Citi Field Is Hitter’s Park

Citi Field 2008SI’s Jon Heyman reports that the Mets held a secret batting practice last September at Citi Field to see how the field played. David Wright, Daniel Murphy, and Nick Evans took BP and it was determined that, despite the dimensions of the field, it’s going to play as a hitter’s park.

This secret batting practice was arranged so the Mets could calculate the play of the field into their off-season decision making process. Thus, the value of ground ball pitchers like Mike Pelfrey and Derek Lowe will have in the new stadium.

Oliver Perez and Randy Wolf are both fly ball pitchers so they may be slightly downgraded versus other free agents that typically get a lot of ground balls.

From the post by Heyman:

A secret batting practice session with David Wright, Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans last September at Citifield convinced all the players that the Mets’ new home won’t be the pitching park Mets people expected, but rather a launching pad for home runs. And some within their hierarchy have used this inside knowledge to stump for Lowe, a groundball pitcher, suggesting he might work better than Oliver Perez, a flyball pitcher.

Personally, I always liked that Shea was a pitcher’s park. Several of the “new” stadiums are complete jokes, like Philly and Cincy. The games are ridiculous because of the propensity for home runs. I was really hoping that Citi Field would play similarly to Shea. Oh well, I guess that’s not going to happen.

Tim Redding Signs With Mets

This is kind of a “ho-hum” signing for the Mets. It’s certainly not the big-deal Derek Lowe signing that we’ve all been waiting for. Tim Redding agreed to a one year contract with the Mets for $2.25 million with incentives that could take the deal to $3 million.

Redding may be a servicable starter, and I stress “may be” in this sentence. He’ll be competing for the fifth spot in the rotation with Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell, Nelson Figueroa, and whomever else the Mets bring in.

I don’t think we’ll be seeing a big introduction at Citi Field for Redding. He’s coming off somewhat of a career year with the Nationals last season at 10-11 with a 4.95 ERA. It’s not anything to get crazy about. He’s a guy that you just hope can get through five innings without killing your chance to win the game. He’s never pitched 200 innings/season in his seven year career.

You can his full career stats at Baseball Reference.

Flickr photo courtesy of dbking.

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Tim Redding Offered Contract By Mets

Tim Redding
Image via Wikipedia

Several media reports today state that the New York Mets have offered free agent pitcher Tim Redding a contract. Redding was 10-11 with a 4.95 ERA for the Washington Nationals last season. Redding is a 30 year old right-hander who was non-tendered by the Nationals after last season.

I have to believe that Omar Minaya offered him a one year deal, the thought being that he could compete for the fifth spot in the rotation. Hopefully, he’ll accept a minor league contract. If he doesn’t make the majors he could keep working in Buffalo at Triple-A and come up if a spot start is needed. This is another guy that I’d have to think would have more value to another team. He could certainly take a spot in the rotation of a smaller market team.

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NYC Gives Up Citi Field Luxury Box

Mayor Bloomberg’s administration had negotiated a deal to have luxury boxes at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field during the financing deal for the new stadiums. After criticism emerged about the deals and with Bloomberg facing re-election, the City has given up the boxes.

It’s hard to understand how a government entity would even justify paying for luxury boxes. My understanding is that they go for mid- six figures.

Read the full story at The Sporting News.