213 Miles From Shea

The last 24 hours have been incredibly busy in baseball with so many buyers with the extra two wild card spots. The one trend that has popped up is that with the increased amount of buyers the amount of full on, fire sale sellers have increased. Here are the trades that have happened (I’ll save my analysis for after the deadline):

Dodgers get Brandon League from the Mariners for Leon Landry and Logan Bawcom

Mariners get Eric Thames from the Blue Jays for Steve Delabar

Pirates get Travis Snider from the Blue Jays for Brad Lincoln

Braves get Reed Johnson, Paul Maholm from Cubs for Jaye Chapman, Arodys Vizcaino

Rangers get Soto from the Cubs for Jacob Brigham

Diamondbacks get Chris Johnson from the Astros for Marc Krauss and Bobby Borchering

Really, really busy last 24 hours.

The Mets have won two of their last four, and look to build on that as they roll into San Francisco. This team has plenty of bulletin board material to use against the Giants including, but not limited too losing 3 of 4 games earlier this season, Wright being ousted from the starting spot by Panda, Cain getting the starting nod in the All-Star game over Dickey and then Giants  performing well in that first inning. It’s time to strike back tonight as Hefner goes up against Bumgarner.

Hefner is 1-4 on the season over 13 games and 4 starts and 38.1 innings of work (5.40 ERA). His first outing this year was against the Giants and he pitched well, allowing no runs over 3.0 innings. In his first start since rejoining the rotation, he allowed 2 ER, 3 total, over 6 innings of work. The Giants have the following limited numbers against Hefner:

Belt 1-2, 2B
Posey 0-2
Cabrera 0-1
Crawford 0-1

Bumgarner is 11-6 on the season with a 3.10 ERA over 20 starts and 136.2 innings.  Since the All-Star break, he has pitched 3 starts, 21.0 innings with a 2.14 ERA. Earlier this season he pitched 7 innings against the Mets allowing one earned run. The Mets have the following numbers against Madison:

Hairston 0-6
Johnson 1-5
Bay 1-2
Cedeno 1-3, 2B
Murphy 0-3
Turner 1-3
Wright 0-3

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets try to split the series today as they play game 4 in a three game set. After winning the series opener behind Matt Harvey, the Mets dropped game 2 and 3, mostly due to ineffective starting pitching. One highlight from last night to note, obviously, would be Ike’s performance smacking three homers in the game. Anyway R.A. Dickey looks to correct his ship and the team ship as he takes on Joe Saunders and the Diamondbacks.

Dickey on the season is 13-2 with a 2.97 ERA in 139.1 innings of work on the season. As amazing as he was in June, July has been quite the opposite as he has posted a 6.49 ERA over 4 starts and one relief outing. Dickey had a terrific game against Arizona back in May as he allowed 1 ER and 4 H over 8 innings. The Diamondbacks have the following numbers against Dickey:

Overbay 1-14
Bloomquist 4-10, 3B
Kubel 3-7, HR
Upton 2-8, 2B, HR
Parra 3-5, 2B, 3B
Young 0-4

Joe Saunders is 5-6 with a 3.51 ERA on the season over 16 games and an even 100.0 innings of work. He has pitched in three games in July totaling 19.0 innings with a 3.79 ERA. He missed the Mets this year but last year he made one start allowing one earned run in 6 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Joe:

Johnson 2-16, 3B
Bay 5-12, 2B, 2 HR
Hairston 2-8, 2B
Murphy 0-3
Wright 0-2
Davis 0-2

Let’s Go Mets!

After dropping yesterday’s game 11-5, the Mets look to take today’s game and clinch a series split as they play game 3 at 8 tonight. Chris Young gets the start as he goes up against Ian Kennedy. Young on the season is 2-4 on the season over 9 starts with a 3.91 ERA during 53.0 innings of work. Young has pitched 13.0 innings in his last two starts with a 2.77 ERA. His last start against Arizona was a shutout, 6 inning performance back in 2010. The Diamondbacks have the following numbers against him:

Young 0-16, 8 K
Drew 4-13, 2 2B
Upton 4-10, 2B
Montero 0-6
Blanco 1-5

Ian Kennedy gets the nod for the Diamondbacks today. He is 8-8 over 20 starts on the season pitching 128.2 innings with a 4.20 ERA. Kennedy had a rough start to July as he allowed 10 ER over 12 innings, but since then has rebounded allowing 3 ER over 16 innings.  Last year he allowed one earned run over 7 innings against the Mets, who have the following numbers against Ian:

Torres 4-22, 2B
Wright 4-8, 2B, 2 HR
Hairston 1-6, HR
Bay 2-4
Davis 0-4
Tejada 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets try to build off last night as they look to move out of their rut. Yesterday Matt Harvey made a spectacular debut as he led the Mets to victory, with some help from the bullpen. Tonight the Mets take on the Diamondbacks for game two of this four game set as Jon Niese gets the start against Josh Collmenter.

Jon Niese is 7-4 on the season over 19 starts and 117.2 innings of work while posting an ERA of 3.59. In the month of July he has made 4 starts with a 3.72 ERA, which is really impacted by one negative start (7 IP, 7 ER) surrounded by 3 good starts. His last start against Arizona was last year and he pitched 7 innings, allowing 2 ER, 3 total. The Diamondbacks have the following numbers against Niese:

Upton 4-8, 2B
Young 1-8, HR
Montero 0-6
Drew 2-5, 2B
Parra 2-3

The Mets bats will get a shot at Josh Collmenter tonight who is 2-2 this season over 19 games and 8 starts with a 3.82 ERA through 66 innings of work.  In the month of July he pitched in 4 games, 3 starts, 21 innings and a 1.71 ERA. He made a scoreless relief outing against the Mets earlier this year pitching 3 innings, striking out 3. The Mets have the following numbers against Josh:

Torres 4-6, HR
Wright 1-4, HR
Murphy 1-2
Bay 1-2
Tejada 0-2
Davis 1-1

Let’s Go Mets!

One of the banes of the Mets existence this year is now on an opposing team.

The forever moving Miguel Batista has agreed to sign Miguel Batista, who was DFA’d then released this past week by the New York Mets.

Batista’s journey with the Mets started on July 4th, 2011. He was released by the Cardinals at the end of June, and then signed as a free agent with the Mets. For the Mets, he ended up being a critical pitcher as other pitchers on the Mets staff fell due to injury. In 29.1 innings he posted a 4.60 ERA with the Cards. For the rest of 2012, he posted a 2.64 ERA over 29.1 innings with the Mets.

Expectations weren’t high for Batista going into the season, and at brief moments of time he was good, however he never really filled in his role. When he started to spot start, he sputtered. When he became the closer, he couldn’t close. When he had to come in for long outings, as the season went on, he constantly allowed runs and ended his time with the Mets at a 4.84 ERA.

Batista has been good often in his career. He just couldn’t keep it consistent for the Mets.

Now the Braves hope that they find a consistent pitcher out of Batista. Now, the Mets fan in me hopes the Braves go through the same we have with Batista, however, there will almost definitely not being using him in the same capacity as the Mets were, since the Braves pitching staff overall is much better than the Mets.

As of 2:56, there is no word yet if he is on the Major League roster.