I heard a strange sound coming from the Mets’ batting cages yesterday so I walked by to check it out. Jason Bay was in the box with a coach feeding tennis balls through a pitching machine. Bay wasn’t swinging much. The odd noise was the hollow tennis balls popping through the machine at high speeds.

I asked Bay about it during batting practice this morning. Turns out what he was using was the “ocular enhancer” machine the team agreed to lease as part of Carlos Beltran’s contract. The machine fires tennis balls with red or black numbers on them at speeds up to 150 mph. Players stand in the box and try to read the color and number on the balls.

“The eyes can be trained, like any muscle,” Bay said. “You can take a few cuts, but it’s mostly for tracking.”

Bay added that after watching pitches at 120 and 130 mph, a 90 mph fastball looks like it’s floating toward the plate.

I spoke to Beltran about the machine a few minutes later. He said it’s something he has been using since he was introduced to it in Kansas City, and that he uses it all season long.

Beltran said he can’t read the numbers when they’re coming it at 130, but when they slow down to 85 or 90 he can.

“It’s fun,” he said. “If you believe it can help you, it will help you.”