15
2011
Morning Grind – Blow Up The Bullpen, Take Down Those Walls
An article by 
One look at this morning’s standings, and even the the most optimistic of Mets fans, Mr. Met, would have to agree that any chance for the Mets to make the post season is clearly over.
The Mets now find themselves 20.5 games out of first place in the NL East and 11.5 games out of a wild card spot and last time I checked, enthusiasm alone does not win ball games. It was a good ride for the Fightin’ Mets, who I’m certain will still show up to play their best for Terry Collins, but the losses of Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez have finally taken their toll. Time to embrace the role of spoiler…
It’s also time for me to get some things off my chest. I have about a dozen or so things I need to vent about, but I’ll begin with the following two for now.
The Mets Bullpen
The bullpen has been a complete disaster save for Jason Isringhausen and Tim Byrdak. D.J. Carrasco, Ryota Igarashi, Pedro Beato and Bobby Parnell all played key roles in the Mets last five losses which essentially drove the finals nails into the coffin that was the Mets wild card run.
Since the departure of Francisco Rodriguez the two pitchers who have been tabbed to replace him, Parnell (6.75 ERA) and Beato (7.11 ERA) have been complete disasters in August. Even if we were playing meaningful games in September, we wouldn’t have gone very far with the way these two have been pitching of late.
I guess the idea to keep Isringhausen aboard despite heavy interest from other teams, didn’t work out as planned. Izzy was kept to be a mentor for our two young guns who tremble like reeds in the wind when the game is on the line. If losing K-Rod wasn’t bad enough, replacing him with Igarashi was the straw that broke the bullpens back. Needless to say, this bullpen is in need of a serious overhaul in the offseason complete with a new closer.
Citi Field – The Home-Field That Keeps On Giving Taking
That damned ballpark still keeps getting on my last nerve. When I think of how many game tying or game winning home runs I saw ending up in an outfielder’s glove this season, I just want to take an ax to those walls myself.
I don’t understand why so many fans still defend the dimensions at Citi Field? It seems like everyone leans toward the front office needing to build the team around the dimensions. Really?
Here’s what the supporters say about it… We need to sign more line drive gap hitters and sign players with speed… We have to focus on batting average and getting people on base, and not get too wrapped up in the lack of homeruns… Use the park’s unique dimensions to get more doubles and triples…
Sorry… I don’t buy any of that for one second and the evidence backs me up.
Pay attention!
• The Mets are second in the league with a .267 batting average and second with a .337 OBP.
• They have more doubles and triples combined than any other team in the National League.
• They are one of only two teams with over 100 stolen bases this season.
The Mets are excelling in all those things, so where are all the damned runs????
Home runs matter!!!
A few extra doubles and triples will never make up for tying or winning the game with one swing of the bat. The deadball era ended almost 100 years ago, Babe Ruth killed it with his Louisville Slugger, and we’re not going to win games in this day and age by nickel and diming the competition into submission.
You want to add Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson to the rotation, than maybe I’ll reconsider my stance on Citi Field’s gargantuan dimensions, but until that happens lets take an ax and a sledgehammer to those walls.
I’m not saying we should make it a home run haven, I’m simply imploring the Mets to make it a fair ball park – a neutral ballpark – a ballpark that won’t keep sucking the life out of every 400 foot drive.
I’m feeling a little edgy and confrontational this morning, more rants later….
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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I would like to see some dimension adjustments, but nothing radical. Pull in RCF, and scrap the silly Mo zone. And possibly lower the LF wall to 8′ (heck, do that all the way around?). But mostly it seems that death valley in RCF and RF need to be addressed.
Hi Joe – I left the game yesterday when someone told that pitcher to just keep on putting men on base. Who is pulling those strings from behind the scenes – still the Wilpons? Terry looked furious and he almost lost it. Fortunately I had a back up athletic event which came out ever so much better. I sent you a brief synopsis earlier this morning about Keegan Bradley and what he did yesterday. It was ever so much more soothing than the stuff emanating from the Mets pitcher’s mound. And of course all sane Mets fans want the Walls Down! (Where have I heard that phrase before?)
I disagree with you on the ballpark. Yes the Mets have excelled at all those things you look for when you form a team fo our park, but you didn’t mention our woeful numbers in the clutch. We leave more runners in scoring position than anyone else, that’s where all your runs are. As for the pitching, I somewhat agree and that’s something we have to address although I’m not sure we can do anything about it this year unless we go after C.J. Wilson or Sabathia if he opts out. Either one of those pitchers would make a huge positive impact.
But wouldn’t just signing a type A go against pretty much all Alderson is against?
And no, I’m not against having a CJ or CC on the team, but when there are more than a few holes in the hull of this ship, we can’t ignore the long term needs of the team. We realize this isn’t a 1 year fix, so slow and steady to win the race is fine with me at this point.
i totally agree about the dimensions.our beloved SHEA STADIUM was a notorious pitchers ballpark for many many years.so why in the world would they make this such a more outrageous pitchers ballpark. did they realize we dont have any good pitching!!!outside of johan and niese of course. why didnt they build a pretty similar stadium with the dimensions of good ole’ SHEA ??396 to the gaps instead of 415 the stadium dimensions are a joke,everyone thinks it,but when someone complains about it,its always oh cause the mets are losing and we like to complain.the ball dies out there,everywhere.make it more reasonable round out the ridiculous mo zone garbage bring in everything from left center to right center.make it reasonable without making it a launching pad and youll see the diffrence in balls flying out and fans jumping out of their seats.
see i can rant too in the mornings haha LETS GO METS!!
Completely agree about moving in the fences, but also agree that no matter what, the Mets are in desperate need of a slugger. Someone that with one swing can crush a three-run bomb to any part of the park. Someone like, say, Prince Fielder. I know the Mets have Ike, but a big bopper to put in the middle of the lineup is just what the Mets need. It’ll never happen with the finances, and as much as everyone loves Ike, he is not Prince Fielder.
Fielder is not the answer. We have a good 1B. Prince will hit a lot more home runs, but Ike is a more well rounded (no pun intended) players.
We’d be better off putting more talent around Ike, Reyes and Wright
100% with you JoeD.
Watching the last few games and the wrecking ball job the BP has done just takes away any good feeling you have about the direction Terry has taken a team with injuries and missing stars.
Not asking for a lot, just hold a lead, don’t walk everyone at bat, don’t leave the ball over the plate in a hitting situation.
HR are important and making the dimensions equal all around the park and lowering the LF field wall a bit would help those times when a HR would make a big difference in game but the park that eat long fly balls still exists.
How about we also send catchers to blocking ball fundamental school, sheesh, what sloppy work behind the plate lately.
I don’t see what all the complaining is about. Move the fences in we give up more HR’s than we hit ourselves. Other teams players come in here and have no difficulty dialing 9. Troy, Chipper, Montero Alex Gonzalez, Wilson Ramos and lots of other guys.
We’ve actually hit more HR’s at home than we have on the road and our runs scored is 5th in the NL this year. 5th out of 15. Well above average in runs scored even though we don’t hit too many HR’s.
If it were the dimensions that cost us HR’s we would have hit a lot more on the road and yet it’s the opposite. 39 on the road 43 at home.
I don’t buy this psychbabble either about the park getting in your head and carrying over to the road either. That’s BS spoken by guys who aren’t hitting HR’s anywhere. When you step onto the field all you want to do is put a good swing on a driveable pitch 4 times a game. Will that pitch be pullable in a huge park? Probably not. Pitchers pitch to the park, they’ll use the expanse to their benefit. Their pitchers do and so do ours but that just makes it easier to put a good swing on the ball. More chance it’s in a spot you can do something with as long as your not obsessed with hitting HR’s. And you shouldn’t be. You should be obsessed with winning the damn game. If that’s all you care about what does it matter how you win? Just as long as you do.
I don’t see too many balls hitting the fence on the fly. Couple of times by Wright and once by Turner that I can remember but even those were below the 8 foot mark.
I don’t see Bay flying out to the warning track regularly.
Duda and Ike can hit it out of anywhere.
All you would be doing by moving the fences in is raising our pitchers ERA.
Solid points.
Pelfrey was supposed to be a sinkerball pitcher before his pitching up in the zone caught up to him.
Having the fences about where Shea’s were is good cause it did help pitchers but if you are not pitching down in the zone then it doesn’t matter what the height of fences.
this team needs good players that’s all, agree the fences are high and it seemed to me this is the biggest stadium EVER build in major league history, but with that being said, when your team got suck as-s player, it don’t matter of the stadium is a bandbox.. pelfrey will allowed 15 more home runs per season if they bring the fences, as well as dickey and pretty much the rest of the bullpen.. this team was going to have a makeover in december of 2010.. we all know what alderson wanted to do, no matter what our record said we were, beltran and krod were goners, and hu and eamus were gonna be in the starting roster.. let’s see what he does this upcoming offseason, as far as this season is concern, IS OVER guys..
by the way, i will say it again, where is david wright when the team needs its leader the most??? to quote phil from the hangover 1: “PAGING DR ******, PAGING DR *****!!!”
1st of all they should have built the stadium around there best hitters abilities. So since they built the stadium for a player they are going to lose to free agency. Why dont they ask the best minor league pitchers how they would want this stadium reconstructed?? Mr Wheeler,MR Harvey do you guys like the dimensions of our park??If not what do you think we should change?? Obviously they didnt ask Mr Wright his thoughts since he has lost all of his gap to gap homers?
Other teams have lost their gap to gap Hr’s too. Probably a lot more than we have.
Sorry, but there was no reason for the Wilpons to build a ballpark whose dimensions dwarfed Shea Stadium which was already a pitcher’s park. It was a ridiculous idea and even before the Mets started playing there in 2009, everyone said it would be hard to win ballgames there or attract the better free agent sluggers. So far that’s been true as our 2009-2011 home record will show. We actually play better on the road which is an absolute joke. Then you have those who say our players just suck, well that may be the case but let me hear the alternatives? Who do you replace Wright with? Or Reyes? Who are all these better players that will turn the Mets into a run scoring power-laden machine? It’s easy to ramble on and blame the team instead of the park, how about offering up the solutions to go along with the finger pointing? This park has been nothing but frustrating for the hitters from the day it opened.
I’m with you Original cause Shea was a pitcher’s park, good enough for Seaver, Gooden, Pedro, etc so the fact that Wilpons wanted a park that had “different” dimensions instead of boring ones like Shea, to have it stand out and it has; in complaints both publicly and anonymously also.
If they want to change then make the gaps the same all around and maybe lower fences that would probably work but the fact they made it even bigger has and will affect future sluggers who do not want to compete with Citi.
Dodgers like, Ebbets like I just don’t get the planning that went into this nice park with outrageous wall dimensions.
Maybe they wanted different dimensions so that they could be sold as advertising to businesses looking for a gimmick, just saying?