As all of you have witnessed to this point in the season, Jason Bay hasn't been, well Jason Bay this year.  He has only six homers thus far in 2010, a little less than a third of the amount he had last year at this same time.  There are a few elements in Jason Bay's game that are uncharacteristically different this season and might be attributable to a new team philosophy focusing on putting more balls in play equating to fewer strikeouts and fewer walks.  The Mets have a paltry team wide BB/K rate of .44 (9th worst in the majors) and an O-Swing rate (swinging percentage on balls out of the strike zone) of 31.9% good for second to last in the majors.  When plate discipline becomes a team wide weakness one should attribute such failures to non other than the hitting coach.  Swinging at balls is not the right approach if the Mets want to win baseball games.  Anyways, back to Jason Bay. 

When you compare Jason Bay's 2010 stat line to that of his 2009 one, you'll find three big differences.  His homers, his walks and his strikeouts.  Jason Bay has altered his hitting program (I'm looking at you Mr. Johnson) which entails him putting many more balls in play instead of being the high walk and high strikeout rate power hitter he has always been.  While watching Saturday's Mets game against the Dodgers I noticed something about Bay I had never noticed before.  Both his singles were groundballs pulled through the 5-6 hole.  It dawned on me.  Had Jason Bay been hitting lots of groundball singles to his pull field and fewer fly balls?  I quickly went to the invaluable FanGraphs website and checked if I had gone crazy or if my gut was onto something.  Lo and behold my gut was right.