Poll: Citi Field Outfield Fences

[Benjamin Grimm]

So you're getting on Rubin for posting stuff that we've known about for months, yet there must be something new here, otherwise Lennon and others, as you say, wouldn't have tweeted it yesterday.

And if it's worth reporting by them, why shouldn't Rubin report it too?

This thread is about the changes to Citi Field, not your peevishness towards Adam Rubin.

[Edgy MD]

Ceetar wrote: Edgy DC wrote: I don't know why you're putting that in quotes. He didn't write "most power." sorry, in a hurry. he wrote "Natural" power, which is even more of a misrepresentation of how power hitters/hits work.

No, it isn't.

[Ceetar]

The changes to left field will result in more home runs for Wright than the change to RCF.

[Edgy MD]

Maybe. I don't know. That won't necessarily make his point incorrect.

[ashie62]

I don't give a shit who said what, but am happy that the damned Modell's dingy is going to be moved in.

[Benjamin Grimm]

While I won't miss the Mo Zone either, I think I'll be most glad to see the end of the orange home run line that takes an arbitrary 90-degree turn.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah.

Take a lesson from the Astros. Too often you start off on the road to Quirky and end up in Goofy insetad.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: While I won't miss the Mo Zone either, I think I'll be most glad to see the end of the orange home run line that takes an arbitrary 90-degree turn.

Yeah, given the choice between changing the LF area or the RF I'd go with the LF first.
I have no particular beef with a far wall or a high wall - the problem with that one is that it's both. Plus I hate home-run lines, those are just asking for trouble.

[Benjamin Grimm]

With the elimination of the Mo Zone, will the Pepsi Porch still overhang the playing field?

[Fman99]

Move em all in, I've been to Citi Field four times and I've yet to see the apple pop up aside from pre-game.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Looking forward to the new $ponsored gimmick for the extra seats they jam between the old and new fences.

Come and sit in the Wal-Mart Wall-Gap! Always the best seat in the house. Always! ($125 for Bronze games, 150 for Silver, $114.98 for Cubic Zirconium)

[batmagadanleadoff]

Source: Citi Field changes on tap By Adam Rubin ESPNNewYork.com "... Alderson added at the time that offense sells. And the Mets need to fill seats, having experienced three straight seasons of declining attendance. "We're not looking for an advantage with respect to home runs versus visitors' home runs," Alderson said last month. "

I'm not buying into Alderson's publicly stated reasons for changing Citi Field's dimensions. The organization, most likely, will move the fences in because it now believes that the changes will provide the Mets with a tactical game advantage over the present dimensions. And good for them. They're supposed to be looking for whatever edge they can get. But this idea that they're moving in the fences for us --- the fans ---is classic corporate speak where the organization does something primarily for their own self-interest and then claims that it was done mainly for us.

Ceetar wrote: the 'most power' to right center is the misrepresentation. most of his power is to left. all _people_'s power is mostly to pull.

I don't know for sure where Wright presently hits most of his HR's, or what side of Citi Field is predominantly robbing Wright of HR's, but I wonder if you're confusing "power" with "tendencies". That a batter, all things being equal, can hit the ball farther when he pulls it, doesn't preclude that same batter from displaying the tendency to hit the ball to the opposite field with greater frequency than to the pull field. In any event, I'm positive that the Mets never specifically confirmed that they would move in their fences until the last day or two.

[Edgy MD]

The point, and it should be obvious, is that Wright's marginal power is hedged to an uncertain degree with difficult power alleys in right and left center. While a typical player may indeed pull most of his homeruns, Wright --- like Strawberry (to a lesser extent) and Piazza before him --- had more success than most distributing them around the park.

Here are Wright's homeruns from 2007 --- perhaps his best year, despite going all of April with no homers, four doubles, a triple, and six RBI.

Date	Opp	Ballpark	Field
1-May	FLA	Shea Stadium	RCF
3-May	ARI	Bank One Ballpark	RF
11-May	MIL	Shea Stadium	LCF
14-May	CHC	Shea Stadium	RF
19-May	NYY	Shea Stadium	LF
19-May	NYY	Shea Stadium	LCF
20-May	NYY	Shea Stadium	RF
23-May	ATL	Turner Field	LF
7-Jun	PHI	Shea Stadium	LCF
8-Jun	DET	Comerica Park	RF
9-Jun	DET	Comerica Park	LF
10-Jun	DET	Comerica Park	RF
27-Jun	STL	Shea Stadium	RCF
30-Jun	PHI	Citizens Bank Park	LCF
4-Jul	COL	Coors Field	LCF
7-Jul	HOU	Minute Maid Park	LF
18-Jul	SDP	PetCo Park	LF
21-Jul	LAD	Dodger Stadium	CF
2-Aug	MIL	Miller Park	RCF
9-Aug	ATL	Shea Stadium	LCF
11-Aug	FLA	Shea Stadium	LF
11-Aug	FLA	Shea Stadium	LCF
24-Aug	LAD	Shea Stadium	RF
29-Aug	PHI	Bank One Ballpark	CF
2-Sep	ATL	Turner Field	CF
3-Sep	CIN	The Great American Ballpark	RF
6-Sep	PHI	Shea Stadium	RF
8-Sep	HOU	Shea Stadium	RCF
10-Sep	ATL	Shea Stadium	LCF
14-Sep	PHI	Shea Stadium	LF

Field	Total Kabooms
LF	7
LCF	8
CF	3
RCF	4
RF	8

[Edgy MD]

And a similar survey of this year's homers shows he's gone from hitting 50% of his homeruns from centerfield to the rightfield line to hitting 28.6% there.

Date	Opp	Ballpark	Field
24-Apr	ARI	CitiField	LF
24-Apr	ARI	CitiField	LF
16-Sep	ATL	Turner Field	LF
16-Sep	ATL	Turner Field	LCF
2-Apr	FLA	Sun Life Stadium	RF
11-Apr	COL	CitiField	RF
21-Apr	HOU	CitiField	LCF
13-May	HOU	Minute Maid Park	LF
24-Jun	FLA	Sun Life Stadium	LF
27-Jun	CIN	The Great American Ballpark	CF
8-Aug	SDP	CitiField	LCF
17-Aug	SDP	PetCo Park	LCF
24-Aug	PHA	Citizen's Bank Park	RF
2-Sep	WAS	Nationals Park	LCF

Field	Field
LF	5
LCF	5
CF	1
RCF	0
RF	3

[dgwphotography]

That can also speak of a change in approach due to the dimensions in right field...

[smg58]

I've never bought into the argument that offense sells.

I don't have a problem with being honest and saying that there's a concern that free agent hitters won't want to come here. At least I totally understand that reason.

I wouldn't frame the argument in terms of any current Met players, though. The Mets have been coming up woefully short in the power department both at home and on the road, and the possibly exists that the people we've been expecting more home runs from just aren't that good anymore. I think it's incredibly naive to think that adjusting a wall will make certain players' lost ability miraculously reappear.

[Edgy MD]

dgwphotography wrote: That can also speak of a change in approach due to the dimensions in right field...

Certainly. But whatever the factors, his output has been negatively affected.

I'm not presenting this data to argue for this change. I'm saying it's a pretty well supported point that his homerun power the other way had been one of the things that had distinguished him, and that it's not been there as much.

[dgwphotography]

Edgy DC wrote: dgwphotography wrote: That can also speak of a change in approach due to the dimensions in right field... Certainly. But whatever the factors, his output has been negatively affected. I'm not presenting this data to argue for this change. I'm saying it's a pretty well supported point that his homerun power the other way had been one of the things that had distinguished him, and that it's not been there as much.

I completely agree with all of these points.

[HahnSolo]

http://www.metsblog.com/2011/10/31/mets-announce-changes-to-citi-field-dimensions/

[Centerfield]

Well done.

Now re-sign Reyes.

[Ceetar]

Centerfield wrote: Well done. Now re-sign Reyes.

This will be the response to everything until it happens.

"Mets release partial plan info"

"Well done. Now re-sign Reyes."

[Edgy MD]

Holy crap. A blue wall.

[A Boy Named Seo]

This is supposed to be the new shit:

Based on what the team is 'saying,' using those plot points, this is basically how the wall would run (not curved) on a direct line. by Matthew Cerrone 10:05 AM

Does that mean the wall will be curved or not? Who here speaks Cerrone?

[Edgy MD]

Is the team not actually "saying" things but addressing the media through some electronic device.

[Ceetar]

i don't think the wall will be curved, no.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

BLUE WALLS!!!


October 31, 2011 � The New York Mets today announced they are moving in portions of the outfield wall at Citi Field as much as 12 feet and lowering the height of the home run line to 8 feet throughout the outfield. The outfield wall will become blue in 2012 concurrent with the Mets 50th Anniversary season. The home run line and distance markers will remain orange.

The Mets will erect a new wall in leftfield starting between the New Era and Caesars signs and angled to the Citi sign in left-centerfield (see renderings). The new wall will be closer to home plate by approximately 4 feet in leftfield and up to approximately 12 feet in deep left-centerfield.

A new wall will start in right-centerfield and extend toward the bullpen, and be as much as approximately 11 feet closer to home plate. The fence in front of the Mo's Zone/Modell's Clubhouse will move in approximately 10 feet. The distances from home plate to centerfield and the foul poles in leftfield and rightfield will remain the same.

"We wanted to make Citi Field fair to both pitchers and hitters," said Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson.

"After conferring with Sandy and all members of his staff, Ownership concurred with the recommendation to change the dimensions at Citi Field," said Mets COO Jeff Wilpon. "We decided to change the outfield wall from black to Mets blue, which many of our fans have wanted."

As a result of moving the walls in, the Mets will create a unique seating section in leftfield between the new and existing wall to accommodate about 100 fans. The club will also expand the Modell's Clubhouse in rightfield to incorporate an outdoor seating area for approximately 40 additional fans.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Citi 2.0 vs. Shea.


Citi:


Shea:


Right field @ Citi's still gonna be a lil funky, huh.

[Edgy MD]

We still get a stripe down the line in left. They ought to bring it in another 30 inches just cuz.

[metirish]

What's up with left of CF getting bigger by a foot?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jeff Wilpon ... also maintained that the original impetus to design such a big playing field came from the previous Mets regime headed by Omar Minaya, who was the general manager from the 2005 season through 2010, when he was dismissed. He said the decision to make the changes came from Alderson.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/sports/baseball/mets-to-alter-dimensions-of-citi-field.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/sports/baseball/mets-to-alter-dimensions-of-citi-field.html