213 Miles From Shea

Who can forget last year’s Concert Series at Citi Field? The only commercial shown more than the Citi Bank “Somebody Left Gate Open” last year was the REO Speedwagon TV spot. Joining REO last year was Cheap Trick and MercyMe.

Well the Mets stepped it up this year with concerts by Foriegner, Nas, OAR, and Third Eye Blind.

Personally, I’m very excited for Nas, the queen native hip hop artist who is not secret about being a Mets fan. Last year when his album dropped, he performed at the MLB Fan Cave in a Mets jersey. Not only is he a Mets fan, he is still considered one of the best lyrcists of all time.

In a later update, I’ll post some videos of Nas to get you pumped for July 19th against the Phillies (concert date)

The Mets tied the Nationals tonight with a score of 4-4 after 10 innings.

If you were watching the game, or following on Mets Twitter, then you probably already know the real story of the game was the Nationals Announcers, who were awful. They were complete homers, exaggerating everything the Nationals, and downplayed the Mets due to jet streams on the field. The kicker would be Reese Havens who was called Flores and Hicks for a large chunk of time. It was pretty bad. Like really bad.

Anyway, non-Outfield game notes. Montero got the start for the Mets and allowed three doubles in two innings of work. That being said, his stuff looked quite good. Rather intriguing. Besides that there were a few blunders in the field which is to be expected because the Mets brought their B and C squad teams.

The Mets OF stats so far:

(By the end of the weekend, I’m going to start to clean up this chart a little bit)

The last team we’ll go over in this long, 26 part series, is Brazil. Take a look:

I love Brazil’s uniforms. They were a surprise team beating out Panama to get into the tournament. They did a great job with the typeface, the colors, the spacing and the BP template.

The Mets dropped this afternoon’s game 12-4 to the Cardinals behind some pitching struggles of Gorski and Torres who each allowed 4 earned runs in 2 innings of work. Bullpen hopeful Greg Burke also struggled allowing 3 earned runs in 2 innings of work (although I can’t imagine a game situation where Burke would be pitching 2 innings).

On the positive side, the Mets finally flexed some muscle today as the probable Opening Roster catchers (Buck and Recker) both homered and so did Cowgill.

And on the topic of outfielders, when you look at the stats below, this really is anyone’s race to steal. As some players continue to struggle, players like Cowgill, slotted to be a platoon, climb the depth chart. Byrd has been good at the plate this spring as well but had some struggles in the field. Besides these two, the rest of the competition has been dim:

Venezuela has a similar set to their 2009 and 2006 sets, and why change a good uniform right? They did update it for the new template:

I can’t find the home uniform, I believe it’s white with a red under arm. The one above is gorgeous.

Yesterday the Mets dropped a game to 7-5 to the Miami Marlins. Before we talk about the OF performance, let’s just go through some quick game notes.

Game Notes:
– Mejia had a bad outing allowed 5 runs, 4 earned in one inning of work. I would be more concerned about this but he also just got to camp, so he could easily be 2 weeks behind everyone else. I would also be more apathetic about this if Santana’s arm wasn’t in question.
– Turner, Satin, d’Arnaud and Tovar all had RBI singles (except for d’Arnaud, who had a sac fly). Which is nice for timely hitting but the entire team had only one extra base hit via Omar.

Outfielder Notes:
Really nothing to write home about. Kirk struggled going o-3, 2 K’s, Hoffman went 0-2, Baxter went 0-3, and Lagares went 0-4. Puello had the only hit going 1-2 with a run scored. I updated the spread sheet that keeps track of everyone’s performance in the OF + Valdespin and the Michigan game:

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.