213 Miles From Shea

For the second time in three days, the Mets play a day game against the Braves. Yesterday the Mets got a good start from Carlos Torres but the offense fell flat only scoring one run and the Mets dropped their third straight game. Today the Mets try to reverse the trend as Dillon Gee plays the role of stopper on the mound against Kameron Loe.

Dillon Gee is 10-9 over 27 games and 166.1 innings with a 3.63 ERA. He bounced back in his last outing after allowing 4 ER over 6 innings by allowing only 2 ER over 7.2 innings. This season he has pitched 20.1 innings over three games with a 3.10 ERA with 13 strikeouts. The Braves have the following numbers against Dillon Gee:

Uggla 4-26, 2B, 3B
McCann 3-18, 2B
Freeman 6-20, 2B, HR
Upton 4-18, 2B, HR
C. Johnson 3-10, 2B

Kameron Loe is 1-2 this season over 13.2 innings and 13 games between the Braves, Cubs and Mariners. His only two games with the Braves was back in July and both were relief outings against the Mets where he allowed 3 ER over 2.2 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Loe:

Turner 0-2
Lagares 0-1
Murphy 1-2
Brown 1-1, 2B
Davis 0-1
Duda 0-1

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets look to move past their awful performance yesterday as they start game two of this series against the Braves. Yesterday, on very short rest, the Mets were trampled 13-5 by the Braves. Today Carlos Torres tries to make it a different story against Kris Medlen. Carlos Torres is 3-2 on the season over 55.1 innings of work with a 2.77 ERA. His last outing against Philly was a good one as he allowed 1 ER over 4 hits and 6.2 innings. Carlos has pitched 8.1 innings against the Braves allowing only 1 ER, 8 hits and striking out 10. The Braves have the following numbers against Torres:

J Upton 0-5
Freeman 0-5
Johnson, 1-5, 2B
Simmons 2-4, 2B, HR
Uggla 2-4

The Mets bats get yet another look at Kris Medlen who is 11-12 pitching 161.0 innings with an ERA of 3.58. In the month of June he pitched 6 games with 36.0 innings of work and an ERA of 3.00. He’s pitched 18.0 innings in three games against the Mets with a 3.93 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Medlen:

Davis 5-21, 2B, HR
Murphy 5-22, 2B
Duda 3-12
Young 1-6

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets find themselves in a very unusual situation today with a day game after a late night game in two different cities. The Mets played the 8:00 nationally broadcasted game in DC and had to fly out for a 1:00 day game in Atlanta. Last night the Mets lost a close one to the Nationals as they were leading the entire game until the bottom of the 8th where the Mets bullpen gave the game away. In the afternoon match, Daisuke Matsuzaka will take the hill against Paul Maholm.

Both of Daisuke’s starts for the Mets have been pretty poor as he has allowed 9 ER over 9.1 innings. The announcing crew has also been joking that his pacing could cause the Mets players to fall asleep on the field. In his first start he did a pretty good job picking up the pace but his last time out was normal very slow. In his career he has made two starts against the Braves allowing 9 ER over 12.0 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against him:

BJ Upton 6-24, 2 HR
Laird 3-8
McCann 1-4, 2B

Paul Maholm is 9-10 over 22 starts and 129.2 innings with a 4.37 ERA. He’s made two starts since coming back and they have been mixed. In his first start he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned over 5.1 innings. In his second start he allowed 1 ER over 6 innings. In his one start against the Mets he allowed 2 ER and 9 hits over 7 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Murphy 8-15
Turner 1-6
Davis 1-4, 2B
Lagares 0-3
Recker 1-3, HR

Lets Go Mets!

Tonight in front of a national audience the Mets will be going for a series sweep of the Washington Nationals. Last night the Mets were firing on all cylinders dropping in the base hits and getting out of trouble with pitching thus leading to a 11-3 win. Jon Niese will take the mound tonight as he squares up against Ross Ohlendorf.

Jon Niese is 6-6 over 18 games this season pitching 105.0 innings with a 3.69 ERA. He has pitched 22.0 innings in his last three starts with a 0.82 ERA (just 2 earned runs) and 23 strikeouts. The numbers right now are being juked by a complete game shutout he threw in his last outing. Surprisingly, he has not faced the Nationals at all this season and last year allowed 1 ER over 14.1 innings against them. The Nationals have the following numbers against Niese:

Werth 4-17
LaRoche 4-15, 2B, 2 HR
Zimmerman 5-14, 2B
Desmond 2-14, 2 2B
Hairston 1-5

The Mets bats will get another look at Ross Ohlendorf today, the pitcher with the delivery straight out of the early 1900’s. Ohlendorf is 3-0 over 12 games and 4 starts this year with a 2.49 ERA and 43.1 innings of work. Since being back on the major league roster, he has made two starts. In his first he allowed 4 ER over 4.1 innings. In his second, he allowed 1 ER over 5.0 innings. Against the Mets this year he allowed 1 earned run over 2.0 innings and then 1 earned run over 7.0 innings with 8 strikeouts. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Murphy 4-7
Lagares 2-5, 2B
Satin 2-4, 2 2B
Young 1-3, 3B
Brown 0-3

Lets Go Mets!

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!