213 Miles From Shea

The Mets continue their series down south today as they take on the Nationals for game 2. Last night the Mets squeaked by with a 3-2 win thanks to a go-ahead two run homer by Ike Davis. On the other side of the ball, Dillon Gee continue his excellent season with an excellent 7.2 innings of work. Today Zack Wheeler will take the mound for the Amazins as he faces off against Dan Haren.

Wheeler is 6-3 over 13 games and 76.1 innings with a 3.42 ERA. In the month of August he pitched 30.2 innings with a 3.23 ERA. His only start against the Nationals was a night to forget as he allowed 5 ER over 4.2 innings. The Nationals have the following numbers against Zack:

LaRoche 1-2, HR
Rendon 0-3
Span 2-3, 2B
Zimmerman 0-3
Desmond 1-2, 2B

The Mets bats get another crack at Dan Haren who is 8-11 over 25 games and 139.0 innings with a 4.66 ERA. He has been a much different pitcher this past month pitching 34.0 innings with a 2.12 ERA. To put that in perspective, at the start of August his ERA was 5.49. Against the Mets this year he has allowed 6 ER over 11.0 innings and two games. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Murphy 3-10, 2B, HR
Davis 1-7
Omar 0-5
Lagares 1-5
Duda 1-4, 2B
Young 2-4, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets head down to the capital to start a series with the Nationals! Yesterday the Mets split their four game set with the Phillies by the score of 11-3. Dillon Gee will take the mound for the Mets today. On the season he is 9-9 over 26 games and 159.2 innings with a 3.62 ERA. He started August off on an amazing run pitching 4 games, 28.1 innings with a 1.27 ERA but he struggled in his last start allowing 4 earned runs over 6 innings. In four games against the Nationals this year he is 3-1 over 25.1 innings with a 2.10 ERA. The Nationals have the following numbers against Dillon:

Werth 8-28, 2B
Desmond 6-26, 3 HR
Zimmerman 4-22, 2B
LaRoche 3-17, 2B
Ramos 2-11, 2B
Span 3-12, 2B, HR

Jordan Zimmermann is 15-7, league leading wins, over 26 games in 170.2 innings with a 3.32 ERA. His last start (7.2 innings, 2 ER) was a good bounce back from his previous start where he allowed 8 ER over 5 innings. He is 0-2 in three starts against the Mets this year with a 3.20 ERA over 19.2 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Jordan:

Murphy 9-31, 2 2B, 3 HR
Davis 4-21, 2 2B, HR
Duda 2-15, 2B
Omar 3-8, 2B, 3B
Lagares 2-3, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Phillies end their four game set this afternoon as the Phillies look for the series win and the Mets look for the split. Last night Matsuzaka was wild again (except unlike his first start, he was good early and the wheels came off later) and the Mets were not able to recover. Today Carlos Torres gets the start for the Mets as he goes up against rookie Ethan Martin.

Carlos Torres is 2-2 with a 2.96 ERA over 48.2 innings this year with 34 strikeouts. He has 14.0 innings this year as a starter with a 6.43 ERA. In 1.2 innings against the Phillies this year he has allowed 1 ER. The Phillies have the following numbers against Torres:

Rollins 0-2
Ruiz 0-2
Bernadina 0-1
Frandsen 1-1, HR
Mayberry 0-1

Ethan Martin is 2-2 in his first 5 games of his major league career with a 6.33 ERA over 21.1 innings of work. In those innings he’s allowed 25 hits, 15 ER, 13 walks and struck out 23 batters. None of his first five games were against the Mets and he has not faced any Mets while they were with any other teams (which makes sense), so there are no MLB stats against.

Lets Go Mets!

Yesterday the Mets traded Byrd and Buck on waivers to the Pirates for Dilson Herrera and a Player to Be Named Later. For the Pirates, this deal is a major push to win now. For the Mets, in the short term, this clears the path for d’Arnaud (in the sense that they don’t have Buck on the bench) and in the long term brings another position player to look at. Keith Law (ESPN) is suggesting that the PTBNL is “solid” but I guess we won’t find out till after the season (waiver rules?).

But let’s focus on Dilson Herrera.

Dilson is 19-years old and projects to play at second base. He was named recently the best defensive second basemen by the managers in the South Atlantic League, but scouts comment that his range and hands play better at second, rather than short stop. He’s actually wildly regarded as more of an offense second basemen with raw power than a defensive one. (Raw in the sense that his “pop” isn’t really developed at this point, but not a lot of “strong raw power” which is usually what we think of when we see raw power). Anyway, here’s some quantitative data:

2011 (Ven. Summer League): 214 AB, 42 R, 66 H, 19 2B, 5 3B, 2 HR, 16 SB, .308 BA, .413 OBP
2012 (Gulf Coast & NYPL): 227 AB, 48 R, 65 H, 12 2B, 5 3B, 8 HR, 12 SB, .286 BA, .341 OBP
2013 (SALL): 423 AB, 69 R, 112 H, 27 2B, 3 3B, 11 HR, 11 SB, .265 BA, .330 OBP

Statistically, he had a power drop from 2012 to 2013, but his doubles amount on pace over the last two years. He’s also 19, so the results of any power he might have is still developing.

For the most part, he’s an intriguing prospect with some interesting numbers despite his small size (5 10). He is playing better defense at second this year than scouts thought he would and when he ages over the the next couple of seasons, it will be interesting to see how that translates into his numbers matching his potential.

Part of his intrigue though stems from a lack of position prospects in the Mets system at the upper level.

The Mets snapped their losing streak and broke up an interesting news week (Harvey’s injury, trading Byrd/Buck) with a win last night (and sorta ironically, on Byrd T-Shirt Night). Who needs Byrd as a source of offense when you have a pitcher in Jon Niese smack a 3-run double, and pitch a fantastic game where the Mets won 5-0 (Side note: I’m not actually advocating that starting pitching should also be our offense solution). Anyway Cole Hamels gets the start against the Mets today as Daisuke Matsuzaka will make his second start as a Met.

Matsuzaka had a rough go in his Mets debut but Daisuke also had to face the Tigers who have had his number in the past. In his debut he pitched 5 innings and allowed 5 ER however if you watched the game, there was a big difference in the poor start (first two innings) and his following 3 innings. In his career he pitched 12.0 innings allowed 4 ER against the Phillies who have the following numbers against him:

McDonald 2-15, 2B
Young 8-14, 2 2B, HR
Ruiz 0-4
Utley 1-5, 2B
Rollins 0-3

The Mets get another look at a familiar foe in Cole Hamels who is 5-13 over 27 starts and a 3.62 ERA. Against the Mets this year he has pitched 17.0 innings over 3 games with a 4.76 ERA (9 ER) and where he has allowed 16 hits, 11 walks and 18 strikeouts. The Mets have the following numbers against Hamels:

Murphy 8-29, 2 2B
Davis 6-21, HR
Byrd 5-19
Duda 1-13
Young 6-14, 2B
Lagares 4-7, 2 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Phillies play game two tonight as the Mets look to bounce back from dropping another game (and from yesterday’s terrible news regarding Harvey. Last night the Mets just struggled getting runners to come around a touch home plate. Tonight they look to reverse that against Kyle Kendrick against Jon Niese.

Jon Niese is 5-6 over 17 starts and 96.0 innings with a 4.03 ERA.  In that stretch he has walked 38 batters and struck out 72 batters. In his last two starts he’s pitched 13.0 innings allowing 2 ER striking out a total of 18 batters. He has made one start against the Phillies this year allowed 3 runs, 1 earned over 6.2 innings. The Phiillies have the following numbers against him:

Rollins 8-37, 2 2B
Mayberry 9-31, 2 2B, 3 HR
Ruiz 7-20, 2B, HR
Utley 2-18
Young 3-5, HR

The Mets bats will try to get back on track against Kyle Kendrick today who is 10-10 over 26 games this season with a 4.51 ERA over 159.2 innings and allowing a league leading 182 hits this season. In the month of August he has made 4 starts pitching 21.1 innings with a 5.91 ERA. He has pitched 3 games and 20.2 innings against the Mets this year with a 3.48 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Kyle:

Davis 6-24, 2 2B
Murphy 4-24, 2B
Duda 3-16, 2 2B, HR
Buck 3-16, 2B, HR
Lagares 2-2, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The battle for third place is on! Before the weekend the Mets were in the driver seat for third place but the Tigers did what the Tigers do. Yesterday the Tigers jumped out to an early lead against the Mets but the Mets came back to take the lead 3-2. The Tigers then nudged forward making it 4-3 and the score stayed like that for a while until the top of the ninth where the game ballooned into a 11-3 score. Tonight Zack Wheeler gets the nod as he goes up against Cliff Lee.

Zack Wheeler is 6-2 over 12 starts with a 3.49 ERA over 69.2 innings with 62 strikeouts. He’s 2-0 over his last three starts pitching 19.0 innings with a 2.37 ERA, 4 BB and 21 strikeouts. In his one start against the Phillies this year he allowed 2 ER over 4.2 innings. The Phillies have the following numbers against Wheeler:

Brown 0-3
Rollins 2-3, HR
Ruf 0-2
Utley 1-2
Young 0-1
Bernadina 0-2
Mayberry 1-2

Cliff Lee is 10-6 over 24 starts this season pitching 170.2 innings with a 3.16 ERA. He has made 4 starts in the month of August going 0-2 and 26.0 innings with a 3.81 ERA and 26 strikeouts. Lee has had two very different starts against the Mets this season. Back in April he allowed only 2 ER over 8.2 innings of work. In July, he allowed 5 ER over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Lee:

Buck 16-55, 3 2B, 4 HR
Byrd 10-28, 3 2B, HR
Murphy 8-26, 4 2B
Duda 6-18, 2B, HR
Lagares 2-3, HR

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets signed 16 year old Ricardo Cespedes yesterday, actually on his 16th birthday. Cespedes just made the cut to be signed this year by 8 days. If he was 8 days younger, teams would not be able to sign him until next July.

According to Baseball America, Cespedes has “a nice swing and a line-drive, gap-to-gap approach”. The Mets reached an agreement with him in July but had to wait until his 16th birthday to sign him (which makes sense). Anyway, at the age of 16, Cespedes is already 6 feet tall and 2 inches. He’s an outfielder right now, and speculation is he will start in center field.

Before you get excited, the reason you don’t hear a lot of press around these signings is the how far down the charts these guys are. It’s essentially like giving 725 K (Cespedes’s contract) to a high school sophomore/junior and their have been few players that have accurately projected into stars from that age.

The Mets try to get one from the Tigers today as Dillon Gee takes on Rick Porcello. Yesterday was much hyped as a pitching matchup and for the most part it was as Harvey went into the 7th allowing 2 runs and Max was fantastic. Sadly for the Mets, the lumber was a slumber and didn’t do much thus leading to a 3-0 Tigers win.

Dillon Gee is 9-8 over 25 starts this season with a 3.60 ERA over 152.2 innings. Dillon is 2-0 in the month of August pitching 28.1 innings with an ERA of 1.27, 20 strikeouts and 4 walks. Not surprisingly, Dillon Gee has never faced the Tigers before however he has faced a few members of the Detroit squad:

Infante 2-8
Fielder 0-1
Anibal Sanchez 0-1

The Mets bats draw Rick Porcello in today’s finale, who is 9-7 over 24 games this season with a 4.52 ERA over 135.1 innings. He has pitched 15.1 innings in his last three starts with a 6.46 ERA. He has pitched 3.2 innings against the Mets in his career and has allowed 7 earned runs in that stretch. However, few active players with the Mets have faced him:

Buck 0-8
Murphy 2-3, 2B
Duda 0-2
Turner 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

In what may possibly be the first time ever, the two starting pitchers of the All-Star game meet up again for a regular season game with their same respective teams. Previously the only way this was possible was if an interleague game from May/June was postponed and made up later in the season. Anyway, Matt Harvey takes the mound against Max Scherzer. For both pitchers 2013 was their first All-Star game and they both got to start for their respective leagues. The American League eventually won that game, and both Harvey and Scherzer put on a show.

Matt is 9-4 with a 2.25 ERA over 25 starts and 171.2 innings of work. In that time he was struck out 187 batters and walked 31. Two starts ago he pitched a complete game shut out, the following start he showed he was human allowed 4 ER over 6 innings and in his last start he allowed 2 over 6 in a game the bullpen let slip away. Harvey has never faced the Tigers nor anyone on the Tigers roster in a regular season game.

Max is 18-1 this year. Seriously. 18-1. That’s a 94.7 winning percentage. He has pitched 25 games and 172.1 innings with a 2.82 ERA, so his time on the field this year has been very similar to Harvey. He has struck out 185 batters and walked 38 (seriously these numbers are incredibly close). In his last three starts he is 2-0 over 21.0 innings of work with a 2.57 ERA. In his career he has pitched 12.2 innings against the Mets with a 4.26 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Murphy 1-5
Young 1-4
Buck o-3
Byrd 1-2, 2B

Lets Go Mets!