Sandy Alderson’s offensive philosophy will be on display this weekend in The Bronx. Just not by Sandy Alderson’s team.
The Mets general manager has had a career-long belief in walks and homers — a base on balls and a blast is one of his mantras. Of course, that is his credo in its most simplistic form. Obviously, any GM would want to have a diverse offense with speed and high batting averages and abilities to use the whole field.
But if told he could only have two items, Alderson has shown an obsession with free passes and long balls. It is at the core of the Moneyball revolution that Alderson helped bring to the forefront during his time with the Oakland A’s.
It should be said Brian Cashman has been a devotee of the same tenets. The majority of the Yankee GM’s rosters have been deep in patient hitters, and he often refers to wanting “hairy monsters” in his lineup — big guys who can hit the ball out of the park.
Going into Thursday’s matinee, the Yankees were tied with the Blue Jays (21) for the major league lead in homers and were second to the Red Sox (67) in walks with 64. They have four regulars (Carlos Beltran, Stephen Drew, Didi Gregorius and Mark Teixeira) hitting .200 or lower, and they won the matinee, 2-1, over the Tigers despite just three hits, in part because of their patience. The Yankees drew six walks, including four off Anibal Sanchez. That ran his pitch count to 113 for 6 1/3 innings, got an effective starter out of the game and brought in Detroit’s weak pen (the Yankees scored the go-ahead run in the eighth off Tom Gorzelanny).
Drew (four homers) and Teixeira (five) exemplify the low-average, big-power attack. They join Alex Rodriguez and Chris Young to make the Yankees the majors’ lone team with four players with at least four homers.
In this lineup, there will be some speed and batting average from Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner (Ellsbury’s speed was essential to the winning run Thursday). Otherwise, this is a team that will be station to station and challenged — for the majority of players — to reach even a .250 average.
We are seeing the formula come into view on how this flawed Yankees team can make a playoff run. It begins with being in a division of similarly defective rosters that means no team is likely to run away. The Yankees then will hope that Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia stay healthy and that expected strengths on defense and in the pen resonate.
The remaining piece is having a lineup that does not hit for much of an average, but has, perhaps, seven players generate between 15 and 30 homers, including Ellsbury and Gardner, who combined for 33 last year. So far, Carlos Beltran (zero) and Brian McCann (one) have not shown a power stroke, but Drew, A-Rod and Young have been gifts — perhaps Teixeira, as well, considering his wrist ailments of recent years.
Garrett Jones and Chase Headley also have a chance to be 15-plus-homer guys.
Now, keep in mind, two years ago, the Yankees were tied for the AL lead in April homers (36). That was fueled by players such as Travis Hafner, Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells, so for physical and skill reasons, that pace was not sustainable. The questions about the full-season physical condition and/or skills of Drew, A-Rod, Teixeira, Beltran and others are not going away.
But two and a half weeks into the season, we at least see a way for the Yankees offense to be more formidable than in the past two seasons — by doing what Sandy Alderson loves best.
Will A-Rod face Harvey?
Is Matt Harvey vs. Alex Rodriguez the most intriguing pitcher-hitter Subway Series matchup since Roger Clemens vs. Mike Piazza?
Of course, this assumes A-Rod will even play Saturday against the Mets. In theory, the Yankees could load up on lefties against Harvey — who grew up a Yankees fan in Connecticut — with Chase Headley at third, Garrett Jones in right and Carlos Beltran as the DH.
Rodriguez and Harvey do not have history like Piazza and Clemens did. This would be really about star power colliding.
Going into a July 8, 2000, game, Piazza had owned Clemens, going 7-for-12 with three homers, including one a month earlier at Shea Stadium. That night at Yankee Stadium, leading off the second inning, Piazza took a Clemens fastball to his helmet and suffered a concussion.
In Game 2 of the World Series that year, Piazza splintered his bat hitting a foul ball. The barrel rolled to Clemens, who fired it toward the first base line, inches from Piazza, further heightening tensions.
Harvey has never faced A-Rod. During Harvey’s lone start against the Yankees, in May 2013, Rodriguez was still recovering from hip surgery. Harvey dominated that game with one run allowed and 10 strikeouts in eight innings against a lineup that began with Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano, then turned comic: Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay, David Adams, Ichiro Suzuki, Reid Brignac and Chris Stewart.
Rodriguez has handled fastballs and righties (1.171 OPS, three homers in 31 at-bats) better than anticipated in 2015. But he has probably not yet faced a righty quite like Harvey.
Fish in a barrel
I have previously written the Mets would derive a benefit from playing in a division with the Braves and Phillies, at a time when those two franchises are in rebuild mode. The 38 games against just those two teams represent more than 23 percent of a schedule, which could be beneficial, particularly in building up a record for wild-card purposes.
The anticipation was that the NL East would be three-tiered with the Nationals up top, the Phillies and Braves on the bottom and the Mets and Marlins pushing to be Washington’s most serious challenger. But after a winter buildup of their roster, payroll and expectations, the Marlins have been among the majors’ worst teams. They have an impetuous owner in Jeffrey Loria with a long history of a quick trigger for firing managers and dumping out of plans, and skipper Mike Redmonds’ job already is in peril.
Thus it is suddenly possible the Mets have three pushovers in their division. Now, you are talking about 57 games against that trio — or more than one in every three games.
We have seen some of this transpire already this season. The Mets have played exclusively against the NL East — three to open the season against the Nationals, then the rest against the Braves, Phillies and Marlins. That last trio provided the competition as the Mets went 10-0 on their now-concluded homestand.
The Mets are the majors’ only undefeated team at home. That is quite different from their history. In the first six years of Citi Field (2009-14), the Mets were 231-255, the third-worst home record in that span.
Now, the Mets go on the road (albeit just over the RFK Bridge) and out of the division to play the Yankees. But what they have done so far should entice larger, more enthusiastic crowds at Citi than in recent years. So it is going to be interesting to see whether their early success is about the lackluster opponents or a newfound excellence, both in general and at home.