Collins Throws A Log Onto The Fire

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• martin August 21, 2011 at 10:53 am

  the argument is totally invalid, both teams play in the same park.
  • theonlymaskman August 21, 2011 at 11:21 am

    Both team aren’t equal. Some teams have quality pitching to deal with Citi. Some teams do not. The Mets do not with pitchers like Pelfrey, Capuano, Carrasco, Acosta, etc. We are recognized as having the worst BP in MLB. So tell me again why we should expect success in Citi?
    • martin August 21, 2011 at 2:57 pm

      look at last year’s home record. look at the mets record over the history of citifield.
• jessep August 21, 2011 at 10:15 am

  I guess what I don’t understand here is how come other teams score runs at Citi Field? The Mets have give up 274 runs at home, compared to scoring 254 runs at home.

  So how come other teams don’t seem to mind?

  San Francisco, LA Angels, St. Louis, and Atlanta all have stadiums that have had runs harder to come by at home than the Mets. How come they seem to be doing just fine?

  If you want to tell me “We want to change how this team is built and to do that we need to alter the park.” Fine.

  But telling me the team performs the way they do because of the park is an excuse. They perform the way they do because of the talent or lack thereof. If it’s in their head, then that is why you employ hitting coaches and managers.

  I find it tough to handle Terry Collins saying the park may have to be altered following an 11-9 loss.
  • dmist August 21, 2011 at 10:34 am

    @jessup

    i think we have to take into account, where exactly the home runs are hit, i remember reading an article which stated that at left field (i think) compared to yankees stadium, the distance is just long enough to prevent about 50% of the current total home runs hit at yankees stadium. we have to look at location and distance on top of the numbers as well because everyone hits differently and maybe a majority of power hitters are being dissuaded from coming to citi because of things like this.

    and we also have to consider that we aren’t the ones in the batters box making that needed play. and it can be pretty tough when half of your team is from AAA
    • jessep August 21, 2011 at 10:54 am

      Agreed dmist. If the Mets lineup was comprised of top big league talent, they wouldn’t have this issue. I can’t buy into the fact that its in their heads. Then all we’re saying is our coaches are no good.
  • theonlymaskman August 21, 2011 at 11:17 am

    Perhaps other teams do better at hitting in our park than we do because 1. our pitchng sucks especially the BP and they’re able to feast off us and 2. their pitching is a lot better than ours and can take advantage of this pitcher’s park by stifling our offense. Apparently our stupid ownership built this pitcher’s park so other teams could shut us down with their pitching and we could serve up gophers to them because we won’t dedicate the bucks to put quality pitchers in the bull pen. The Wilpon’s must have a death wish fetish. Seems pretty simple to me why we suck in our own park and other teams can dominate in Citi. Hey Alderson, bring in more Carrasco’s for us please!
    Until ownership has the will and fortitude to expend resoures to bring in true quality pitching, we are cooked in Citifield and fans should be able to recognie that.
  • jdon August 21, 2011 at 11:33 am

    Agreed. We don’t have the hitters to even take advantage of a smaller park. Having said that, I still think they should remove the top half of the left field wall and do something about right center being 415 or whatever it is. That is patently ridiculous.
• theonlymaskman August 21, 2011 at 11:25 am

  I congratulate Collins for speaking up like this. He is one of the few bright spots for the Mets this season. He manages with a brain and is both supportive and assertive with the players. I am glad he is ready to throw out challenges to Alderson and the ownership for the public to see. He is willing to speak out to the media and not just speak behind closed doors. Good for him and hopefully he has some influence in getting things changed. He has earned my respet this year and I hope ownership has the brains to bring him back for years to come.
• jdon August 21, 2011 at 11:35 am

  Just because it should not be in the team’s head does not mean it isn;t. Collins is just being truthful.
• 86mets August 21, 2011 at 11:53 am

  Injuries (Reyes, Davis, Santana, Murphy) have depleted the quality of talent on the Mets 25 man roster. That’s a given. The lineup is clearly inferior while missing Reyes, Davis, and Murphy to injury and Beltran to trade. Couple that with a bevy of hitters with sub .400 Slugging Pct’s. (Pagan, Tejeda, Turner, Thole, Bay) and you have a team that isn’t going to score many runs.

  So that would seem to explain their inability to score runs, and esp to hit home runs, at Citi Field. So why is it that while they’re 25-34 at home with a runs differential of 274 allowed to 254 scored, they are 35-31 with a diff of 310 scored to 294 allowed? Why are they so much better on the road than at home? What’s even more confusing is that while they’re so bad at home, their Slg % is actually BETTER at Citi (.405) than on the road (.389) and their OBP is better as well (.340 @ Home vs. .333 on the road). While the overall BA is a wash (.265 away vs. .266 home). On a stat sheet they get on base more often at home and hit with more authority as well. So why are they 9 games under .500 at home and 4 over on the road?

  This team is, all at once, easy to pull for because they’re scrappy (mostly b/c of Collins) yet infuriating because they can’t get the job done at home! I’m not sure if adjusting the dimensions of the park will help or not. Obviously it won’t hurt, but guys like Wright and Bay, in theory, shouldn’t struggle to hit for power at home when visiting players don’t seem to have the same struggle. Is this team Jinxed? I just don’t get it.
  • Hawk August 21, 2011 at 7:33 pm

    It’s the Wilpon/Citi Curse.
• MetFan Lou August 21, 2011 at 12:05 pm

  This may be a premptive strike for the following reasons:
• MetFan Lou August 21, 2011 at 12:14 pm

  Excuse my computer screwup. Let me continue. A premptive strike by Collins to do a couple of things: 1. Get the park ready for the eventual call-up of Brandon Nimmo, 2. Make Citi field more friendly to Wright so he won’t leave, 3. Try to get some value for Jason Bay before we kick him to the curb, 4. Try to increase attendance and 5. Excuse the teams poor play and take away the fans attention that by the end of the season we’ll be in last place 30 or more games out of first. This is not fooling me. If you can’t play the game, blame it on everything you can and absolve any responsibilities bt the owners,player and coaching staff. Collins, you’re crying towel ain’t big enough. I could never imagine Bobby V, or Gil Hodges, or Joe G, or Terry Francona or a bunch of other managers crapping in their shorts like this. I’m pretty disgusted.
• martin August 21, 2011 at 3:05 pm

  again, last year the mets were 13 game over 500 at home. they were home juggernauts. collins is an idiot and has no idea what he is tlking about. it doesnt matter though because his opinion is of no consequence.

  and even if your arguemnt is that the mets cannot attract free agent hitters, then wouldnt the opposite be true of free agent pitchers?
  • theonlymaskman August 22, 2011 at 6:58 pm

    Free agent pitchers? Have we any intention of signing any of those?
• sarge August 21, 2011 at 4:05 pm

  Mets do score a lot of runs, get on base a lot true but what Terry was saying has nothing to do with our players not hitting HR at Citi.

  He is stating that you can score with hits, walks, x-base hits, SB but you should be able to put up quick runs also with a big blast whether a solo or runners on base HR.

  Today during inning that Duda hit HR, Bay hit a ball off fence about 14 feet up that is a HR in other parks, those are the ones that Terry is talking about cause you want to be able to get a quick run or two with one swing if you can.

  Now maybe it does get into your head, especially if you are a RH hitter.
  LH hitters have a short porch in RF but RH have a 16 foot fence in Left field, why?

  I realize how good pitching makes this park better but still RH power hitters will not want to play 81 games in this park, only those animals like Pujols, Fielder, Dunn, Reynolds, but they are few and in between.

  Bring Left Field fence down 8-10 feet, color an orange line if you want and bring in that gap in RF. Simple.
• rzanca August 21, 2011 at 4:42 pm

  I see it as 50% valid and 50% raving desperation.
  What a horrible pitching staff we have!

  Not understanding why our coaches can’t help our lousy pitchers to make picked that stay inside Citi.
  BrewCrew sure made it look like a bandbox.
  • theonlymaskman August 22, 2011 at 7:06 pm

    Uhhh, who’s our pitching coach? Some hack who couldn’t even get the ball over the plate in his own career. And you want HIM to teach our crappy pitchers something! The fact is that Citi makes it a contest of pitching staffs and ours is among the worst in MLB. Just about any pitching staff that comes to Cit is better than ours. They get our guys out, we give up gopher balls. It’s a simple fact of life in Citifield. It’s so sad to see some of the pitches that our staff puts right into the hitters wheel house at key points in the game. It’s enough to make a grown man cry. Thanks Fred for relying on Madoff money to pay our pitching staff.
• Matt August 21, 2011 at 7:35 pm

  Beltran, Ike, Duda, and even Pagan seem to be decent at hitting the ball out of Citi…as are the Mets opponents, who, of course, get to face the Mets’ lackluster pitching. It’s pretty obvious that he is talking about Wright and Bay in this quote. Seems to me that the comment “I think it would certainly help to get some of our guys to relax,” was definitely aimed at Wright and Bay…probably Wright moreso. Wright is always trying to do too much with each at bat, and he just isn’t a good enough hitter to be pressing at the plate. I agree, the field should be less ginormous…however, both teams play at the same stadium, therefore, the games that the Mets lose with the stadium the way it is now…they will also lose when/if it is shortened…remember, the other team loses homeruns there too, not just the Mets.
• Phil Groh August 21, 2011 at 10:44 pm

  MOVE THE FENCES ALREADY!
  • theonlymaskman August 22, 2011 at 7:07 pm

    SIGN BETTER PITCHERS PLEASE!
• alan August 22, 2011 at 11:37 am

  There is no doubt that the dimensions and design of Citi Field need to be altered a bit.

  First and foremost they should lower the wall in Left Field because far too many balls end up being doubles instead of homers. Make the walls short enough so that an outfielder can bring a drive back into the park with a good jump. I like the spaciousness of the park itself which is tailor made for Jose Reyes penchant for triples but as I see it….both David Wright and Jason Bay are a bit intimidated by the left field wall height. Unfortunately, there are times where a team needs a homer to get back into a game and anything less kills the momentum of a rally…..We don’t want a bandbox like they have in Philadelphia and yes if a hitter really gets a hold on one the ball will get out but the fact is ….there are never any remotely cheap homers at Citi Field
  • metsaddict77 August 22, 2011 at 12:43 pm

    how many hr’s went out of center? not many.the park is def. in some of our hitter’s heads.i liked seeing hr’s get robbed.they wanted weird angles and such but nobody hits the ball hard enough to take advantage of these weird angles,and the one guy who does utilize the park they probably won’t resign this offseason.