Tommy Pham continues to be the Mets best hitter, going 2-for-4 with a double in New York’s 11-1 win over the Astros on Monday night to raise his season OPS to .825.
Pham’s double came against Houston righty Hunter Brown, which Tiki said was proof that the Mets are doomed if they strictly follow their analytics.
Citing an article by Will Sammon of The Athletic, where it was revealed that Pham was motivated by Buck Showalter showing him sheets of data where it showed that the team’s analytics department didn’t like his profile against righties.
Pham is now batting .274 with an OPS+ 30 percent above league average against righties this season, and Tiki says it shows that the Mets need to let Buck Showalter manage freely, or their analytics staff will keep the season off the rails.
“Buck walks in and has this sheet of paper, and it’s got all of the suggested lineups…this confirms it. It’s not all Buck, it’s an analytics department run by Joe Lefkowitz that’s stowing out numbers saying ‘against this guy, it’s XYZ,’ therefore, Tommy Pham, you’re not gonna play against righties,” Tiki said. “This is a lesson for this Mets team…analytics sucks. if Buck Showalter is gonna be an effective manager for this Mets team, they gotta let him use his knowledge and feel for the game, and not just pieces of paper saying ‘this guy should start here,’ because the analytics says it.
“If Buck Showalter can’t be this old-school, feel manager, the Mets have no chance.”
Tiki says the Mets will only be able to maximize their potential if Showalter is able to manage his way, and the more analytics influence the team’s decisions, the worse off they will be.
“The other example is Daniel Vogelbach,” Tiki said. “Daniel Vogelbach sitting down and getting a mental rest, that’s not an analytics decision. That’s Buck saying, ‘I’ve seen this many times in my many years of baseball. Vogey, take a chill pill and get yourself right.’ Now he looks like the Daniel Vogelbach that Billy Eppler brought in last year to smash home runs.”
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