Monday, July 25, 2011

In Defense of Jason Bay

No, I'm not going to defend Jason Bay's poor offense.  I'm not going to justify the Mets playing him everyday or anything like that.  I don't think he should be playing everyday but that is material for a whole other post.  What I don't like is the fans calling him out for not working hard enough or not caring or saying it's okay if he doesn't do well because he has the millions of dollars anyway.

Jason Bay obviously wants to perform.  It is never fun to fail.  And for somebody like Jason Bay who had so much success for so long, it must flat-out suck.  Last year he started to get hot in the series in Los Angeles right before he felt the concussion symptoms that ended his season.  This season he got off to a late start because of another injury.  It is not easy to come back from an injury in the first place but the fact that there was so much pressure on him to perform just makes it that much more difficult.  Just to come back from an injury takes effort and hard work.

The perpetual slump is no-doubt wearing on him.  Jason Bay's defense has become the best part of his game. His offense has gotten to the point that when he gets an RBI it's a relief to me.  I can't imagine how it feels for him.  With every at-bat becoming such a battle and such a challenge the mental strain is unimaginable.  He's spent over a year trying to figure things out and he still has work to do.

I feel bad for Jason Bay.  It is not fun to watch him fail time after time.  I don't care how much money he's making.  It just stinks watching it.

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