Jason Bay To Change the Mets' Perceived "Stat Obsessed" Mentality

The Mets have been called many things: heartless, chokers, stat obsessed, show-off hot dogs, and the list goes on. What remains to be seen, though, is how different this team will be in 2010.

Jason Bay is taking his physical today and if everything goes as planned, he will be a Met when the season begins in April.

He has a grinder mentality, shows up to play every day, and believes that the team's wins and losses are more important than the role that his AVG, OBP, and Slugging Percentage had during a season.

Changes are needed from the top down in management decisions, coaching accountability, player fundamentals, and communication. If the players are expected to put the team first, then individual statistic keeping should be minimized. 

While it is interesting to see how a player fared during the season, so many factors decide the overall results of an at-bat. Statistics do tell a story but not the whole story.

If a hitter flies out to the warning track with the bases loaded and two out, he will get ripped as being "anti-clutch" etc. and his RISP number will decline but the fact that he just got under the pitch a little bit would completely be ignored or minimized.

If there is none or one out and a sacrifice fly occurs, fans are slightly appeased but will almost always rip a player because the ball didn't leave the park or find a gap in the outfield alignment.

Fans can recite a player's hitting and fielding stats all day, but when all is said and done, it's the team's performance that matters, not individual statistics.  Yes, individual performance affects the outcome to a point, so many factors end up deciding the win or loss.

A batter can go four-for-four with eight runs batted in, but if the bullpen blows the lead and they lose the game, the offense will still get the brunt of criticism for not scoring 10 or more runs.

I understand that Fantasy Baseball feeds a fan's mentality of player performance, but if we don't want the players to put their stats above the team's place in the standings, then things have to change in the fanbase's attitude.