Light-hitting Mets must learn from Series teams

SAN FRANCISCO The Mets are moving the fences in at Citi Field, pushing the wall closer to home plate from just right of dead center up to the Mos Zone in right.

None of their officials want to speak much publicly about this. They want to have an event to unfurl the new look sometime in late November.

But maybe something should be noticed in late October. The teams competing in the World Series play their home games in huge parks. AT&T Park in San Francisco annually comes in as either the toughest or one of the toughest stadiums to hit a homer in the majors, according to Park Factors, which compares stat rates at home versus on the road.

Kansas Citys Kauffman Stadium has the most square footage in the outfield of any major league park. The Royals, fittingly, hit the fewest homers, just 95 with an MLB-low 43 coming at home. The Giants were in the middle of the pack with 132, but their 53 at home were the fewest in the NL six less than the Mets had at the old dimensions at Citi.

The Royals did move in their fences once as part of their change from synthetic turf to grass. The Giants, though, embrace their spacious home. They have never moved in the fences because, team president Larry Baer said, we dont think we have anything to fix.

Indeed. They are going for their third championship in five years, proving it is about the skill of your players not the dimensions of the park. Baer said Giant hitters have groused when one of their drives dies for an out at the 421-foot mark in right-center. But that has also been dubbed Triples Alley, and is part of the tricky contours the Giants use to create a home-field edge.

The Mets believe they are going to help hitters such as Curtis Granderson and David Wright by promoting more homers. But keep in mind visiting hitters such as Adam LaRoche, Bryce Harper and Troy Tulowitzki were not contained by Citis lengths. So is it possible that in attempts to help their hitters, the Mets will hurt their own pitchers more?

They do not think so. They plan to emphasize starters who rely heavily on strikeouts and groundballs such as Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler. Which perhaps gives an indication of who they would like to trade this offseason, namely the more flyball-oriented Bartolo Colon and Dillon Gee, and maybe even Rafael Montero, who was at least flyball susceptible in his major league cameo.

The question, though, perhaps should be this: Is this motivated by winning or finances? Are the Mets trying to find a way to get more out of their two most expensive players Wright and Granderson? Are the Mets trying to play a brand of long-ball-centric offense that could convince more folks to come to Citi?

If so, we should remember the Citi fences already have been moved in once, after Sandy Aldersons first season as general manager in 2011. In the three years since, the Mets are 109-134 at home the third-worst mark in the majors and the worst in the NL.

More here:
Light-hitting Mets must learn from Series teams