Comments on: Steve Blass Syndrome

By: gregg

gregg — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:58:01 +0000

Scratch that. Stanton hits righty. My mistake. But my bigger point is, righties with massive power can still hit HR’s at Citi. But David is a 25-30 HR hitter. Good power but his greatest strength was hitting doubles in the gaps. And the gaps are now gone.

By: gregg

gregg — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:18:34 +0000

Partly disagree. You logic is flawed in the sense that the walls in Citi Field led Bay and Wright to change their approach at the plate. You can’t simply say “well if it’s the walls then why aren’t they hitting a bunch of warning track fly balls.”

Bay maybe has some more stuff going on. But Citi absolutely killed Wrights hitting approach.

Stanton hits lefty, and Beltran and Chipper have more power than Wright. Davids game was hitting .320 lacing doubles in the gaps. When you make the gaps 390 with 20 foot walls its going to ruin that part of his game. Causing him to get pull crazy and leading to more K’s.

What Wilpon did essentially is put lead shoes on him and then said “See I told you, you’re not that fast.”

By: Doug Branch

Doug Branch — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:03:11 +0000

DR: Blass’ ML career was obstensively over after only five innings for Bucs in ’74, was the point. I was comparing the mysterious sudden erosion of two once talented productive players. I can’t blame Bay’s eneptitude on Citi Field because his swing is futile period. He does not drive the ball, or make contact for that matter.

He’s a guess hitter who is guessing wrong. Yes, the Pirates would’ve released Blass eventually, salary not an issue- ecause he hit the backstop on every pitch. Unless they wanted to play with a 24-man roster and bury him in the bullpen (where have I heard a team doing that before?).

No way Bay is going anywhere, but suddenly the minors might be a possibiltiy, if nothing else to prevent a mental breakdown.

By: Dennis Ribant

Dennis Ribant — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:23:49 +0000

A little bit od factual corrections. Blass did not retire after 5 innings in 74. Blass was sent to Charleston where he spent the year being hideous. His ERA was over 9. Blass did not just walk awat and retire as you hint at. He went to Spring training with the bucs and was released before the start of the 75 season. That is not retiring and leaving millions on the table as you want Bay to do. Blass probalby had virtually no money on the table that the Bucs had to give him, and he on;y retired because nobody offered him a chance afte rthe Bucs released him. Do you think the Bucs would have released him if he were owed as much as the Mets owe Bay? If you say yes we’ll all laugh along. There is one recent example of someone walking away and leaving millions on the table and that was a guy who didn’t want to go thru more surgeries and rehabs. And even he left only 12 mil.

By: t agee

t agee — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:05:15 +0000

There have been about 30 HR’s hit at Citi Field by RH hitters this year in 32 games. Probably 12 by us. Many of them by guys who had less than 10 AB’s or so. Many of them were WAY out of the park. Chipper for instance. Stanton. Beltran, Troy, even Turner. Bay’s even hit one himself and if it’s the wall then why doesn’t he hit flyballs to the warning track? Bang shots off the wall? Hit them on the road? The fact is most of his hits are bloops or GB’s. Hard to hit HR’s that way.

The old changed his swing routine because of Citi Field doesn’t hold water either. He’s moved away from the plate so the up and in FB won’t be called a strike because he can no longer get around on it. Consequently the middle high FB which he used to cream is now off the end of his bat and he’s rolling it to 3B.

The first year at Citi Field had for the most part Pagan and Murphy in front of Wright and little else behind him and was a wet and cold summer overall. There aren’t going to be cheap one’s hit at Citi but still…..

Moving the fences (or lowering them) would just result in other teams hitting more HR’s.

By: alex68

alex68 — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:52:55 +0000

it turned him from a super star to merely a very good player”

to second that greg, to me it turn him from a very good player, to just a good player.. and me saying that is a tretch

By: Gregg

Gregg — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:45:15 +0000

Citi Field killed Jason Bays career. And while it didn’t kill Wrights career it turned him from a super star to merely a very good player. That wall ruins right handed hitters. Look at Wrights OPS. his first 4 full seasons in the bigs. Then all of the sudden at age 26, when most players are entering their primes, his OPS drops nearly 100 points and his K’s go up? Sometimes the answer turns out to be the simplest one. Citi Field 1, Jason Bay 0.

As far as Reyes is concerned, why wouldn’t you pay him Crawford money? People for some reason equate not paying Reyes big bucks to winning in the future. As if we’d be able to take the 20 mill a year we’d be paying Reyes and spread that around to fill several holes. This is an ignorant argument at best, delusional at worst. Look at the available free agents and tell me who your getting for under 20 mill thats worth it? Remember we live in an age where mediocre pitchers like Burnett and Lackey get 15 mill a year. The idea that there are 3 or 4 pieces available for 20 mill is not reality.

And honestly, if I look at our roster next year and see we’re paying Bay 16 mill, and Johan over 20, but refused to pay Reyes, a little part of me will die inside.

And then there is this hard reality; Fred Wilpon is a broke, desperate man. He most likely cannot afford to pay Jose, even if he wants to. He will eventually be forced to sell in 3 years. But by that time Reyes and Wright could be gone. And if thats the case then Fred needs to do the right thing for Mets fans, and thats sell the team now. Or Selig needs to force him to sell now. Because the Mets losing Reyes and/or Wright is not only bad for the team, but bad for baseball.