213 Miles From Shea

THE METS ARE GOING IN FOR THE SWEEP! THE METS ARE GOING IN FOR A FIVE GAME WIN STREAK! The Amazin’s are all but mathematically eliminated right now, but after this dismal 7+ weeks of play, it is still exciting to see the way the Mets have played this past week. It helps to bring back hope that our boys can put it all together on the baseball diamond. This afternoon, Jon Niese goes in for the kill as he faces off against Kyle Kendrick.

Jon Niese is 10-7 over 25 starts this year pitching 159.0 innings while posting an ERA of 3.51. In the month of August he pitched 35.1 innings over 5 starts with an ERA of 2.29 and 27 K’s. He has pitched 24.2 innings against the Phillies this year in 4 starts with a 2.55 ERA. The Phillies have the following numbers against Niese:

Polanco 11-32, 5 2B
Rollins 6-29, 2B
Mayberry 7-25, 2B, 3 HR
Utley 2-12
Howard 1-13
Wigginton 3-8, 2B

The Mets bats look to continue their slight bump in production against Kyle Kendrick today, who is 7-9 this season pitching 118.0 innings with an ERA of 4.12. He has been on point in his last three starts he has pitched 21.2 innings while allowing only 2 ER. This season he has logged 2.1 innings against the Mets while allowing 5 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Kyle:

Wright 9-27, 2B, 2 HR
Bay 3-19, 2B
Thole 6-17
Davis 4-13, 2 2B
Murphy 2-11, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets won yesterday! The Mets won the day before that! The Mets won the day before that as well! That’s right, we are on a three game winning streak folks! Anyway the Mets look to extend their streak to four games tonight as they play the Phillies after scoring runs late yesterday to take the game from the Phils. Tonight Matt Harvey gets the start against Cole Hamels.

Matt Harvey is 2-3 this season with a 2.75 ERA over 6 games and 36 innings with 43 K’s. In his last three starts, he has allowed only 4ER and 9 hits over 19.2 innings and 20 K’s. Since this is Harvey’s 7th start of his career, he has no batting records against the Phillies since he has never played them.

The Mets bats get a familiar foe tonight in Cole Hamels who is 14-6 this year with a 2.99 ERA. After getting off to a torrid start in August (7 innings, 3 IP followed by back to back complete game shutouts), Hamels has cooled off a bit and become human in his last two starts allowing 6 ER over 13.2 innings of work. In 15 innings and two games against the Mets this year, Cole has allowed 6 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Cole:

Wright 16-46, 3 2B, 3B, 3 HR
Hairston 11-28, 4 2B, 5 HR
Tejada 3-9
Murphy 5-17, 2B, HR
Davis 5-16

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets open up a series in Philly tonight, and do so with a winning “streak”, as the Mets have won back to back games. The basement of the NL East has been in turmoil recently with Philly rising up and ascending to third, with the Mets two games behind them (followed by the Marlins 1.5 games behind the Amazins). Tonight’s starters will be Chris Young and Vance Worley.

Chris Young is 3-7 over 14 starts and 81.0 innings while posting an ERA of 4.33. He was a victim of interesting defense in his last start and in his last two games he has pitched 12.2 innings while allowing only 2 earned runs, 4 total. In his one start against the Phillies this year, he allowed 3 ER over 7 innings of work. The Phillies have the following numbers against Chris Young:

Pierre 6-29
Howard 2-13, 2B
Rollins 2-16
Utley 5-16, 2B, 3 HR
Polanco 2-8, 2B

Vance Worley is 6-9 over 22 starts and 128.2 innings with an ERA of 4.06. In his last four starts he has pitched 19.2 innings while allowing 14 ER. He has also logged 10 innings against the Mets this year while allowing 10 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Vance:

Bay 3-11
Murphy 7-12, 2B, 3B
Tejada 5-14
Thole 5-11, 2B
Wright 3-13, HR
Duda 4-8, 2B, HR
Turner 4-10, 2 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The facts:
The Mets have placed Hairston and Torres on waivers, which means nothing, so far. However, in the last two days, with Saunders being traded off waivers to the Orioles and the Dodger blockbuster, it is feasible to see a trade since that seems to be in fashion.

What’s Next:
Now teams will have an opportunity to put claims on both players. If claims are made, then the Mets have two options. First, they can pull the claimed player off waivers, thus protecting that player being traded. Second, they have 48 hours to work out a trade with that team. If no trade is made, then the player cannot be traded to anyone. If no claims are placed, then the player is cleared and can be traded to anyone.

Opinion/Speculation
Hairston is the real player here. If Torres is claimed, and possibly traded, he won’t net much. Hairston is a valuable bench player for someone else, so I would be surprised if he isn’t claimed.

Now, it is not unusual for teams to place players on waivers, so either player on waivers here does not tip the Mets hands to regard of what they will be doing in the offseason. However, if the Mets end up trading either player, that will at least remove those players for the 2013 plans.

Personally, with the amount of 4th OF types the Mets have, I would be fine trading either or both of Torres and Hairston, even if it means not much in return. The OF is the area the Mets need the most help with in the offseason since it has become the most volatile and possibly mediocre part of the team.

The Mets try to take the series this afternoon against the Astros! Yesterday the Mets were able to pull out a win thanks to R.A. Dickey and today Jeremy Hefner will return to the mound as he faces Lucas Harrell. Hefner is 2-5 over 61.2 innings this year with a 5.11 ERA. His last start and appearance was on August 19th where he allowed 5 ER over 5 innings against the Nationals. Being a rookie, there are no Astros with batting stats against Hefner as he has not faced the Astros or anyone on their roster.

Lucas Harrell gets the call on the other side of the rubber today. Over 25 starts and 150.1 innings this season he is 10-9 with a 4.04 ERA. August started off really well for Lucas as in the first three starts he pitched a total of 19 innings allowing only 5 runs but he hit a road bump in his last start allowing 6 ER in 5 innings. Lucas was traded to the Astros from the White Sox last year and from that point on he has missed the Mets each time these teams have met, so no Mets have batting stats against Lucas.

Let’s Go Mets!