fWAR had Alonso at his second best season for a while but last night’s two homer performance has brought Pete up on bWAR now too

He is only 0.2 back on his career high in fWAR (4.5 this year, 4.7 his rookie year) and so that’s definitely not out of the question that he could catch that with a few more big games.

The shocking thing to me is he’s done this in a lineup with almost no protection and somehow leading the league in RBIs with a bunch of low OBP hitting in front of him

Speaking of OBP, he’s currently sitting on the highest OBP of his career

Without Pete this Orioles team is a 70 win team AT BEST

_GoddamnitDonut

50 | 11 hours ago

Just a big strong man, what do you expect?

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

17 | 11 hours ago

I kinda thought he’d start getting pitched around with no one else hitting

But maybe it’s gotten so bad that teams don’t care if Pete hits a homer because the rest of the lineup isn’t going to score anyway

AnAngryMatcha

23 | 9 hours ago

What’s kind of amazing is that Alonso may be the first baseball player in history to have led both the AL and the NL in RBI.

JVortex888

129 | 11 hours ago

yeah but he’s no Jorge Polanco

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

48 | 11 hours ago

I actually really like Polanco it’s a shame he got hurt

ImpossibleBear5844

5 | 10 hours ago

Story of his career.He’s super solid when he can actually stay healthy

catashake

6 | 8 hours ago

Injuries usually follow steroid abusers as they age.

2treecko

3 | 8 hours ago

The argument against signing Alonso was never that he would be bad this year.

ComputerLess8024

-8 | 11 hours ago

Still would rather do that deal than have signed Alonso, woohoo we’d be a 76 win team vs a 71 win team, while simultaneously having to deal with 3 DHs making a trillion dollars in 2 years between Soto Lindor and Pete.

GunnarGooner

27 | 11 hours ago

Pete has been a completely acceptable 1B this season

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

14 | 11 hours ago

Tell ‘em Wash

JustCallMeMambo

19 | 11 hours ago

he’s extremely acceptable

ComputerLess8024

5 | 11 hours ago

The issue was never about this season (although the Mets did want him to DH more if he came back) it was about in future years when they’d have to deal with backend of Lindor contract and back end of Alonso contract while Soto is still in his prime.

SigurdsSilverSword

6 | 9 hours ago

Lindor isn’t trending towards DH at all, he’ll move to 2nd at worst by then. Soto eventually moving to first or DH seems extremely likely but I don’t think he particularly wants to, and it’s not like DH/1B are otherwise clogged with talent for the Mets. Why not keep the fan favorite face of the franchise who’s still producing at a high level?

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

-1 | 11 hours ago

And it’s not like Polanco sucks. He just lost his whole year to injury

SigurdsSilverSword

1 | 9 hours ago

Polanco literally has the lowest fWAR in baseball. His OPS is almost 100 points lower than Pete’s slugging. He’s been awful even when he’s managed to be on the field.

mormagils

1 | 6 hours ago

I mean, he’s been playing hurt all year. He had like 3 games where he was healthy then he tried to come back and went back on the IL for the rest of the season when he couldn’t play through the pain any more. He might suck now but this year is not evidence of that. He’s just not been able to be healthy at all.

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

1 | 9 hours ago

He sucks THIS YEAR because he’s hurt. But he has a long history of being definitely not awful

deetothapee

6 | 11 hours ago

This year is so impressive especially considering his rookie year was the Year of the Juiced Ball

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

5 | 11 hours ago

His SLG% is significantly lower than 2019 but WAR is adjusted to the specific year/offensive climate

He’s only a few points off his second highest SLG% though!!!

darkravenn12

7 | 11 hours ago

He has been very good yes. As for your surprise at him leading the league in RBIs, the reason for that is because he probably has had way more opportunities with men on than you think. He is tied for 18th in the MLB in PA with RISP at 171 and tied for 5th in PA with runners on at all with 316.

AnAngryMatcha

8 | 9 hours ago

The thing with Pete is that he’s consistently leading the MLB with RBI, though. Every single year, regardless of who’s in front of him.

There is definitely opportunity there, but at some point people gotta chalk it up to him being an amazing baller if he does it annually, whether he’s following Gunnar, Beavers, Soto, Nimmo, Canó, or Nido. Hitting with men on is called clutch.

darkravenn12

1 | 9 hours ago

I mean, if you consistently get a lot of opportunities and are a solid hitter, you will end up with a lot of RBIs. No one is doubting that Alonso is a good hitter right now. You don’t need RBI to see that.

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

1 | 11 hours ago

That’s surprising

darkravenn12

3 | 11 hours ago

A lot of the people high on this list of opportunities are people that are kind of random. If you gave people like 20 guesses to name who they thought would be top 10 in PA with RISP, I doubt most people would guess Daylen Lile or Colson Montgomery lol

joseph_grizzly

1 | 7 hours ago

okay, but Daylen Lile is 23rd in RBI with 88.

Colson Montgomery is 27th with 87.

Pete Alsonso is 3rd with 108.

The Nats are 3rd in the league in runs scored, everyone knows they lose because they have literally set the record for the most blown saves in MLB history this year. So a Nat being there isn’t crazy, especially when he hits after James Wood who has 30 doubles this year, that’s already like 20% of all his RISP PA’s just whenever Woods hit a double.

The White Sox are 6th, with Montgomery being in the cleanup spot most of the year (and 5th or 6th when he isn’t).

The Orioles are 14th in runs scored, over 100 less runs than the Nationals. so you could say that Alonso’s RBI are more valuable since it seems even with his larger RBI totals than either of those players, his team has far less runs scored overall.

not sure where i’m going with this, just that because people don’t know those two names as much as they do Pete Alsonso is indicative of a ton of factors, mostly media exposure and the fact Lile and Montgomery have been in MLB for two seasons.

like people wouldn’t guess those names because they don’t know who those guys are, not that they aren’t productive.

EDIT: and looking at the list of players by PA w/ RISP, literally the top 20 are basically all guys that bat 4th, 5th, or just play on a team with the most runs scored. so again, i think naming guys that bat cleanup on a top 10 team in runs scored is probably going to be a pretty safe answer to “who are the top 10 players with PA RISP” the thing is people literally don’t know who those players are because they are young and have very, very little media exposure.

joseph_grizzly

1 | 7 hours ago

i mean going from 18th with RISP to 3rd in RBI is pretty good.

oddly enough, he drops to 21st in RBI w/ RISP. so largely because of his bombs (with either a runner on first or no one on) is he so far up the list in RBI.

7LineArmy

4 | 9 hours ago

If I had a nickel for every beloved Mets infielder who went to the Baltimore-Washington Metro Area to immediately have a career year, I would have two nickels, which is too many fucking nickels

tyler-86

4 | 9 hours ago

I just said “Daniel Murphy” in my head the same way Chappelle said Charlie Murphy.

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

1 | 9 hours ago

Justin Turner

tyler-86

1 | 7 hours ago

Well, he specified guys who went to Baltimore/Washington.

boozinf

84 | 11 hours ago

still 0.6 behind Steven Kwan in bWAR all praise Kwan base

EliteStat18

46 | 11 hours ago

Speaks volume that to the defender he is that he’s had a 5.2 WAR season with 108 OPS+

jet8493

6 | 10 hours ago

In LF no less

EliteStat18

4 | 10 hours ago

He has split between CF/LF this year.

shizbox06

-32 | 11 hours ago

Speaks volumes to the flaws of WAR.

OCHL092018

37 | 11 hours ago

A gold glove caliber defender who hits above league average is a very valuable player

TheFakeRabbit1

10 | 11 hours ago

Where can we find more of these gold glovers who hit well? Asking for a friend

BaltimoreBaja [OP]

17 | 11 hours ago

Yeah fielding doesn’t impact scoring at all

shizbox06

-10 | 10 hours ago

Yeah, that’s exactly what I said.

COOLBC38

4 | 10 hours ago

Speaks volumes to the flaws of you

SmallLetter

2 | 10 hours ago

It only speaks volumes of your own poor understanding of WAR

shizbox06

1 | 9 hours ago

Explain to me why there are multiple versions of your religion

tyler-86

1 | 9 hours ago

To be fair, while WAR has value, some people are way too behind it as a be-all-end-all baseball metric.

TwinkiesForAmerica

11 | 11 hours ago

that’s my contact hitter king

ThisWebsiteIsNeat

1 | 10 hours ago

What’s that have to do with this post or Alonso? Or are you just trying to find ways to bring up a player you like?

boozinf

10 | 10 hours ago

this post ended up getting removed:

https://old.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/1wlz482/alonso_vs_kwan_shows_war_is_a_mediocre_metric/

old boy brought up Kwan in comparison with Big Meat Pete for no reason at all so checkmate now bitches i love The Great Game

ComputerLess8024

52 | 11 hours ago

Yes, the Orioles absolutely got what they paid for. It’s unfortunate that they wasted one of the prime Alonso years with a last place finish.

GunnarGooner

29 | 11 hours ago

Still plenty of time to get the 4th place trophy

ReputationisObvious

7 | 10 hours ago

True! He could have really cemented a playoff team.

oo10inz

17 | 11 hours ago

checks out

ActualDragonHeart

16 | 10 hours ago

David Stearns is not going to be able to show his face in NY at this point and it’s entirely deserved.

catashake

4 | 8 hours ago

The 50 Mets fans who still trust Stearns will keep him safe.

Illustrious_Nothing9

7 | 9 hours ago

New York Messed that up bad

AnAngryMatcha

5 | 6 hours ago

I genuinely think people may still be talking about it in 20 years. It was that level of fuck-up.

The only way they absolve themselves is if they somehow win a ring in 2027 or 2028.

wowugotit

6 | 11 hours ago

I wish the polar bear was my boyfriend instead of Dylan.

ReputationisObvious

10 | 10 hours ago

Did you see how well he treated those 3 guys who caught his 300 HR ball at CitiField? And then said how thankful he was to them for bringing it to him! Pete is a class act!

wowugotit

6 | 10 hours ago

Yes. He is top shelf, Grade A.

magikarp-sushi

13 | 11 hours ago

Orioles legend Pete Alonso

ReputationisObvious

8 | 10 hours ago

That’s our boy!

jdbolick

3 | 10 hours ago

And he had a terrible start to the season. I was very worried about his bat speed, so I’m happy to have been wrong.

Schwettes

3 | 10 hours ago

gif

Mnementh47

6 | 11 hours ago

Such an amazing player. ♥️🐻‍❄️ LFGM

ReputationisObvious

2 | 10 hours ago

No kidding! He has bailed them out so many times.

oooriole09

2 | 10 hours ago

Well, his defense is helping that quite a bit. Offensively he’s putting up the same figures he did last year.

I’ll also say, it’s a little unfair to say the O’s haven’t had any OBP in front of him. Ward had a .380+ OBP. Gunnar is still .310, which while not good, is still good enough to get some. Cowser bats 8th/9th and is .310+.

Constant_Local_4851

2 | 10 hours ago

leading the league in rbis with no one getting on base makes sense

noruber35393546

2 | 7 hours ago

yeah but just think of all the money Stearns saved with his Baty/Vientos platoon

Flaky_Scar_8388

0 | 11 hours ago

And we know what the Mets are without him

Either_Imagination_9

2 | 11 hours ago

Tbf we knew what they are with him too

Flaky_Scar_8388

1 | 10 hours ago

Ok but they are better with him

Ananegg

1 | 11 hours ago

Imagine his RBI numbers if he had more league avg OBP players batting before him…

darkravenn12

11 | 11 hours ago

He is tied for 18th in the MLB in PA with RISP at 171 (leader has 197) and tied for 5th in PA with runners on at all with 316. He has had a pretty good amount of opportunities

Nole_Train

0 | 10 hours ago

Glad he’s out of the division and can root for him

[deleted]

-6 | 11 hours ago

[removed]

djoc0316

3 | 11 hours ago

Like his walk year was last year?

Pete Alonso is having the second best year of his career in both fWAR and bWAR