When asked if moving in the fences at Citi Field was a psychological advantage for his hitters as much as a physical one, Mets GM Sandy Alderson said that one of the goals was getting the park out of the hitter’s heads.
“I think so. We are trying to take the dimensions of the park out of the conversation so it’s not something that’s discussed in the clubhouse, in the media, and that it’s no longer something our fans have to talk about.’’
“We want the ballpark to be fair, but a few more home runs for us wouldn’t be a bad thing,’’ Alderson said. “A little more scoring is something that most fans enjoy, not all, not baseball purists by any means but there aren’t a lot of baseball purists left.’’
When it was pointed out to Sandy that both World Series teams (San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals) played in big ballparks, the Mets GM countered that both were just wild-card teams. “Playing in a big ballpark is not advantageous across Major League Baseball.”
November 19
The New York Mets announced the new changes to the outfield wall at Citi Field with a media tour led by Jeff Wilpon and Sandy Alderson. The changes affected are located in center to right field ranging from three to 11 feet. All other dimensions will remain the same.
“These modifications are a refinement of previous changes made to the Citi Field fences and continue to be fair to both pitchers and hitters,” said Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson.
“A lot of analysis went into this decision. We believe these modifications will increase the number of home runs without adversely affecting our pitchers.”
Alderson told reporters that the new dimensions at Citi Field should closely resemble those of Shea Stadium and that appears to be the case.
Team research showed that had the new dimensions existed last season, the Mets would have hit an additional 17 home runs, while opponents would have hit an extra 10. A net gain of seven home runs.
“The big issue for me really is the differential: How many homers are we hitting and how many are they hitting?” Alderson said. “Last year the differential was [minus-16], and that is significant in terms of wins and losses. We want to change that and we think we can change it with personnel and to some extent these changes in dimensions without really adversely affecting much of our pitching.”
Alderson acknowledged that these new changes will be good for team and make Citi more fan friendly in terms of seeing more home runs.
“It’s not about tailoring the ballpark to a particular player or a particular composition of team, it’s about making Citi Field as fan-friendly and as exciting as we can make it. I think they’ll be good for the game, good for the fans. I’m sure that one or two of our players will benefit as well.”
