John From Albany – JD Davis and other Citi Field hitting by the numbers

As Tom Brennan wrote here last off season and others have mentioned, Citi Filed can be a tough place to hit.  

Therefore, when we find individuals that can hit at Citi Field it may be wise to hang on to them.    

In 2019, JD Davis had the best year in Citi Field’s 11 year history hitting .354 with 16 HRs and 33 RBIs in 206 at bats.  Furthermore, while most Mets hit far better on the road, JD hit almost 100 points less on the road, .260 with 6 HRs and 24 RBIs. 

Compare that for instance to Pete Alonso who hit .297 on the road in 2019 to .218 at Citi Field (more on Pete in a few).

Looking at the top Citi Filed batting averages over the years, JD was only the second to hit as high as .350 and one of only 9 times someone hit over .300 with at least 150 at bats in the ballpark’s history.  Daniel Murphy (in 2011 and 2012) and Angel Pagan (in 2009 and 2010) were the only ones to do it twice.

Year	Player	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	AVG
2019	Davis, J	71	206	73	16	33	.354
2009	Castillo, L	73	254	89	1	27	.350
2011	Reyes, J	62	256	89	4	25	.348
2009	Pagan, A	43	177	59	5	23	.333
2012	Murphy, D	79	273	88	1	32	.322
2010	Pagan, A	76	291	93	6	35	.320
2011	Murphy, D	51	179	56	2	17	.313
2019	McNeil, J	66	242	75	9	31	.310
2011	Beltran, C	45	158	49	9	27	.310

I was all set to write about JD Davis and how the Mets should build a team around players who hit at their home park.  However, looking at the numbers I noticed that 2019 was the first year since 2012 that the Mets had a player hit over .300 at home with over 150 at-bats.  Not only that they had two, JD Davis and Jeff McNeil.

I then looked at homers at Citi Field and again 2019 was a banner year.  In the eleven-year history of Citi Field only 8 Mets players hit 14 or more homers at home, three of them were in 2019!  Pete Alonso was the first to hit over 20 homers in one Citi Field season with 27. Michael Conforto became the first player to accomplish the feat twice as he hit 18 at home in 2019 and 16 at home in 2017.

Year	Player	G	AB	HR	RBI	AVG	SLG	OPS
2019	Alonso, P	80	284	27	57	.218	.553	0.888
2015	Duda, L	68	229	19	42	.275	.611	1.000
2019	Conforto, M	73	248	18	46	.274	.552	0.934
2016	Cabrera, A	71	249	18	41	.285	.542	0.889
2019	Davis, J	71	206	16	33	.354	.665	1.078
2017	Conforto, M	59	195	16	36	.292	.590	1.000
2016	Cespedes, Y	68	230	14	40	.287	.522	0.888
2014	Duda, L	76	238	14	43	.227	.462	0.793

Overall, 2019 was a record setting year for the Mets for hitting at Citi Field.  In 2019 they scored more runs, hit more homers and had more total bases than any other year at the Flushing ballpark that evokes Ebbets Field.   

Year	Split	AB	R	H	3B	HR	BA
2019	Home	2688	380	671	5	126	.250
2017	Home	2658	344	636	8	101	.239
2009	Home	2664	343	731	32	49	.274
2016	Home	2656	339	634	5	112	.239
2010	Home	2648	334	676	25	63	.255
2011	Home	2754	328	722	22	50	.262
2015	Home	2660	313	621	7	85	.233
2012	Home	2637	287	638	10	67	.242
2014	Home	2623	286	588	10	59	.224
2018	Home	2632	274	566	17	75	.215
2013	Home	2707	268	593	13	59	.219

But wait a second.  2009 was the year the Mets had the best batting average in Citi Field at .274.  2009 also saw the Mets have their highest hit total, third highest run total, and fourth highest total base number.  

Yes, 2009.  The year the fences were at the farthest.  The year I think the fans complained the most about the lack of offense at the new ball park.  Amazing.

Maybe we should push the fences back out?  Better yet, why not build a team around 4 young players that hit pretty well at Citi Field last year, JD Davis, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, and Michael Conforto. 

What do you think?