By Tom
Teams can’t stop hitting the New York Mets! In one of the more comical anomalies for the 2022 season, the Mets are now 3 plunkings away from being the best all-time in the Live Ball Era. The Metropolitans trail only the 2021 Dodgers (104) and Reds (105) for the record. In case you’re wondering what the all-time mark is, that’s the 1898 Baltimore Orioles mark of 160.
The Mets have been a force to be reckoned with when it comes to getting on base in the most painful way possible, with no one dare challenging them this season. The 2022 first place LOSER for HBPs is currently the San Francisco Giants, with a measly 87. Ugh, who cares that the Giants mark would also rank top 40 all-time in bean balls, what matters is that the friggin’ Mets, baby, are gonna be the Kings of Shit Mountain! Casey Stengel is pissing himself in hell right now.
At their current clip, New York is set to finish at 111 HBPs for the season. They have 3 players in the Top 10: Mark Canha 21, Brandon Nimmo 16, and Starling Marte 13. 6 players on the Mets have been hit by pitches at least 10 times in the year. And, since 2017, New York leads all of MLB in HBPs at 466. What the hell is going on?
The Mets haven’t taken too kindly to this sort of thing. In addition to being the runaway leader in HBPs, they’re also top 10 in dealing out HBPs. They’ve cleared the benches against the Nationals, Cardinals, and Pirates, as well as exchanging words with the Cubs. I don’t know what the Mets did to piss off the NL Central, but it probably has something to do with Pete Alonso.
The highlight of these near season-ending plunkings came on April 27th against the Cardinals. The Redbirds pitching staff had hit the Mets 5 times in that 3 game series with the breaking point coming when Genesis Cabrera hit JD Davis in the foot. The Mets sent out Yoan Lopez who threw a pitch a little up and in on third baseman Nolan Arenado who took some offense at that. The benches cleared and God gave us this incredible moment where 49 year-old Stubby Clapp wrestled 6’3” 250 pound Home Run Derby Deadlift Champion Pete Alonso to the ground.
Memes aside, Alonso jawed with Cubs pitcher Adrian Sampson who did not hit him–and probably should have. A few days later, the benches cleared between the Pirates and Mets after former Cardinal Johan Oviedo hit Alonso on the arm with a fastball. The previous day the Pirates hit 3 Mets players 4 times with Jeff McNeil taking 2 for the team. Earlier in the month Starling Marte was knocked out of a game with a fractured finger after taking a beanball from Pirates starter Mitch Keller. This season has also seen stars like Alonso and Francisco Lindor hit in the head by pitches. While it’s fun to make fun of Polar Bear Pete for his incessant and dorky masculinity, you can understand how all these beanings are starting to wear thin on this team’s patience.
Alonso is no stranger to being hit, he’s been a top 10 staple in 3 of the last 4 years in the HBP department. In fact the Mets employ a lot of players who have a history of getting hit by pitches. Starling Marte had 24 plunkings in 2013–and has been top 10 seven times in this career–Mark Canha led the Majors–with Ty France–with 27 beanings last season, Jeff McNeil’s 21 last year was good enough for 5th in the NL, and Brandon Nimmo led the league in 2018 with 22.
We here at Worst Fans Incorporated are not sure if this strategy of letting a 95+ mph pitch hit you is a sound one, but it sure does work for the Mets! The 2022 Mets are 2nd in the Majors in OBP with a .332 mark, trailing the Dodgers by 5 points. The Mets are 49-22 in games where they’ve been hit by a pitch and 44-33 in games they’re not. They’ve also hit 71 of their 152 home runs in 6 fewer games. The Mets seem to relish in the pain for some weird reason.
For professional pitching coaches out there, if you want to avoid baseball violence on the field as well as in the standings, the key to defeating the Mets is not to hit them. They love it, they play better when it happens. And if you’re Buck Showalter or Eric Chavez, you’re going to have to find a way to get your batters hit more often, as well as a better healthcare plan.
Home of The Worst Fans in Baseball Podcast 
Leave a comment