213 Miles From Shea

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!

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.