Mets fixing up bullpen -- meaning the Citi Field bullpen
Without adding to their pitching personnel, the Mets have initiated bullpen improvements. They are quite literally renovating the bullpen. Less than a year after the opening of Citi Field, the club has begun changing the layout of both bullpens beyond the right-center field wall, making them more visible to fans, the dugouts and the television cameras.
Rather than have the home bullpen run parallel to the outfield fence and have the visitors' bullpen beyond it, the club essentially is turning the two pens 90 degrees, so that the end of each is visible.
COO Jeff Wilpon acknowledged the change and the reason for it Friday, saying the alignment that existed for the 2009 season prevented the television and radio announcers from identifying the pitchers warming up, especially the pitchers in the visitors' 'pen.
"It was something that slipped through the cracks," Wilpon said. "We had a lot of things happening last year." The radio and television announcers often referred to secrets of the bullpen during their broadcasts and telecasts. "We came in under budget [on the overall construction of Citi Field], so why not make it right?" he added.
Other improvements are underway, not the least of which is the addition of a Mets Hall of Fame.
Workers also are painting the gray concrete in the staircases orange and blue.
-- Marty Noble
Rather than have the home bullpen run parallel to the outfield fence and have the visitors' bullpen beyond it, the club essentially is turning the two pens 90 degrees, so that the end of each is visible.
COO Jeff Wilpon acknowledged the change and the reason for it Friday, saying the alignment that existed for the 2009 season prevented the television and radio announcers from identifying the pitchers warming up, especially the pitchers in the visitors' 'pen.
"It was something that slipped through the cracks," Wilpon said. "We had a lot of things happening last year." The radio and television announcers often referred to secrets of the bullpen during their broadcasts and telecasts. "We came in under budget [on the overall construction of Citi Field], so why not make it right?" he added.
Other improvements are underway, not the least of which is the addition of a Mets Hall of Fame.
Workers also are painting the gray concrete in the staircases orange and blue.
-- Marty Noble
So the only reason that the Wilpons are fixing this mistake is because CF "came in under budget"? In other words, if they had to take money out of their own pockets, they would have left the bullpens as they were.
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the problem is on the pitcing coach
bring a good pitching coach and you
will see
2009 we had the best bullpen 2 months
latter we had nothing
avery bady went bad even krod blowing
at the end
perez,perlfrey,jm can be better with a good coach
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The Wilpons are great owners, they listened to the fans and are making changes. It started last year and is continuing. Great job and this is from a season ticket holder.
Johnny Blade
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Why do the staircases have to be orange and blue now? They were perfectly fine before. They were only staircases. Now they will look like extremely tacky staircases.
I understand those are the Mets colors, but you don't need to splash orange and blue everywhere to remind me it's the Mets ballpark. It will just make everything look cheesy. Maybe cheesy worked for Shea, but it won't work with the architecture of Citi Field. Citi Field has an entirely different look.
I'd rather be reminded of the Mets in other ways, like more pictures, artwork, murals, etc... but I don't need to be bedazzled by a rainbow of orange and blue the second I walk into Citi Field.
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The pitchers we have in the pen are fine. I like that they are redoing the pens, so we can actually see activity. It's the starting rotation that needs at least one more ACE in it. If we got another ACE to compliment Santana and Pelf we could do well with Perez and Neise or even Parnell if he is given the proper spring training of a starter. And we need a LF with a bat as well as a Catcher to work in rotation with Santos. Our pitching Coach Dan Warthen has shown to be a good pitching coach, but again as I have stated many places before a pitcher can win you many games, but only if you give him a couple runs. You can't win without scoring and a pitcher will try to paint the corners and overwork himself on the mound when his team isn't putting up the runs. Even Santana found his W's to come tough in '09 due to lack of run support! So you can't blame a young pitcher like Pelf for trying too hard! Get him some runs early and he will shut the other team down by doing what he does best and that is challenge the batter!
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OMG Thank God their fixing that awfully designed bullpen and adding a little more orange and blue to Citi Field. That was the only thing that was missing, now if they can only improve the people coming out of the 'pen we'll be set. Well, that in addition to a couple outfielders, maybe a couple starters a first-baseman. A catcher. Yeah, all those ... but that's it though.
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im a really hge mets fan for many years and i hope that
they make really good improvements and changes and getting better players and pitchers and hopefully my mets
will make the new park the first mets home the home of champions and more to come in years to come i kno i will die a mets fan like i have always been sice iwas in kindegarden and i hope that will never change i love the mets and when i play ps3 baseball i only pick the mets or i dont play it at all
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the color of the outfield wall also needs to be changed. this isnt the old jack murphy stadium .the wall should be met blue
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That's a start. Now, change the dimensions of the field so that you can see all of the field from every seat...maybe you have to do some serious changes on the layout of CitiDump, but tough. I won't go to a game where I can't see every play. That's what I'm paying inflated ticket prices for.
Then you can change the boring Acela Club menu back to the always interesting Diamond Club menu (and not charge $10/head for a "premium seat" overlooking the field).
Then make it so that you can walk from one side of the stadium to the other without having a seat in the specific tier.
Then get a team which can hit, field, and pitch. And for chrissake, get rid of David Wright's company-boy persona, and make him into a decent ballplayer instead. He's a long way from it!
That's a start.
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...and take out the Jackie Robinson rotunda. Nothing against the great Robinson, but from what I recall, he never played for the Mets. When I walk into CitiDump, I would SWEAR that it was the Dodgers home field.
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keep the paint and bring in some quality players. also besides the outfield wall there is no mention of what bill shea did.
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how about saving the money on the paint and bring in some better players. also nowhere does this place mention except on the outfield wall about bill shea.
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Let's Go Mets! Just want to say that Iam a Die Hard Mets Fan and Iam 100% Sure that the Wilpons will Make Sure the right decisions will be made. They will bring a good catcher, Carlos Delgado should be the Mets First Baseman,Bring in Adrian Gonzales and a Good Starer and they will make the playoffs.
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"Sure that the Wilpons will Make Sure the right decisions will be made"
How much are the Wilpons paying you to make stupid comments like that? They haven't made the "right decisions" since they've owned the team. The right decision would be so SELL the team after getting rid of Minaya, the worst and most stupid GM in baseball!
Keep drinking the Kool-Aid. The Wilpons are counting on sheep like you for their 2010 income...sucker!
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A Tale of Two Citis,
First, there is the tale of those who can afford those nice infield seats and who tout CitiField as a great intimate park. I imagine that to those folks it is precisely that.
But then there are the other poor Joes - all too many of us – who got stuck in one of the all too numerous seats like those out in left field where one cannot see the field of play, That is why to us it is CitiDump. And unfortunately, members of the press who can write about such things sit in the former seats and not the later.
Mr. Wilpon, the ill conceived bull pen to which you refer is not the only thing that ‘fell through the cracks”.
Having been to many HOK ballparks over the years was I wrong in eagerly anticipating that we Mets fans were going to get our own version of one of them? In this day and age of computer modeling couldn’t one tell beforehand that you would not be able to see the field from so many seats?
There are some things that can be done to make some of the seats more tolerable. The ribbon scoreboard can be moved to hang from below the upper deck, er sorry, Promenade, rather than being attached to it. This would increase the sightlines to the field somewhat. And why are the television sets sideways? They need to be turned and placed in front of the fans.
The saddest part of this new field is pointed out in the post by GormanHardwareCo. There is a lack of fan connectedness at this field. You cannot freely walk around this park. Areas are isolated, the Left Field Porch, the Pepsi Porch. There is this feeling of being in a Citi of gated communities, the Acela Community, the Ebbets Community, the Sterling Community, the Caesar’s Community, the Delta Community etc. Mr. Wilpon, tear down these walls!
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like church, it's not the building, it's the personnel ... get a grip, get better coaching, better management, better farm system, better players, better team ... like Papa John's a REAL ingredients baseball team
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