Joey's World Tour: I'm Going Back To Cali, Cali, Cali

The Mets could have used these bats when I went to see them in San Diego.  (Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus)

Greetings and salutations, Mets fans!  This is your favorite Studious Metsimus roving reporter and culinary expert, Joey Beartran.  I just got back from the West Coast, where I fulfilled both of my duties as reporter and eater.  On this trip, I visited Angel Stadium of Anaheim and then traveled south to see the Mets play in San Diego.  Both stadiums were beautiful.  The Mets, however, were not.

Most of the trip to Southern California was under the cover of clouds.  But the blue sky did make an appearance when we were in Anaheim, just in time for our ballpark tour.  The first stop on the tour was the area outside home plate. In addition to the gorgeous home plate entrance, which you can see in the photo above, the Angels have two large caps on either side of the plaza.  How large are they?  At size 649½, they might even be a little too big for Bruce Bochy's head.

Under one of the caps is a giant Mickey Mouse painted in Angels colors.  In 2010, Anaheim hosted the All-Star Game, making a deal with Disney (Disneyland is only a hop, skip and jump away from the stadium, you know) to produce giant Mickey Mouses (Mickey Mice?) with each team's colors and logo featured prominently on them.  The friendly rodents were then placed all around the city so that fans could find them.  This is similar to what the Mets did when Citi Field hosted the Midsummer Classic in 2013.

The other item of note outside the Home Plate entrance was a built-to-scale baseball diamond made out of bricks.  Our tour guide told us that this diamond is usually hard to spot on game days because of all the fans congregating in that area.  But on this beautiful morning, it was as visible as Brandon Nimmo's smile after he hits a home run.

Home is where the heart is, or in this case, where my sister, Iggy, is.  (EL/SM)

Once inside the ballpark, we saw reminders of the Angels' one and only World Series championship.  Even though the Angels have won nine division titles, it was their only wild card-winning season in 2002 that produced their sole pennant and Fall Classic victory.  Winning a single crown means that they only need one large display case to show off their hardware and other memorabilia from that magic campaign.  But they have many interesting items in that case.

Included in the display are various newspaper headlines, the ball and glove used to secure the final out of the World Series, a cowboy hat worn by the late owner Gene Autry (who passed away four years before the Angels won it all), photos from the championship parade in nearby Disneyland and of course, the World Series trophy.  I guess it isn't just Super Bowl MVPs that get to go to Disneyland after they win a ring.

Trophies won in the 21st century look much shinier than ones that have been collecting dust since 1986.  (EL/SM)

From here, we were brought to the visitors clubhouse, which doesn't have the amenities the home team's players have.  However, it was spacious and had its own video area where coaches can discuss flaws in swings, pitching mechanics, etc.  The bathrooms were also equipped with every kind of toiletry you can imagine so that opponents don't have to worry about trying to sneak large bottles of hair gel past the TSA agents in the airport.

Near the home team clubhouse we were taken to a special press conference room for former Angels manager Mike Scioscia.  The room was built at the request of the man who gave us post-traumatic Mets disorder in the 1988 NLCS so that he wouldn't have to trudge up a few levels to the regular press conference room to give post-game interviews.  I guess running around the bases after homering off Doc Gooden in the ninth inning of Game Four tired him out so much that he ended up having difficulty going up a few flights of stairs a quarter century later just to talk to reporters.

One of the interesting features of Angel Stadium is the dugout suites.  As you may know, all stadiums have suites for those who have large groups of people and a few thousand dollars burning a hole in their pockets.  But most of those suites are above field level.  The Angels have ten suites behind home plate that are a few feet below field level.  This gives a unique perspective to what's going on in the game, assuming you're not back in the suite trying all the delicious food that is included in the deal.  One unfortunate thing about these suites is that it's really hard to see fly balls from such a low vantage point.  Also, the suites are really HOT, as in sweat-through-your-fur hot.  I mean, I almost had to take off my Mets hoodie just to cool down, which probably would've made the tour experience less memorable for the other tourgoers in our group.

At least the dugout suites are close to - wait for it - the dugout!  That means they're also close to the field.  And why do we do ballpark tours in the first place?  It's not to see memorabilia of other teams winning championships or custom-made press conference rooms for Met killers.  It's also certainly not to visit suites we could never afford even if my colleague gave me a 100% raise.  (Speaking of which, my direct deposit never hit my bank account this week.  Just because I'm not human doesn't mean I can't complain to human resources about this.)

The reason we do these stadium tours is to sit in the dugout and walk on the field.  And that's just what this roving reporter did.  I came, I saw, I roved.

Who needs to sit in a dugout suite when we can sit right here?  (EL/SM)

After the tour was complete, we decided to walk around the park to get a glimpse of some of the banners and of course, the "Big A".

For all you kids out there, the "Big A" is not just the nickname for Angel Stadium, it's a 230-foot tall structure situated in the parking lot that's shaped like the first letter of the alphabet.  The "Big A" is topped by a halo that lights up after every Angels victory, which is perfect if you're a big fan of rubbernecking on the nearby freeway.

I give a big A-OK to the "Big A". (EL/SM)

From Anaheim, we went down the coast to San Diego, where we attended two Mets games.  Of course, the only game in the three-game series we didn't go to was the one game the Mets won.  You can thank my colleague for buying tickets to the wrong games.

Anyhow, if you're a longtime reader of my World Tour series, you know that we visited Petco Park in 2011.  (You can read about that trip by clicking here.)  But a lot has changed in those eight years.

For one thing, it's not all about Tony Gwynn anymore.  There's a lot of Trevor Hoffman love in and around the ballpark now that the closer has a plaque in Cooperstown.  And it's not just love for Gwynn and Hoffman.  The Padres now have a wall dedicated to all players and coaches who wore the team's uniform, whether it was for the old San Diego Pacific Coast League team or the current major league club.  There's even one for Mike Piazza, who played just one season in San Diego.

And the Padres Hall of Fame?  Well, that's just a sight to behold.  Within the 2,000-square-foot hall, we found photos and stories of the old PCL team, as well as newspaper clippings (including one of a game against the Mets in which a bad managerial decision may have cost the Padres a chance at their first no-hitter), bats, gloves, awards and videos of great moments in club history.  The centerpiece of the hall is a section devoted to every member of the Padres Hall of Fame.  But one particular Padre is missing.

Steve Garvey, whose No. 6 was retired by San Diego the year after he played his final game in the majors, is not in the Padres Hall of Fame.  My colleague and I were intrigued by this and asked one of the employees working in the hall about it.  The hall worker smiled and said that no one has any idea why that's the case.  Indeed, after further research by my colleague, we found nothing on the subject.  It's a mystery why Garvey's achievements as a member of the 1984 pennant-winning Padres led to his number being retired by the team, but the entirety of his five-year career in San Diego wasn't enough to warrant enshrinement into the club's Hall of Fame.  Truly bizarre.

The only way Steve Garvey will find himself in the Padres' Hall of Fame is if he buys a game ticket.  (EL/SM)

One place we had to visit when we were at Petco Park was an area that non-Mets fans wouldn't care to see.  It's certainly an area former Padres pitcher James Shields isn't comfortable with.

On May 7, 2016, Bartolo Colón hit the only home run of his long career off Shields.  The ball landed under the "Hit it Here" sign in front of the Western Metal Supply Co. building.  To mark the event, the Padres gave what Gary Cohen called "one of the great moments in the history of baseball" the Steve Garvey treatment, meaning there's nothing to mark where the ball landed.  But thanks to my colleague's calculations of exit velocities and launch angles, as well as me letting him know that he could've just watched Colón's clout on YouTube for research purposes, we were able to find the spot where the ball landed.  And we took some photos in the area before Padres security gave us their own version of the Garvey treatment.

I'm glad security didn't call the San Diego Zoo to have us removed.  That's worse than the Garvey treatment.  (EL/SM)

The Mets won the game we didn't go to, erasing a three-run, seventh-inning deficit to eke out a 7-6 victory.  The two games we did attend, the Mets scored a combined two runs and left runner after runner on base.  Because the Mets didn't give us much to cheer about in the stands, our photographer spent a good chunk of each game taking photos of the players.

Speaking of which, I'm glad our budget allows us to spend an arm and a leg on tickets and then we end up spending all of our time at the games behind a camera instead of, you know, watching the games.

They came, they played, they lost.  Twice.  (EL/SM)

The tour in Anaheim didn't take us to any of the stadium's food stands.  But the games in San Diego allowed us to pig out on a San Diego staple - burritos!  And the ones served in and around Petco Park were some of the best and most unique we've ever had.

Before going to the park, we enjoyed a California breakfast burrito filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, cheddar cheese, home fries and avocado.  That burrito was served with Mexican rice and refried beans.  Then at the Lucha Libre Taco Shop inside the ballpark, we had a Fryer Cali Burrito, which was both a play on words on the Padres being Friars and also incredibly delicious.  This burrito had steak, jack cheese, French fries, chipotle sauce and pico de gallo.  Apparently, putting potatoes in burritos is a big thing in San Diego.

As Weird Al Yankovic would say, "Might as well face it, I'm addicted to spuds."  (EL/SM)

So that's it for our California trip, in which we visited Angel Stadium of Anaheim for the first time and revisited the fun and festivities at Petco Park in San Diego.  On this trip, we learned that dugout suites are only good if you like searching in vain for fly balls while relaxing in a sauna.  We also learned that Met killers get lazy with age and there are hats that are even too big for Bruce Bochy to wear.

In addition, we found out that the Padres embrace their history more than the Mets do, but still have a strange relationship with Steve Garvey.  Also, Tony Gwynn isn't the only player who is celebrated in San Diego and oh yeah, they put taters in everything.

On behalf of the Studious Metsimus staff, I'd like to thank you for reading about our trip to Southern California and if you can find out why Steve Garvey isn't in the Padres Hall of Fame even though his number is retired, please let us know.  You should probably let Garvey know as well.

The Mets were washed out to sea on this trip.  Good thing we weren't.  (EL/SM)

For previous installments of Joey's World Tour, please click on the links below, where you will be entertained by Joey's wit, photos and love of ballpark cuisine:

World Tour Stop #1: Baltimore
World Tour Stop #2: Washington, DC
World Tour Stop #3: Pittsburgh
World Tour Stop #4: Texas
World Tour Stop #5: Los Angeles
World Tour Stop #6: San Diego
World Tour Stop #7: Toronto
World Tour Stop #8: Chicago (NL)
World Tour Stop #9: Milwaukee
World Tour Stop #10: Seattle
World Tour Stop #11: Cleveland
World Tour Stop #12: Brooklyn (Ebbets Field site) and Manhattan (Polo Grounds site)
World Tour Stop #13: Baltimore (again) and Pittsburgh (part deux)
World Tour Stop #14: Cincinnati
World Tour Stop #15: Colorado
World Tour Stop #16: Cooperstown (Baseball Hall of Fame)
World Tour Stop #17: Detroit
World Tour Stop #18: Atlanta
World Tour Stop #19: Miami
World Tour Stop #20: St. Louis
World Tour Stop #21: Kansas City

 

Pete Alonso's Torrid Start Has Room For Improvement

This should be a oft-repeated scene in the Mets dugout for years to come. (Rich von Biberstein/Getty Images)

Anyone who has been following the Mets in 2019 knows that Pete Alonso's big league career is off to an impressive start.  Through 19 games, Alonso has produced a .333/.425/.739 slash line with seven doubles, seven homers and 18 RBI.  He ranks in the league's top ten in a plethora of categories, including hits, extra-base hits, runs scored, runs batted in and wins above replacement.

Certainly, Alonso ranks among the top three rookies in the National League, along with the Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. and the Nationals' Victor Robles.  But Alonso could separate himself from the rest of the rookie pack and become even more of a threat with the bat if he could just learn how to do one thing.

Alonso needs to adjust to the starting pitcher instead of allowing the starting pitcher to adjust to him.

Let's look at this tweet from a certain blogger after it was noticed that Alonso's splits against starting pitchers and relievers varied by quite a bit.

Pete Alonso's updated numbers against starting pitchers and relievers:
vs. SP: .256/.347/.395, 0 HR, 3 RBI in 49 plate appearances
vs. RP: .462/.548/1.308, 7 HR, 15 RBI in 31 plate appearances

— Ed Leyro (@Studi_Metsimus) April 20, 2019

Alonso has smoked relief pitchers whenever they've faced him this season.  All of his home runs have been hit against relievers and over 80% of the runs he's driven in have occurred after the opponent's starter has been removed from the game.  And why is Alonso so dominant against relievers as opposed to the starting pitcher?  Because the starter has learned how to pitch to Alonso after seeing him once in a game while the reliever doesn't get the opportunity to do so.  Here's what I mean by that.

As shown in the chart below (generated by baseball-reference.com, of course), Alonso has a tough time hitting starting pitchers as the game moves along.  His .313 batting average in his first at-bat against a starter is close to his overall batting average.  But look at how his average falls once the starting pitcher faces him multiple times.

By the time Alonso faces a starting pitcher for the third time in a game, he is almost an automatic out whenever he puts the ball in play.  Alonso's double against Max Scherzer on April 7 is the only hit he's recorded in his third at-bat against a starter in 15 such plate appearances.

It is not usually the case that a hitter fares worse against a starting pitcher as the game progresses, as more often than not the starter becomes less effective as his pitch count rises.  But Alonso doesn't appear to have received that memo yet, even if his some of his more experienced teammates have.

Robinson Canó, Wilson Ramos and Michael Conforto are the three most experienced hitters out of the Mets' everyday players, amassing nearly 13,000 career plate appearances between them.  That experience, along with their baseball acumen, has allowed them to adjust to starting pitchers as the game moves on.

Here are the career splits put up by Canó, Ramos and Conforto in their first plate appearance against a starting pitcher compared with how they fare the third time they face a starter in a game.

 Robinson Canó

Wilson Ramos

 Michael Conforto

As seen in the charts above, Canó and Conforto improve greatly against starting pitchers as those hurlers tire, while Ramos remains fairly consistent.  The three veteran players have learned to make the proper adjustments needed to take advantage of the starters as they go deeper into the game.

Once Alonso learns how to make these adjustments himself, he will either become as steady a hitter as Ramos is or will perhaps jump to the levels Canó and Conforto have exhibited throughout their careers when they face starting pitchers multiple times in a game.

Alonso's first at-bat against a starting pitcher (.313 batting average, .738 OPS) is usually very good.  The first and usually only time he bats against a reliever, his numbers are in the baseball stratosphere (.462 batting average, 1.856 OPS).

His rookie season is already off to a splendid start.  But just imagine what it could turn into if Alonso could learn how to adjust to starting pitchers the more times he faces them rather than the other way around.  The Rookie of the Year Award could just be the beginning of the hardware Alonso will receive in his promising career.