7
2011
Time For Bay To Give Us Some Bang For The Buck
An article by 
I am not a big stats guy. They can be telling, but also misleading. With some numbers, you can twist them into meaning anything you want.
That’s not the case with Jason Bay, whose numbers have been fundamentally telling and just plain bad. He hit six homers with 47 RBI while batting .259 last season. I am aware of the injuries and having a slow start, but he had enough of a window – 401 plate appearances over 95 games – to understand that’s terrible.
An injury this spring has limited him to 11 games and 48 plate appearances, but has only .256, with one homer and three RBI to show for it. Not a great window, but one that says it can’t go on like this much longer.
Of all his numbers, his 14-5 strikeouts-to-walks ratio is most telling. There’s not much plate presence.
It is time for Bay to produce, and I mean with power, to justify that $66 million package. The Mets acquired Bay not to hit singles or act as a decoy in the batting order, but to hit the damn ball out of the park.
With his current production, Bay is impossible to unload, so the Mets figure to be further burdened by his contract, making other moves difficult.
Bay’s value to the Mets is to live up to the hopes and expectations they had of him when they offered him all that money. The pressure is on Bay like never before, but that can’t be an excuse. Playing in New York is about producing, and he’s not.
There’s time to turn it around, but it won’t be long before the bust label becomes official.
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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You hit that one out of the park John,
Bay right now looks like a slap hitter and I don’t care if he hits .280 with a nice OBP. I thought I was gonna throw up when Sandy Alderson mentioned the most important thing he wants from Bay is a good OBP.
Unbelievably dumb.
What we need from Jason Bay is HRs and RBIs. Plain and simple. If he’s doing that than everything else will fall into place. We can’t catch a break, Beltran who’s knees were one of the big talking points in New York is showing he can play everyday, it’s a blessing. Imagine the ripple effect it would have in this lineup and Beltran AND Bay were both just putting up their regular power numbers.
It’s refreshing to see a Mets left fielder catch the ball on line drives and some fly balls. With Hairston, we’ve regressed a lot since the days of Endy.
Bay has shown flashes and that’s about it. I don’t know where the hell it all went with him. I give him till the end of this season. Something along the lines of the “Beltran effect” with that first year being bad and the second year and the following ones being pretty damn good.
I expect him to bounceback this season, but we’ll see what comes of it.
Here’s the only stat anyone should care about: In games that Bay plays, the Mets are 8-3 this season…enough bang?
Go check the boxscores for those 8 wins and tell us how many had game winning hits by Bay. Credit Ike, Murphy, Beltran and Reyes on offense.
so…do Ike, Murphy, Beltran, and Reyes get the credit for the 5-15 record the Mets have when Bay doesn’t play? or are all those losses Wright’s fault? I’m not concerned with game winning hits by player “A” as much as I am about the Mets getting the win, and all the data shows that when Bay plays, regardless of what you THINK and your fantasy baseball stats tell you, the Mets have won this year. Ike sure does see a lot of fastballs hitting in the 6 spot, and strikes out a ton when Bay isn’t there and Davis has to hit in a real place in the lineup(4-5).
So, Bay’s production numbers are “fantasy stats” but the team’s over all record gets attributed to him?
Even though he only bats 3 or 4 times a game, might see half a dozen fly balls to him and doesn’t pitch?
does it have anything to do with him coming back for when they were playing the dregs teams that they were able to beat, even with him doing little in most of the games?
And the pitching for improving.
the pitching didn’t improve…the Mets played the Astros, Nats, and Arizona, probably the only 3 teams worse than them in the NL. My point is Bay’s impact on the lineup, particularly Beltran and Davis, is a unique quality, whether thats the “threat” he presents or not, you’ll have to ask the pitchers throwing to him; but the Mets are a better team when he plays plain and simple.
when the alternative is Harris or Hairston, then yes, they are better with Bay (even the craptastic version of him we currently are subjected to)
Bay’s presence does help the lineup have some credibility but so far I have to agree that his numbers are certainly not what his Salary would suggest they should be.
I think he will come around soon enough.
Lets face it he is a Met until they have decided to cut bait, pay a large portion of his salary and trade him.
I don’t really see that happening this year, Maybe next year.
agreed, Metsie
Bay bores me. I cannot understand how a guy with a swing as short as his strikes out so much. He cannot hit a curve ball. I like that he hustles and plays an okay LF, but I never feel like he is going to come through in a big spot. If clutch hitting is random, where is his random? And also, where is the power?