Hudgens stressing patience at the plate

For all the talk of on-base percentage and working deeper into counts, a not-so-funny thing happened to the Mets during the first two weeks of this season. They began striking out at an alarming rate, and in Sunday's loss to the Nationals, they whiffed 17 times in 11 innings.

For hitting coach Dave Hudgens, that was tough to watch, and not one of his prouder moments since replacing Howard Johnson during the winter.

But Hudgens understands there is a price tag that comes with being more patient at the plate, and that can mean a spike in strikeout totals. The trick is to create a more favorable balance in the frequency of walks -- another offshoot of deeper counts -- and make the Mets better at exploiting their particular piece of the strike zone.

"We shouldn't strike out 17 times," Hudgens said. "The guys are trying to minimize that and it's something we work on. We want to put balls in play, but we want to do it the right way. You want to make sure you get good pitches to hit."

That's easy to say. The hard part is the execution. Just about every player in the majors is familiar with the fundamentals of what to do at the plate, and it's not as if hitting coaches are re-inventing the wheel when preaching their own methods.

"You're not going to change the type of hitter someone is overnight," David Wright said. "But you can reinforce the basics to remind guys what to look for."

Back in spring training, Hudgens' early mantra was to saw off the sides of the plate -- to narrow the focus -- and make the opposing pitcher's task more difficult. But there are consequences to ignoring the edges of the plate, which is why the Mets often find themselves fighting from behind in the count.

"My message wasn't really about just taking pitches," Hudgens said. "The plate is 17 inches wide. I asked them to shrink the plate down to 13 inches and take the corner pitches. That's the general idea, because in the middle of the plate, guys hit for a very high average. There are times you're going to get deep in counts. But if you get your pitch on the first pitch, you better be swinging."

That's why Hudgens doesn't have a problem with Jose Reyes taking his chances earlier in the count. Pitchers don't want to walk him -- with his speed, it's almost like giving Reyes a double -- so he's going to get strikes.

As for Wright, who had a career-high 161 strikeouts last season, Hudgens has worked with him on some adjustments that should trim that total.

"What I've talked to David about is that you're going to cut your strikeouts down by not missing your pitch," Hudgens said. "The last two years, he'd foul that pitch back, and a lot of that is due to mechanics -- where he comes up under the ball. He's got to stay on top of the ball, shorten his swing a little bit and drive the ball to the middle of the field."

There have been a number of situations this season in which simply making contact would have resulted in a run, so there is an obvious benefit to putting the ball in play. But that's not always the best outcome.

Hudgens doesn't want the Mets flailing away for the sake of contact, and he hopes that even the most strikeout-prone players can improve their ability to get on base. Or at least contribute to a team-wide effort to exhaust the starting pitcher by the fifth inning. Hudgens wants everyone to buy into that mission.

"Some guys just have a knack for it," Hudgens said, "but I think it can be taught if they value it. If a value is placed on it, and they know how important it is, I think they can get better at it."