Shawn Green is optimistic about being “a piece of the puzzle” for the Mets both now and in the playoffs.
Green, the Mets’ new right fielder, will be at Shea today following Tuesday’s trade with the Diamondbacks. The 33year-old lefty hitter spoke yesterday on a conference call with the New York media, and he talked about what he’s going to bring to the Mets.
“I feel like the Mets, it’s not like I’m going to come there and be the answer,” Green said.
“I think … throughout the season, obviously, they have a great mix. And I’m just going there hoping to be a piece of the puzzle that can help in whatever situations come up for me as we get into September and October.
“And I feel like I bring experience and I’m excited just to have a chance not only to play deep into the season and into the postseason but also to be reunited with some guys that I have a lot of history with.” Green played with Carlos Delgado for several years in Toronto, and he’ll now play with him again in Flushing (Delgado called him “a dear friend” on Tuesday night). But Green mentioned numerous other Mets who are past teammates – including Paul Lo Duca, Duaner Sanchez and Guillermo Mota in Los Angeles, Orlando Hernandez in Arizona and Chris Woodward in Toronto.
Green is hitting .283 with 11 homers and 51 RBIs. He’s hit 40-plus homers on three different occasions in his career, and yesterday he rationalized his homer drop-off in 2006 as part of an offensive strategy that he chose to use.
“It’s not physical. I did make a conscious effort, ’cause the first two weeks of the season, I was really struggling,” Green said. “And throughout my career, I’ve kind of started chasing home runs and it’s caused me at times to be streaky.”
“So I just decided that I was going to forget about the home runs and just try to shorten my swing up and try to hit line drives. And then I got in a really good groove doing that with getting a lot of singles and a few doubles. But that was my approach, to try to be more consistent and it worked. And my goal is to eventually, hopefully sooner than later, build off of that and let the home runs come again.”
Whether the home runs will come again is unknown, as Green is going from a good hitter’s park in Arizona to a tough one in Shea.
Still, he said yesterday that “when things click for me, then they really click.” He also insisted that his recent struggles – he’s hitting .208 with one homer in 53 August at-bats – were partly due to the swirling trade rumors.
“I didn’t really know what was going on,” he said. “I think that affected my performance a little bit. But I feel like I know what I’m doing up there at the plate, and I have an idea and I think if things can click, all of a sudden if I get in a home run groove, then I’ve had in the past some pretty good grooves. So hopefully that could come at the right time.”
Green could be here at the right time. He waived his notrade clause to come to the Mets and confirmed his interest in being at Shea.
“I’m real excited. All year I’ve been really impressed with what the Mets have and the potential of that team,” he said. “I’ve always felt throughout the season they had something special, and I’m really excited and I feel honored to be a part of it.”
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By the numbers
Shawn Green’s stats:
— CAREER AVG. — CAREER BEST** — 2006 SEASON
G 150.6 153 115
AB 555.8 614 417
R 89.5 134 59
H 156.9 190 118
2B 34.5 45 22
3B 2.9 0 3
HR 26.7 42 11
RBI 85.8 123 51
SB 12.8 20 4
AVG. .283 .309 .283
SLUG. .500 .588 .500
OBP .356 .384 .356
* – Partial seasons of 1993, 1994 not included (except in AB, SLUG. and OBP).
** – Reflects stats from 1999 season.