213 Miles From Shea

The Mets look to bounce back from the Opener against the Nationals tonight as Bartolo Colon makes his Mets debut. Gee pitched well in the Opener but that pattern was not transmitted to the bullpen which fumbled on multiple occasions, even after a go-ahead homer by Juan Lagares. Anyway, the Mets ended up losing 9-7, a score that was assisted by a two run homer by Captain Wright in the bottom of the tenth. On a positive note, the Mets hit three homers, including Andrew Brown who a lot of us, including myself, made fun of for being in the lineup.

Bartolo Colon looks to build off of his impressive 2013 campaign for the Athletics where he went 18-6 over 30 games and 190.1 innings of work with a 2.65 ERA. He has made two career starts against the Nationals allowing 3 ER over 17.0 innings of work, which is a 1.59 ERA while posting a 1-1 record. The Nationals have the following numbers against Colon:

• Span 0-3
• LaRoche 0-2
• McLouth 2-3

And that’s it. No extra base hits against Colon and a lot of mystery against the Big Man.

On the Nationals side of the diamond, Gio Gonzalez gets the nod as he looks to build off of a 2013 that saw him go 11-8 over 32 games and 195.2 innings of work with a 3.36 ERA. He made three starts against the Mets last year pitching 20.0 innings allowing 5 ER and only 9 hits while striking out 20 batters (a 2.25 ERA). The Mets have the following numbers against Gio:

• Granderson 2-16, HR, 5 K
• Wright 4-13, 2B, 3B, HR
• Davis 4-12, 2B, HR, 4 K
• Murphy 2-10
• Tejada 2-6
• Duda 1-6
• Eric Young 0-8
• Lagares 0-6
• Andrew Brown 0-5

Lets Go Mets! Get that first W!

Despite the outcome, yesterday was still a good day, the Mets played and baseball is back.

That being said, one thing long time readers know about me, I’m a big believer in the 7 run rule. If you score 5-6 runs in a game, you should win the game. If you score 7 or more runs in the game, then you really need to win the game.

The bullpen nearly holistically got off to a rough start. To pick and analyze them right now is not only premature but difficult. It involves a lot of players. I rather focus on something small the Mets could fix sooner rather than later: back up second base.

Maybe at some point Eric Young Jr. figures it out a second base enough to back up Murphy, but yesterday’s game showed the gigantic hole the Mets have if backing up second. Last year they could rely on Turner to troll with the bat and not be horrendous in the field. Part of the problem on the bench is the Mets are carrying three first basemen. (Satin is also a back up third basemen). The Mets need solid defense to have a shot this year (which is why I’m on team #StartLagares). Here are some quick changes the Mets could make to lower the defense errors /misplays on days when Murphy doesn’t play:

• Very Cheap Option: Go with Omar at Short and Tejada at Second. I think it’s a better look defensively than EYJr at Second. However this is a huge hit offensively for a marginally better defense
• Trade one of Davis or Duda, bring in (either by trade or signing) a short stop. Tejada is now back up second. Also Omar becomes unneeded.
• Send down Davis or Duda, bring in a back up Second Basemen
• Send down or release Omar, bring in someone who can play both Short and Second defensively. Offense not needed in this option

These are small changes that make the occasional off day for Murphy a lot more tolerable.

Welcome to Opening Day 2014! It’s time to start another marathon with Queen’s baseball team as they are on the road to 90 wins. (Whatever, today’s an optimistic day). Mets homegrown talent Dillon Gee gets the nod for Opening Day after an injury to Jon Niese. With the way Dillon has been pitching in Spring, he deserves it! He will match up against the Washington ace Stephen Strasburg.

Dillon Gee is coming off of a full 2013 campaign where he pitched 32 games and 199.0 innings with a 12-11 record and a 3.62 ERA and his lowest BB/9 of his career. He pitched against the Nationals a whopping 6 times last year with a 4-2 record and a 2.72 ERA over 39.2 innings and 27 strikeouts and 8 walks. The Nationals have the following numbers against Gee:

• Werth 11-34, 3 2B, HR, .324 BA
• Desmond 7-32, 3 HR, .219 BA
• Zimmerman 6-29, 2B, .207 BA
• LaRoche 4-23, 2B, HR, .174 BA
• Espinosa 1-13, 3 K

The Mets bats will get another crack at a familiar foe in Strasburg who is coming off of a mostly full season with 30 starts and 183.0 innings of work with a 3.00 ERA and a 8-9 record. Surprisingly he only faced the Mets once last year picking up the loss after allowing 2 earned runs, four total over 6 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Stephen:

• Davis 4-11, 2 HR, 4 K
• Tejada 1-11, 4 K
• Murphy 2-7
• Wright 1-9, 4 K
• Duda 1-4, HR
• Chris Young 1-3

Let’s Go Mets! Open the Season Strong!

Short Answer: Probably Not.

Longer Answer: Why Not?

There have been some surprising teams over the last few seasons and the Mets could be one of them this year if the following happens. (Warning to pessimists, this is the most optimistic post I write all year. I forget reason in this post and I know it is nearly impossible for everything to go the right way. If you are going to point out how impossible this is, well I agree with you).

What needs to happen for the Mets to reach 90 wins?

• Curtis Granderson needs to not only be productive but provide protection to David Wright
• Ike Davis needs to be a shade of his 2012 second half self. 32 homers would be nice, 20 or so with some consistent hitting would be plenty
• Chris Young needs a bounce back year. It happened with Byrd last year and Capuano not too long ago. Maybe the Mets can do it again.
• Terry needs to start Lagares
• Tejada needs to be a shade of his 2012 self. Doesn’t need to be as good but just some portion of it
• Colon is hopefully close to his production last year
• Wheeler just needs to be Wheeler
• Gee needs to be Gee
• It’s time for Mejia to step up!
• Syndergaard has a great rookie year
• Lagares Needs to start #OnThisListTwice
• d’Arnaud should start to improve
• The bullpen needs to be reliable

The Phillies are fading in the division and the Braves have taken some injury hits. The Marlins are emerging this year and the Nationals are still strong. If the Mets could beat the Phillies for most of the season and stay competitive with the Marlins and Braves (and beat out of conference teams) then the Mets have  shot. A lot of things do need to go right for the Mets.

If the Mets can have an offense this year that is respectable, and rotation that projects near to where it should be, they could make a run at the wild card. #StartLagares

CBS Sports has discovered that before Ian Desmond agreed to a 2 year deal worth 17.5 million to buy out his arbitration years, the Nationals made an attempt to sign him long term at about 90 million over about 7 years (exact terms are unknown). Desmond didn’t sign.

This doesn’t mean the Nationals won’t extend Desmond, it just means it will take more than that.

On Desmond’s side, and I can’t believe I’m saying this due how big a 90 million dollar deal is, turning down this extension makes sense. As CBS Sports pointed out, Andrus got a 120 million over 8 year deal from the Rangers, and Desmond is a better player than Andrus. Before last year, Desmond was set to have a break out year with the Nationals and he delivered. If Desmond stays healthy over the next two seasons, he looks to have a huge pay day especially with the contracts that players like Peralta have received.

I do wonder if the Nationals offered an identical deal to Andrus if Desmond would have accepted. The Nationals also deserve no fault in this. They made a legitimate offer to a player that is being compared to a really unfair contract (Andrus’s contract is ridiculous) and with the amount the Nationals will soon have to commit to younger players, it is wise to be cautious.

A spring battle between Tejada and Flores is not quite a surprise, but I think a lot of us are surprised how close of a competition it has been. Back at the start of Spring Training, Tejada was in “the best shape of his life”. Then through some normal spring things, and not signing Drew, Flores was given a shot to blow us away with his skills. But he couldn’t take advantage.

This was true for both Tejada and Flores until the last week or so when they both have started to hit.
Tejada: 31 AB, 3 R, 7 H, 3 2B, 1 RBI, .226 BA, .273 OBP, .323 SLG
Flores: 41 AB, 9 R, 10 H, 1 2B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, .244 BA, .319 OBP, .415 SLG

The above are their season stats, which look a lot better through the lens that the most of the offensive production has happened in the last two weeks.

Tejada has made some good days this Spring but has also jumbled routine plays. Flores falls in the same camp. The offense production favors Flores and ultimately Flores plays routine defense, which is what you need when you put a bat in the lineup and cross-fingers for defense.

If I were the manager of the Mets, at this point I would start Flores and have Tejada as a utility fielder. They are similar-ish on defense and one (Flores) has a higher ceiling on offense. I rather see (read: pay to see) Flores figure things out at Short with Tejada as back up than see (read: pay to see) Tejada try to figure things out at the plate with Omar or Seratelli as a backup. If I was also the manager of the Mets, centerfield wouldn’t be a competition and Lagares would be out there every day.

Hopefully Terry does the right thing.

Or Sandy comes in and makes things more interesting (Drew, Franklin, etc…)

The following menu via the Daily Telegraph:

Thoughts:

1. I have never seen wings served in a mitt at a stadium. Nor have I ever had wings at a stadium. If they were in a plastic mitt, I would totally have wings at a stadium.
2. It says nachos in the baseball helmet, but are those fries? Is this a chips/fries , crisps/chips confusion thing?
3. That superdog is huuuuugggggeeeee. 60 cm? Huge.

The MLB is returning to the idea of opening the baseball season overseas this year with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks playing in Australia soon (March 22-23). Australia has a baseball market that is starting to grow with a new fall league from the last few seasons, new MLB stars, and better WBC performance, so the MLB playing there sounds good.

But there are problems with overseas play. It prevents all teams to start off an even footing. It ruins that idea of everyone starting on the same weekend. One team loses two home games.

There are two paths to a solution here. First is the MLB doesn’t do this anymore, which doesn’t seems likely.

The second, is EVERY team does this. Whether it is for Opening Day, the back end of the All-Star Weekend, or for Spring Training, every team does it. Here’s the proposed program:

1. Two teams commit to a country for two seasons. They are interleague teams that are not rivals.
2. One team is home for the first two games in the first year. The other team is the home team for the two games the following year. The team that was the home team has only 79 games played in their city that year but is guaranteed to have the US Opening Day spot.
3. Alternatively, the teams alternate being home, everyone plays 80 US Games
4. Games are played in 2015 and 2016 in countries that are trying to qualify for the WBC, which has qualifiers towards the end of 2016.
5. This practice is suspended for the 2017 WBC. Occurs in 2018 and 2019. Suspended in 2020 for an expanded WBC qualifier, then the 2021 WBC. Process continues.

The downside this it makes the start of the year very disjointed. Even though this is my idea, I don’t really like it. However if we are going to continue this process, we should try to make it more fair.

The Mets played the Tigers yesterday. However if you didn’t live in the Detroit area or have MLB Gameday Audio, you would have no idea that this occurred. Anyway, Syndergaard had start number 2, deGrom continued to show promise and the Mets improved their Spring Record to 3-5-1.

The Optimistic Mets Fan Saw:

• deGrom pitch another two innings without allowing a run. He allowed a hit and a walk that was it.
• Kolarek, Carreno, Walters and German all pitch no runs, one inning outings. Walters got the win and German the save.
• Lagares 2-3, R
• Clark with 2 RBI’s to win it for the Mets in the ninth

The Pessimistc Mets Fan Saw:

• that Thor is human. Syndergaard is still working on control which is why he will be a mid-season call up and not break camp with the team. This is to be expected and not really a big deal
• Omar 0-3