213 Miles From Shea

The Mets look to avoid the four game sweep this afternoon after a night we would all like to forget. It was a long game last night that ended with a walk off win for the Rockies. Much like Mejia’s last start, the offense for the Mets got started early and it looked like the Mets would cruise to a victory. Also like last week, Mejia got caught up and exploded in inning, giving the opposing team the lead. Just like last week again, the Mets bats and pen brought them back into it, but it was too much. Now the Mets need to win in order to not fall back to .500. Dillon Gee gets the start for the Amazin’s today as he squares off against Jhoulys Chacin.

Gee is 2-1 in his first 6 starts of the year logging 40.2 innings with a 2.88 ERA and 27 strikeouts. In his last three starts he has been brilliant logging 21.0 innings with a 0.86 ERA. He faced the Rockies twice last year with a 1-1 record over 12.1 innings and a 4.38 ERA. The Rockies have the following numbers against Gee:

• Gonzalez 3-4, 3B, HR
• Tulowitzki 2-5
• Rosario 1-5
• Blackmon 1-4
• Arenado 1-3
• Culberson 0-3

Chacin will be making his first start of the season today. Last year he went 14-10 with a 3.47 ERA over 31 starts and 197.1 innings. Last year he had a strong start against the Mets where he allowed 7 hits and 2 ER against the Mets in 7 innings, but still picked up the loss. The Mets have the following numbers against Chacin:

• C Young 4-18
• Murphy 1-7
• Wright 1-6
• Abreu 1-3, 3B
• Lagares 0-3
• Tejada 2-3
• E Young 1-2

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets had their second straight rough night against the Rockies last night and put themselves in a position that in order to split the 4 game set, they need to win tonight. Last night Wheeler also had problems in the Mile High City which is understandable, the Rockies not only play in an offense minded ballpark but have a great lineup. Tonight Jenrry Mejia, who insisted to Kevin Burkhardt last night, will try his moving fastball, not cutter, to slash through this Rockies line up who is throwing out Franklin Morales.

Jenrry Mejia is 3-0 this season over 5 starts and a 3.49 ERA over 28.1 innings of work and 31 strikeouts. His last outing was his worst of the season going 5.2 innings allowing 6 earned runs, although that’s tricky because the Mets bullpen did not help him with the runners he left on base. Last year he pitched 5.1 innings, allowing 5 hits, 2 runs and one earned against the Rockies. The Rockies have the following numbers against Mejia:

• Tulo 1-4, 3 K
• Dickerson 1-3
• Arenado 0-1
• LeMahieu 0-2
• Rosario 1-2
• Blackmon 1-1, HR

The Mets bats will try to get hot against Franklin Morales who is 3-1 on the season with a 4.40 ERA over 6 games and 5 starts logging 30.2 innings and striking out 23 batters. He had a strong set of back to back games with 13.0 innings and 2 ER but in his last outing he allowed 4 ER and 7 hits over 5 innings. In his career he has faced the Mets in 7 games over 4.1 innings allowing 4 runs, 3 earned. The Mets have the following numbers against Morales:

• C Young 3-12, 2B, HR
• Granderson 3-5, HR
• Wright 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets just didn’t quite have it last night in Colorado, and look to find it in game 2 tonight. Last night Colon had a bad start, ending the Mets streak of starting pitchers going at least 5 innings and the Mets offense wasn’t ready for the starting pitching to have an off night. The Rockies won 7-4, but that easily could have been 7-1 if it wasn’t for d’Arnaud hitting a three run homer in the ninth. Tonight Zack Wheeler looks to get the Mets back on track as they square off with Jorge De La Rosa.

Zack Wheeler is 1-2 on the season with a 3.99 ERA over 5 starts in the first month with 29.1 innings of work and 31 strikeouts. Wheeler is coming off of his best start of the season logging 6 innings with 1 earned run while striking out 10.  Wheeler has not faced the Rockies in his short career and has only faced one batter, Drew Stubbs, who is 1-2.

Jorge De La Rosa is 2-3 over 6 starts in his first month while posting a 5.23 ERA over 31.0 innings while walking 13 and striking out 28. His last two starts have been much better than his first four. In his last two he is a combined 12.0 IP, 2 ER and 8 K. In his career he has pitched 29.2 innings against the Mets with a 4.55 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Jorge:

• C Young 5-26, 2B, 2 HR
• Wright 3-10, 2 2B, 5 BB
• Abreu 1-8
• Granderson 0-3
• Murphy 0-1

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets escaped the rain last night with a postponed game and accomplished the rare one game sweep of the Phillies. Anyway, the Mets head off to the Mile High city to start a set with the Rockies tonight as they look to keep their winning ways alive. Bartolo Colon gets the start today as he squares off against Juan Nicasio.

Colon is 2-3 on the season over five starts with a 4.50 ERA and 32.0 innings of work. Since his bad start in LA, Colon has been on a similar roll to the start of the season. In his last two starts he has logged 14.0 innings with 4 ER and 14 strikeouts. He has made two career starts against the Rockies where he allowed 8 runs, 7 earned over 11.2 innings. The Rockies have the following numbers against Colon:

• Morneau 0-11, 4 K
• Barnes 2-6, 2 2B
• Gonzalez 1-3
• Pacheco 2-3, 2B
• Stubbs 1-2

Juan Nicasio is 2-1 in the first month of the season with 5 starts and 27.1 innings while posting a 5.27 ERA. In his last two starts he has pitched 9.1 innings allowing 15 hits, 10 runs, 9 earned. Last year he picked up the win in one start against the Mets after allowing 6 hits and 4 earned runs over 5 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Juan:

• Abreu 0-3
• Granderson 0-2
• Murphy 0-2
• Wright 2-3, 2 HR
• Duda 0-1
• Gee 1-1
• Tejada 1-2

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets look to sweep the short two game set against the Phillies tonight. Last night after a near 90 minute rain delay, the Mets went on to cruise to a 6-1 victory thanks to strong pitching from Jon Niese and stringy together some timely hits. Tonight Bartolo Colon gets the start against Kyle Kendrick.

Colon is 2-3 on the season over five starts with a 4.50 ERA and 32.0 innings of work. Since his bad start in LA, Colon has been on a similar roll to the start of the season. In his last two starts he has logged 14.0 innings with 4 ER and 14 strikeouts. In his career he has made only 5 starts against the Phillies with 31.0 innings with a 1-2 record and a 4.65 ERA. The Phillies have the following numbers against Colon:

• Rollins 5-15, 2B, HR
• Nix 0-7
• Burd 0-2
• Howard 2-2, HR
• Nieves 1-1
• Ruiz 0-2
• Utley 0-2

Kendrick is 0-2 on the season with a 3.52 ERA over 5 starts and 30.2 innings of work. His first start of the season was awesome but his last four have been more human and this numbers show that as in his last four games and 23.2 innings he has a 4.18 ERA allowing 11 earned runs, 14 runs total. He was successful against the Mets last season going 3-1 over 4 starts with a 3.04 ERA over 26.2 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Kyle:

• Wright 13-41, 2 2B, 2 HR
• Murphy 5-27, 2B
• Tejada 4-19
• Duda3-16, 2 2B, HR
• C Young 3-15, 2B, HR
• E Young 1-8

Lets Go Mets!

Well the title is misleading. It’s not that the numbers hiding something, it is more that the opening to the season was quite rough. Travis didn’t get a hit until game 7 on the season. His numbers on the season are .219 BA, .306 OBP, .313 SLG and .618 OPS.

However, let’s do the unfair thing and truncate the start of the season, starting the season with the two hit game against the Braves. If the season started then, his numbers would be .286 BA, .364 OBP, .408 SLG, .772 OPS. That’s great! The OBP is quite high compared to the BA, so that might be difficult to keep up for the whole season, but I would be completely alright with a .286 BA for the rest of the season even with a drop in OBP (if it also came with a bump in SLG).

Now let’s do the really unfair thing and look at his current hot streak, starting with April 19th. Since that date he has a .364 BA, .417 OBP, .455 SLG and .871 SLG. That’s impressive and has shown that in recent days he’s been playing quite well. Its been hidden a bit by him being in the back end of the lineup. When you’re around SS and P for the Mets, your production is of getting on base is washed out. If he was around better players, maybe we’ll be talking about him as a scoring threat.

Basically the point here is that especially as of late, he is playing way better than his .219 BA suggests.

The Mets look to stay strong from the homestand with their first trip to the sandbox that is Citizen’s Bank Park this year (hey! Maybe Curtis will have better luck!). Anyway, the Mets responded to Saturday’s disappointing game by a strong game on Sunday featuring some awesome pitching by Dillon Gee. Tonight Jon Niese looks to continue the trend as he faces off with Cole Hamels.

Jon Niese is 1-2 over 4 starts with a 2.45 ERA over 25.2 innings this year with 7 walks and 19 strikeouts. In his last two starts he has pitched 12.2 innings allowing 2 ER with 5 walks and 10 strikeouts. IN two games against the Phillies last year he allowed only one earned run, three total over 15.2 innings of work. The Phillies have the following numbers against Jon:

• Rollins 9-40, 2 2B
• Mayberry 9-34, 2 2B, 3 HR
• Utley 2-22
• Ruiz 7-21, 2B, HR
• Howard 1-15, 7 K
• Galvis 2-10

The Mets bats will get their first 2014 look at Hamels who is 0-1 after his first start of the season where he allowed 6 hits and 2 earned over 6 innings of work. In 2013 he was 8-14 over 33 starts and 220.0 innings with 202 strikeouts and a 3.60 ERA. Five of those starts were against the Mets wher he posted a 4.94 ERA over 31.0 innings and 34 strikeouts. The Mets have the following numbers against Hamels:

• Wright 22-63 (.349 BA), 3 2B, 3B, 5 HR
• Murphy 12-34, 2 2B, HR
• Tejada 6-24, 2B
• E Young 9-21, 2 2B
• Duda 1-13, 7 K
• Chris Young 4-14, HR
• Satin 1-10

Lets Go Mets!

Since the Mets traded Ike Davis, Lucas Duda has actually stepped into the role of starting first basemen. He was ready from the start of the season to be in this role, but Terry, even when saying he was going to go with Duda, kept putting Ike in the lineup (plus there is the whole platoon thing with Satin).

It certainly feels that Duda has been better, but has he? Let’s take a look:

• Season Total: .257 BA, .337 OBP, .446 SLG, .783 OPS
• Before Davis Trade: .275 BA, .341 OBP, .500 SLG, .841 OPS
• After Davis Trade: .235 BA, .333 OBP, .382 SLG, .716 OPS

From the that look, he has not been better. Part of the problem is this survey is suffering from a small sample size where Duda went 2-5 and 4-5 before the Davis trade. I believe the reason for this is because of Ike Davis. Before he went over to the Pirates, he had a BA of .208, .367 OBP, .375 SLG and .742 OPS. On OBP it seems Davis has the upper hand, but the way our memories tend to work, we remember the hits, and batting average race clearly goes to Davis. So when we remember the hits, Duda is getting om base more from hits then Davis.

And for fun, Davis has a .185 BA, .290 OBP, .333 SLG, .624 OPS just with the Pirates, and there there is no debate who has been better since that date.

With today’s win against the Marlins, the Mets improved to 14-11 on the season. They play two games in Philly on Tuesday and Wednesday and it will be May, so they will end the month at the worst with a 14-13 record, which is a winning record. You would think that this would not happen to often in recent years but it has:

• 2013: 10-15
• 2012: 13-10
• 2011: 11-16
• 2010: 14-9
• 2009: 9-12
• 2008: 14-12

Actually every other year, the Mets have done this since the last year at Shea Stadium. However the last couple of years have been miserable, so it is forgivable to forget it (however now through reflection, I remember that glimmer of hope in 2012). The pessimist looks at these records and says nothing is new with the Mets this year if they end April above .500. The optimist says in 2008 (and 2007, 2006 when this also happened), the Mets were competitive throughout the season. The realist says there no true trends in the data just looking at April and then looking at the end of September.

Here’s hoping the Mets keep this going! LGM!