213 Miles From Shea

Long time readers of this site know my personal history of moving from Baltimore to Prince Georges (outside of DC) to Newark, NJ over the last 6 years. During that time, I’ve lived in two small markets for sports clubs and one large market.

I think I have a different experience riding public transportation back from Mets games than most fans do, because I’m constantly comparing it to my time in Baltimore and DC. When I would board the Metro in both cities (It’s still a subway) it is fairly obvious that its game day. Going back from both cities, it is still clearly obvious that it is game day. There are still a ton of people on the outstretch ends of the train lines wearing fan gear. This was expected in Baltimore since there is only one subway line and one light rail line, but DC has a good amount of lines.

I rarely have this experience with the Mets. By the time I get to Times Square from the 7 express, the fans start to really disperse. By the time I get back to the PATH train, I almost never board with someone who was clearly at the game. I never really thought too much about this until this weekend.

New York has an MLS team, the NY Red Bulls (formerly the Metrostars) located in Harrison, NJ (which is great because I’m practically walking distance to a great time). The MLS is considering adding a second NY franchise in Flushing, which would be great for Queens and would probably help both franchises with their fans (nothing like rivalries). Crowding the picture, the New York Cosmos, a second tier soccer team, is making a come back this season in Long Island and want to build a 25,000 seat stadium near the race track in Queens. At the end of this year, these are the following professional sports teams in the city and the surrounding areas:

– New York Mets
– New York Yankees
– New York Jets
– New York Giants
– New York Rangers
– New York Knicks
– New York Islanders
– New York Liberty
– Brooklyn Nets
– Red Bull New York
– New Jersey Devils
– New York Cosmos (2nd Tier)
– Long Island Ducks (Independent)
– Newark Bears (Independent)
– Brooklyn Cyclones
– Staten Island Yankees

That’s 16 teams, with the possibility of a 17th.

Now I admit it’s a large geographic area. If I applied the same to Baltimore, I would have to combine the list with DC. Even so, that is two unique communities sharing those teams.

I’m fascinated by the dynamics in New York because there are some teams that rule over the whole region (Mets, Yankees, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Red Bulls) and then there are smaller teams that feel local due (Islanders, Nets for example).

Sometimes it feels like Sports Saturation in New York, but at the same time it feels like New York, and its surrounding areas could take on more teams. I still believe, although I think it is a bad idea, that if another MLB team moved to the area, there would be enough support here to keep it and the Yankees/Mets afloat.

The Mets made it two in a row friday night as they beat the Braves in the series opener. Then, the rain came from the sky and washed out last night, which knocked Harvey out of today’s spot.  For the Mets it was a night of homers and back and forth action as Marcum faltered as did parts of the bull pen. However the captain, David Wright, tied the game on a solo shot (after the Braves took the lead from the Mets and Wright did it against the fantastic Mets closers) and that was followed by a great 10th inning. The Mets try to take the series today behind Jon Niese as he goes up against Tim Hudson.

Jon Niese is 2-2 on the season over 6 games  with a 3.31 ERA and 32.2 innings of work. In his last 9 innings he’s allowed 3 ER. Last year he faced the Braves 4 times with a 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA over 27.0 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against Jon Niese:

Uggla 8-29, 3 2B
Freeman 6-19, 2B, 2 HR
R Johnson 6-16
Justin Upton 5-11, 2B
Schafer 0-8
C Johnson 2-6, 2B

The Mets bats have scored 7 runs two games in a row and look to keep it going against Tim Hudson. Hudson is 3-1 over 6 games with a 3.86 ERA over 35 innings of work and he is coming off of one of his strongest starts of the season allowing only one earned run over 7 innings. Against the Mets last year he allowed 7 ER over 11.0 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 15-68, 2 2B, 2 HR
Duda 6-20, 2B, HR
Davis 3-13, 2B
Tejada 8-17, 2B
Murphy 4-16, 2B
Buck 2-13

Let’s Go Mets!

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets made it two in a row last night as they beat the Braves in the series opener. For the Mets it was a night of homers and back and forth action as Marcum faltered as did parts of the bull pen. However the captain, David Wright, tied the game on a solo shot (after the Braves took the lead from the Mets and Wright did it against the fantastic Mets closers) and that was followed by a great 10th inning. The Mets try to take the series today behind Jon Niese as he goes up against Julio Teheran.

Jon Niese is 2-2 on the season over 6 games  with a 3.31 ERA and 32.2 innings of work. In his last 9 innings he’s allowed 3 ER. Last year he faced the Braves 4 times with a 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA over 27.0 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against Jon Niese:

Uggla 8-29, 3 2B
Freeman 6-19, 2B, 2 HR
R Johnson 6-16
Justin Upton 5-11, 2B
Schafer 0-8
C Johnson 2-6, 2B

The Mets bats have scored 7 runs two games in a row and look to keep it going against Julio Teheran. He’s 1-0 over 5 starts this season with a 5.08 ERA while pitching 28.1 innings. He’s gotten better in his last two starts posting a 2.19 ERA over 12.1. He faced the Mets once in 2011 where he allowed 5 ER over 8 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Julio:

Duda 1-4, 2B
Tejada 0-4
Turner 1-3
Wright 1-2, HR

Lets Go Mets!

It’s May and the Mets will finally meet the Braves for the first time in 2013. The Mets are fresh off of a win in Miami where they snapped a 6 game losing streak thanks to some offense and a bullpen that didn’t completely implode. The Mets will also be joined up with Andrew Brown who is hitting well in Vegas and could fill in at the OF and occasionally at first base. Anyway, tonight’s game features Shaun Marcum pitted against Mike Minor.

Marcum had a rocky start in his 2013 debut allowing 3 ER in 4.0 innings of work (right before the bullpen just fell apart). Then, the baseball gods decided to turn on Shaun as 1.2 innings against the Marlins and would give up the winning run in the 15th inning. And just like that, 5.2 innings into the season, he is 0-2. He pitched one game against Atlanta last year and he allowed only 3 hits and 2 runs over 7 innings of work. He will be facing a much different Atlanta lineup that now boasts BJ Upton (although currently struggling) and Justin Upton (who is hitting the ball way out of the park). The Braves have the following numbers on Marcum:

BJ Upton 6-21, 2 2B
Johnson 1-12
Schafer 3-9, 2B
Uggla 1-8
Justin Upton 2-8
Freeman 1-5

The Mets bats hope to replicate their last game and not their previous 6 before that tonight against Mike Minor who is 2-2 on the season over 31.2 innings and 5 starts with a 3.13 ERA. He has went from spectacular, allowing 2 runs over his first 19 innings to not so good allowing 9 ER over 12.2 innings (with his last start being the real dagger at 6.2 IP, 6 ER). In two starts against the Mets last year he allowed 9 hits and 6 ER over 11.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 2-11, 2 2B
Tejada 4-13, 2B
Buck 0-8, 3 BB
Turner 3-7
Byrd 4-8, 2B
Duda 3-8, 2B
Davis 0-4, 3 K
Murphy 2-5, 2 2B
Gee 2-2 (I know he’s a starter and he’s not starting tonight but whatever sorry not sorry)

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets try to put this Marlins series out of its misery this afternoon as they play the get away game / salvage game today. Even though there was a terrible call last night at third base in 9th inning that cost Hefner his gem of a game, the real blame of the game falls on offense. The bats have fallen completely silent to the point that during this losing streak everyone in the lineup is under-performing. Here’s hoping last night was enough of a fire to spark this offense, which is as spark-able as wet wood right now. Dillon Gee gets the start today vs Wade LeBlanc.

Dillon Gee is 1-4 this season over 5 starts with a 5.96 ERA over 25.2 innings. He is starting to look like a better pitcher. He had a scoreless outing two starts ago and last time out he was cruising with the exception of one inning. He hasn’t faced the Marlins since 2011, back then he was 1-0 over 2 games while allowing 4 ER over 11.0 innings. The Marlins have the following numbers against Gee:

Polanco 2-12
Pierre 2-6
Dobbs 1-3, HR
Stanton 1-5, HR

Wade LeBlanc looks to keep the Mets bats depressed. On the season, Wade is 0-4 over 5 games with a 6.20 ERA over 24.2 innings of work. In his last three games, he’s allowed 13 ER over 13.2 innings. Last year he was pretty good against the Mets allowing 3 runs, 2 earned over 11 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Wade:

Wright 6-10, HR
Tejada 1-7
Murphy 4-8, HR
Davis 3-7, HR
Buck 0-3
Duda 2-3

Lets Go Mets! (Please, just win)

Last night’s game was terrible. No way around it. The Mets got a good start from Harvey who didn’t have his best stuff, but left the game with the lead. The bullpen only faltered twice from that point, which was amazing because they had to go from the 6th inning until the 15th inning. The Mets bats just went cold, silent and it was just bad. Anyway Hefner gets the start today as he goes against Kevin Slowey.

Jeremy Hefner is coming off of a good start where he pitched 7 innings allowing 1 ER while walking 3 batters and striking out 4. He has now pitched 21.0 innings over 5 starts with a 5.14 ERA. His first start of the season, his second best start, was against the Marlins where he pitched 6.0 innings allowing one earned run while walking 2 and striking out 3. The Marlins have the following numbers against Hefner:

Stanton 1-10
Solano 2-6
Pierre 3-6
Polanco 3-7
Ruggiano 0-5
Dobbs 1-6, HR

The Mets bats will try to find their bats against Kevin Slowey who has been pitching well this season. Over his first five games, he’s 0-2 over 29.2 innings with a 2.43 ERA. He’s coming off of his worst start of the season where he allowed 3 ER over 6 innings of work. He has made one start against the Mets in his career where he allowed 5 ER over 6 innings who have the following numbers against him:

Buck 3-11, 2B
Byrd 1-3
Davis 1-3
Wright 2-3, 2B, HR
Tejada 1-2, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets try to put last week way, way behind them as they travel south for a road trip to Miami. In the Mets last home stand the Mets started off on a good note take 2 of 3 from the Nationals and then dropping 5 of 6 to the Dodgers and the Phillies. Currently, the Mets are hoping to snap a 4 game losing streak. Luckily, it is Harvey day today as he takes on Jose Fernandez in another stellar young pitcher match up.

Harvey is coming off of his worst start of the season where he still was quality allowing 3 ER over 6 innings and the Mets still ended up winning the game thanks to a walk off grand slam from Valdespin. It also was the also the last time the Mets won a game. On the season, Harvey is 4-0 over 5 starts and 35.0 innings with a 1.54 ERA while he walked 10 BB with 39 strikeouts. This will be Harvey’s first start against the Marlins and the only Marlins who have faced Harvey are Pierre (2-6) and Polanco (0-1). The Mets booth added yesterday that Harvey’s most difficult task tonight will be Stanton (not a surprise) but Stanton has slider power, so if Harvey powers him with fastballs, he should be fine.

The Mets will be meeting Jose Fernandez for the second time this season. Fernandez is 0-2 this season with a 4.50 ERA over 4 games and 20.0 innings. In that stretch he walked 8 batters and struck out 19 batters. In his debut against the Mets he allowed 1 ER over 5.0 innings. In his first two starts he allowed only 1 ER over 11.0 IP. In his last two starts he has allowed 9 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Fernandez:

Cowgill 0-3
Baxter 0-2
Davis 0-1
Duda 0-2
Murphy 1-2
Recker 1-2, 2B
Tejada 1-2

Lets go Mets!

After taking 2 of 3 from the Nationals last weekend, the Mets then dropped 5 of the next 6 games. The only game the Mets won was a start by Matt Harvey where he wasn’t his best, but the rest of staff stepped up.

The 5 losses in the last week, and a good portion of the losses earlier in the season have come from the bullpen.

Sometimes I want to blame Terry and how he’s pressing the buttons, but it is starting to look more like Terry is trying to use buttons on a plastic car to launch a space shuttle.

For yet another season, it looks like the Mets just don’t have the pieces in the pen to get the job done. Parnell looks solid and Rice is performing well enough. Lyons has good days but also has terrible days. The pen as a whole is just incredibly inconsistent.

If the pen gets more consistent, then maybe the Mets will have a shot.

The Mets try to salvage one game of the Phillies series this afternoon after dropping the first two. The Mets are also on their first three game losing streak of the season. Yesterday Marcum only lasted 4 innings allowing 3 earned runs and then Carson allowed 5 runs the inning after. At that point, things looked pretty bleak for the Mets. Hopefully Niese will be able to pull the Mets out of this rut as he squares up against Hamels.

Jon Niese is 2-1 on the season over 5 games and 26.0 innings with a 3.81 ERA. Over those 26 innings he has walked 12 batters and struck out 14 batters. Last year Niese faced the Phillies 5 times with a 2-1 record and a 2.93 ERA over 30.2 innings. The Phillies have the following numbers against Jon Niese:

Rollins 7-33, 2 2B
Mayberry 9-28, 2 2B, 3 HR
Utley 2-15
Howard 1-15
Young 2-3

The Mets draw the ace of the Phillies staff this afternoon in Cole Hamels. So far this series the Mets bats have not been able to figure out the back of the rotation, maybe because the universe makes very little sense when it comes to Mets baseball, they’ll be able to figure out Hamels. Hamels is 0-3 this season with a 5.40 ERA over the 5 starts and in his last three starts he has a 2.57 ERA. He was 2-0 against the Mets last year over 4 starts with a 3.86 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Cole:

Wright 17-55, 3 2B, 3B, 4 HR
Tejada 5-22
Buck 2-22, 2 HR
Murphy 6-20, 2B, HR
Davis 6-19, HR
Byrd 3-11

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets try to rebound after a subpar group of games today as they play the Phillies in game two of the series. Last night the Mets bats were shut down for the second day in a row as scoring was hard to come by. The team had an incredible streak of run scoring earlier in the season, so hopefully the can get it going against against Pettibone today.

The main headline for Mets today is the debut of Shawn Marcum. Marcum was 7-4 last year over 21 starts and 124.0 innings with a 3.70 ERA. Marcum hasn’t faced the Phillies since 2011. Back then he pitched 12.2 innings over two starts with a 3.55 ERA. Marcum’s velocity is down from last year but he’s a professional pitcher and I’m excited to watch him go to work today (and comparing him to a Laffey start makes Marcum relatively great). The Phillies have the following numbers against Marcum:

Young 4-16, 2 2B
Howard 4-8, 3 HR
Rollins 3-10
Utley 3-7, HR

The Mets bats draw Jonathan Pettibone making his second career start. In his Major League debut he went 5.1 innings allowing 6 hits and 2 earned runs against the Pirates. During that start he didn’t walk a batter and struck out 6. He had a good year in the minors last year pitching nearly 160 innings with a 3.10 ERA. This year he struggled in his two starts allowing 10 earned runs, 12 total in 9.1 innings. I’m curious to see what the Mets do against him today.

Lets go Mets!