It looks like Citi Field will be getting a makeover before the Mets lace em’ up for real in April. As Adam Rubin reports in the Daily News, the height of the fence in CF will but cut down from 16 feet to 8 feet in time for the start of the 2010 season. It is important to note that the overall dimensions of the Mets much-maligned new ballpark will stay the same.
Will the HR Apple rise more frequently this season?
Here are some numbers from 2009 regarding the Mets HR ineptitude and the overall HR production in Citi Field that might surprise you (courtesy of Rubin’s article).
- The Mets hit a MLB low 95 homers last season. Their next closest “competitor” was the Giants with 122
- Surprisingly, Citi Field yielded an average of 1.60 taters per game, more than five other NL ballparks
- Visiting teams actually hit two more homers at Citi last season than they did at Shea Stadium in 2008
Obviously, this slight adjustment of the fence isn’t going to turn the Mets into the 1927 Yankees. The fact that other teams didn’t have a huge issue hitting balls out of the park last season points to the fact that the Mets just didn’t have enough home run hitters in their lineup in 2009. The team’s long ball numbers at Citi Field clearly would have been much higher with Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado in the lineup most of the season.
The guy I see obviously benefiting from this makeover the most will be David Wright. As we’ve sen over the past five years or so, Wright’s power stroke is to right-center field. When he is clicking on all cylinders, balls fly out to that portion of the park and with a shorter fence to deal with, I would expect his paltry 2009 HR total (10) to go up. I recall covering more than a game or two last year where Wright was robbed of a long ball because of that ridiculous fence. His postgame reactions were always stoic when asked about the dimensions of the park after one of those acts of Citi Field thievery, but you could just tell it was eating at him.
Now that the wall situation in CF has been addressed, it may be time for the Wilpons to address the fact that their team’s reputation as a competent organization is in shambles. I think we may have mentioned that fact a time or two in this space.
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I find this to be pretty funny considering how week after week the Mets front office denied that they were going to change the field and all of a sudden a few weeks before the season starts the tone has changed. Maybe the tone changed because of lack of power last year on the mets side. That being said that I like the idea of moving the fence down personally. But since the mets didnt hit home runs and opponents didnt have a problem with power and the mets pitching hasnt gotten any better, maybe this isnt the best time to be moving the fences down. Who knows what this will mean for the mets. I like the smaller fences cause they were too high to begin with. I look forward to seeing some homeruns being robbed by great defense not over sized fences. Endy Chavez wouldnt have stood a chance agianst the 18 foot wall and that was one of the best met moments of my lifetime despite the games aweful ending.