Lay Off Wright and Bay, NO ONE IS HITTING

It's early in the season, and things aren't exactly sunny at Citi.  The reasons for this is pretty identifiable.  For one, Jerry Manuel stinks, and  that's all I'm saying on that, because it's not worth expanding on today.  Number two is that only 3/5 of the rotation is putting up decent starts on a consistent basis (Santana, Pelfrey, Niese), Maine's been awful and Perez has been inconsistent.  The final problem, is the offense...

Metsblog did an article about how Bay and Wright are struggling from the plate, which you can read here.  But that's not completely fair as it puts too much focus on their struggles, when there is plenty of other struggles in the line-up.  Because the biggest reason the Mets aren't winning games is because EVERYONE on the team is hitting like crap right now...EVERYONE.

Let's take a look at last night's line-up, which most fans would agree is probably their best option, and see how they've produced so far this year.

Reyes SS - Currently hitting .220, with a .273 OBP, and only 3 extra base hits out of 11 total hits on the season.  Oh yeah, and he's stolen two bases out of three attempts, but one wasn't contested at all.

That Guy 2B - He's been hotter as of late, with an 8 game hitting streak, and is now up to .275, with a .345 OBP.  As much as I hate the guy, those numbers and pretty acceptable.  BUT, his 2 extra base hits out of 13 total hits is not doing much for me.  And he's only one for two stealing bases.

-With the first two guys getting on a combined .309, granted Reyes is bringing it down, and neither are really running (hard to run when you're not on base).  I think some of what's happening with Wright and Bay can be explained by a lack of runners on and the way that's affecting the way pitchers are approaching facing them.  That being said...

Wright 3B - Hitting .240, with an unreal .457 OBP.  But Wright has about half of his hits being extra base hits.  Yes, he's striking out a ton, again...18 in 50 at bats, a 36% clip.  But he's also walking a ton with 19 BB so far.  Regardless the average and strikeouts are troublesome, but Wright is bringing more to this line-up than Reyes and the second baseman are currently, even with his terrible average...

Bay LF - Hitting .241, with a .369 OBP.  Bay is striking out more than Wright, 22 times in 54 at bats.  And has only 3 of his 13 hits going for extra bases, and no homers.  Clearly "scuffling", no debate there...

Francoeur RF - Here's the best hitter so far this season for the team.  Although his average has dipped to .281 after a splintering start, his OBP is .358, is stellar for him.  And Francoeur's only struck out 6 times this season.  In fact, he has more walks (8) than strikeouts.  He's been the best player on the team at the plate and has about half of his hits going from extra bases.  He's clearly the least of the team's issues at the plate, BUT he hasn't gotten a hit in the last 5 games...

Davis 1B - It's not worth talking numbers with Ike yet because his sample size is so miniscule right now.  But from what I've seen he doesn't look comfortable against lefties, and has been taking some pretty ugly hacks agains them.  The Mets face another lefty tonight in Tom Gorzelanny.  Should be interesting...

Barajas C - He's been flat out terrible at the plate. I don't care how many homers this guy is capable of hitting, it seems like those are the only hits he gets.  And somehow because people expect less of him he gets a pass.  He's hitting .204 with a .196 OBP, and hasn't walked yet this season while striking out 7 times.  Where are all those people now who were killing Frenchy for not walking?  Why isn't Barajas getting crapped on here?  Just because the guy can go deep doesn't redeem him for those awful numbers.  I don't know the last time I've seen someone have a lower OBP than average...Unreal.

Pagan CF - Pagan's been OK.  I don't when we get a little overhyped about this guy as fans.  He's fine.  He's hitting .279, with a .354 OBP....however...he only has one extra base hit on the season, and it was the homer the other night.

The point of this exercise was to show that the team as a whole isn't hitting and maybe we should be less worried about Wright and Bay speficially, and more concerned about the team as a whole not hitting well.  Or at the least, Manuel should be finding a way to have more than 2 guys get hits in one game. 

Also, can someone beside me please get annoyed at Barajas.  I'm tired about reading about how he's getting unlucky.  He's been "unlucky" then his entire career.  The guy is a pop up waiting to happen.  And, he's been hitting like this his entire career, reaching his summit at .256 in TEXAS.  Come on...

So, give Bay and Wright a bit of a break here, they'll come around.  Besides we need to spread the offensive blame around, because there is plenty for everyone to have...