213 Miles From Shea

Well, the winning streak had to end eventually. The Brewers beat the Mets 5-1 last night due to the one weakness for the Mets this season: the long ball. After a quick first inning, Harvey allowed a 3-run shot in the 2nd and the Mets could never recover. The rubber game is still to be had today on this rainy Sunday.

Noah Syndergaard will make his 4th start of the season today. So far he is 2-0 over 16.0 innings allowing 8 runs, 7 earned from 15 hits and 4 walks while striking out 22 leading to a small sample size 3.94 ERA, 2.84 FIP, 1.188 WHIP and 67 ERA+. The last time Thor faced the Brewers was back in 2016 where he held the Brew Crew to 1 unearned run over 7.0 innings with 6 hits, no walks and 11 strikeouts. The Brewers have the following numbers against Noah:

• Yelich 2-14, 2B, 6 K
• Cain 2-9
• Braun 1-6
• Perez 2-3
• Villar 0-3

The Mets bats draw Jhoulys Chacin for the last game of the series. Chacin will make his 4th start of the season with his new team. After pitching for the Rockies from 2009-2014. He was released in Spring of 2015 when the Indians, who released him before he could make a start and he was picked up by the Diamondbacks. He then signed as a free agent with the Braves and was later traded to the Angels. Last season he pitched with the Padres and he signed a deal in December this year to come over to Milwaukee.

With the Padres last year Chacin was 13-10 over 180.1 innings with a 3.89 ERA, 4.26 FIP, 1.270 WHIP and 106 ERA+. He is not off to a good start with the Brewers as he has allowed 13 runs, 10 earned, over 13.2 innings from 19 hits and 7 walks while striking out 7. His small sample size season numbers include a 6.59 ERA, 6.61 FIP, 1.902 WHIP (oof) and 60 ERA+. He made two starts against the Mets last season. His first start was the worst of his season where he allowed 7 runs from 8 hits and no walks in 0.2 innings. He did much better at the end of July where he allowed 2 runs from 4 hits and 3 walks in 5.1 innings . The Mets have the following numbers against Chacin:

• Gonzalez 8-22, 2B, HR, 3 BB
• Cabrera 2-12, HR, 3 BB
• Bruce 3-10, 2B, 2 BB
• Conforto 4-10, HT, BB
• Flores 4-8, 2B, 2 BB
• Frazier 1-8, HR
• Lagares 3-9
• Cespedes 2-6

Let’s Go Mets!

Tonight the Mets will look to win their 12th game of the season, their 10th in a row, and take the first series of the home stand against the Brewers. Last night the Mets continued their trend of scoring after the other team scores. After taking an early 2-0 lead, the Brewers tied the game at 2-2 on one swing. Frazier immediately responded with his second homer of the night and the Mets would build a lead that would be chipped at, but never taken again for the night.

I almost forgot to with you a Happy Harvey Day! Matt makes his third start of the season tonight. On the season so far he has pitched 10.0 innings in two games allowing 4 runs from 10 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7 posting a 3.60 ERA, 3.83 FIP, 1.200 WHIP and 106 ERA+. Last year, Harvey’s start against the Brewers was not good as he allowed 5 runs from 7 hits and 5 walks in 5.0 innings while striking out 6. The Brewers have the following numbers against Harvey:

• Yelich 5-21, 5 K
• Cain 3-7, 3 BB
• Villar 1-5, BB
• Bandy 1-3, 2B
• Braun 0-3
• Broxton 1-3
• Perez 2-3, HR
• Shaw 0-3

The Mets bats draw Chase Anderson making his 4th start of the season after a breakout 2017 campaign. Between Arizona and Milwaukee, Anderson never hand an ERA below 4.01 for three seasons. Last year he was 12-4 over 141.1 innings with a 2.74 ERA, 3.58 FIP, 1.090 WHIP and 160 ERA+. So far this year he is 0-1 over 16.0 innings with a 3.38 ERA, 5.96 FIP, 1.125 WHIP and 66 ERA+. He faced the Mets once last year and it was a very good start where he held the Mets scoreless over 7.0 innings and to only 3 hits and a walk while striking out 7 in a game the Brewers eventually won 2-1. The Mets have the following numbers against Chase:

• Gonzalez 9-18, 2 2B, HR, 5 BB (.609 OBP)
• Bruce 1-14, HR, BB, 8 K
• Frazier 0-9, 4 K
• Reyes 2-8, BB
• Cabrera 1-4, BB
• Conforto 1-5, HR, BB
• Flores 1-4, BB
• Lagares 3-5, HR
• Cespedes 1-2, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets did it again on Wednesday night! The Mets were no-hit through 6 innings while the Marlins were only able to scratch out one run against Zack Wheeler. Then Plawecki got a rally started after being hit by a pitch, a few batters later and the Mets have a 4-1 lead, their 8th win a row and their 10th on the season!

It wouldn’t be the Mets though if everything was all roses. Earlier in the day on Wednesday, the Mets released a statement that Travis d’Arnaud has a partially torn UCL in his elbow. Plawecki getting hit on the hand doesn’t make things much better either.

Steven Matz will look to build off his last start against the Brewers tonight. On the season he is 0-1 over 2 games and 9.0 innings from 7 hits and 4 runs with a 3.00 ERA, 4.94 FIP, 1.333 WHIP, and a 129 ERA+. His last start against the Nationals was much better than his first start where he held the Nationals to 1 run, not earned, over 5.0 innings from 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 8. The last time he faced the Brewers was in 2016 and he had two very different starts. At home he held the Brewers to 2 runs from 3 hits in 7.0 innings with no walks and 8 K’s. The following month in Milwaukee he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned over 6.0 innings from 9 hits. The Brewers have the following numbers against Matz:

• Yelich 3-14, K
• Villar 2-7, 3 K
• Perez 1-6
• Broxton 2-5
• Braun 1-2, 2B
• Cain 1-3

The Mets bats draw Zach Davis who is is 0-1 over two starts this year with a 5.40 ERA in 11.2 innings allowing 8 runs, 7 earned from 12 hits and 3 walks while striking out 14. Last year he was 17-9 over 33 starts and 191.1 innings posting a 3.90 ERA, 4.22 FIP, 1.354 WHIP and 112 ERA+. In two starts against the Mets last year, he allowed 6 runs from 13 hits and 3 walks with 3 strikeouts. The Mets have the following numbers against Davies:

• Bruce 1-14, HR, BB
• Gonzalez 4-10
• Conforto 2-7, 2 2B
• Cabrera 3-6, 2B
• Cespedes 3-6, HR
• Plawecki 2-6, 2B
• Frazier 1-4
• Flores 0-2

Let’s Go Mets!

During the 5th inning, there was a glimpse that the ride was over. The Marlins scored 4 runs in the frame taking the lead, Bour woke up, the Mets were going to lose a game. But this is the 2018 Mets and they have fight! They tied, and then Bour did it again, and it that losing feeling started to creep back. Except not for the Mets who immediately responded with a Flores homer and then a Cabrera homer to tie the game. Cespedes, slumping, pushed the winning runs across and now the the Mets have the best start in franchise history! They look to keep the good times going tonight.

Wheeler makes his first start of the season tonight. Wheeler struggled in Spring Training and it looked like he was going to be bumped from the rotation for sure with Vargas on the team. Then Vargas got injured and a window opened for Wheeler however he struggled so much in Spring, he was sent to Vegas and Lugo took his spot. In a surprise turn of events, Lugo ended up being such an asset in the bullpen that the Mets find themselves turning to Wheeler. Last year he was 3-7 over 17 starts and 86.1 innings with a 5.21 ERA, 5.03 FIP, 1.587 WHIP and 81 ERA+. In his one start against the Marlins last year he allowed 5 runs off 6 hits and 1 walk in 4.0 innings of work while striking out 4. The Marlins have the following numbers against Zack:

• Prado 3-8
• Dietrich 2-6, 3B, 2 BB
• Castro 2-6
• Maybin 1-4, BB
• Bour 0-2

The Mets bats will get the first career start for Jarlin Garcia tonight who has already tossed 10.0 innings of relief this year over 2 games. In that stretch he allowed 2 runs off 5 hits and 4 walks while striking out 8. Last year he pitched 68 games out of the pen totaling 53.1 innings with a 4.73 ERA, 4.23 FIP, 1.200 WHIP and 86 ERA+. He was very good against the Mets last year. In 4.0 innings over 5 games, he held the Mets hit-less with 2 walks and 2 K’s. The Mets have the following numbers against Jarlin:

• Bruce 0-3
• Cabrera 0-1
• Flores 0-1
• Gonzalez 1-1
• Reyes 0-0, BB

Who’s hotter than the weather warm up coming this way at the end of this week?
Cespedes who has a game winning hit in two games this road trip!

Who’s colder than a car battery on a January morning?
Cespedes, who’s only two hits in his last 22 AB’s have been game winning hits. That helps make him not cold though.

Let’s Go Mets!

The 2017 Mets never won more than 5 games in a row. The 2018 Mets surpassed that already last night! The Mets won their 6th game in a row behind the same elements that have gotten them through each game so far this year: good to average starting pitching, a stellar (although sometimes stress inducing) bullpen and timely hitting. The Mets will look to make it 7 games in a row tonight.

Jacob deGrom makes his third start of the season tonight and will also look to be the first Mets starter this season to get into the 7th inning. He’s 2-0 over 11.2 innings allowing 3 runs, 2 earned, from 8 hits and 4 walks while striking out 12. That’s led to a 1.54 ERA, 2.00 FIP, 1.029 WHIP and 247 ERA+ in a super small sample size. In two starts against the Marlins last year he allowed 7 runs over 13.1 innings from 14 hits and a walk while striking out 21. The Marlins have the following numbers against deGrom:

• Dietrich 3-16, BB, 9 K
• Castro 4-13, BB
• Bour 6-12, 2B, HR, 2 BB, 3 K
• Rojas 3-13, BB
• Maybin 0-9, BB

The Mets bats draw former Yankee pitcher Caleb Smith tonight who will make his third start of the season. He is 0-1 over 2 games and 8.1 innings allowing 4 runs from 6 hits and 9 walks while striking out 12. This has lead to a 4.32 ERA, 4.95 FIP, 1.800 WHIP and 86 ERA+. Just for fun, early on he has a 13 K/9 and a 9.7 BB/9. He got into 9 games for the Yankees last year allowing 16 runs in 18.2 innings from 21 hits and 10 walks while striking out 18. In the minors last year between AA and AAA he had a 2.31 ERA over 100.2 innings. He has never faced the Mets before nor has he faced any Mets while they were members of other teams.

Who’s hotter than hot?
Familia – already has been lock down in terms of runs with 5 saves already (although saves as a stat is questionable)

Who’s colder than cold?
Familia – In two games so far he has flirted with disaster. But this is the Familia (stress inducing, expecting every possible outcome, etc) that we know.

Lets Go Mets!

That was fun! We should do it again sometime. The Mets are coming off of a three game sweep in DC, where they were behind the Nationals in all three games at some point. Last night Harper got to Harvey early but the Mets responded two innings later with a Gonzalez Grand Slam. The Nationals pushed the game into extras but the Mets came back, got the win in the 12th and leave DC with 3 wins.

The Mets make their first trip to Miami tonight to face a different looking Marlins team. Meanwhile the Marlins snapped their losing streak yesterday and are now 3-6 on the season thanks to a 6-3 win against the Phillies who wish they could move some of their runs from their 20-1 beating of the Marlins on Saturday to Sunday.

Noah Syndergaard makes his third start of the season tonight. In his first two starts he has alloed 6 runs from 10 hits and 2 walks while striking out 17 from 10.0 innings of work translating into a 5.40 ERA, 2.88 FIP, 1.200 WHIP and 74 ERA+. He pitched two starts in back to back games against the Marlins last year allowing 2 runs, 1 earned in each start over 13.0 innings from 11 hits, no walks and 13 K’s. The Marlins have the following numbers against Syndergaard:

• Bour 5-14, 2B
• Dietrich 5-13, 2 2B
• Realmuto 1-8
• Prado 1-6
• Castro 1-5, 2B
• Rojas 3-4

The Mets bats draw José Ureña who will also make his third start of the season. So far he has allowed 6 runs over 11.0 innings from 10 hits and 5 walks while striking out 9 and a league leading 3 HBP. To put that in perspective, last year he also led the league in HBP at 14 over 169.2 innings. Anyway he has a 4.91 ERA, 5.98 FIP, 1.364 WHIP and 78 ERA+ so far this year. Last year he posted a 3.82 ERA, 5.20 FIP, 1.273 WHIP and 107 ERA+. Last year he pitched 5 times against the Mets making 3 starts totaling 24.0 innings and holding the Mets to 8 runs, 6 earned (2.25 ERA) over 17 hits, 1 walk and 12 K’s. The Mets have the following numbers against Ureña:

• Reyes 6-18, 2B, 3B
• Bruce 4-13, 2B, 2 HR, BB
• Cabrera 1-14
• Cespedes 3-11, HR
• Conforto 3-8, 2B
• Flores 1-7, HR
• Gonzalez 2-7
• d’Arnaud 2-5, BB
• Nimmo 1-3, HR
• Plawecki 2-3

Who’s hotter than the Mets finally going to warm weather?
The whole Mets squad. 5 games in a row with a sweep in DC. Last time they swept in DC was September 2015 when they pushed the Nationals out of the race for good.

Who’s colder than the rest of left behind up north?
That one Mets fan who decided to take his shirt off after the game last night, poured beer on himself and then flipped the cup towards the feel. Not cool man. (Or way too cool man).

Let’s Go Mets!

Last year we wrote about how Paul Sewald had the strongest chance of making the Mets roster at some point in 2017 as a Non-Roster Invite to Spring Training. The Mets needed him and he answered. He wasn’t fantastic, but he was reliable.

His role this year is confusing, and his tenure may be brief as the Mets look to get some of their arms back from the DL, what do the computers think he’ll do?

The computers see him improving quite a bit but seeing less time. Honestly, if he sees 65 innings this year one of two things happened: he either is performing vastly above expectations, or something went terribly wrong with the Mets. His future with the Mets is still bright and 2019 looks to be his year.

Do you remember Hansel when he first came up? So good! Do you remember him last year? The opposite! In what has essentially become a meme for Mets fans, Robles pointing up signaling a pop up for a ball leaving the bell park, Robles struggled last year. Someone in the Mets organization was still very much high on Robles’ potential and Robles was not cut this off-season during the roster crunch. He had a bad spring and the Mets stayed true to their word, citing performance as the dictator of assignment, sent Roblems to Vegas. Injuries came and brought him back to Queens, how do the computers think he’ll do?

The computers don’t think Robles will be as bad as last year in terms of ERA, but somehow will be worse in WHIP. Basically, the projections don’t give a lot of hope for Robles. Hopefully the Mets don’t need to rely on him but if he can find that magic early on his career, that would be nice.

The Mets face three challenges tonight:

• Last year, and continuing into this year, Sunday’s are not their thing
• The Mets struggled to sweep three game series in 2017
• The Nationals are a good team that just lost two in a row to the underdogs in the division

Three challenges. Three trends the Mets could buck tonight. This weekend’s series against the Nationals has already been a success but now the Mets are in a position to make a statement. Starting for the Mets tonight is the pitcher who used to be all about making statements: Matt Harvey. In Harvey’s first start of the season he held the Phillies to one hit and no runs over 5.0 winnings while walking 1 and striking out 5. Last year Harvey faced the Nationals twice. In April he held the Nationals to 3 runs over 7.0 innings from 4 hits and 2 walks (2 K’s) in a game the Mets eventually lost. It was his first average start of the season and ushered in three terrible starts. His second to last start of the season was against the Nationals where he allowed 3 runs over 4.0 innings from 4 hits and 2 walks (also two strikeouts). The Nationals have the following numbers against Harvey:

• Harper 2-29, HR, 3 BB, 7 K
• Rendon 9-23, 2B, 3B, HR, 2 BB
• Zimmerman 6-23, 2B, 2 HR, 2 BB, 6 K
• Taylor 5-20, 2B, BB, 5 K
• Kendrick 2-11, BB
• Eaton 0-5
• Turner 1-5

The Mets bats draw Tanner Roark today who is coming off a strong start to kick-off the season. He allowed 1 run from 4 hits and a walk over 7.0 innings. Last season he went 13-11 over 32 games (30 starts) in 181.1 innings posting a 4.67 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 1.335 WHIP and 95 ERA+. He faced the Mets twice last year allowed 6 runs from 12 hits and 3 walks in 12.2 innings where he still struck out 14 Mets. The Mets have the following numbers against Roark:

• Lagareus 3-17, 2 2B, BB
• Bruce 2-14, 3 BB
• Cespedes 2-13, 2B, 2 BB
• d’Arnaud 1-13, 2 BB
• Flores 2-13, 2B
• Reyes 3-11, 2 BB
• Conforto 3-9, 2B, HR, 3 BB
• Carbera 2-8, 2B, BB
• Frazier 2-7, HR, 2 BB
• Gonzalez 3-7, 2B, HR
• Nimmo 2-3, HR

Who’s Hotter than the weather the Mets get to experience tomorrow in Miami?
Cabrera! He manufactured one of the runs completely yesterday from getting Rosario in to dominating the base paths. He’s now hitting .310/.375/.414 on the year.

Who’s Colder than the weather the Mets played in pretty much every other day this year?
The umpiring crew yesterday. The Home Plate umpire had an inconsistent strike zone to say the least, made a questionable ejection and heard about his zone from 90% of both teams.

Let’s Go Mets!

The A.J. Ramos trade was a curious one last year. While the Mets were shedding all of their other contracts, they went after Ramos, generally a sign of a team that was trying to win last year. The benefit of the Ramos trade was he was signed through this season giving the signal that the Mets wanted to win in 2018.

here is what the computers think he will do this year:

The computers see Ramos’ 2017 as flukey bad and expect him to be a full run better as a Met, thanks to losing .3 points on his WHIP.

The Mets need every veteran in the bullpen to be fantastic this season. Early on Ramos has been encouraging and hopefully with better bullpen management he will be even better.