The Mets announced that they're lowering their outfield fences and moving them in for the 2012 season. The wall will be as much as 12 feet closer to home plate in some places, which should make Citi Field — currently the 28th hardest park to homer in — more hitter-friendly. Here are some more updates on the club…
- MetsBlog has graphics of the new look for Citi Field.
- Andy Martino of the New York Daily News reports that the Mets don't expect Jose Reyes to sign in November. The Mets will decide whether to make a competitive offer for Reyes once other teams set the market for him. Martino reports that the Mets won't sign free agents Willie Harris or Scott Hairston until much later in the offseason, if at all.
- Mets GM Sandy Alderson asked Reyes' representatives how much it would take to lock him up, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). When Reyes didn't respond, the Mets decided to wait and see how the market develops.
- Alderson told reporters, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, that he expects David Wright to return to the Mets in 2012.
- Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com gets the impression that the Mets' payroll could dip below $100MM on Opening Day (Twitter link). The Mets have had a payroll of at least $100MM every season since 2004.
Ah, I think you’ve got it backwards. It’s the third hardest park to homer in. The 28th hardest park to homer in would place it in the lowest part, meaning that it’s actually easy to homer there.
I do hope Sandy fixes the bullpen. Several games were lost because of blown saves and leads after the 8th inning this season. D.J. Carrasco, for example, balked in the game-ending run in Atlanta, Isringhausen couldn’t stop a Brewers rally in August, Dale Thayer blew a game in Milwaukee in June and Parnell blew an 8-7 lead against Washington in September. Even K-Rod nearly blew a game when he gave up a three-run homer to Diory Hernandez which ended up over the Great Wall of Flushing.
Edit: Bobby Parnell blew four saves in September alone.
I also want to see pitching coach Dan Warthen fired.
I think Warthen’s time as a Met is limited. They brought in ex-Brewer Ricky Bones as bullpen coach, who was heralded as one of the better pitching coaches across the Minor Leagues.
Considering how ghastly the pen was this year, I bet if they don’t see better results with this arrangement then Bones will be made pitching coach and Warthen will be sent packing.
So the Mets pitching staff is far from great and they’re going to make it easier for visiting teams to score more runs?
They aren’t trying to make it a hitters park. They’re trying to make it so the power alleys actually exist, so that the players don’t hate playing there. And fans didn’t like it either,
Alderson should ask himself is it easier to find athletic, speedy players with small ball skills or a staff of sinkerball pitchers with decent K/9 ratios? Half your games are played at home. Why give the visiting team a better opportunity to out-score you?
They did the math out. they would’ve hit 81 more homeruns at citi field, while their opponents would’ve hit 71 more (over the last 3 years). This also doesn’t take into effect, what the park has done to Wright and Bay mentally. So that number for the Mets could be higher. We’ll see.
If David Wright stays a Met, I wonder what the Orioles will do to improve the situation at Third Base?
The Rockies might also be asking themselves the same thing right about now.
If David Wright doesn’t stay a Met, I wonder what the Orioles will do to improve the situation at Third Base?
Mark Reynolds
They clone Kevin Gregg.
hahahahaha!
“When Reyes didn’t respond….”
Ryes ain’t coming back
Sad days in Mets-land. The team, in pitcher’s park venus for the duration of its existence, alters its park (where they excelled in 2010) to achieve a 25% gain in home runs, which given the wretched state of the pitching staff does not bode well. In doing so, ostensibly to boost entertainment value, they accentuate the contributions of Wright, who may be on the decline, and Bay, who may be simply a bust, accentuating the flaws of their pitching staff (made more acute since Mike Pelfrey’s lost his groundball proclivity). Topping it all off, the park’s new dimensions decrease the value of the keystone to the club’s off-season planning, the major league’s leading triples machine. Whom they are not tendering a viable offer to and who isn’t giving them a number. Which means between $15M-$20M which might be otherwise spent, will be held for the ever-dminishing possibility that they re-sign Reyes — effectively handcuffing anything but marginal spending until January (possibly).
There’s nothing more unpleasant than a whining Mets fan from New Jersey. Go away.
Deal with it
You know what I’d rather have a ballpark that doesn’t mask bad pitching, it’s become such a crutch for our horrible pitchers, I’d rather their horrendous abilities be more magnified to force a change. IT IS DISGUSTING, flat out disgusting to watch players smack the ball around Citi Field only for it to result in the pitcher sighing in relief.
You know what handcuffs the team? Building a team around players who peak at age 27 who are also rare and more difficult to find. Reyes is amazing because there aren’t many players with his speed who can also hit, You don’t make a ballpark for this player, that’s absolutely stupid.
I agree. You’d need to build a park with no walls to make Pelfrey, Gee, Carrasco, Igarashi, and Isringhausen look like good pitchers this year. You can’t build a park around Jose Reyes, because there simply isn’t and may not be someone else like him for a long, long time. Just to further refute greggofboken’s points, Reyes hit 17, 17, 12, and 19 triples at Shea for four straight seasons, along with 7, 19, 12, and 16 home runs.
I agree that you shouldn’t make a ballpark for ANY player (Reyes, Wright, Pelfrey, anyone). What I am saddened by is the decision (driven purely by perceived increased ticket sales) that gives greater emphasis to the home run, which is in decline in the sport (down 12% in the league in the most recent 3 years compared to the prior 3). The changes should move us closer to the average, and in my view are too extreme and not the direction the game is heading.
Short term, the park will hurt this particular club I believe. Short-term isn’t the point, but it will be grim. Long-term I feel we’ve lost an advantage. (For the record, I agree that some changes needed to be made to the park, which did play as unfair. I do feel these are too extreme.)
Why is it that baseball is the only sport that allows different dimensions to it’s playing fields? I’m of the order that all ball park fences should be of equal value. There for making records of say HR, doubles, triples along with defensive stats for OF all on equal playing fields.
Either way it doesn’t look to good for Reyes to be legging out Triples in Citi Fields next season.