Jason Bay is scheduled to play today, but did not participate in yesterday's scrimmage. Manuel said he gave players the option of playing. "[Bay] was so caught up in that Canada thing that we gave him a day to breathe," Manuel said, referring to Canada's hockey victory over the U.S. for the Olympic gold. Bay is a native of British Columbia. - link
Angel Pagan: For the first 2 months of the 2010 season it looks like Angel Pagan will be the everyday Center Fielder for the Mets due to Carlos Beltran’s surgery. Pagan had a good year last year, he can field and he can hit. Unfortunately Pagan also had some trouble with fundamentals, especially on the base passes. Pagan must keep his head in the game, must be aware of how many outs there are and he needs to use better judgment when running the bases. Pagan is going to be important in the beginning of the season for the Mets. He cannot make stupid mistakes everyday that gives away outs. If Pagan can play good fundamental baseball while filling in for Beltran the Mets will be in good shape to start the 2010 season. - link
The opposite-field philosophy was also present in the Mets minor-league system. Harper writes that players who did not hit the ball to the opposite field were scolded for pulling the ball, even when they got a hit.
“We still want to maintain our discipline to go the other way in certain situations,” said HoJo, “but we also want to work on driving the ball and being a power threat again. We need to open it up to allow guys to drive the ball rather than forcing the ball the other way.” I thought Bernazard’s 80-pitch drill was utterly pointless coming from a college baseball player myself. I’ve tried it. As you start to get tired, you start to develop bad habits in the box and that is what this drill exactly does.
The drill now calls for hitters to hit 10 balls to the opposite field, 10 in the middle area of the field, 10 pulled for power, and 10 line drives. - link
As I have said many times the goal of this site is to analyze New York baseball independently or, to steal another media conglomerates term, “fair and balanced.” Deep down I am a Mets fan who would love nothing more for this team to win. The heart doesn’t cloud the head, however, and I have developed a healthy dose of cynicism since creating this radio show. I hear stories about dysfunctional management, apathetic players, and general incompetence. Sometimes the New York Mets sound like my successful, but flawed, company which I work for in my professional life. That often scares the daylights out of me. Why would I invest in a franchise that has ended the season without a title 95.8% of the time? Is there anything else I would do with that failure rate? Would you fly, drive, or cross the street if those were the odds? - link
Hitting the ball where it's pitched seems like the smart play. Trying to hit an inside pitch to the opposite field just for the sake of it is pretty dumb. Did this philosophy change affect Mets hitters? John Walsh at The Hardball Times cooked up a quick study and found that the Mets "pull fraction" was 27th out of 30 teams in MLB in 2009, meaning only three teams pulled the ball less. In the comments to the post, Derek Carty wrote that, per his data, the Mets were 1st in MLB in "push percentage" (percentage of balls hit to the opposite field) after being 5th lowest in 2008. In other words, they went from being an extreme pull-hitting team to an extreme push-hitting team in one season, with minimal roster turnover. Walsh also showed that David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Fernando Tatis and Ryan Church decreased their pull percentage from 2008 to 2009. Luis Castillo, hopefully sticking it to Bernazard, slightly increased his pull percentage. Good for Luis. - link
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