An Open Letter to ESPN, Fox, and other non-SNY/WPIX/WFAN announcers:
To whom it may concern:
Hi, I'm a Mets fan and I have bone to pick with you guys. This is not one of those, I am angry about what you say about my team, or why don't you respect my team rants. This is a request to make sure you actually supply the public with correct information when talking about the big, spacious ball park, the Mets play in. There are a lot of stats out there that can be very misleading, especially when you don't fully explain them.
While the ball park is big, there are some key numbers you need to remember to represent correctly. While it is accurate to point out that David Wright has only hit 4 out of 15 homers at home this season, you need to stop talking about his power outage last year and the connection to Citi Field. While he may have altered his swing, he had an even split of 5 and 5 for homers at home and on the road. So, for example, if you want to use last year's example of Wright, you need to mention that he hit an even amount of homers on the road and at home and if Citi had an effect, it had one on his swing, that it became a mental issue (or you could talk about the protection he had in the lineup, which was minimal at best).
The other player you need to present more information on is Jason Bay. Yes he is really struggling this year, but its possible, just possible, that is not entirely the dimensions of Citi-Field to blame. He is by definition a streaky hitter and he has not gotten on a power streak yet. If he hit all 6 of his jacks on the road, I would be inclined to agree with you that it is a home problem, however is also splitting them 3-3 home and away (and for what its worth, his slugging is about 100 points higher at home, thanks to triples). Also for what its worth, last year he hit 15 homers at Fenway while hitting 21 on the road.
So please announcers, you can continue to talk about how big of a stadium the Mets play in, and you can talk about how the Mets have changed their swings to take advantage of it (thus players like Bay having a higher slugging percentage because balls they hit out in the gaps, that could be singles in other parks can quickly become doubles and triples against teams that are not used to the dimensions), but please be careful when you talk about homers, because you may misrepresent the numbers, and then in the end it, it is you who looks foolish.
A Disgruntled Statstician,
Elliot Teichman
