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The New York Mets have emerged as one of the best teams in MLB during the 2022 season. A big reason for that is because they have their slugging first baseman Pete Alonso at the middle of their lineup.
Alonso is once again proving that he is one of the best sluggers in the league for the Mets this season. His 29 home runs are fifth in the MLB, and his 97 RBI are leading the way in the National League, with only Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees coming in ahead of him in that department with 100 RBI.
Alonso has been one of the best power hitters in the game since he came into the league back in 2019, and that has resulted in him having very high RBI totals throughout his career. But as analytics become more prominent in MLB, some folks have begun to devalue the importance of driving in runs, which would take away from Alonso's value in their eyes. Alonso had a strong message for those people who don't believe in the importance of RBIs, claiming that they “don't necessarily understand baseball.”
Pete Alonso was asked about analytics devaluing RBI totals:
"It's a run-scoring competition, it's not a hit competition."
On people who devalue RBIs: "I think they don't necessarily understand baseball." pic.twitter.com/sQAyhMskzd
— SNY (@SNYtv) August 14, 2022
Alonso definitely has a strong take here. Analytics junkies can certainly take things a bit too far with their takes from time to time, but it isn't done as a personal attack toward Alonso. These folks tend to feel that you can't score runs if you don't get on base, making getting on base the most important aspect of the game in their eyes.
In the end, Alonso is correct in saying that driving in runs is important. Without runs, you don't win games; baseball is all about scoring runs, which inherently makes driving in runs of the utmost importance. That's what makes Pete Alonso one of the best hitters in all of baseball, and it's clear that he believes that RBI are still as valuable as ever.