Last year the Mets outfield combined for a .238 batting average and a .309 OBP, so here are the career major league averages and OBP of the 5 most likely Met outfielders.

Duda .256/.338
Kirk .252/.315
Cowgill .255/.319
Baxter .253/.354
Byrd .278/.336

So even this outfield that everyone loves beating up, can very well be a large improvement over last years bunch. Not one of those 5 outfielders have a worse career avg or OBP than what the Mets outfield had as a whole in 2012.

do you happen to know the amount of doubles and hrs off hand?

77 doubles and 55 HRs for the Mets outfield last year in 2,013 plate appearances.

I think this OF is going to have some serious trouble trying to match those XBH numbers. They might be a little better in avg and obp, but driving in runs may be a little harder....unless of course Duda decides to become a 30 hr hitter this year...

But outside of Duda, they aren't meant drive in a lot of runs, they will be guys who get on base and score a lot more runs. Last year they only scored 222 and drove in 206 runs. I think they should be able to score a lot more than that this year and potentially even drive in more.

just seeing bay and torres outta here is a plus.

If their OBP can be significantly higher than last year, then they really won't need to hit a lot of hrs. If we can get good OBP, a good batting avg, and 60+ doubles between CF and RF, I think that would be good.

hopefully we can get something like Kirk hitting .280 80r 15hr 50rbi 20sb while hitting leadoff
Duda hitting .270 70r 22hr 80rbi as 5 or 6
& Cowgill/Byrd combined hitting .265 70r 20hr 75rbi 20sb
Baxter w/ .270 30r 10hr 40rbi 10sb 300ab's

that would definately be above avg, even if 1 fails, DenDekker could come up & hit .250 w/ Baxter's line & we'd be ok

Those numbers might be higher for each, if the Mets use the platoon advantage effectively.

It's up to Terry Collins to use the guys properly. It can work.

Byrd and Baxter should platoon RF if we are going to put Duda in LF full time.

I think that will make RF an "avg" offensive position while not hurting us on defense.

Cowgill and Kirk should platoon CF, if they can have decent springs that is. And by decent I just mean hit around their career numbers. They don't have to light it up. That should keep us around avg. production for CF, perhaps a little below avg but it won't be a total black hole.

Duda in LF to me is just a huge mistake but it is what it is. He's our guy so hopefully Duda can at least do somehting.

It think you need to re-evaluate your goals for the Mets.

"But outside of Duda, they aren't meant drive in a lot of runs, they will be guys who get on base and score a lot more runs. Last year they only scored 222 and drove in 206 runs. I think they should be able to score a lot more than that this year and potentially even drive in more"




100% on the money.

Doesn't matter HOW runs score. Just that they DO!!

Bay batted a pathetic .122/ .199 OBP (49 AB/ 56 PA) w/ RISP last yr. Faced pitchers in 41 different gms w/ RISP & got just SIX hits. For the sake of argument say Bay's 6 hits all made the difference of winning 6 gms. Could outcome have been better if Bay even gets a hit in 6 more of those 41 gms w/ RISP (would've been .245 avg w/ RISP)? If so that would've given Mets 80 wins.

Be hard for any of these guys to be worse than Bay was w/ RISP last yr. If these just guys hit around .250 w/ RISP Mets should be able to win at least 6-10 more gms. Especially if catcher's not another black hole in the lineup like Thole/ Nickeas last yr.

"If their OBP can be significantly higher than last year, then they really won't need to hit a lot of hrs. If we can get good OBP, a good batting avg, and 60+ doubles between CF and RF, I think that would be good"



My thoughts EXACTLY!!

Duda hit .274 BA/ .398 OBP w/ RISP in 106 AB/ 133 PA last yr. I'll take that avg w/ RISP from him again. And w/ Kirk & Cowgill hopefully being on base that'll add more ABs w/ RISP. And hopefully more runs scored too.

"There's a lot of wish casting in this thread. It's an awful lit of work for them to even rise to mediocre"

I just posted there career averages, is it that much to ask that they put up what they have for their careers? Maybe for Byrd but the rest or still young and are just entering their prime years.

I don't see the problem with some. The team is rebuilding and saving revenue. Why throw good money after bad. I'll enjoy watching the young guys fight for their careers. They're hungry.

"It's an awful lit of work for them to even rise to mediocre"



And that's all Mets have to do to be successful. Go from AWFUL to AVERAGE offense as a team.

Catcher should be able to provide more offense in 2013 than 2012. Because being as bad or worse than Thole/ Nickes would be difficult for Buck/ d'Arnaud to do. So OF just has to be better than Bay/ Torres/ Hairston to get to AVERAGE. Hairston was pretty good. But only had 340 PA/ 326 AB as a starter. That's just over 1/2 a regular every day OF. So really Bay & Hairston cancel each other out.

So if 2 OF positions can be just avg that's enough to win a good number of gms w/ above avg pitching. See 2012 Cincinnati Reds w/ 97 wins but only 669 RS (Mets 2012 = 650 RS).

its addition by subtracting torres and bay. gone from horrid to weak. there is some hope with an all platoon OF. that might take us from weak to mediocre.