In a report for the New York Times, Joe Ward explains why the Mets should consider moving home plate 10 feet forward, like the Dodgers and Reds once did, to help encourage more home runs in Citi Field.
According to Ward, using information from Hit Tracker Online, David Wright hit nine balls that were not home runs in Citi Field, but would have been in Shea Stadium; the same can be said for Johan Santana, though, who allowed nine balls that would have been home runs in Shea Stadium, but were not in Citi Field.
… here’s the thing, joe, the Mets hit 47 home runs in Citi Field this season… but they hit 46 home runs on the road… yes, the Mets hit MORE home runs in Citi Field than they did on the road… so, should they ask the other 15 teams in the National League to move their home plates up 10 feet too…
…what’s more, Mets pitchers allowed 81 home runs in Citi Field, just five more than the National League average; meanwhile, they allowed 77 home runs on the road, just four less than at Citi Field… four…
…so, they allowed four more home runs on the road than they hit, and they hit one more home run at home than they hit on the road, and yet people want to demolish walls and move bases…
…i have a better solution: put Carlos Beltran, Jeff Francoeur and just one other home run hitter in the lineup for 160 games, and get better pitchers, and i bet those numbers get back to where everyone wishes they would be…
The Mets told reporters last month that they have yet to make any official decisions regarding next season’s dimensions in Citi Field.
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Leave the plate where it is, leave the wall where it is–just make the outfield wall BLUE.
Yeah I’ve been saying this all along. But I still think he is capable of hitting around 20 HR! Once Tran and Delgado went down, pitchers pitched around him all season. He’s a smart guy and power does not just go away when you’re 26, so I expect him to hit around 20-25 HR next season. If Wright hits 25, Beltran hits 25, Francoeur hits 25, Murphy hits 15, and we get another bat who can hit another 25, power will definitely not be an issue.
However, when it comes to painting the walls blue, I may be the only person in the world who doesn’t wish to see that. Many fields have blue walls these days…what makes it “ours?” I kinda like the black and orange walls…gives it a unique feel and sorry, but older fans just have to live with the fact that black is now one of our colors as well.
Agreed across the board, and you didn’t even get to opponents HR numbers at Citi.
The dimensions are fine. The only thing that could maybe use adjusting is the wall height in left – and especially in left center where I do thing it’s a bot too hard to get a ball out, needing to hit it that far AND high. And that higher fence in front of the apple is silly too. Otherwose it’s been clear that hitting HRs in this stadium is more than possible, and the Mets numbers reflect the roster that put them up, not the park they play in.
I like the blue wall because that’s what Shea always had, and Citi Field NEEDS more blue and orange.
Right now, the stadium has a very generic feel to it, as if any team could play there. I want to see blue and orange all over the place–even if some team official thinks it’s “tacky.”
I dont hate the distances of the walls but I do hate the roller coaster look the wall has theres no consistency at all it looks way too cheesy. But all that aside I can live with this nonsense as long as the walls are blue not black. This field doesnt feel like home at all, I think the green seats and black wall have something to do with that.
The extra large park will continue to cause problems. Yes, it will continue to cause problems for opposing teams as well, but only at a fraction of what it will cost us.
Freak parks are a problem for the teams that play in them. San Diego always struggled with their park. Coors was a problem for a long time, and it wasn’t until they got into using the humidor and neutralizing the park’s effects that the team started to have a chance. In addition, almost ALL of the Rockies stars are home grown, because bringing in free agents is not easy there, especially pitchers.
For the Mets, bringing in bona fide hitters will be a problem. The 35 year old guys looking for that last big contract will be easy to get, but those 28 year olds in their prime will be a much bigger challenge, especially if they have a savvy agent that realizes a 40% reduction in power numbers is going to hit them in the wallet when they look for their next contract.
On the flip side, it should be easier to attain quality starters for the opposite reason, but it’s never ideal to have such a lopsided home and away split, because if your team is designed to play well in your pitchers park, it wont be as apt in a hitters park, and you do play half of your games on the road.
Also, let’s consider a guy like David Wright. Matt keeps mentioning that he doesn’t have a lot of dingers on the road this year either. Fair enough, but that’s been David’s style. Last year he hit 21 homeruns at Shea, and 12 on the road. David’s OPS was 200 points higher at Shea last year. (.800 versus 1.055 at home).
This year, David is hitting a solid .314 on the road, with almost 50 RBI and 25 doubles. His .859 road OPS this year is much better than his .800 road OPS was last year, and the 50 double pace is pretty impressive as well.
At Citi Field this year, he is hitting .294 with 5 HR, 13 doubles and 3 triples (all of which are really doubles that became triples in Citi Field). He has only 23 RBI.
This study shows you that Wright was literally robbed of 9 or 10 homeruns this year at Citi Field. That’s a massive swing! 5 homeruns at home versus 15 homeruns at home is the difference between 10 HR and 30 HR.
This park will eat David Wrighrt alive. Wright is a doubles fly ball hitter. A lot of his effectiveness comes from homeruns that just cleared the fences at Shea, or that bounce off the walls on the fly or on a hop. Citi Field takes all of that away, and now he’s just a guy who hits line drive singles, or flies out.
This isn’t just Wright, it’s any player who is not 6′4″ and 250 pounds. Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols and Adam Dunn may be less impacted by Citi Field, but the majority of the 20-30 homerun guys will be penalized.
This WILL affect their psyche. This WILL get in their heads. This WILL have a negative impact on the team in the long run.
Just because the Mets had a poor year on the road, does not dismiss the reality that this park is second only to Petco in being an abysmal offensive park. There will be consequences. Some tangible, many more subtle.
I agree with your post. Matt didn’t note that the NY Times piece said that David struggles away also because he’s changing his swings to adapt to Citi and it’s screwing up his whole approach at the plate. Other teams hit homers at home more easily and the home field doesn’t get in their heads the way it might for the Mets at Citi. If you struggle hitting homers at home it will carry over when you’re on the road since you’re developing your approach for where you play the most games, at home. So you can’t simply compare other teams hitting homers more easily at Citi. The NY Times piece is very good, showing graphically how Citi compares with the New Yanks field, old Shea, and the Phil’s CBP. I like the idea of moving the plate a lot; side benefit of allowing fans to see more balls in play from the wierd sight angles many seats now have.
if opposing teams are able to hit 81 home runs at citifield, i dont see this being a pitchers park.
if we move up home plate 10 feet, we now have 60hrs instead of 40 hrs… yay?
opposing teams will have 100 hrs intead of 81.
i dont see a point.
its not that its a pitchers park, its that our players dont know how to hit home runs. plain n simple.
Moving home plate up may improve the sightlines for those sitting behind home plate.
As I have said many times … currently home plate is low on the horizon (i.e. if you are sitting in Promenade Club, home plate is viewed literally inches above the rail). This means if you are a few row back and the rows in front of you are filled, then you will be looking into and at the back of peoples heads when trying to look at home plate.
I am not sure moving home plate 10 feet forward will have that much of difference on improving sight lines, but it may help a little.
Why move them after seeing that Johan would have given up 8 more HRs? is that what we want? pitching wins championships.
100 Homers is a big load for four guys.
I am a BIG Francouer fan, BUT, that said, I think the LESS we “expect” from him, the better he will actually play. His problem in Atlanta was that they were expecting him to be Ted Williams or Al Kaline, where, truly, he is more like Harold Baines or Johnny Callison. SOLID RF, GG candidate, durable, BUT, we should be thrilled with .280/20/90. For a number six hitter, not bad at all! If we expect that, my bet is he will exceed those numbers.
I think Murphy, however, is capable of hitting 25 or 30.
And we all know that we drastically need a big bopper to replace Delgado, whether at 1B or LF.
With that in mind, we all know that we need a bopper in
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