Baseball Guru
05-12-2003, 11:21 AM
By Charlie Nobles / Special to MLB.com
MIAMI -- Outfielder Jay Payton, who leads the Rockies in hitting coming into Saturday night's game with the Marlins, has been thriving since he left the Mets last July 31. Payton doesn't think it's an accident.
"Probably 95 percent of guys play better outside New York -- as evidenced by the way things have gone (for the Mets) the last few years," said Payton, who moved his average to .333 with two hits against the Marlins on Friday night.
Payton spent five mostly injury-riddled seasons with the Mets, but he hit .291 for them in 2000, with 17 home runs and 62 RBIs. He was hitting .284 when he was traded last year primarily for right-handed pitcher John Thomson.
"When they traded me I was swinging the bat as good as I ever have," Payton said. "Fortunately I've been able to just continue where I was when I got traded. Actually, I don't think I was having a bad year there, but things definitely have gotten better for me since I've been here."
Payton finished up last season with the Rockies by hitting .335 in 47 games, with eight home runs and 28 RBIs. And thus far this season, he's gotten five home runs and 18 RBIs to go with his lofty batting average.
He's not certain why the Mets dealt him, and that question matters less as he further entrenches himself with the Rockies.
"It looked like they needed a pitcher to get where they wanted to be last year," he said. "Or it could be they just kind of gave up on me. More than likely, that might be it."
Whatever the case, Payton now is free from the distractions that plague many when they play in New York.
"You don't have to deal with the same kind of media coverage -- the scrutiny that comes from playing in New York," he said of his life now. "That's part of the game. If you want to find out if you're the best, that's the place to go do it."
Still, Payton found that little mistakes as a Met had a way of being magnified.
"Any little thing you do is going to stick for a while," he said. "If you make a bad play, it's going to last for a week. If you do something stupid, it's going to last for a week. They drag things out there. Then the next thing you know, everyone thinks you're terrible."
Payton paused a moment, then continued, "That's kind of the way it goes to be a good ballplayer, but if you happen to do a couple of (bad) things, especially if they happen back to back, then the next thing you know they want you out of the city."
Payton said that while he has benefited from the move to the Rockies, he has simply maintained the same work ethic he had as a Met.
"I come to the ballpark every day with the thought that I'm going to find something out that's going to make me a better ballplayer," he said.
He believes that the unusual number of injuries he endured as a Met -- including two right elbow surgeries -- kept him from realizing the potential that was predicted for him when he left Georgia Tech as an All-American along with Nomar Garciaparra.
"But now things are going well," he said, "and I'm trying to live in the present and not think about the past so much."
Coors not as ominous any more: For years Coors Field has been a place where pitchers' earned run averages go to die. ERAs normally balloon out of proportion there, and yearly more runs are scored at Coors than in any other Major League stadium.
Well, something strange is happening this season. Rockies pitchers are throwing better at home than they are on the road, as measured by their ERAs. They also are faring strikingly better in the win column at home.
The Rockies have a 5.21 ERA at home thus far, with an 11-4 record to back it up. On the road, they pale to 5.71 and 5-15.
"We've pitched far more consistently at home," Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca said. "Oh, we lost a 15-12 game there. But we lost 12-6 at Atlanta, too."
Apodaca can live with the home ERA, which is better than usual. He is working to correct the Rockies' road pitching difficulties, which are exacerbated by spotty relief performance.
"We're waiting for our veteran leadership in the bullpen to step up," Apodaca said. "They have to lead us with what they're capable of doing. They're not pitching up to their abilities right now. I fully expect that to change."
When Apodaca took the job with the Rockies, he said he wasn't going to make an "issue" with his pitchers about throwing at Coors. "If you make an issue out of it," he said Saturday, "you give the pitchers a built-in excuse to fail. We're not making excuses when we fail. We just didn't execute. You have to make pitches wherever you are."
Apodaca believes the road problem is a matter of a couple of pitchers here and there.
"Every game boils down to two or three situations where you have to make pitches," he said. "It's that confrontation where we're falling a little bit short on the road. Usually six of the nine innings are pitched well. The other three are biting us in the rear end."
Apodaca seems to take no comfort in the fact that he could have injured starters Denny Neagle and Denny Stark back before June.
"We might deal with what we have," he said. "No excuses."
The manager says: "Champions are rarely chosen from the ranks of the unscarred." -- A slogan written by Clint Hurdle on the bottom of Saturday night's lineup.
MIAMI -- Outfielder Jay Payton, who leads the Rockies in hitting coming into Saturday night's game with the Marlins, has been thriving since he left the Mets last July 31. Payton doesn't think it's an accident.
"Probably 95 percent of guys play better outside New York -- as evidenced by the way things have gone (for the Mets) the last few years," said Payton, who moved his average to .333 with two hits against the Marlins on Friday night.
Payton spent five mostly injury-riddled seasons with the Mets, but he hit .291 for them in 2000, with 17 home runs and 62 RBIs. He was hitting .284 when he was traded last year primarily for right-handed pitcher John Thomson.
"When they traded me I was swinging the bat as good as I ever have," Payton said. "Fortunately I've been able to just continue where I was when I got traded. Actually, I don't think I was having a bad year there, but things definitely have gotten better for me since I've been here."
Payton finished up last season with the Rockies by hitting .335 in 47 games, with eight home runs and 28 RBIs. And thus far this season, he's gotten five home runs and 18 RBIs to go with his lofty batting average.
He's not certain why the Mets dealt him, and that question matters less as he further entrenches himself with the Rockies.
"It looked like they needed a pitcher to get where they wanted to be last year," he said. "Or it could be they just kind of gave up on me. More than likely, that might be it."
Whatever the case, Payton now is free from the distractions that plague many when they play in New York.
"You don't have to deal with the same kind of media coverage -- the scrutiny that comes from playing in New York," he said of his life now. "That's part of the game. If you want to find out if you're the best, that's the place to go do it."
Still, Payton found that little mistakes as a Met had a way of being magnified.
"Any little thing you do is going to stick for a while," he said. "If you make a bad play, it's going to last for a week. If you do something stupid, it's going to last for a week. They drag things out there. Then the next thing you know, everyone thinks you're terrible."
Payton paused a moment, then continued, "That's kind of the way it goes to be a good ballplayer, but if you happen to do a couple of (bad) things, especially if they happen back to back, then the next thing you know they want you out of the city."
Payton said that while he has benefited from the move to the Rockies, he has simply maintained the same work ethic he had as a Met.
"I come to the ballpark every day with the thought that I'm going to find something out that's going to make me a better ballplayer," he said.
He believes that the unusual number of injuries he endured as a Met -- including two right elbow surgeries -- kept him from realizing the potential that was predicted for him when he left Georgia Tech as an All-American along with Nomar Garciaparra.
"But now things are going well," he said, "and I'm trying to live in the present and not think about the past so much."
Coors not as ominous any more: For years Coors Field has been a place where pitchers' earned run averages go to die. ERAs normally balloon out of proportion there, and yearly more runs are scored at Coors than in any other Major League stadium.
Well, something strange is happening this season. Rockies pitchers are throwing better at home than they are on the road, as measured by their ERAs. They also are faring strikingly better in the win column at home.
The Rockies have a 5.21 ERA at home thus far, with an 11-4 record to back it up. On the road, they pale to 5.71 and 5-15.
"We've pitched far more consistently at home," Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca said. "Oh, we lost a 15-12 game there. But we lost 12-6 at Atlanta, too."
Apodaca can live with the home ERA, which is better than usual. He is working to correct the Rockies' road pitching difficulties, which are exacerbated by spotty relief performance.
"We're waiting for our veteran leadership in the bullpen to step up," Apodaca said. "They have to lead us with what they're capable of doing. They're not pitching up to their abilities right now. I fully expect that to change."
When Apodaca took the job with the Rockies, he said he wasn't going to make an "issue" with his pitchers about throwing at Coors. "If you make an issue out of it," he said Saturday, "you give the pitchers a built-in excuse to fail. We're not making excuses when we fail. We just didn't execute. You have to make pitches wherever you are."
Apodaca believes the road problem is a matter of a couple of pitchers here and there.
"Every game boils down to two or three situations where you have to make pitches," he said. "It's that confrontation where we're falling a little bit short on the road. Usually six of the nine innings are pitched well. The other three are biting us in the rear end."
Apodaca seems to take no comfort in the fact that he could have injured starters Denny Neagle and Denny Stark back before June.
"We might deal with what we have," he said. "No excuses."
The manager says: "Champions are rarely chosen from the ranks of the unscarred." -- A slogan written by Clint Hurdle on the bottom of Saturday night's lineup.