19
2011
Jason Bay May Start Batting Second
An article by Hojo's Mojo
Mets manager Terry Collins is seriously considering a major shakeup in the lineup that would include batting the struggling Jason Bay in the No. 2 spot of the batting order.
“I’m going to try something,” Collins said. He added, “We’ve got to get him some protection, there’s no question about it.”
Bay seems to have no problem with it, saying that he’d hit anywhere and that it made no difference to him.
The idea is that with Bay batting second, he would be protected by right fielder Carlos Beltran and get better pitchers to hit.
Original Post 5/18: Bay Is Running Out Of Time
Now that David Wright is officially going to join Ike Davis and Angel Pagan on the DL after being diagnosed Monday with a stress fracture in his lower back, Peter Botte of the Daily News says it would be nice if Jason Bay started “providing some production commensurate with his $66 million contract.
“Now’s the time you find out what guys are really made of,” said Bay, who is hitting just .216 with a .656 OPS and two home runs in 20 games since coming off the DL with a ribcage injury. “Regardless of if they’re hurt or not, I think it’s important for me to get back on track.”
Bay had a would-be homerun taken away from him on Monday night by the expansive dimensions in Citi Field and was asked his thoughts on the deep alleys.”
I thought I hit it pretty well. At least, well enough to go off the wall. But apparently not. It definitely doesn’t help, no question.”
The next time he came to bat, hitting it deep wasn’t as big of a concern as the Mets slugger was asked to sacrifice bunt with Carlos Beltran on first and none out in the tenth.
Bay has just six RBIs this season and in 116 games as a Met, he has homered just eight times with a .251 batting average in 426 at-bats. He is batting .178 o the road this season going 8 for 45.
There may not be a season left to salvage when David Wright or Johan Santana comes back if Jason Bay doesn’t get things figured out soon.
Sooner or later, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran who have carried this team for nearly two months, will cool down a little making Bay’s lack of production even more glaring than it is now.
On the lighter side, did any of you catch this fan at the end of Monday night’s SNY broadcast?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3gEKK_fGvU&feature=player_embedded
About the Author: Rob Johnson
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Right on.
Jason Bay, you still have a chance to endear yourself to Mets fans. The fact that he ran into a wall for the team was pretty cool. I certainly can’t hate this guy, but, man, how popular he will be if he starts hitting like a slugger and striking some fear into the hearts of NL hurlers.
i feel the same way.time is running out on him.i hope he can turn it around.i’m rooting for him, but who knows.he is another one of our players with a fear of citi field.
Bay had a much higher slugging percentage at home last year than on the road so he can talk about the field all he wants to but if he had duplicated his home numbers on the road he wouldn’t have been considered such a bust.
The real issue with Bay though is that for his ENTIRE CAREER he has struck out over 50% of the time he has gotten into a 2 strike count. Doesn’t matter if it’s 0-2, 1-2 , 2-2, or 3-2. Combined in all 2 strike counts, for his entire career he has struck out over 50% of the time. Even 3-2 which should be considered a hitters count (unless 1B is open, two out, weaker hitter on deck) for his entire career he has struck out 40% of the time.
All of these numbers were trending south even while he was hitting in a deep lineup in a small park in 2009. Can anyone really expect that he would reverse that trend in a weaker lineup in a big park as he gets older?
And then in addition to importing all those K’s at 80M over 5 years, putting them back to back to back with other guys who strike out too much or don’t have the ability to get into hitters counts like Wright, Francouer, Jacobs, Barajas is pretty bad planning. Now we’re stuck with him for another 3 1/2 years and that will be without the glue in the lineup, neutral platoon split, high OB AND SLG Carlos Beltran.
The writing was on the wall for everyone to see that he wasn’t a good fit or even a guy who two non tenders in a platoon wouldn’t be able to out perform at about 2 M total per year which would allow you to have bought the real difference maker. Pitching. Joel Pinero 2/16 while not perfect or an ace was at least healthy and after working with Duncan was worth a shot at reasonable money if only to compress Maine and Perez into one spot in the rotation.
LF is really a position that you shouldn’t have to go outside your organization to fill. You could even hide a player without ideal range as long as you have an Endy Chavez or Angel Pagan to come in for him or you could go with an all around average type player for a year or two and put the money into something much more useful and keep a second round draft choice as well and maybe get another player out of it. Bay is the 8th FA LFer we have had to import here since 1980. It is inexcusable that in 30 years the best play from a homegrown LFer was Benny Agbayni for a couple of years and even he was just a part time player.
Bay’s only choice at this point is to avoid 2 strike counts like the plague because things are only going to get worse. He should look first pitch fastball in every AB until pitchers start to adjust (probably about 10 days) and just take everything else. Against the Lincecum’s, Halliday’s and Lee’s he won’t be able to do much but against guys with mediocre control he may get some meatballs when they miss with breaking stuff and he winds up 1-0 and 2-0.
We could have paid 8 M over 5 years for this type of production.
Amazing comment. One of the better I’ve read anywhere. I’m better for having read it. Thank you.
Thank you Gallo. Now let’s stop with the free agent circus before the NL completely rips us to shreds.
Just got the scoop. Omar refuesed to give this jerk agee a job so agee writes omar hate mail every day. hjey agee, change your name to sicko and see a shrink. your perverted mind won’t get mbwetter without major help.
True. Once Bay has 2 strikes, even a full count, pitchers throw him a hook and he swings. They know that even if they place it outside the zone, Bay will swing. He really is awful on curve balls. And he cannot get balls into the air.
Again, pretty sad watching him flail away last night despite the sac fly and another “almost” shot.
Fascinating what you write about the two-strike counts; didn’t know about that. Yikes!
He really has pretty much sucked as a Met, though I don’t despise him.
Speaking of Endy, watched him play against Sox here in Chicago at the Cell. SO great to see him, and he was hitting the ball all over the place. Now that was a Met we all loved!
Still, holding out hope for Bay to be a productive slugger, but the hope won’t last much longer if he keeps sucking.
Now that everyone talks about crowding the plate–the whole Kiner to Killebrew story–seems that Bay might benefit by inching closer. Heck, at least he’ll hit more of the balls low and away that he keeps whiffing on.
WOW Russell. I didn’t know that Endy had made it back. That’s great news. I’ll tell you that is one guy who I was always glad to see come into the game. Great and versitile bench player. Five games and he’s already got some D WAR on the boards and off to a good start with the bat. Same old Endy.
Without Wright and Davis in the lineup, Bay has no protection. He will be protection for Beltran, but there is no one to provide protection for him. Pitchers will have no reason to give Bay anything hittable. Even when Davis comes back…if the lineup is Beltran-Davis-Bay…Bay is still left unguarded. And, Bay is not a good enough contact hitter to overcome that.
Bay looks like a cueless rookie with zero confidence and he’s been that way since he became a Met. He’s looking more and more like a bust everyday.
Bay def not doing himself any favors if he struggles to produce in 2011 as he did in 2010. Really hoping he doesn’t turn into a bust.
Both Wright and Bay have to swing for the gaps and stop thinking HR on every swing. You can see how David has changed his swing and approach. Last year Bay was hitting into the gaps. Just hit the ball without uppercutting everything and get the ball in play.
Bay has Bern catching fans ire since the day he signed. It’s just worse now because he completely sucks and missed 3 months so far. He better pick it up soon because if he doesn’t I feel the Slappy treatment coming quite soon
by all means lets care what the fans think of players.
I’m going to wait for Bay to show up. I don’t get why this guy hasn’t played since he signed that contract. Any idea when he actually will start playing games with the Mets?
….
OH! He’s already on the team?! FOOLED ME!
Trade him to the Maple Leafs where he belongs!
I thought that once we cut Perez and Castillo that any real stench that remeained from the Minaya era was surely gone. I couldn’t be more wrong. This Bay contract is going to haunt us all the way through the 2014 season when he will be even worse than he is now. This contract is going to be worse than the Castillo/Perez deals which only totalled $60 million. Bay’s deal tops out at $84 million with the vesting option.
The next time he came to bat, hitting it deep wasn’t as big of a concern as the Mets slugger was asked to sacrifice bunt with Carlos Beltran on first and none out in the tenth.
This is not correct, Bay came up in the 7th with one out and Reyes on Third in a 1-1 game, all he had to do was hit a sac fly, a single would have been nice. What did he do, STRIKE OUT!! He cost the METS the game, had he driven in Reyes we never would have been in extra innings, BAY NEEDS TO WAKE UP!! I felt good dumping LC and Ollie, but, BAY, may be the next METS to be showered in BOOs when he walks to the plate.
Congratulations to all who posted here. I know its a met fan dream to hate Met players, but you all take the trophy for glorifying the potential hate on the way to Bay. Guess what to all you hate folks. Bay gets paid no matter how much your jealous little selves can’t stand it, and unlike you all he will retire rich and not have to work until he dies. Too bad for all you.
*yawn*
The old “jealousy” card. Is that the best you can come up with?
Right. We should be happy that we have squandered the best years of the only good position players we have developed since the 60′s by surrounding them with so many past their prime freaks that now we can’t even afford to retain them.
Good thinking.
They didn’t want Bay, but they felt they had to sign “somebody.” That was typical of the Omar era. It is bad baseball and even worse business.
This coming from a guy that keeps killing Alderson before 1/4 of a season is complete and keep comparing him to the free spending Omar………that’s good stuff.
Who is Bay?
Well, it’s worth a shot, I guess.