A Simple Fix for Jason Bay?

Like many of you, I'vebeen watching Jason Bay very closely this season, and there seems to be one very obvious thing wrong with his approach:

He is standing too far off the plate.

His timing is off, and he is positively lunging for balls that are only a few inches outside.  His plate coverage is terrible.

Here are two photos of him from his time with the Red Sox. 

I ask you this--does he look closer to the plate in these photos than he does now?  I would say yes.

The New Mets: Young and Hungry

Baseball is a young man's game.

Sure, you can win with an older team, but it doesn't last, and study after study has shown that the peak years for a ballplayer are between ages 25-31.

The Mets have a young core that could carry this team to big success for the next 5 years, and I would love to see them continue with this model vice previous attempts at finding lightning in a bottle with aging vets.

The current starting team is as follows:

• C-Rod Barajas, age 34
• 1B-Ike Davis, age 23
• 2B-Ruben Tejada, age 20
• 3B-David Wright, age 27
• SS-Jose Reyes, age 26
• LF-Jason Bay, age 31
• CF-Angel Pagan, age 28
• RF-Jeff Francoeur, age 26

That is an average age of 26.9.

When we look at the pitching the story gets even better.

Pelfrey  is 26, Niese is 23, Mejia is 20, Johan is only 31, and Frankie Rodriguez is 28.

While the Mets may not make the playoffs this year, their is a fantastic young core of players to work with.  We're seeing the results in the field, and the youthful energy is something that will carry this team through the dog days of summer.

Baseball, a young man's game, is on display in Queens, and it sure is fun to watch.

Mets Have Good Numbers vs Ricky Nolasco

Looks like Jerry is paying attention....Cora gets the start today.  DW and Jose could have big days.

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SH	SF	IBB	HBP	GDP
David Wright	44	41	14	4	0	3	10	3	14	.341	.386	.659	1.045	0	0	0	0	1
Jose Reyes	36	35	14	1	1	3	5	1	6	.400	.417	.743	1.160	0	0	0	0	0
Jeff Francoeur	28	26	8	3	0	2	7	1	3	.308	.321	.654	.975	0	1	0	0	1
Jason Bay	18	17	4	1	0	0	0	1	1	.235	.278	.294	.572	0	0	0	0	1
Angel Pagan	10	8	3	1	0	0	0	2	1	.375	.500	.500	1.000	0	0	0	0	0
Alex Cora	9	8	4	1	1	0	1	1	0	.500	.556	.875	1.431	0	0	0	0	0
Fernando Tatis	9	9	2	0	1	0	1	0	2	.222	.222	.444	.667	0	0	0	0	0
Mike Pelfrey	6	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0
Rod Barajas	5	4	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	.250	.200	.250	.450	0	1	0	0	0
Johan Santana	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0
Henry Blanco	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0
Chris Carter	3	3	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667	0	0	0	0	0
Ike Davis	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000	.333	.000	.333	0	0	0	0	0
Omir Santos	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.500	.500	.500	1.000	0	0	0	0	0
Jonathon Niese	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000	0	0	0	0	0
Total	181	169	53	11	3	8	26	10	36	.314	.348	.556	.904	0	2	0	0	3

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/6/2010.