Nobody was more excited about signing Jason Bay than I was. I strongly defended him against some of the harsh criticism that was levied against his $66 million dollar deal with the Mets. I couldn’t wait for the season to get underway so that his powerful bat and excellent track record would silence his critics for once and for all. I’m still waiting.

Jason Bay came out of last night’s game with what is being called a bruised quadriceps. Luckily, it shouldn’t keep him out of the lineup for more than a day or two, but that’s the least of his problems.

I held back from writing about my disappointment in Bay because I wanted to get past the “It’s only April or May” retorts that this post would have generated five or six weeks ago when I first started to become concerned with Bay’s obvious lack of power. Now, the timing is right.

It’s mid-June and July is fast approaching, and yet when you look at Bay’s four homeruns and 27 RBIs, you have to be somewhat alarmed and start to wonder if this is the type of production we will get from him for the duration of his mega contract.

Although Bay has been prominently featured in the middle of the Mets lineup, he has driven in less runs than Rod Barajas who bats seventh or eight and has played in a dozen less games. He has fewer RBI’s than Ike Davis who also has played in a dozen less games. Jeff Francoeur is absolutely blowing him away in that department, and even Angel Pagan is out-pacing Bay in such a crucial statistic for your typical middle of the order hitters.

He was brought on to cure the Mets power outage and to replace Delgado’s power in the lineup, but his four home runs only ranks fifth on the Mets and is just one more than shortstop and leadoff hitter Jose Reyes.

Maybe a few days off on the bench will give him some time to reflect on his poor season. If the same trends hold, Bay will finish the season with nine home runs and 60 RBI’s, by far the lowest and worst numbers of his career.

For $66 million bucks, we expected more production than what you’d get from a fourth outfielder.