213 Miles From Shea

I was lucky enough to go to Opening Day with my parents this year in DC. We were sitting in right field and got to the game early because its what you do during Opening Day. When we first got to our seats, the Mets were still taking BP, most of the pitching staff was shagging flies in the outfield and Terry was out their too having a conversation (I couldn’t make out with who).

We all started yelling, “Hey Terry!” and he turned around and gave us a wave.

Opening Day is a nerve inducing day. Terry has a lot on his mind. He could have easily just allowed us to be noise in the crowd and we would not have cared. But he turned around and acknowledged us. We care about the Mets. He cares about the Mets and he cares about us caring about the Mets.

Lets get game two tonight!

Opening Day 2015 has finally arrived! After an off-season of anticipating the 2015 rotation, wondering what was going to happen with the shortstop, trying to figure out why Fred Wilpon would be named to the head of the MLB Financial Committee, stressing about Wheeler, stressing about the Opening Day starter, stressing about left handed relievers, and wondering what the mystery structure in the Citi Field parking lot is we have made it to Opening Day. The Nationals were a huge thorn in the side of the Mets in 2014 getting 4 wins in 19 games. While the Nationals are the heavy favorites for the NL East (with very good reason, their rotation and lineup are stacked) the Mets have an opportunity early to establish a new trend as the two teams play 7 times in the first 4 weeks of the season.

Bartolo Colon will get the start for the Mets today. While there was some controversy around whether he should start, and while he probably is the least exciting or near the least exciting pitcher in the Mets rotation he surprisingly put up some very good numbers last year. He led the team with 15 wins over 31 starts and he had a strikeout to walk ratio of 5.03. In raw numbers over 202 innings he struck out 151 batters while only walking 30. However in raw numbers he also allowed 22 homers. Overall last year he was 15-13 with a 4.09 ERA over 202.1 innings and against the Nationals he was 1-4 with a 4.50 ERA over 30.0 innings. The Nationals have the following numbers against Bartolo:

• Escobar 6-14
• Desmond 4-12, 2 HR
• Rendon 4-13, HR
• Werth 4-9, 2 2B
• Harper 1-10
• Ramos 2-11, 2B

The Mets bats will draw the new Nationals ace of the 2015 season. One of the main strengths of the Nationals prior to 2015 was their rotation, but they went out and got Max Scherzer anyway (which provides future protection in case they cannot retain Jordan Zimmermann). Max Scherzer has lead the American League in wins the last two season putting up 21 in 2013 when he won the Cy Young and 18 last year. Overall last year he went 18-5 in Detroit over 33 starts and 220.1 innings with a 3.15 ERA. The last time he faced the Mets was in 2013 where he pitched 6.0 scoreless innings allowing 3 hits and 4 walks and striking out 11 batters (seriously). The Mets have the following numbers on Max:

• Cuddyer 4-17, 2B, HR
• Granderson 4-15, HR
• Murphy 2-8
• Flores 0-2
• Lagares 0-2
• Wright 0-2

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets tied with the Rangers 4-4 yesterday and ended a successful spring training that saw the Mets end with the best record, great pitching stats and great hitting stats. Starting tomorrow, these stats all mean nothing, but the Mets have a lot of to be confident about going into the regular season. Anyway, lets look at the box score for the game:

• The game ended up being a tie because Recker hit a grand slam in the top of the 9th. Spring Training as a whole has been awful for Recker with some fans calling for Monell to get the bench spot over Recker so I’m glad his final taste of spring was something incredibly positive like hitting a a game tying grand slam.
• Gee allowed 2 ER over 4.2 innings while allowing 2 hits and 2 walks and striking out 4 in his final tuneup for the rotation
• Alex Torres allowed 2 runs, but they were unearned, he also walked 2
• Gilmartin allowed 2 hits and that was it over 1.1 innings
• Thorton ended a strong spring allowing a hit and nothing else while striking out 2 over 2.0 innings. He ends with a spring ERA of 1.38

The Mets headed up to DC after the game yesterday to get ready for Opening Day. Lets Do This!

The games still don’t mean anything but the Mets keep on shutting their opponents down. The Mets beat the Rangers 5-0 yesterday behind deGrom who tossed 4 scoreless innings allowing a hit and striking out 4 in his final tuneup before his debut in the second game of the season. Here are some additional notes from the game:

• Montero pitched two scoreless innings with no hits and two walks while striking out 1
• Familia had added in an inning where he allowed a walk and a hit but no runs
• Mejia had a normal Mejia inning. He allowed a hit, got a strikeout and no damage was done
• Blevins had a clean inning
• The Mets had four doubles: Lagares, Wright, Monell and Granderson
• Wright actually went 3-3, Lagares 3-4 and Granderson 2-4. It would be nice if the top of the lineup for the Mets can do that often

The Mets play their last meaningless game of the season today with the Rangers and after that, everything gets real as the team will travel for the season opener in the Nation’s capital. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets finally experienced in 2015 that odd sensation in spring training: the tie. The Mets and Cardinals went the whole game without scoring a run and ended the game after 9. The Mets went off to Texas to get ready for a two game set with the Rangers and I have no idea what the Cardinals did because I really don’t care. Anyway let’s take a look at some of the notes:

• Harvey was the main story of the day for the Mets. He pitched 4 innings, allowed 3 hits, struck out 4 and ended spring with a 1.19 ERA. Excited for the third game of the season yet?
• Carlos Torres, Goeddel and Thorton all added in scoreless outings after Harvey
• The Bats didn’t do much. Granderson went hit-less in 1 AB, Mayberry came in for him and promptly got a hit
• Wright and Duda both went 0-3
• Captain Kirk and Rosario both got a hit
• Tejada got a double

The Mets play a night game tonight against the Rangers and a 2 PM game tomorrow and then its off to DC to ruin the start of the season for the Washington Nationals. Lets Go New York!

The Mets dropped a meaningless game 5-4 yesterday against the Cardinals behind Opening Day Bartolo Colon who allowed 3 ER over 5.0 innings of work and 3 hits while walking one and striking out two. I’m not too concerned about him for Opening Day because this seems to be just the way he is. He’s too, uh experienced (trying not to call out his age here) for games to get to him mentally. Anyway let’s take a look at the rest of the squad:

• Blevins allowed a hit to the only batter he faced
• Alex Torres had a clean inning of relief in his Mets debut, even added a strikeout for good measure. He pitched after Carlos Torres, so the box score looks a funky.
• Reynolds was the best offensive player of the game for the Mets who went 2-2 with a double and 3 RBIs
• Lagares, Muno, Duda, Cuddyer, Johnson and Rosario all added hits

The Mets go back at it against the Cardinals this afternoon in their last Spring Training Game in Florida before heading up to Arlington for a two game set before opening the season.

Two days ago the Mets completed a pair of trades to bring some lefties into the Mets pen. The second trade of the day brought Jerry Blevins over from the Nationals in return for Matt den Dekker. Matt was known for his defense and at one point int time looked like a candidate to start in center back when it was an open competition between Captain Kirk and Juan Lagares. We know how that story played out and Matt really became a player without a role on the team. Rather than adding to the current logjam of players the Mets have in certain areas, they traded for Jerry Blevins to get another lefty in the pen.

Jerry Blevins has been in the league for a while, breaking in at age 23 in 2007 with the Athletics. He landed with the Nationals last year via a trade. In his last few years:

2012: 5-1, 2.48 ERA, 63 G, 65.1 IP, 54 K, 1.071 WHIP
2013: 5-0, 3.15 ERA, 67 G, 60.0 IP, 52 K, 1.067 WHIP
2014: 2-3, 4.87 ERA, 64 G, 57.1 IP, 66 K, 1.238 WHIP

Curious turn of events for Jerry last year. His strikeout numbers took a significant increase, as did his WHIP and as did his ERA. Overall his work load for the last several seasons seems stable and hopefully since the Mets now have two lefties in the pen, they won’t have to over work either one of them.

I am in almost literal disbelief that Spring Training is almost over. I’m at the point where I am completely used to looking at meaningless stats from meaningless games. Anyway, the Mets beat the Nationals yesterday 2-0. Let’s take a look at the box score:

• Mayberry went 3-4 while picking up his 4th homer of the spring
• d’Arnaud picked up two hits
• Captain Kirk continued to cool off going 0-4
• Niese had a strong start allowing 4 hits, no walks over 6.0 innings of work striking out 3 and shutting out the Nationals
• Blevins got his first Mets action facing one batter, striking him out
• Gilmartin pitched two innings, allowing one hit, a walk and getting a strikeout

Niese lowered his Spring ERA to 1.65 as he continues to have a strong, quiet spring. It’s nice having players that are having quiet success, it feels great. Blevins pitched exactly as he was supposed to in his first outing.

Gilmartin is really starting to force the issue though that he should be on the roster. Let’s see what happens as the season approaches.

In the first of two trades yesterday, the Mets acquired lefty Alex Torres from the San Diego Padres for pitcher Cory Mazzoni and a player to be named later. The latter probably indicates a draftee from last year and Mazzoni had solid years for the Mets in the minors for a while. He has made some spot starts but with the current state of Mets pitching, there really wasn’t a spot for him. The Mets traded from an area of depth and got a pitcher to address an area of need: the lefty reliever.

Alex Torres has pitched in parts of three major league seasons, this year he’ll be 27. He was originally drafted by the Angels and was traded to the Rays as part of the Scott Kazmir trade. In January 2014, he was part of a large trade that landed him in San Diego.

In 2013 he pitched in 39 games and 58.0 innings with a 4-2 record, 1.71 ERA while striking out 62 batters with a WHIP of 0.897.

In 2014 he pitched in 70 games and 54.0 innings with a 3.33 ERA while striking out 51 batters and a 1.463 WHIP.

From a statistic point, his 2013 season was more impressive than his 2014 season. On the Mets he will probably be used in a capacity closer to his 2014 season (majority of appearances under one inning of work). While the WHIP is a little wary coming from a specialist, Torres brings more major league experience than the current options in camp and does look like an upgrade.

The Mets won big yesterday against the Marlins by the score of 7-1 (I mean as big as a spring training game can be) as both Duda and Montero had monster days. The game was a little lost in all of the other news that came out about the Mets yesterday, so lets take a look:

• Duda 2-3 with a double, a homer and 5 RBI’s
• Flores added a double to his strong spring
• Lagares, Wright and Cuddyer all had hits
• Montero pitched 6.0 innings allowing only 2 hits while striking out 6.
• Familia had a clean 0.2 innings
• Mejia allowed a run in relief

Montero is forcing the Mets hand now. Does he go to the rotation? His stuff has been filthy. What happens to Gee? Gee has also looked very strong this spring? Who goes to the pen? The Mets now have two more arms in the pen, does that mean someone gets traded over the next week?