Mets hoping new Citi Field dimensions help team’s hitters, appease fans

Long distance turnaround. Yes.

By now, you’ve heard about the fences. They will be shorter this season – in height and distance from home plate. And while the new dimensions offer less wiggle room for Johan Santana and the Mets’ pitching staff, the team thinks the benefits to Bay, David Wright and a few of their other boppers will outweigh the negatives.

“That ends up changing the numbers, your outlook, everything,” Bay said. “It has this kind of rolling-stone effect. … I don’t think it’s going to be able to turn a guy who hits two home runs into [a guy who hits] 50. But for guys that hit the ball in the air, I imagine it’s going to help a little bit.”

So which tweak helps more? The lower height or the shorter distance?

“Probably the height,” first baseman Ike Davis said. “If you hit a line drive to left field, the fence was so high that a line drive would not get out. Now a line drive can get out.”

“It’s definitely the distance,” Bay said. “Most guys at this level, if you hit a ball well, it’s a home run. It’s those ones that you hit pretty well that make or break your year. You’re not going to hit 50 balls on the screws. You hit 15, 20. But then there’s five, 10, whatever that you hit maybe. In our ballpark, there [weren’t] any maybes. … You had to get it.”

Mets general manager Sandy Alderson calls it a compact effect, that height and distance share equal importance.

“I think from a visual standpoint, maybe even a psychological standpoint because of the visual, the height of the fences in left field will certainly make a difference,” Alderson said.