Memorial Day is here and with that the New York Mets are now just about 1/3 of the way through this 2011 season. Enough time has passed where one can start getting a sense of where players are this season.
Having said that I have been trying to keep an open mind on Jason Bay and wanted to give him time to show me something especially since last year he got off to such a poor start before his season ending injury stopped him from possibly finishing the season on a high note. Sadly so far in 2011 he has not impressed and even with his recent surge hitting wise the one thing he still is falling short at is driving in runs.
I know many are of the opinion that Bay was signed to hit HR’s but while that may be true in my opinion what is more important was his ability to drive runs in. Something Bay is failing miserably at so far in 2011.
Coming into today Bay has all of 9 rbi’s this season. Among the leftfielders in the NL that lead their respective team with the most at bats at said position only the Pirates Jose Tabata has less with 8 rbi’s.
Among leftfielders Jason Bay so far is averaging 1 RBI every 15 Plate Appearances. The only player with a worse average is Jose Tabata with 1 RBI every 24.25 Plate Appearances. The best average belongs to Matt Holliday with 1 RBI every 5.65 Plate Appearances.
At $18,125,000 for this 2011 season Bay is giving the Mets a very poor return on their investment. In comparison the Washington Nationals Laynce Nix with 21 rbi’s is averaging 1 RBI every 5.81 Plate Appearances and is making $700,000 for this 2011 season.
There is still time of course for Bay to turn things around. You need only remember as far back as the 2008 season of Carlos Delgado to find a Met that had a huge turn around in a single season.
In 2008 Delgado through his 1st 75 games was hitting .229/BA .396/SLG 11/HR 35/RBI 36/R then in the 1st game of a day night doubleheader that had the Mets play the 1st game at Yankee stadium and the 2nd at Shea Delgado exploded with a 2/HR 9/RBI game that saw him hit over his last 84 games .308/BA .626/SLG 27/HR 80/RBI 60/R.
I don’t suggest Bay could match a Delgado like 2nd half but just that the idea he can rebound and salvage the season is not unprecedented and Bay who has a history of being a streaky player may still surprise us.
Still as of today Bay has much to prove and the whispers of his contract being up there with former Met Oliver Perez as the worst contract in Mets history are getting louder and louder with every passing day.
Source:
Baseball-Reference.com
USAToday MLB Payroll
6 comments
kingman 26
5/30/2011-4:07pm at 4:07 pm (UTC -4)
Personally, at this point, I think we are just expecting way too much from him. Delgado had already had a borderline HOF career before he was a Met with numbers Bay has never come close to. Delgado had as many as 57 2B, 44 HR, 145 RBI, and 123 BB. Bay never touched those numbers.
Looking back now, Jason Bay was a late-bloomer who had exactly four good to very good years–2005–2009 minus 2007. His best BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, and 2B (and HR and RBI other than 2009) are all 5–7 years ago now.
He had four very nice years, and topped that off with a real good season in his walk year with Boston. And again, Boston, the team which had him, had zero interest in giving him the Omar-ian deal we did. No one else did either.
He had 3 RBI his 3rd game–he now has 6 in his last 29. He smacks a nice hit here and there off bad pitching, but it seems as though good pitchers absolutely toy with him.
I think we should all just hope he can hit .260 and drive in a few runs.
Could he have been a PED guy who stopped using when he signed his deal with us? Who knows.
But I think the time for expecting him to hit like he did for those four years is probably past.
It is definitely time though to seriously put Bay up for consideration as among worst Met contracts ever. People forget sometimes that Foster and Bonilla (and Castillo) were infinitely more productive than Bay. Ollie, not so much.
metsfan4decades
5/30/2011-4:17pm at 4:17 pm (UTC -4)
I’m resigned now to the fact that we’re not getting what we paid for with Bay. He’s in his second year here, two years older than the year he signed that contract.
He’ll probably pick it up a bit but his offense isn’t going to be anywhere near what they thought they were getting. At least he’s not a liability out there in LF and has a fairly good arm.
Those that study advanced metrics might be better experienced to have maybe predicted this. As Kingman said, some are late bloomers such as Werth. So I guess the trick is to figure out who truly was one of those late bloomers and will continue until their mid 30s, and who put up good numbers for a couple of years based on the park and/or lineup surrounding them and might not going forward.
oleosmirf
5/30/2011-4:40pm at 4:40 pm (UTC -4)
I still think if you put Bay on the Yankees he will be closer to his 09 numbers than his ’10/11…
stickguy
5/30/2011-4:58pm at 4:58 pm (UTC -4)
why couldn’t Wright run over Bay instead of ike?
saltygary
5/30/2011-6:17pm at 6:17 pm (UTC -4)
I think Delgado was more hurt than we thought and at his age it took a while to get his bearings back. Bay simply isn’t seeing the ball and when he does he is too late to drive it anywhere.
PED’s have made us expect players to be great for such longer windows. If you look back there are plenty of guys that had great years and just tailed off. I have no idea if he was a PED user and frankly I don’t care. He is just dun. I have been holding back any judgment on Bay but Mr. North you are correct in now is the time for a real evaluation.
stickguy
5/30/2011-6:56pm at 6:56 pm (UTC -4)
I think he is dun also, but there is still a small chance he gets it back. of course, much better chance if he moves to another team!
I say that because of the many reports that his mechanics/swing are totally different than they were in 2009, and his other good years. Due to citifiled? Who knows. But the real question is, is that the reason, and can he change back an recover what he is missing?