213 Miles From Shea

The Mets start their first road trip of the season and its a long one that has the Mets playing 9 games away from home including the Braves home opener tonight in Atlanta. The Mets rebounded from dropping the first three games of the season by taking two of three from the Reds including a close loss yesterday that saw the pitching on the strong side but an absence of bats. Tonight Colon makes his second start of the season as he faces off with Aaron Harang.

Colon is 0-1 after his first start of the year where he allowed 3 ER over 6 innings with 9 hits, no walks and 4 strikeouts. Homers were his weakness as he allowed two jacks. In his career he is 3-0 against the Braves over three starts and 23.0 innings with a 1.57 ERA. Although the Braves really don’t have a lot of experience against Colon so that stat line might not mean much:

• BJ Upton 7-23, 2B, 3B, HR, 6 K
• Laird 0-7
• Doumit 0-1

The Mets bats will see Aaron Harang who spent part of last year in the Mets locker room. Overall last year he was 5-12 over 26 starts and 143.1 innings with a 5.40 ERA. For the Mets he was 0-1 over 4 starts and 23.0 innings with a 3.52 ERA. In his first start of the season, he tossed 6.2 scoreless innings allowing 2 hits and one walk while striking out 3. In 2012 he made two starts against the Mets going 1-1 with a 4.22 ERA over 10.2 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against their old teammate:

• Wright 11-21, 4 2B, HR
• Duda 2-9, HR
• Tejada 6-11, 2 2B
• Murphy 6-11, 4 2B, HR
• E Young 4-6, 2B
• Davis 0-4
• Granderson 1-4, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

If there is one thing this first week taught us about the current Mets lineup, they tend to strikeout a lot. Granted in the first six games of the season they faced some tough pitching, but there was not a lot of contact out there.

Now I’m not a coach, so I’m not really sure how you teach guys to not strikeout. Therefore I can’t address that.

I am starting to wonder though if the Mets should experiment with the idea of not following a traditional batting lineup with a fast leadoff hitter and move towards the idea that the best hitters go early in the lineup. For the Mets this would mean starting the lineup with Murphy and moving everybody up:

1. Murphy
2. Wright
3. Granderson
4. Davis/Duda
5. Lagares
6. E Young / C Young
7. d’Arnaud / Recker
8. Tejada
9. Pitcher

The only time you are guaranteed to have your lead off hitter start off the inning is in the first. After that you hope it doesn’t come around again in the 4th because that means you did squat on offense. Moving Murphy and Wright up increases the amount of AB’s they will see throughout the season (marginally). The draw back is this means less players are on base for Wright when he gets up to base. In this case you could shift everyone down again if the Mets could find someone this season with a relatively high OBP, otherwise let our best hitters get more AB’s.

I’ll admit this isn’t as much of a problem this year compared to last year when TC kept trying to make Turner early in the batting order happen.

The Mets go for the series sweep of the Reds today as they play game three in their three game set. After dropping the first three games of the season, the Mets were able to win Friday night and yesterday in walk-off fashion thanks to a pinch-hit grand slam by Ike Davis who was demoted earlier as back up first basemen for the time being. Today Jon Niese will make his season debut as he faces off against Alfredo Simon.

Jon Niese, originally the opening day starter, will be on a shorter leash of around 95 pitches today as he make first start of the season. Last year he was 8-8 over 24 games and 143.0 innings with a 3.71 ERA and 105 K’s. Last year he made two starts against the Reds pitching 13.0 innings allowing 13 hits, 5 runs, 2 earned (1.38 ERA) while striking out 13. The Reds have the following numbers against Niese:

• Phillips 7-18, 2B, 2 HR
• Votto 2-15, HR
• Bruce 2-13, HR
• Cozart 3019, 2B
• Ludwick 4-9
• Frazier 4-9, 2 2B
• Bernadina 1-8

The Mets bats will get a look at Alfredo Simon today and he is also making his 2014 debut. In spring training he made 6 starts pitching 23.1 innings with a 4.63 ERA and 14 strikeouts. Last year he pitched in 63 games, no starts but 20 finishes and one save with a 6-4 record and a 2.87 ERA while striking out 63. Last year he had limited exposure to the Mets out of the pen pitching in two games, 2.2 innings allowing no hits, no runs and no hits while picking up the win. The Mets have the following numbers against Simon:

• Granderson 0-6
• E Yount 0-4
• Davis 0-1
• d’Arnaud 0-1
• Duda 0-1
• Satin 0-1
• Wright 0-1

Lets Go Mets! Sweep!

Fresh off of their first win of the season, the Mets look for #2 today against the Reds as they also look for their first series win of the season. Not only did Mejia have a great game with a career high in strikeouts, Duda, the newly minted starting first basemen crushed a 2-run homer. Today Dillon Gee will make his second start of the season as he faces off against Johnny Cueto.

Dillon Gee on the record allowed 4 ER over 6.2 innings in his season debut, but one of those runs was allowed by the bullpen. He had a great start to the game and hopefully he will be able to channel that again today. He didn’t face the Reds at all last year but the year below he was 0-1 over 6 innings allowing 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned. The Reds have the following numbers against Gee:

• Bernadina 4-15, 2 2B, HR
• Bruce 1-3, HR
• Cozart 0-3
• Frazier 1-2
• Phillips 1-3, HR
• Santiago 2-3

Johnny Cueto gets the nod for the Reds as he makes start #2. He is 0-1 on the season allowing 1 ER over 7 innings and 3 hits. last season he was 5-2 with a 2.82 ERA over 11 starts and 60.2 innings. Last year he made two starts against the Mets with a 1-0 record and 3.00 ERA over 12.0 innings of work, 6 hits, 5 runs and 4 earned runs. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Wright %-20, HR
• Murphy 2-13
• Duda 3-8, HR
• E Young 3-8
• Davis 2-8
• Granderson 1-5
• Lagares 0-3

Lets Go Mets! Take the Series!

The Mets are still looking for their first win of the season after being swept by the Nationals at home to start off the Year. The Nationals were able to exploit the Mets weakness for strikeouts and a weak bullpen to get the three W’s and the Mets’ opening schedule doesn’t get much easier with the Reds, but a new series means new perspective and the first start of the year for Jenrry Mejia as he faces off against Mike Leake.

Jenrry Mejia made 5 starts last year and went 1-2 with a 2.30 ERA over 27.1 innings. He had a strong spring as well with a 2.70 ERA over 13.1 innings. Last year he struck out 27 batters in 27.1 innings and in the spring he struck out 13 batters in 13.1 innings. In his career, he has faced the Reds twice, both in relief where he allowed 4 ER over 7 innings of work. As you can see below, the Reds do no have a lot of experience against Mejia:

• Ludwick 1-2
• Bernadina 0-1
• Phillips 1-1
• Votto 1-1

Mike Leake makes his 2014 debut vs the Mets as he looks to build off of a 2013 season that saw him drop his ERA from 4.58 to 3.37 over 31 starts and 192.1 innings with a record of 14-7 . He made two starts against the Mets last year where he pitched 8.2 innings while allowing 4 earned runs over 11 hits while striking out 6. The Mets have the following numbers against Leake:

• David Wright 3-15
• Daniel Murphy 3-15, 2B, HR
• Davis 1-11, 2B
• Duda 4-6, 2B
• Tejada 2-6
• Granderson 1-3

Lets Go Mets! Get that W!

The Mets will still be looking for their first win of the season this afternoon while they try to avoid the sweep by the Nationals in an afternoon game. Yesterday about the only positive notes to take home from the game was Colon’s strong start to his start and Lagares with the bat. Zimmermann gets the nod for the Nationals while Wheeler makes his 2014 debut.

In his first season in the majors, Wheeler went 7-5 over 17 games over 100.0 innings of work with a 3.42 ERA. Three of those starts were against the Nationals where he went 1-2 with a 3.93 ERA over 18.1 innings while striking out 14. The Nationals have the following numbers against Zack:

• Span 5-10, 2B
• Zimmerman 2-10, HR
• LaRoche 1-7, HR
• Werth 207, 2B, HR
• Desmond 3-8, 2B

The Mets bats get to see a now old foe in Zimmermann as he starts his 6th season in the majors. Last year he led the league in wins with 19 as he went 19-9 over 213.1 innings in 32 starts and a 3.25 ERA. He also had 4 complete games, two of them being shutouts. Against the Mets he made five starts totaling 32.1 innings with a 1-3 record and a 3.62 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Murphy 13-28, 4 2B, 3 HR
• Wright 9-34, 2 2B, 2 HR, 10 K
• Davis 5-24, 2B, 2 HR, 6 K
• Duda 3-18, 2B
• Tejada 5-15
• Eric Young 3-9, 2B
• Lagares 3-9, 2B
• d’Arnaud 2-5, 2B

Lets Go Mets! Get that first W!

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!