23
2011
Don’t Jump On The Bay Bandwagon Just Yet
An article by 
In the last week or so, Jason Bay has looked like his old all-star form. Yes, he has looked exponentially better at the plate, blasting one, nearly two, home runs against the A’s Tuesday night, but if you look at his split stats over his disappointing tenure as a Met, you will see a common theme that could be the reason for his recent hot streak.
In interleague play in 2010 and 2011, Jason Bay has batted .306(26-for-85) with 4 homers and 14 RBIs in just 25 games. Those four homers account for nearly half of Bay’s nine home runs in parts of two seasons with the Mets. That would be on pace for 26 homers and 91 RBIs in the course of a 162-game season. Those figures are exponentially better than his .249 average, 9 homers and 62 RBIs that Bay has compiled over 144 career games as a Met.
As we know, Bay has not lived up to his 4-year $66 million contract to begin his tenure as a Met, in the slightest. He has gotten worse in 2011, not better, until as of late he suddenly found his stroke. Since being benched to work on his swing, Bay is batting .324 with a home run and five RBIs. So it appears that he could be on his way back right? That he might be starting to pull it together right? Considering half of those games came in interleague play, I am not sold.
Here are Bay’s splits:
Although in a much smaller sample, these numbers do show Bay’s incredible differences when facing the American League as a Met. He has his old swing when against the American League. He is confident at the plate, he takes better hacks, and can…well hit the ball! What a concept!
One thing not shown in the chart above is Bay’s slugging percentage. In interleague play from 2010, Bay slugged .636. In 2011, he currently has a .433 when facing the AL. In the rest of his tenure, Bay has a .372 slugging percentage.
This is mostly due to the fact that for the most part, Bay has been surviving on bloops and dribblers for singles against the NL, when in interleague play, the ball has been in the air, and in many cases off the wall, and at times, over the wall.
Jason Bay has been quite the bust for the Mets so far, but when he faces the American League, we get a small glimpse of the $66 million man that the Mets signed in the winter of 2009, and not the utter shell of a once great ballplayer that we have grown accustomed to.
So don’t jump on the “Bay bandwagon” just yet, wait until after interleague play to see if he still performs at this level, because there is a very possible chance that after the Subway Series, he could go back to the bloop-and-dribbler Bay.
About the Author: Clayton Collier
Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com
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well i don’t care what anybody says I’m still rooting for this guy, he’s a class act and frankly if we’re going to do something we need him so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon so he’ll be in that lineup.
Well that’s true. I have noticed that he always is trying as hard as he can, he really wants to do well and is doing everything he can to do so, but the fact of the matter is he still needs to produce, and I am saying that do not start to believe that he will be a reliable source of production until we see some better numbers when not in interleague play.
Interleague play does not matter, if Bay gets hot, Bay’s gonna get hot it won’t matter if it’s against American League or National league hitting. He’s played most of his career outside of 1 1/2 years in Boston, in the National League. Bay is one of the most streakiest hitters in the game when he’s hot he’s nearly impossible to get out, but when he’s bad he’s really bad. The problem and solutions rest in Bay, pitching has nothing to do with it.
so…. was this post done before he reversed to be the jayson bay “mets version” we accostum to see.. 0-5 3 k’s.. bandwagon!!??
i don’t care if this man is a class act, hustles to the bases, is a hard working guy.. he sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
he’s a biggest bust than foster, we’re not even pressuring him to be anything or some type of savior for us and he still won’t produce.. 1 game or 2 a month and all of the sudden ppl talking about bandwagon!!!/? give me a break!!!
I wrote this before his 0-5, it was after the 3-3 night Alex. I just updated the stats after last night
thanks clayton.. coz even my daughter who’s 7 ask me why he sucks so much!!!!!!
Alex, you know your having a bad year year when even seven year old girls are wondering why you suck.
LMAO!!!!! you know, i was thinking the same thing.. she actually didn’t say he sucks, but more like she saw my reaction and face, then, she motices it was because of him and asked me “papi, why can’t he hit the ball?? lol..
Alex, it looks like your raising a good young baseball fan. Hope you can convince her to stay with us.
agee.. she likes david wright!!!!!!! go figure.. my luck!!
That’s funny Alex. Hopefully she’ll be able to switch over to Reyes next year and for a long time to come.
Glad to see their are some young Met Fans around after the disapointment of the last few years.
Buen Trabajo.
I didn’t even realize there was a Bay bandwagon!
It’s not a question of rooting for him. We’re all rooting for him. It’s just a reasonable question given his low level of productivity so far.
To me he’s played a LOT better in LF than I expected, not that I thought he was going to be bad but he’s actually pretty decent. He also hasn’t clogged the lineup up because even though he hasn’t really hit, at least he’s helping turn it over by getting OB and not being an out every time up. He’s also grabbing a base here and there and not being a drag on the team but at 66M and a #2 draft pick (who is killing it for Boston right now, Bryce Brentz 13 doubles, 13 HR’s so far this year just promoted to A+) C’mon. We need a little more than that.
One thing about Bay’s Hr’s so far in his Met career is that either he gets a guy twice in one game (Nolasco, Sabathia, almost Outman) or someone else gets him in the same game (Millwood-Carter and Wright, Norris-Fern,)
The only stand alone HR’s he’s hit as a Met has been against Barry Enright who’s no stranger to giving up the long ball and Kuroda. He’s also homered in such diverse places as Oriole Park, Puerto Rico, Houston and Citi Field and many of them have been labeled by hittrackeronline.com as “just enoughs” or “lucky.”
Personally I would prefer having Bryce Brentz at St. Lucie so perhaps we could someday get off this disapointing free agent merry go round that not only costs us potential solutions in the future but hamstrings the payroll, clogs up the roster and flat out costs us wins in the present.
You would think that a decent talent evaluating GM or scouting dept could at the very least come up with someone who had some future in front of them and could do at least as well for league minimum. Then we wouldn’t be talking about potential landing spots for Jose Reyes.