A Quick Note on Jason Bay (Updated)

I was discussing Jason Bay earlier today, and decided to look at some of his splits.

Bay's career slashline -- .274/.368/.493, 206HR, 234 2B, 30 3B in 4864 PA's
Bay's Mets slashline -- .251/.355/.391, 21HR, 41 2B, 7 3B in 967 PA's
Bay's Citi Field slashline -- .275/.362/.438, 10HR, 25 2B, 5 3B in 462 PA's

For all that's been said about the psychological difference due to the size of Citi Field, he's played almost exactly to his averages in Queens. In his career, he's homered in 4.25% of his plate appearances, and doubled or tripled in 5.43%. In Citi Field, those numbers are 2.16% and 6.49%. That spells a noticeable trade-off, but he still racked up extra base hits at a similar rate (9.68% vs. 8.66%). Away from Citi Field as a Met, the home run rate (2.18%) stayed the same, but the 2B/3B rate plummeted (3.56%). For all that was talked up about Citi Field being the issue, it seems Bay's struggles were really pronounced on the road.

-- Update 5/14 --

After thinking about it, I wanted to take a look at some other players, and compare their slashlines at Citi Field compared to their career averages:

David Wright --
Career: .303/.383/.510
@ Citi Field: .280/.381/.449

Jose Reyes --
Career: .291/.341/.438
@ Citi Field: .315/.366/.484

Carlos Beltran --
Career: .284/.362/.499
@ Citi Field: .290/.374/.475

Ike Davis --
Career: .257/.340/.439
@ Citi Field: .243/.337/.415

Daniel Murphy --
Career: .296/.346/.435
@ Citi Field: .312/.347/.462

At first glance, it seems that the power hitters (Beltran, Davis, Wright especially) suffer hits to their slugging percentages while Jose Reyes and Daniel Murphy, both line-drive gap hitters, saw a noticeable improvement. Since David Wright's line was affected almost identically (he actually has suffered a larger drop in slugging than has Bay), let's analyze his stats like we did Bay's.


CAREER:
187HR, 289 2B, 18 3B in 4920 career PA's
HR rate: 3.80%
2B & 3B rate: 6.24%
Overall: 10.04%

@ CITI FIELD:
24HR, 44 2B, 6 3B in 898 career PA's
HR rate: 2.67%
2B & 3B rate: 5.57%
Overall: 8.24%

What we can see here, is that Jason Bay has actually accumulated extra base hits at a slightly better rate than David Wright has at Citi Field (8.66% vs. 8.24%), but Wright has hit a higher percentage of home runs. Ultimately this allows us to draw two conclusions:

1. Jason Bay's statistics at Citi Field are, believe it or not, almost completely characteristic of the type of hitter he has been over his career. His decrease in slugging followed Wright's almost identically.

2. Jason Bay hasn't really struggled at Citi Field to the portrayed extent. His decrease in slugging could be explained as a direct result of balls that were home runs in Pittsburgh and Boston not being home runs in New York.