It's no secret that the Mets have increasingly struggled at home over the years. One can easily tell based on the number of articles and media comments about it. What's not clear is what's causing the club's continued Citi Field woes.
Another way to present the team's at-home issues is to illustrate their lack of at-home hitting. If you compare the Mets' yearly home and away batting averages, you'll immediately notice the alarming differences (see right).
Even more worrisome and befuddling about the data is their trends; while the Mets' away batting average has stayed consistent their home batting average has gone way down. That fact discredits the possibility of the team having a general lack of hitting as opposed to a localized one.
The notion of "home field advantage" is based on the idea that things like fans cheering, ballpark familiarity, batting in bottom half of innings, and overall comfort will give the home team a better chance. Therefore, it is logically sound to conclude that one of those things is missing, and it's pretty clear the "fans cheering" aspect is missing. The Mets have practically been begging fans to come to home games with their recent promotions and heavily decreased prices. However, Citi Field per-game attendance averages are actually up from last year, which means it can't be solely responsible (Baseball Reference). Without comparing the quality of the 2013 Mets to this year's roster, it wouldn't completely explain the significant decrease in the team's home batting average.
Decreased attendance and support aren't entirely responsible, but play into what I think is--pressure. Pressure would most intensely be felt at home with fans visibly watching and New York media in full attendance. Currently for the Mets a home game means a half-empty stadium, boos, and intense media all to remind them when they mess up. As young and sub-par the current Mets are, they can't handle the pressure of playing in New York unsuccessfully, turning the whole thing into a cycle.
Converging evidence for pressure's responsibility is the Mets' stats this year in high-pressure situations. This year with the bases loaded the team is batting a horrid .136 which puts them third-last in the league (MLB.com). They're average with runners in scoring position and two outs isn't great either at .190 (MLB.com). At this level, opportunities like those are the ones which need to be taken advantage of, and also subsequently the ones with the greatest pressure to perform.
The goal of this post is not to make excuses for these professional baseball players, but merely to delve-into a baffling trend us fans are seeing. The Mets need to become a professional baseball team once again and learn how to deal with playing in New York. After all, it's where they will always play 81 games a year. If current management is unfit to see that through then their jobs need to be given to more capable individuals. We're almost at a point where that becomes a necessity, judging by fans' (warranted) frustrations and poor on-field performances. In simpler words, should these trends continue Terry Collins will need to be fired and Sandy Alderson may even have to join him.
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