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NEW YORK (AP) #8212;While not exactly tearing down this wall, the New York Metsare putting up a new fence at Citi Field that #8217;s shorter and closer to homeplate.In an effort to boost scoring at the pitcher-friendly ballpark, the Metsannounced Monday they are cutting the field dimensions by as much as 12 feetnext season, lowering the fence height to 8 feet all around and changing thefence colo all football games r to blue with an orange line at the top. #8220;We #8217;re targeting to try to fit in, to be more normal or more on averagewith everybody, #8221; Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said. At their first offseason comments, the Mets said it was too soon to tellwhether they would be competitive to re-sign free agent Jose Reyes(notes). Generalmanager Sandy Alderson said he expected David W all football games right(notes) will remain with the Metsnext season.The new fence will be erected in front of the ballpark #8217;s daunting 16-footblack fence, which became known as #8220;The Great Wall of Flushing. #8221; #8220;You just keep looking at that thing, and that left-field wall kept gettinghigher and higher, #8221; Alderson said.According to STATS LLC, Citi Field was last in the major leagues in homeru all football games ns during its first three seasons with an average of 1.43 per game. Theballpark #8217;s 3.78 ERA was the sixth-lowest in the major leagues. #8220;Was Citi Field my favorite park to hit in? I #8217;d be lying to you if I saidit was, #8221; Wright said in comments made through the Mets. #8220;Sure it wasfrustrating when you hit a ball good and you didn #8217;t get the results. #8221;Right-center fi all football games eld is being brought in from 415 feet to 398, although thenew sign doesn #8217;t match up with the same angle as the old one. Left field comesin from 371 to 358 #8212;with about 100 seats being added behind the new fence inleft.The #8220;Mo #8217;s Zone #8221; fence in right field is being pulled in, creating evenmore of an overhang from the second deck. About 40 additional seats will be inthat a all football games rea. #8220;I think it #8217;s going to be good for everybody, #8221; outfielder Jason Bay(notes) saidthrough the Mets. #8220;I think cutting down on the space in the outfield will helpimprove the defense which in turn should help the pitching. #8221;Alderson, hired a year ago, revised the dimensions recommended by hispredecessor, Omar Minaya. #8220;We didn #8217;t want to completely alter the bal all football games lpark and make it into theproverbial bandbox, #8221; Alderson said. #8220;So that required looking at variousdimensions and coming up with something based on home-run rates and park factorsand so forth that was more or less neutral as between pitching and hitting,somewhere in the middle of all the ballparks. #8221;Wright hit .279 at home with 22 homers, 103 RBIs and 179 strikeouts in thefirst thr all football games ee seasons at Citi Field, down from a .335 average at home with 37homers, 118 RBIs and 105 strikeouts in the final three years at Shea Stadium. #8220;I don #8217;t want to give you the impression that we #8217;ve done this for David orwe #8217;ve done this for Ike (Davis) or we #8217;ve done this for anybody in particular, #8221;Alderson said. #8220;It #8217;s really about having a more neutral b all football games allpark and maybe toeven some extent, given that I think offense is exciting for many fans, maybe itwill be slightly more entertaining. #8221;Alderson said the Mets projected they would have hit 81 more home runs atCiti Field over the last three seasons with the new dimensions and could havegiven up 70 more. During three years at Citi Field, there were only nineopposite-field home runs by left-han all football games ded hitters #8212;and none by the Mets. #8220;One explanation is we just haven #8217;t had any left-handed hitters that arestrong enough to hit it out there, #8221; Alderson said. #8220;Another explanation isthat our left-handed power hitters have just decided that #8217;s not a goodpercentage and have more or less given up on that possibility. #8221;Alderson compared the changes to the ones at D all football games etroit #8217;s Comerica Park, wherethe average increased from 0.80 home runs from 2000-02 to 1.06 since, accordingto STATS LLC. After the 2002 season, the left-center field wall was moved from395 to 370 feet.Alderson said pitching coach Dan Warthen supported the changes. #8220;His point was maybe our pitchers got a little complacent here and it hadan affect on the road as well, #8221; Alderson sai all football games d, #8220;so he felt that thesedimensions, that they were fair, would force our guys to maybe bear down alittle more here than they have. #8221;On other topics: #8212; Wilpon said #8220;there #8217;s not a deadline or there #8217;s not a date certain thatanything has to be done #8221; for selling minority interests in the team. #8212; Alderson predicted Reyes #8217; free agency #8220;is going to all football games be a slow process #8221; andadded #8220;we #8217;re not going to punt 2012 if Jose doesn #8217;t re-sign. #8221; #8212; Asked whether he could say with certainty Wright would be back next year,Alderson responded: #8220;I couldn #8217;t say that with any degree of certainty about anyplayer that we have, #8221; then paused and added, #8220;Do I think he #8217;ll be a Met nextyear? Yes. #8221; #8 all football games 212; Alderson said the bullpen was a priority and that he might shift some ofthe $100 million to $110 million budgeted for payroll next season to amateurdraft signing bonuses. Follow Yahoo! Sports' MLB coverage on Twitter. Updated 1 hour, 58 minutes ago all football games
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