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Mets' Manuel wonders about Wright's power numbers

| From ap.org

Mets manager Jerry Manuel knows all the reasons for New York's lack of power this season. There were the injuries to sluggers Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado, and the dimensions at their spacious new ballpark — just a difficult year in general for the club.

The one thing Manuel is still trying to figure out is All-Star third baseman David Wright, who entered the final series of the season with a career-low 10 homers.

"I think that the question is, the real question is, will David Wright come back and be the home run hitter he is?" Manuel said. "I mean that's the only one we had to really be able to evaluate in this particular park and say 'Hey, could've had this amount of home runs. We didn't. ... How did that affect him in going forward or was there some mechanical or fundamental things that he could've done to even hit more home runs on the road, or what have you.'"

Wright hit 33 homers last season and 30 in 2007. His career low is 14, when he played in 69 games as a rookie in 2004.

The rest of Wright's numbers appear to be pretty similar to past seasons, considering he missed a couple weeks with a concussion and has enjoyed little protection around him. Injured leadoff hitter Jose Reyes' absence also has hurt his RBI numbers.

Wright lined his 39th double into the gap in right-center in the first inning Friday night against Houston, giving him 71 RBIs this season. He hit .302 with 42 doubles and 124 RBIs last year.

"Right now I can't say it's one thing or the other, whether it's mechanics or the ballpark," hitting coach Howard Johnson said. "It's a little bit of everything. It's one of those years where it's been a down year for everybody involved and we're just trying to turn the page.

"David went through a lot this year. When everybody was getting hurt, he was the last guy standing. I think that put a lot of pressure on him, and he hung in there pretty good."

Wright isn't the only player on the team who struggled to go deep this year. New York was last in the majors with 93 homers entering the series against the Astros — San Francisco was the next lowest at 119. Daniel Murphy's 11 homers would be the lowest total for a team leader in club history.

The opening of Citi Field, with its expansive power alleys and 15-foot-plus walls in some stretches, has contributed to the power drought. New York has 47 homers at its new field, compared to 95 during its final season at Shea Stadium.

"We didn't hit the home runs," Manuel said. "That's a big thing and we missed a lot of home runs with guys like Beltran, even Reyes, obviously Delgado being out. So we could've easily been there."