Mets' Jason Bay Reflects on a Difficult Season - NYTimes.com

PHOENIX — Jason Bay knows that a stretch of decent games does not salvage a disappointing season. For now, he is just happy not to have an endless loop of insecurities running through his head whenever he steps to the plate.Bay, statistically speaking, is enduring one of the worst seasons of his career. He has appeared discombobulated in the batter's box and has heard boos from Mets fans on numerous occasions.But his up-and-down year appears to be approaching a new positive peak. On Friday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he had three hits to extend his streak of reaching base to 14 games. Since July 28, he is 22 for 53 (.415 average), with five doubles and three home runs.Dave Hudgens, the Mets' <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/index.php"><strong>a&f fur t-shirts</strong></a> hitting coach, said Bay's recent improvements were the result of a lengthy period of work, rather than any quick and simple adjustments."He's worked a lot on his lower half, his back half, just a couple of things," Hudgens said. "But he's been working on it so long. It was just a matter of becoming more consistent."With the end of the season in sight, Bay said the passage of time had allowed him to evaluate his troubles with a clearer perspective.He said that earlier in the year he felt "completely lost, feeling as uncomfortable as you could possibly feel in the batter's box." Bay started the season on the disabled list with a strained left oblique muscle and plunged into an extended slump almost immediately upon his return. He reached his nadir on June 13, when a 0-for-3 day in Pittsburgh knocked his average down to .207.But his recent hot streak has raised his average to .254, closer to his career average of .278 entering this year. He said it was clear he had not overcome all his troubles. But the difference from then and now, he said, was remarkable."There was a lot of thinking going on in the batter's box," Bay said. "It was just, ‘I'm not comfortable. Where are my hands? Where are my feet?' It was really detracting from me hitting the baseball."That mentality, the need to perform, he said, began to weigh on him."I was too result-oriented," he said. "You want to get the hits. You're so worried about getting the hits rather than just letting them happen."Bay's performance will be a closely watched issue for the Mets, considering he has two years left on a 66 million contract, which makes him nearly impossible to move. But his recent play has made Manager Terry Collins happy to have him around. With the Mets floundering <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/men-coats-dg-suit-wear-c-1136_937.html"><strong>d&g men suits</strong></a> toward the finish line, Collins said it was particularly important for veteran players to steady the team with consistency."If we've needed him at any time, we need him now," Collins said. "And he's doing it."A CONTROVERSIAL QUOTE Starting pitchers are famously particular about their <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/eye-wear-juicy-couture-c-1021_1055.html"><strong>juicy women glasses</strong></a> pregame routines. They never speak to the news media, and even their own managers are careful not to bother them too much.But before his start Saturday against the Diamondbacks, Mike Pelfrey was forced to interrupt his normal preparation to speak to his manager about an article in Saturday's New York Post in which Pelfrey was quoted as saying it was "unrealistic" that the Mets could "win it all" this year.The quotation, which at plain sight appeared fairly innocuous, came from a larger conversation, also quoted in the story, in which Pelfrey criticized his own performance this season and praised the direction the new front office had set for the team.Still, the article included a quotation from an unnamed Mets player who criticized Pelfrey for his comments and performance this season.So Manager Terry Collins was forced to devote some of his afternoon Saturday to address the issue.Pelfrey did not speak to reporters before the game, as is customary for a starting pitcher. But he eventually spent about 10 minutes in Collins's office a couple of hours before his start.Collins said before the game — and before meeting with Pelfrey — that the pitcher did not owe his teammates an apology, though he predicted some of them might feel compelled to speak out on the issue. Many players, meanwhile, said they had not seen the story.Collins attributed the comments to frustration, and said initially that he would wait until after the game to speak to him because he did not want to bother a pitcher while he was preparing for his start."A lot of times when guys say stuff, a lot of it is because they're frustrated, and they're frustrated with themselves more than anything else," Collins said of Pelfrey, who is 6-9 this season with a 4.53 earned run average. "I owe the man enough respect to find out what his feelings are. I can't answer why he said what <a href="http://www.436100.info/view.php?id=98364"><strong>Antibody cocktail promises safer stem cell therapy</strong></a> he said or from what context it was coming from."The quotation in full read: "It's unrealistic for anybody at the end of last year to come in and say, ‘The Mets, this is a one-year thing, next year we're going to win it all.' It's unrealistic."The unnamed player, meanwhile, said: "He's cutting his own throat. What's his record, six and nine? He's supposed to be the ace of the staff. Why don't you go and win 12 or 13 games?"