213 Miles From Shea

The Mets dropped the first game of the series last night, and they look to even it today at Citi Field. The positive note yesterday was David Wright ended his power drought knocking out his 200th career home run. He, and the rest of the Mets, will look to belt out a few more today as they take on Fernando Abad and the Astros behind R.A. Dickey.

Dickey is 15-4 with a 2.82 ERA over 175.1 innings this year. He rebounded in last start nicely going 7 innings, allowing only one earned run, however the lack of offense by the Mets bats put R.A. on the losing side. Earlier this season he pitched a no decision against the Astros allowing 3 ER in 6 innings of work while striking out 6 batters. The Astros have the following numbers against R.A.:

Wallace 4-11, 3 2B
Norris 1-5
Snyder 0-5
Castro 2-5, 2B
Greene 0-3
Altuve 0-2

The Mets bats will look to take off against Fernando Abad this afternoon who is making his first start of the season. He has been in 30 games and finished 8 this year totaling 23.1 innings with a 3.86 ERA. This season he has pitched only one inning against the Mets allowing no runs and no hits. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Davis 1-3
Thole 0-3
Cedeno 0-1
Murphy 1-1
Torres 0-1

Let’s Go Mets!

Well that last series wasn’t fun. There have only been two teams worse than the Mets since the All-Star break and that would be the Indians and the Astros, and guess who is coming to town. Seriously though, the Mets could use some wins here and they will try to do that behind Jon Niese as the Mets bats take on Jordan Lyles.

Jon Niese is 10-6 this season over 24 games and 152.0 innings with an ERA of 3.49. He has had two good starts in a row pitching a total of 15.1 innings while allowing only one earned runs with 13 strikeouts. One of his worst starts this season was against the Astros as he allowed 5 ER over 3 innings of work. The Astros have the following numbers against Niese:

Francisco 4-14
Wallace 2-5
Greene 0-3
Castro 0-3
Snyder 1-3, HR
Altuve 1-2

Jordan Lyles is 2-10 this season with a 5.70 ERA over 18 games and 102.2 innings. In the month of August, Jordan has made 4 starts with an ERA of 6.26. Jordan has never faced the Mets and the only Mets who have seen him is Torres who is 0-2.

Let’s Go Mets!

Immediately and in the future, change is coming to our favorite New York Ball Club.

First for the most immediate change, Johan Santana is shut down for the season, which is probably the best decision the Mets could make right now. Collin McHugh (7-9, 2.88 ERA, 143.2 IP) will be taking his spot in the roster. Collin has often been described as Gee like, and now will get his chance to audition for the rest of the season.

Now this connects to the next year. The following pitchers could potentially be starters next year:

– Mike Pelfrey (2nd year Arb.)
– Johan Santana
– R.A. Dickey
– Jon Niese
– Dillon Gee
– Matt Harvey
– Collin McHugh
– Zach Wheeler

The reason I’m listing this is because Sandy Alderson said that there will be major changes to the roster next year, most likely by trade and not by free agents. Now if they don’t offer Pelfrey arbritation, that should save about 5 mil off of the roster, but the Mets will need to make trades with the chips they have, chips that Alderson is confident that he can give up.

It is easy to see how McHugh or Gee could be a chip. Or how one of our OF’s could be with Den Dekker on the rise (or Den Dekker the trade chip).

So going back to the immediate, this is an important month for Valdespin. Essentially if change is going to come via trade, probably to the OF, then the Mets will be trading OF spots.

For the first time in a while, I’m excited about the Mets again, because Sandy knows we need more productive players.

The Mets try to avoid the four game sweep today as they take on the Rockies in an afternoon game. Tyler Chatwood will get the start for the Rockies today as Collin McHugh will be making his major league debut. McHugh, who has been described as Gee-esque, 7-9 over 143.2 innings this season in two minor leagues. In that stretch he has an ERA of 2.88, a WHIP of 1.143 and a K/9 of 8.3. Obviously, since this is his major league debut, he has no major league stats against any batters on the Rockies roster.

The Mets bats will look to wake up against the Rockies and Tyler Chatwood, who is 3-3 on the season with an ERA of 5.46 over 31.1 innings. He just starting games this month, and had his worst one by far his last time out allowing 6 ER over 4.0 innings. The following Mets have numbers against Chatwood:

Bay 0-3
Murphy 0-3
Tejada 1-3
Thole 2-2
Turner 1-3, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets look to get back on the right foot tonight as Matt Harvey takes on Jeff Francis in game three of the four game set. Last night Chris Young struck out 9 batters, but the lack offense at home proved to be the ultimate downfall again. Matt Harvey has pitched 30 innings this season over 5 starts with a 3.00 ERA with his last start easily being the best of his young career. In 7.2 innings he allowed 1 ER, 4 H while striking out 8 batters. Harvey has never faced the Rockies and nobody on the Rockies roster, no batting stats to report.

Jeff Francis is 4-4 on the season over 15 starts and 72.2 innings with an ERA of 6.07. In the month of August he has pitched 18.0 innings over 4 starts while allowing 16 ER (8.00 ERA). The last time he faced the Mets in 2010 he allowed 2 ER over 6 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Francis:

Hairston 7-18, 2B
Wright 6-12, 3 HR
Bay 8-12, 2 2B, HR
Cedeno 2-5, HR
Torres 0-3

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets dropped the opener of the series last night to the Rockies, and will play game two tonight as Chris Young gets the start against Jhoulys Chacin. Chris Young is 3-6 over 74.0 innings this year with a 4.50 ERA. He rebounded really well in his last start as he shut out the Reds over 5.2 innings (previous start allowed 7 ER over 4.1 innings). In his career he has a 4.02 ERA over 13 starts against the Rockies who have the following numbers against him:

Fowler 2-4
Francis 0-6
Herrera 1-2
Hernandez 0-2

Jhoulys Chacin is 0-3 this season over 5 starts this season pitching 24.2 innings while posting a 7.30 ERA.  He is coming off of his worst start of the season as he allowed 7 ER over 4.2 innings. Last year he made one start against the Mets pitching 6.0 innings allowing 1 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Torres 2-9, 2 2B
Cedeno 1-5, 3B
Bay 0-2
Davis 2-3
Murphy 0-3

Let’s Go Mets!

From a mile high to Flushing, Queens, Colorado is coming to town. The Mets are coming back from a six game road trip in which they went 2-4, the same record as their last home stand. R.A. Dickey gets the start for the Mets today as he takes on Alex White. Dickey is 15-4 over 168.1 innings of work with an ERA of 2.89. Dickey had a good stretch of starts get interrupted last time out as he allowed 5 ER over 6 innings and 10 hits against the Reds. Last year he had one start against the Rox where he allowed 5 ER over 6.1 innings. The Rockies have the following stats against Dickey:

Hernandez: 0-4
Fowler: 2-4
(and that’s it, seriously)

Alex White is 2-6 over 14 starts and 69.0 innings with an ERA of 5.74. In his last four starts he has an ERA of 3.63 in that very interesting set up that the Rockies have. One start was 5.1 innings, the others were 4.0. In his young career he has never faced the Mets and the only person on the Mets to see him is Torres (0-2).

Let’s Go Mets!