213 Miles From Shea

The Mets announced yesterday that they have reached a two year agreement with the Las Vegas 51’s to be the Mets AAA affiliate.

Honestly, I’m having a hard time figuring out this one.

The AAA team is a Major League’s club emergency back up. If something goes wrong with a player, the AAA club has to get the replacement player to New York as fast as possible so the head club can play with a full roster. With the AAA team now in Vegas, the replacement player is almost always a cross country flight away (since the 51’s mainly play teams on the Western side of the states).

I haven’t decided if this does, or doesn’t make sense for SNY. SNY likes to show Bison games on their broadcasts (same with Cyclones game) but now most of the AAA games will be late at night. Will they show after the Mets game? Doubtful. (Pure opinion on my part).

It wasn’t a good thing a few years ago when the Mets team was down in New Orleans and the Bisons did a good job looking the part of a Mets team.

I guess I just don’t get this move.

The Mets and Phillies start a series tonight as the Mets look to play spoiler for the suddenly resurgent Phillies. If you have been tuned off to baseball with the Mets decline, the Phillies have been on the rise to become mathematically relevant as the Pirates have really slid off. Tonight, R.A. Dickey will make the start as he goes against Cliff Lee.

Dickey is 18-5 over 205.0 innings with 197 strikeouts with a 2.68 ERA. In the last five starts he his 3-1 over 36.2 innings with a 1.72 ERA while striking out 22 batters. In 14.0 innings against the Phillies this year, he allowed 6 ER. The Phillies have the following numbers against Dickey:

Rollins 6-20, 3 2B, 3B
Ruiz 5-16, 2B
Howard 3-12
Mayberry 2-9
Utley 2-8, 2B
Pierre 1-5

The Mets batters will go against Cliff Lee, who is 5-7 over 26 games and 182.0 innings while posting a 3.36 ERA. In his last four games he has pitched 27.1 innings allowing 4 runs, 3 earned.  He’s 1-1 against the Mets in 4 starts this year pitching 27.0 innings while posting a 3.67 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Hairston 6-24, 2B, 2 HR
Wright 5-17, 2B
Bay 4-14, HR
Murphy 5-15, 3 2B
Torres 4-14, 2B, 3B
Duda 4-12, HR
Tejada 5-10, 2 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets and Brewers play the rubber game of the series this afternoon as Chris Young makes the start against Wily Peralta. Young is 4-7 on the season over 17 starts over 96.1 innings with a 4.39 ERA. In his last two starts he has pitched 11.0 innings and has allowed only 3 ER while striking out 10 batters. The last time he faced the Brewers was in 2008 and he pitched a complete game allowing only one earned run against the Brew Crew, who have the following numbers against Young:

Ramirez 3-10, 2 2B
Braun 0-6
Hart 0-5
Weeks 1-6, HR
Morgan 2-2, 3B

Wily Peralta gets the start for the Brewers, and he is fresh into his major league career. So far he has pitched in 3 games, 2 starts, while pitching 13 innings allowing 15 hits and 5 ER. In the minors this year he pitched 28 games over 146.1 innings with a 4.66 ERA. Being this is his third game in the Majors, he has no MLB stats against the Mets.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets try to forget about this past homestand and their problems at home as they hit the road again, this time to face the Brewers. Jon Niese gets the start for the Mets and he is 10-9 this season over 27 games and 171.0 innings of work while posting an ERA of 3.47. In his last seven games he has pitched 47.1 innings while posting an ERA of 2.47. The last time he faced the Brewers he pitched 7 innings allowing only 1 ER. The Brewers have the following numbers against Jon:

Ramirez 3-11, HR
Morgan 4-9
Weeks 4-8, 2B, HR
Hart 2-8, 2B
Braun 2-5
Gomez 0-3

Mike Fiers has a 9-7 record this year over 109.1 innings with an ERA of 3.05. He’s 3-3 in his last 6 starts while pitching 29.1 innings with an ERA of 6.44. Fiers hasn’t faced the Mets this year or last year, which would be the length of his career, and he hasn’t faced anyone on the Mets roster in a major league game.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets and Nationals play again tonight as the Mets look to get back on the winning track. Matt Harvey gets the start for the Mets, who is 3-4 over 8 games and 47.1 innings of work while posting a 3.04 ERA. Over that stretch, he has struck out 53 batters. The last two starts have been some of the worst of his career, but haven’t been that bad as he has allowed 5 ER over 11.1 innings. The Nationals have never faced the Harvey in a major league game, so they have no stats against him.

John Lannan gets the nod for the Nationals. He is 2-0 in 2 starts and 13.0 innings this year with a 3.46 ERA. Last year he was 10-13 with a 3.70 ERA over 184.2 innings. The last time Lannan faced the Mets was in 2010 when he allowed 3 ER over 5.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against John:

Wright 8-29, 3 2B
Cedeno 6-19, 2B
Bay 4-9, 2B, HR
Murphy 2-7
Hairston 0-3

Let’s Go Mets!