could Shatter Two Mets Home Run Records This Year

There has certainly been a lot of this for Lucas Duda at Citi Field this year.  (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

Lucas Duda has been the top power hitter for the Mets over the past two seasons, blasting 51 home runs since the start of the 2014 campaign.  Duda's 95 career homers are the already the fourth highest total among left-handed batters in team history.  The only other lefty-swinging sluggers ahead of him are Darryl Strawberry (252 HR), Ed Kranepool (118 HR) and Carlos Delgado (104 HR).

Given good health and a multi-year contract, Duda could one day find his name at or near the top of the leaderboard of most of the team's power-hitting categories.  But Duda may very well shatter an odd team record this year, especially if he continues to turn Citi Field into the House That Luke Built.

Entering Monday's series opener against the Colorado Rockies, Duda has hit 18 home runs this season at Citi Field.  The only batter in Mets history to hit more than 21 homers at home in a single season is Darryl Strawberry, who jacked 24 dingers at Shea Stadium in 1990.  The only other Mets sluggers to surpass Duda's current total at home in one year are Dave Kingman (1982), Howard Johnson (1989, 1991), Todd Hundley (1996), Cliff Floyd (2005), Carlos Delgado (2008) and David Wright (2008).  Keep in mind that those batters accomplished their home run totals over a full season, while Duda still has nearly two months of home games to add to his total.

Duda has a total of 21 home runs this season.  So if 18 of those have been hit at Citi Field, that means he's hit just three homers on the road.  If that seems like a large disparity between home and road homers, that's because it is.  In fact, no player in Mets history has ever hit as many as a dozen more homers at home than he did on the road in one season, and only nine players have hit as many as seven more, as seen in the chart below.
 

Player	Year	Total HR	Home HR	Road HR	Difference
Darryl Strawberry	1990	37	24	13	11
Jim Hickman	1963	17	13	4	9
David Wright	2008	33	21	12	9
Marv Throneberry	1962	16	12	4	8
Steve Henderson	1977	12	10	2	8
Hubie Brooks	1984	16	12	4	8
Carl Everett	1997	14	11	3	8
Cliff Floyd	2005	34	21	13	8
Kevin McReynolds	1987	29	18	11	7

Prior to the recent road trip to Miami and Tampa Bay, Duda became the first Met to hit nine home runs in an eight-game stretch.  All of those home runs were hit at Citi Field.  Duda hasn't gone deep on the road since June 18 in Toronto.

Lucas Duda is already the Mets' all-time leader in home runs at Citi Field with 55, despite not making his Citi Field debut until the final month of the 2010 campaign.  David Wright is the only player within striking distance - he has 46 - and no one else has hit more than 30.

Very few Mets players, regardless of the ballpark they call home, have hit the majority of their round trippers in front of the home fans.  But Lucas Duda is trying to go where no Mets slugger has gone before.  With seven more homers at Citi Field this season, he will become the first Met to hit as many as 25 HR at home in one season.  And as long as his road homers don't outnumber his home blasts by more than three during the season's final two months, he will be the first to hit at least 12 more home runs at home than he hit on the road in franchise history.

Lucas Duda has gone from a player who wasn't assured an everyday job at first base entering the 2014 season to the most prolific home run hitter in Citi Field's seven-year history.  And that turnaround could cause several chapters in the Mets' records books to be rewritten after this year.

Mr. Alderson, Don't Move In This Wall

"General Manager Alderson, if you seek pennants, if you seek prosperity for the New York Mets and their fans, if you seek a winning organization, come here to this screen.  Mr. Alderson, look at this screen.  Mr. Alderson, don't move in this wall!"

--what Ronald Reagan might have said had he been alive in 2014 and a Mets fan.

Photo by Robert Sabo/NY Daily News

Sandy Alderson likes home runs.  Always has.  Always will.  And now he's considering moving in the Citi Field outfield fences for the second time during his tenure as Mets general manager in search of the elusive home run for his hitters.  At first glance, it would seem to make sense, as the Mets have finished in the bottom half of the league in home runs since the team moved to Citi Field in 2009.

Also, take a look at the teams who made the playoffs in the National League in recent years.  In 2014, four of the top seven home-run hitting teams made the playoffs, while in 2013, three of the top four home-run launching squads advanced to the postseason.  Alderson knows that pitching wins championships, but he also knows that home runs puts fannies (as well as baseballs) in the seats.  The Mets already have good pitching.  They just need some big boppers to complement them.  There's only one problem with moving in the right field fence, as Alderson has suggested the Mets will do.  It could actually help opposing hitters more than it could help the Mets.

In a post-game press conference after the Mets finished out the season last week, Alderson discussed altering the dimensions of Citi Field.

"We made changes a couple of years ago and I think those have been received well", Alderson said.  "And anything we do will probably be limited to the center, right-center areas. But I think it’ll be good for the game, good for the fans, and I’m sure that one or two of our players will benefit as well.”

One or two of our players, he says?  Received well, he says?  Well, allow me to retort.

The Mets have eight everyday players on the team.  Helping one or two of them is not going to produce the ten or twelve extra wins the team probably needs to make the playoffs.  In fact, something Alderson neglected to mention is how many players on opposing teams this could benefit.  And judging by the numbers posted by the opposition since the last time the movers were called in to adjust the outfield fences, I'm sure these are the players who Alderson claims "received well" those altered dimensions.

Let's take a look at the home run numbers posted by the Mets at Citi Field over the last five seasons (we are discounting the 2009 team because just about everyone got hurt on that squad).  Let's also show how opponents fared at Citi Field over the same time period.  Look closely at the numbers posted after the 2011 season, when the fences were moved in for the first time.

Year	Mets’ HR (Citi Field)	Mets’ HR (Road)	Opponents’ HR (Citi Field)	Opponents’ HR (Road)
2010	63	65	47	88
2011	50	58	58	87
2012	67	72	88	73
2013	59	71	90	62
2014	59	66	71	70

In the two years prior to the walls being moved in, opponents struggled as much as the Mets did to hit home runs at Citi Field.  But the Mets actually hit eight more home runs at Citi Field in 2010 and 2011 than their opponents did.  New York rounded the bases 113 times, while opposing hitters hit just 105 long balls.  But since the outfield dimensions were adjusted prior to the 2012 season, opponents have taken full advantage while the Mets have not.

Over the last three seasons, the Mets have managed to hit 185 homers at Citi Field, while their opponents have feasted, blasting 249 bombs.  New York averaged 56.5 homers per season in each of the last two years prior to the realignment of the fences.  The team has averaged just five extra homers per season since the walls were moved in.  Meanwhile, the opponents who averaged 52.5 homers a year under the old configurations are now averaging 83 homers per season, or about 30 extra homers per campaign.

Let's put it this way.  If I noticed that over the past three years, players wearing their road jerseys have been six times more likely to hit a home run at Citi Field than players wearing their home duds, I'd probably be less inclined to move in the fences once again, especially since the explosion in opposing players' home runs came immediately after the last time the walls were brought closer to home plate.

Each of the last five seasons, regardless of the positioning of the outfield fences, the Mets have hit more home runs on the road than they have at Citi Field.  Meanwhile, opposing players who had difficulty hitting home runs at Citi Field prior to 2012 have welcomed trips to their new home run haven in Flushing.

The Mets don't have the money to pay a $20-million-a-year slugger to come play for the team.  They should also save their dough on wall-moving expenses.  It didn't help the team three years ago, so why should we expect it to help "one or two of our players" now?

Mr. Alderson, please don't move in the outfield walls next year.  By inflating the power numbers of opposing players, all you're doing is deflating the hopes and dreams of Mets fans who just want a taste of October baseball at Citi Field.  Is that too much to ask?

Citi Field Is Becoming Nationals Park North

Bryce Harper doesn't wear clown shoes as he rounds the bases at Citi Field.  (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

On Thursday, the Mets dropped a 4-1 decision to the first place Washington Nationals.  It was New York’s 11th straight loss to Washington at Citi Field, a venue which has in essence served as a second home for the Nats.

It’s not just that the Mets are dropping decisions to the Nationals, it’s how they’re racking up the losses.  Let’s take a look at some of the horrifying numbers.  You might want to keep a barf bag nearby.

• Washington has celebrated a victory in each of its last 11 games at Citi Field.  That 11-game streak of success is the longest winning streak by any team at the park, including the Mets.  The Mets' longest skein in the ballpark built for them is just nine games, accomplished from April 22 to May 8, 2010.  The Nationals' streak is also the longest of all-time by any road team in the Mets' home venue.  That includes teams that visited all the awful Mets squads that played in the Polo Grounds and Shea Stadium.

• During the Mets’ eleven-game streak of ineptitude, they have been outscored by the Nationals, 74-21, with seven of the Mets’ 21 runs coming in one game - a 9-7 loss on March 31, 2014.  (Simple math lets us know that the Mets have scored just 14 runs in the other ten games.)  That March 31 game and last night’s 3-2 setback were the only times during the skein that the Mets lost by fewer than three runs.  I guess last night’s game would have to be considered a moral victory for the Mets, even if it was still yet another demoralizing defeat.

• The Mets haven’t just been stinking up the joint against the Nationals in their last eleven head-to-head matchups at Citi Field.  They’ve actually lost 25 of 29 games versus Washington since September 2011.  In that time period, the Mets have played nine series against the Nats.  They’ve won just one of those series and they’ve been swept six times.  Two of those six sweeps came in four-game series.  In the 29-game stretch, New York has been outscored, 150-66.  That means the Mets have scored eight fewer runs in their last 29 home games against the Nationals than Washington has scored in their last ten versus the Mets. 

• When Citi Field opened in 2009, the Pepsi Porch overhang was meant to evoke memories of a similar right field overhang at Tiger Stadium.  But the Nats’ bats are bringing back a different kind of Tiger Stadium memory.  Washington has outhomered the Mets, 29-5 during their 11-game rampage at Citi Field, numbers that are reminiscent of the Mets’ lone trip to Tiger Stadium in 1997, when the team hit no home runs and Detroit blasted 14 moon shots off Mets pitchers.  Are we 100% sure that Bobby Higginson isn’t the Nationals’ guest hitting coach when Washington plays in New York?

• Speaking of long balls, Washington has homered 47 times in their last 29 games at Citi Field.  These home runs have accounted for a total of 72 runs.  Meanwhile, during those same 29 games, the Mets have managed to cross the plate via any means just 66 times (as painfully detailed two paragraphs above).  That means Washington has had a better chance of scoring at Citi Field via the home run than the Mets have had of scoring … period.  The Nationals have also scored 78 runs without the benefit of the ball leaving the park, which is just them throwing salt on the Mets’ open wound. 

• Finally, in five of their last 15 games at Citi Field, the Nationals have smacked four homers or more.  The Mets, on the other hand, have played a total of 463 games in their home park.  How many times in those 463 contests do you think they’ve produced a four-homer game?  You guessed it.  Five times.  The Nats have done in 15 games what the Mets have struggled to do in nearly 500 affairs.

Before moving to Washington at the conclusion of the 2004 season, the Nationals/Expos franchise played its home games in Montreal.  The Expos played their inaugural game on the road at Shea Stadium in 1969.  Thirty-five years later, Shea Stadium bid adieu to Les Expos, hosting Montreal in the team’s final game before sending them off to our nation’s capital.  But apparently, the Expos/Nationals franchise still thinks of New York as its second home.  How else can one explain the Nationals’ dominance over the Mets at Citi Field in recent years?

Citigroup has the naming rights for the Mets’ home ballpark through the 2028 season.  But if you ask anyone associated with the Washington Nationals, Citi Field has already been re-christened as Nationals Park North.  After all, with 11 straight wins over the Mets in New York - the longest win streak by a road team at the Mets' home ballpark in the history of the franchise - the Nats have proven that they have a distinct road team advantage at Citi Field.

Curtis Granderson and the Not-So-Sweet Sixteen

Curtis Granderson looks spooked at the plate.  Could the ghost of Jason Bay be haunting him?

On Wednesday, Curtis Granderson delivered two hits in the Mets' 5-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs, giving him 1,201 for his career.  It was not the first time this season Granderson hit the 1,200 mark in a lifetime offensive category.  However, the other category wasn't exactly something to be proud of, as on May 6, Granderson struck out for the 1,200th time in his career.

Entering tonight's series finale against the Cubs, Granderson is the owner of 1,231 strikeouts and 1,201 hits.  How rare is it for a player to have more strikeouts than hits when he has that many of both?  Well, the first player to end his career with more strikeouts than hits when he had at least 1,200 of both didn't play his last game in the majors until 1986.  And since this player (a former Met) retired, just 16 other players - including Granderson - have joined him.

Here are a list of those players, which include Curtis Granderson and the other not-so-sweet sixteen.  This list includes a Hall of Famer, a few All-Stars and probably more current and former Mets than you would like.

Player	Final Year	Career Strikeouts	Career Hits	Career HR	Career RBI
Dave Kingman	1986	1,816	1,575	442	1,210
Reggie Jackson	1987	2,597	2,584	563	1,702
Jesse Barfield	1992	1,234	1,219	241	716
Cecil Fielder	1998	1,316	1,313	319	1,008
Jay Buhner	2001	1,406	1,273	310	965
Jose Canseco	2001	1,942	1,877	462	1,407
Dean Palmer	2003	1,332	1,229	275	849
Greg Vaughn	2003	1,513	1,475	355	1,072
Richie Sexson	2008	1,313	1,286	306	943
Troy Glaus	2010	1,377	1,375	320	950
Pat Burrell	2011	1,564	1,393	292	976
Mike Cameron	2011	1,901	1,700	278	968
Jim Thome	2012	2,548	2,328	612	1,699
Jason Bay	2013	1,216	1,200	222	754
Adam Dunn	Still Active	2,280	1,574	449	1,128
Ryan Howard	Still Active	1,474	1,226	322	1,003
Curtis Granderson	Still Active	1,231	1,201	223	633

Notice that just about everyone on the list was a middle-of-the-order power hitter.  But Granderson hit at the top of the order for much of his career and has surpassed 25 homers in a season just three times, hence his low RBI total.

Also notice that four of the 17 players (Kingman, Cameron, Bay, Granderson) called Shea Stadium and Citi Field home for parts of their careers.  It could have been seven out of 20, had Darryl Strawberry (1,352 strikeouts, 1,401 hits), Jeromy Burnitz (1,376 strikeouts, 1,447 hits) and Jose Valentin (1,294 strikeouts, 1,348 hits) struck out just a little more in their respective careers.  But just like the hitters who actually did make the list, Strawberry, Burnitz and Valentin were cleanup-type power hitters (Valentin had five straight years of 25+ homers from 2000 to 2004), something Granderson is not.

If Curtis Granderson were a prototypical power hitter, perhaps his high strikeout rate would be more acceptable.  Likewise, if Granderson had more seasons of elite home run totals, his low hit count could be forgiven.  But Granderson is not Dave Kingman, Reggie Jackson, Jose Canseco or Jim Thome.  He's not even Jesse Barfield or Pat Burrell, for that matter.  The closest player he resembles on the list above is - here's that name again - Jason Bay.

Although he tried his best to fulfill the lofty expectations that go with a lucrative four-year contract, Jason Bay fizzled quickly as a Met.  During his time in New York, Bay had more strikeouts (258) than hits (231), despite having fewer strikeouts (896) than hits (927) before coming to the Big Apple.  He also hit 26 or more homers in five of the six seasons before his first year in New York.  Then he hit a grand total of 26 homers in three years as a Met.  Because of his low home run totals and high strikeout rate, Bay found himself in the dreaded New York doghouse - the same place Granderson appears to be heading.

Curtis Granderson is a nice guy.  But being nice doesn't get you anything in New York if you're paid to hit home runs, then proceed to strike out ten times for every long ball you hit.  (Granderson has hit six home runs in 2014, while striking out 64 times.)  We saw it before with Jason Bay.  We don't need to see it again with Curtis Granderson.

There are 151 players in major league history who collected at least 1,200 hits and 1,200 strikeouts.  Of those players, only 17 had more strikeouts than hits.  Curtis Granderson is one of those players.  And if he doesn't want to go down the road taken by Jason Bay before him, he'll need to get himself off this list pronto.