Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Mets Will Try To Trick Outfielders Into Playing Shallow

Anyone who has watched the Mets play at Citi Field this year must notice how many fly balls - even those with a good bit of hang time - have dropped in for singles.  This is due to the fact that all the Mets outfielders prefer to play deep and try to come in on balls.  I suppose it's their version of the "no triples" defense.

Despite encouragement from Mookie Wilson and the other coaches all the outfielders seem to plant themselves about five strides in from the edge of the warning track even when relatively powerless batters are at the plate.

Since cajoling Bay, Beltran, Pridie, Pagan, Harris, and Hairston to play shallower hasn't worked the team will try to fool them into it.

While the Mets are away on their current road trip, Pete Flynn's grounds crew has been ordered to widen the warning track by something on the order of 25 to 30 feet.  The theory is that the outfielders will still plant themselves the same distance in from the edge of the track and yet remain in the same zip code as the rest of the team.

All articles featured on The Apple are fictitious. No Mets were harmed in the writing of this story. Story by Larry Smith.  You can follow Larry Smith on twitter @dr4sight

1 comment:

  1. nice. but i could tell the photograph is a fake -- there's too many people in the outfield seats.

    ReplyDelete

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