(H/T to Rebecca for pointing in the direction of this article at WSJ)
So Yankee Stadium II (the place that closed in 2008) was a fairly pitcher/hitter neutral park. The eye would back this up - right field obviously plays short with the porch and the short foul line, but the left-center power-alley is immense at 399 ft. Lefty pull hitters would find the park a homer haven but all but the best righty hitters will find their power sapped by Death Valley. Yankee Stadium III plays as a hitter-friendly stadium, the most likely culprit being the wind currents in the new stadium since the dimensions of both stadiums are similar...but not the same (right field slightly shorter, center slightly longer).
So the Yankees have a stadium friendly to lefty pull hitters and have a philosophy of having switch hitters disbursed through the lineup with the ability to yank a homer every once in a while (Gardner and Jeter are exceptions, but their skill set compliments the lineup well). So what do they build their lineup with? Lefty power hitters! With both Yankee Stadium iterations, the short porch helps them build the lineup to the stadium...which is exactly what you should do - it's called home-field advantage.
This brings us to the mammoth shot A-Rod hit last night to the high wall at Citi Field. The ball he hit looked like it would have been a home run in Yellowstone Park, but Citi Field has a ridiculously high wall in left-center field, and A-Rod hit this ball all but one foot up the wall. What was a homer in almost every other park was a ringing double in Queens.
Why is this a problem? Shea Stadium was a pitcher-friendly park but absolutely fair - symmetrical along the centerline of the field. They had power hitters in Delgado, Wright, and Beltran with Reyes providing some pop out of the leadoff spot. 2009 saw the move to Citi and it's bizarre dimensions compared to Shea, and the Mets' power numbers declined precipitously. Their leading home run hitter was Daniel Murphy, and Carlos Beltran had a 20-homer pace. Wright hit a grand total of 10 bombs - the same both Gary Sheffield and Jeff Francoeur hit in roughly half the PA's. Wright improved back to 29 home runs in 2010, but had five more on the road as opposed to home. This year is a bad year to measure Wright because of his injury-marred 2011 season so far, but Beltran seems to have figured out Citi. Beltran has 12 homers this season and a couple more at home than on the road.
It seems like the Wilpons wanted a park to fit Jose Reyes alone...a triples haven, where old-school baseball reigned (even though one could argue that old school baseball includes a lot of homers) at the expense of power hitters. The Wall Street Journal link above shows how a bunch of Yankee Stadium homers are fly balls at Citi, which I find an unfair comparison regardless...a team should cater to the stadium where it plays half its games. But the Mets already had a decent team, and decided to build their stadium almost in the face of their team - besides Reyes, not too many players on the Mets for the last three seasons really fit Citi Field. Francoeur famously called Citi Field "a joke," but then again I don't put too much stock the opinion of a guy that makes out 69% of the time for his career.
This took on more of a ramble than I planned. My feeling is the Mets have a serious problem with their stadium...the playing field dimensions and fences need to be altered. I can't see high-profile free agents coming to Citi Field when their offensive numbers will likely decrease, since (besides notable exceptions) high-profile equals power hitter. Hopefully Sandy Alderson will be able to build a team to his park (assuming he is allowed to by the Wilpons or Einhorn), but hopefully the Mets are allowed to lower that confounded wall some before they lose Wright mentally.
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