213 Miles From Shea

Canada is back in the 2013 tournament, sans-Jason Bay, and their uniforms were upgraded to the new BP design:

I like their red uniform. A o lot of teams just reversed the color scheme of the white uniform. I’m glad Canada did Red/Black, it looks good!

The Mets dropped their first spring training game tonight against the Nationals by a score of 6-4.

If you were looking for a few game notes that are not OF related:
– Davis hit a homer
– Burke looks serious
– Flores was much better at 2B than expectations
– Havens struggled everywhere

About the OF:
den Dekker would be the star of the night. He went 1-3 at the plate with a run, but his most impressive moment happened in the field where he went over the wall to bring back a homer. Lagares also had a key hit tonight, but he is so far down the depth chart it is difficult to see him moving into the picture. Below are the updated OF stats for all games, including the exhibition games (even though Spring Training is all exhibition, but I guess some are more exhibitiony than others):

Hey! Team USA has merchandise of all of their uniforms that features all the colors of the American flag. Fancy that. Anyway here’s the set:

I’m a fan of the batting practice jersey, because it’s simple. The Home and Away aren’t bad either because they don’t inverse each other. I still don’t like the USA hat, its too busy.

The Mets won a game and tied a game this afternoon as the quest to fill the Mets OF continued.

First, some game notes:

Win vs Michigan:
Flores hit a homer in the Mets 5-2 win against the University of Michigan. Niese and Gee put up very similar numbers pitching two innings each, allowing three hits, one earned run and three strikeouts each (Gee also walked a batter). Montero, Robles and Torres each followed up with scoreless outings. The only other standout offensively, besides Tejada going 1-2 with a double, was Hicks who went 2-3, 2 R, 2B, BB.

Tie vs Houston:
The Mets tied with Houston 7-7. Valdespin and Hoffman homered in this one while Cowgill had two hits, a double and 2 stolen bases thus keeping a perfect spring run. Harvey had a solid 2 inning outing allowing one earned run while striking out three batters and Familia struggled allowing 3 ER over 1.0 innings of work. Edgin blew the game in the ninth inning but was able to get out of a bases loaded jam.

Below are the stats of the OF’s, plus Valdespin compiled through all of the spring training games so far (including the exhibition against Michigan). Duda has gotten off to a slow start, striking out 6 times in 7 AB’s but it is also still very early. Cowgill is impressing early on.

South Korea finally released their jerseys recently and I like them. Compared to the other countries, they look fresh, a little different. Take a look for yourself:

Normally I don’t like when white uniforms have two different tones of blue, but it works here.

The Mets defeated the Nationals this afternoon in Port St. Lucie with a final score of 5-3.

The main story from the game was Wheeler’s performance: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 WP. He looked really good and it was exciting to watch him pitch. Mazzoni added in two scoreless innings behind him (picking up the win) followed by two more scoreless innings from Gorski and one from Parnell (picking up the save). Also Ruben Tejada hit the only home run for the Mets (surprising source of power) off of Strasburg (also surprising).

Anyway let’s focus on the OF race. Stats from today’s game:

Duda 0-3, 2 K
Nieuwenhuis 1-3, R
Byrd 2-2, R, 2B
Brown 0-1, BB, K
Cowgill 1-1, R, RBI, BB
Baxter 0-0, BB
Valdespin* 1-2, R

For the most part, everyone (except for the player with the basically guaranteed spot) had a good day at the plate today. Byrd attacked the ball right away which paid off with one of two Mets extra base hits of the day. Cowgill showed aggression on the base paths coming home on a bobbled ball by first basemen Micah Owens. Brown misplayed a ball in the OF at one point.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings! The Mets go split squad tomorrow, so a lot of opportunity for OF’s to get some work in.

*Collins is working Valdespin as an infielder mostly in camp this year, I’m not ruling anything out yet

Japan pulled a fast one about two weeks ago and updated the font on one of their uniforms. Here’s what the set looks like:

Surprisingly, there is no hat released for Japan but I saw one mock up that has the hat looking like the white jersey font with the colors on the blue jersey. The “fast one” I referred to early comes from the Japanese T-shirts that have the blue jersey color schemes also with the white jersey type face. I guess we’ll find out next week.

Look, the Mets Outfield is the weakness this year. That’s not a shocker.

Luckily, with Spring Training games starting today, and by today I mean in a few minutes, we’ll start to get a look at who could possibly play and who could be a difference maker. Perhaps this OF won’t be as terrible as we think or comparably higher than our collective incredibly low expectations.

Without the extreme, which would be three OF’s hitting a homer every other game, it looks like the Mets will have at least one, possibly two platoons out on the roster this year.

Just by names reported in the news, the following is what I think the pole position for OF’s coming into day one:

1. Duda
2. Captain Kirk
3. Baxter
4. Cowgill
5. Byrd
6. Valdespin*
7. den Dekker
8. Brown
9. Lagares
10. Puello
11. Hoffman

In the first game, Duda, Kirk Byrd and Valdespin* (DH) will be getting the start. I’m excited to see how this goes! See you at the end of the game for the next part in this series tracking how our OF’s are doing.

*Could be a utility/backup IF this year.

Want to see the next uniform Jose Reyes will be wearing before Toronto? Take a look below:

The hat looks the same and they did a good job at least making all of the uniforms look different. I’m just not a fan of how small the typeface appears at least on these pictures.

The Mets start Spring Training starts today with an Intrasquad followed by the Nationals on Saturday, Michigan on Sunday, Astros on Sunday and the Nationals again on Monday. The following pitchers are slated to go:

Intrasquad: Gonzalez German, LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Rice, Collin McHugh, Elvin Ramirez, Greg Burke, Robert Carson, Brandon Lyon, Pedro Feliciano

Nationals: Shawn Marcum, Zack Wheeler, Cory Mazzoni, Dan Gorski, Jeurys Familia, Bobby Parnell

Michigan: Jon Niese, Dillon Gee, Brandon Lyon, Hansel Robles, Rafael Montero, Carlos Torres

Astros: Matt Harvey, Jeremy Hefner, Aaron Laffey, Pedro Feliciano, Scott Atchison, Josh Edgin

Nationals: Collin McHugh, Gonzalez German, Elvin Ramirez, Greg Burke, LaTroy Hawkins, Robert Carson, Scott Rice

In these first five games we get the sense that some of the relievers are starting to be put on a schedule to get regular work in, thus starting to shape up the bullpen race.

Pitching Highlights:
Intrasquad: I’m vary curious to get a first look at Greg Burke and Brandon Lyon. However, it is an intrasquad game so whatever.

Nationals: Wheeler is the big ticket item for Saturday, a game that will be televised on SNY/MLB Network. Overall, Saturday has the best pitching roster. We’ll get our first game look at Shawn Marcum and our probable closer Bobby Parnell. Also a look at bullpen contender Familia.

Michigan: Jon Niese, for the moment, is the front line starter the Mets have in terms of ability, years played and health (knock on wood). Dillon Gee is also going for a rotation spot. We’ll get first “game” action for Brandon Lyon and exciting prospects Montero and Robles. This is the second best pitching roster of the five games.

Astros: First game look at Harvey, which is exciting. Also a preview of a bullpen battle between three pitchers who could each land a spot (Feliciano, Atchison, Edgin)

Nationals: Out of all the games, this is the pitching lineup I’m least excited to see and it will be on SNY. There’s a serious bullpen battle in this game as well with Burke, Hawkins, Ramirez and Carson. In addition the Mets will be giving another look at Scott Rice.