213 Miles From Shea

The Mets dropped the first game of the series against the Giants last night and start game two tonight. For the Giants, they get their second look at Peavy tonight, the Mets get their first look at Peavy in a Giants uniform. The Mets send out Jacob deGrom looking to build on his 5-5 record, 2.79 ERA over 14 starts and 87.0 innings this year with 83 K’s. In his last 4 starts he has pitched 27.1 innings with a 0.66 ERA and 30 strikeouts. In that time he walked only 5 batters. He has never faced the Giants in a major league game, or anyone on the Giants roster.

Peavy is 1-10 on the season with a 4.71 ERA over 21 starts and 130.0 innings. In his first start for the Giants, he allowed 3 earned runs, 4 total over 6.0 innings picking up the loss. He’s made 11 starts against the Mets, mostly as a Padre, in his career where he has a 6-2 record and a 3.28 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Jake:

• C Young 4-25, 2 2B, HR
• Abreu 4-19, 2B
• Wright 2-16, 2B
• Granderson 4-17, 2 2B, HR
• Murphy 1-5, 2B
• Duda 1-3
• Tejada 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets come continue play in Queens after the day off with the Giants coming to town. The Mets are coming off of a decisive win against the Phillies that saw Murphy and Duda homer (and Familia getting an RBI). Tonight Jon Niese gets a start for the Amazins as he squares off against Ryan Vogelsong.

Jon Niese is 5-6 over 19 starts this year with 114.1 innings and 3.23 ERA. His first two starts coming back from injury haven’t been the greatest as he’s allowed 7 ER over 11.0 innings of work. In a start against the Giants earlier this year, he held the Giants to two earned runs over 7.0 innings of work. The Giants have the following numbers against Niese:

• Pence 3-29
• Morse 3-18, 3 2B
• Posey 6-15, 2 2B, HR
• Sandoval 3-10
• Blanco 1-6

Ryan Vogelsong is 5-8 over 21 games this year with a 3.94 ERA and 118.2 innings. In his last two starts he has pitched 9.0 innings allowing 19 hits (more than two per inning!) allowing 5 earned runs, 8 total. He missed the Mets earlier this year and in 2013 entirely. The last time he faced the Orange and Blue was 2012 where he allowed 3 ER over 7.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• C Young 2-10, 2B, HR
• Abreu 1-8, 2B
• Wright 2-10
• Murphy 4-8, 2B
• Duda 0-5
• E Young 0-8
• Tejada 2-5, 2B
• Granderson 1-2

Lets Go Mets!

Last night was the opposite of the first game of the series with the Phillies beating the Mets 6-0 behind Cole Hamels. Tonight they look to take the series behind Zack Wheeler as he squares off against Kyle Kendrick. Wheeler is 5-8 over 21 starts and 121.0 innings with a 3.64 ERA. In his last five starts he is 2-0 with a 1.41 ERA allowing 5 earned runs over 32.0 innings while striking out 30 batters.  In his one start against the Phillies this year, he struck out 9 batters in Philly allowing one earned run over 6.1 innings. The Phillies have the following numbers against Wheeler:

• Rollins 2-9
• Utley 1-8
• Ruiz 1-7, 2B
• Ruf 0-4
• Brown 0-5
• Asche 2-3, 3B

Kyle Kendrick is 5-10 over 21 games and 131.1 innings of work with a 4.87 ERA. In his last four games he has pitched 22.0 innings allowing 21 ER, which is a 8.59 ERA. In two starts against the Mets he allowed 8 ER over 11.1 innings with a 6.35 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Kyle:

• Wright 15-47, 3 2B, 3 HR
• Murphy 7-33, 2B
• Duda 4-20, 3 2B, HR
• C Young 4-21, 2B, HR
• Tejada 7-22, HR
• Granderson 1-9
• Lagares 3-5, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets got off to a strong start on the homestand with a 7-1 to win last night. The offense started strong dropping 4 runs on AJ. Burnett before tagging him for more before he was pulled out. Meanwhile the Mets pitching was on point. Tonight they look to replicate that with Dillon Gee on the mound has he squares off against Cole Hamels.

Dillon Gee is 4-3 over 11 games and 69.2 innings with a 3.49 ERA. His last two starts have been rough as he has allowed 10 ER in 10 innings of owrk. Before that he had a 2.56 ERA for the season. In his only start against Philly this year, he allowed 3 ER over 6.0 innings of work. The Phillies have the following numbers against Gee:

• Rollins 11-22, 2 2B, HR
• Utley 5-20, 2 2B
• Howard 9-18, 2B, 6 HR
• Brown 4-15, 2B
• Ruiz 1-13, 2B
• Revere 3-8

The Mets will get a look at a familiar foe tonight in Cole Hamels who is 5-5 on the season over 18 starts and 122.1 innings with a 2.72 ERA. In his last 2 starts he has tossed 15.0 innings while allowing 10 hits, only 2 ER and striking out 19 batters. He has faced the Mets three times this season with mixed results. The first time he allowed 6 ER run over 4.2 innings. The next two times he allowed a combined 2 ER, 3 total over 14.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Cole Hamels:

• Wright 24-73, 4 2B, 3B, 5 HR
• Murphy 17-44, 4 2B, HR
• Rejada 9-31, 3 2B
• E Young 1-28, 2 2B
• C Young 6-23, 2B, 3B
• Lagares 8-20, 3 2B
• Duda 1-13
• Campbell 3-6, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets are coming home to and they are bring Philly with them. Fresh off a 10 game road trip that saw the Mets go 5-5, including 4-3 against playoff contenders, the Mets look to keep roll going in Queens. Tonight should also be a heavily scouted game as AJ Burnett and Bartolo Colon, both starters, have been in trade rumors for the last week or so.

Bartolo Colon is 9-8 on the season over 1340 innings with a 4.03 ERA over 20 games. His last start was way better than the stat line of 7.1 innings of 2 ER suggests. He retired 20 batters straight to start the game and it was the bullpen that allowed the runners to score. He has made one start against the Phillies this year where he allowed 2 ER on 6 hits over 7.0 innings while striking out 5. The Phillies have the following numbers against Colon:

• Rollins 5-15, 2B, HR
• Brignac 5-12
• Sizemore 1-8
• Byrd 0-4
• Howard 2-4, 2 HR
• Ruiz 0-5

A.J. Burnett is on the bump for the Phils. On the season he is 6-9 over 144.2 innings and 22 starts with a 3.86 ERA. He is coming off one of his strongest starts of the season where he shut the Giants out for 8 innings while allowing 4 hits, 4 walks and striking out 6. He made one start against the Mets this year where he allowed 5 ER and 11 K’s over 7 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Burnett:

• Abreu 25-78, 10 2B, 2 HR
• Wright 3-24, 3B
• Granderson 3-16, 2 2B, HR
• Murphy 2-12
• Tejada 1-6
• Lagares 1-4
• E Young 2-3
• Duda 1-2, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

With MLB.com updating its prospect list today, I thought it would be fun to look at what the prospect list looked like in 2013 and 2012 and where those players are now:

T

If the player has never made the majors, it says Minors by their name. The rest of the code:

• ML-1: Established Regular
• ML-2: Reserve / Bench
• ML -3: Cup of Coffee, Option Rider for right now
• Out – Out of Baseball

First, its amazing that from 2012, there is only one player of of baseball.

It is also equally amazing the amount of players from 2012 that not only made the majors, but are a critical part of this team.

There are also a number of players who have seen their stock drastically change. Kevin Plawecki and Jacob deGrom are both examples of the positive side of this. Fulmer, and Puello are downer side of this.

Not too much need for commentary on this. The list on its own is impressive and interesting.

MLB.com updated their top prospects list, via the Mets twitter account. While the Mets saw a “drop” in value for Syndergaard, the organization as a whole has 5 players in the top 100, which is more than any time in recent memory:

13. Noah Syndergaard
67. Kevin Plawecki
68. Brandon Nimmo
86. Michael Conforto
88. Dominic Smith

As much as the Mets need position players, 4 of their 5 top prospects at this point are position players that according to MLB.com should debut between 2015 and 2017. If we just focus on the Mets, these are their top prospects:

1. Noah Syndergaard
2. Kevin Plawecki
3. Brandon Nimmo
4. Michael Conforto
5. Dominic Smith
6. Rafael Montero
7. Ahmed Rosario
8. Dilson Herrera
9. Steven Matz
10. Gavin Cecchini
11. Milton Ramos
12. Gabriel Ynoa
13. Cesar Puello
14. Cory Mazzoni
15. Jack Leathersich
16. Marcos Molina
17. Blake Taylor
18. Michael Fulmer
19. Matt den Dekker
20. Logan Verrett

Impressive List of Players!

This is pure speculation and opinion.

The Mariners are mainly in the market for offense, but they could use one more starter as well, especially a starter on the cheap so they can acquire more bats. Not only is Colon a mid-tier pitcher, he has an excellent record in Seattle. Especially as of late he’s been crushing it in Seattle.

The Mariners also have a bat that is intriguing for the Mets, Nick Franklin. Even with the recent struggles with Miller in the lineup, their reluctance to recall Franklin to the majors suggests they are sticking with Miller. The Mets have been linked on the blogosphere with Franklin before, and I still think he would make an excellent addition to the lineup.

The question is if the trade is fair. From the Mets fan side, I believe yes this is fair. I would do this trade in a heart beat. From the Mariners side, I’m not sure. They are getting stuck with another large contract.

The Mets wrap up their 10 game road trip today. If the Mets pick up the win today, they will split the series with the Brewers and go .500 on the first trip after the All-Star break. Yesterday the Mets took the early lead but weren’t able to hold on. Today Jacob deGrom will take the mound with a 4-5 record over 13 games and 80.2 innings with a 3.01 ERA. In his last three starts he is 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA while striking out 26 batters and walking only 3 while pitching 21.0 innings. He faced the Brewers earlery this season and allowed 3 ER over 5.2 innings and 9 hits while striking out 4. The Brewers have the following numbers against deGrom:

• Braun 0-2
• Davis 1-3
• Gennett 2-3, 2B
• Gomez 2-3
• Lucroy 2-3, 2B
• Peralta 0-3

Jimmy Nelson gets the start for the Brewers. He is 1-1 in his first three starts of the season with a 1-1 record over 16.0 innings. In that time he walked 6 and struck out 16. He had one start in May and really has been called up since mid July. In those two starts he has allowed 9 ER over 10.1 innings, inflating his ERA. His only start last year was against the Mets where he allowed 1 ER over 5.0 innings while walking three and striking out 4. The Mets have the following numbers against Nelson:

• E Young 0-3
• Duda 0-1
• Lagares 0-1
• Murphy 1-1
• Recker 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

The Giants got Jake Peavy earlier today for Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree. Peavy is a rental player that ended up costing the Giants their #2 and #11 prospects according to MLB.com. For the Giants, trading away pitching prospects is nothing, they pump them out routinely like some sort of best factory every (Hey Zack Wheeler) so while this was a pricy trade, for the amount of arms they have (most of their top prospects are arms), they can afford this.

This also leaves only two top tier pitchers left on the trade market in David Price and Jon Lester. But maybe only one. Not only is the Lester situation complicated regarding Boston maybe wanting to sign him long term, would they trade him right now after trading Peavy? A full rebuilding mode would say yes. Both of these pitchers will demand a lot, especially in light of what Peavy just received.

This is also good for the next tier of pitchers which include AJ Burnett,  and Bartolo Colon. I don’t think Colon can bring in a hall like Peavy due to age and the amount of money on his contract, but it shows he will bring in something. (Also somewhere in between top tier and this next tier are Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee, which in a trade would demand a return closer to Price, and Lester, and definitely more than Peavy)

It also further shows that if the Mets take in more of Colon’s contract, they might get something even better in a trade. There were reports they might take up two million, I’m sure for the right prospects in a trade, they’ll take more than that.

This leaves the Indians, Orioles, Cardinals, Pirates, and Yankees with a lot of options (there are other pitchers out there that can be moved as well) but the precedent has been set with Peavy that getting a starter rental will be costly.