The Padres have had a long history of questionable jerseys. Long time readers of this site know that I have been a fan of their recent changes, mainly because the uniforms went from awful to average. However their 1989 uniforms, in my opinion at least, are awesome. They utilize several underrepresented colors across the uniform board, especially in baseball:
The Mets and Braves play game two tonight at Citi Field. Last night the Mets just could not get the bats going to score runs against the Braves, and they hope to reverse that as they take on Kris Medlen. Santana will be making his first start coming off of the DL. Last weekend Johan made a rehab start in Brooklyn (see pictures/story here). On the season Johan is 6-7 with a 3.98 ERA over 110.2 innings. His season debut was against the Braves as he shut them down for five innings. His starts after that were a much different story as he allowed 4 ER, 6 total in 1.1 innings in April and 6 ER in 5 innings in July. The Braves have the following numbers against Santana:
McCann 9-35, 2B, 3 HR
Johnson 16-31, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR
Chipper 9-30, HR
Prado 5-24, 2 2B
Uggla 1-21, HR
Bourn 6-19
The Mets bats look to tee off of Kris Medlen who is 2-1 this season over 40 games, 2 starts while posting an ERA of 2.37. His last two outings have both been starts totaling 10.1 innings and 2 ER. He has pitched 9.1 innings against the Mets this year and has allowed only one earned run. The Mets have the following numbers against Kris:
Wright 1-10
Davis 2-9, HR
Thole 2-6
Cedeno 2-5, 2B
Murphy 1-5
Tejada 1-4, 2B
Hairston 1-3, 2B
Let’s Go Mets!
Think back to 2006. The first playoff game was more than that fantastic play by Paul LoDuca but it was also Carlos Delgado’s first playoff game ever, and he impressed:
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Written 7/16
As you know, last Sunday Johan Santana made an excellent rehab start in Brooklyn as he allowed one hit and one walk in three shutout innings against the Doubledays while striking out 3. He then went on to continue his start in a simulated game in the pen.
Oh, I was there too and took a lot of photos:
First, there was an Old Time Baseball Game before the start
Being Introduced
Crowd of People Watching Santana In the Pen
Santana’s First Rehab Pitch
Johan!
His57ory
Skies got scary later on
I’m a little backed up here, and I know you all know this is old news but hey, its worth covering again. Last week when the Mets rolled into San Diego, the Padres were rolling back the clock to 1989, and the Mets joined into with their road pullovers with the plain New York script (almost Yankee-esque), and Mets race stripes. In normal MLB, Mets world order, you buy them online already:
Captain Kirk wasn’t even on the team when they wore these! Anyway, the jersey looks nice, clean and accurate. Well done Mets! It also brings the Mets count of new jerseys up to 8 (New Home, Alt, Away, BP, AS BP, AS, LosMets, 89).
The Mets look to improve off of yesterdays win as the suddenly extremely successful Braves come into town. The Braves have been lurking all season but in the last month they have really turned it on catching the Nationals as they can. Matt Harvey gets the nod tonight as he goes up against Paul Maholm.
Matt Harvey makes his Citi Field debut, and maybe just as important, his National League East debut. In his first three starts of his career he is 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA allowing 7 ER in 16.1 innings of work. In that stretch he has walked 7 batters while striking out 23. His last outing was his worst as he allowed 8 hits, 5 ER and 2 homers in 5.0 innings of work (but walked only one batter, 3 each in his previous two). Being his rookie season and his first start against the Braves, the Braves have no numbers against him.
Paul Maholm is making his second start as a Brave. On the season he is 9-7 with a 3.75 ERA over 127.1 innings. In his first start with the Braves he allowed 3 ER over 7 innings of work. He faced the Mets for all of one inning this season, allowing 2 hits and no runs. Last season he allowed 6 ER, 7 total over 12.2 innings against the Mets, who have the following numbers against Paul:
Wright 7-23, 2B
Torres 2-10, 2B, 3B
Hairston 2-7
Tejada 2-7
Murphy 5-6
Davis 1-2, 2B
Let’s Go Mets!
A Mets fan favorite with a piece of his jersey in the card:
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Written 7/16
2012 is the set-up season for the Mets 2013 push. That’s how it was advertised in the Spring, that’s how it was advertised when we were doing well in the first half, and that’s how it has been advertised in the current team slump.
An interesting situation that has popped up with the Mets is the lack of standout OF starters. Every starter has some major flaw, which has kept the door open all season. Barring a given OF going on a late season tear or a major Free Agent pick up, it looks like the Mets could seriously head into camp next year with all three positions in open competition.
First, here are the players that could be going for a spot in camp:
– Lucas Duda
– Kirk Nieuwenhuis
– Jordany Valdespin
– Jason Bay
– Mike Baxter
– Matt Den Decker
– Scott Hairston (Not Signed for 2013)
Let’s start with Hairston. Hairston is not signed for 2013. I’m not sure if the Mets will resign him. He has had tremendous season, so his price will be a lot higher, and he has a lot of leverage with the Mets since they struggle with right handed batters. If the Mets can get someone else as a free agent, then they’ll pass with Hairston. As good as Hairston is, it looks like Bay will be a platoon hitter next year, which will drop Hairston’s playing time depending on the other OF spots.
Since we are talking about Bay, Alderson is on record recently saying he isn’t moving Bay or eating his contract, although it is clear that he has been benched. He’s a handcuffed roster spot now.
Lucas Duda probably has the best chance of making a starting spot out of camp. Despite his recent struggles, he has the pedigree and a lot of times teams go with the beast they know, rather than the one they don’t.
Baxter is good, but he hasn’t shown yet that he can be a starter, neither has Jordany for that much. Jordany has a higher ceiling so every positive thing he does in camp will be weighed a lot more than Baxter. However Baxter’s performance this year makes it clear that he would be heading for the Mets bench, so leg up for Jordany.
Kirk will have to go toe to toe with Den Dekker. Kirk has cooled off so much that he landed himself back in AAA when the team needed someone in the OF while Den Dekker has been impressive but unproven in the majors. September will be interesting if both get called up and both get playing time. Open competition might be exactly what they are in Spring.
At the end of the day, Bay really hurts us, and the Mets could be running a situation in 2013 like they are now with no starters in the OF but rather 5 players who cycle through depending on the pitcher.
What interesting promotions are the teams in the National League giving away this month? Let’s take a look:
Reds: Mascot Cup. Great for little kids, but children up to 14 can get one…interesting or terrifying?
Cardinals: It’s interesting that more teams don’t give out replica tickets (or in the case of the Mets, sell them):
Astros: Giving away a jersey, so automatic entry here:
Giants: Without fail, the Giants always keep up the important tradition of giving out pins. Also a ridiculous bobblehead:
Dodgers: VIN SCULLY BOBBLE
Diamondbacks: If you watch all 18 innings, you get this awesome pin! Hope that neither game goes into extras, otherwise this pin will be a lie:
Mike Piazza…as a Padre.
Topps Chrome Card.
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Written 7/16