213 Miles From Shea

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.

The Mets go out west to find themselves, or some wins. Preferably some wins. It would be nice to win again. How rude of me, Happy Matt Harvey day! Today the Mets rookie pitcher makes his first of three West Coast starts to open up his major league career, but more on that later. Harvey goes up against Wade Miley tonight out in Arizona.

Harvey, who we must be careful not to paint as the savior of the team, is coming off of a strong spring training and a mostly strong minor league year. On the season he is 7-5 with a 3.68 ERA over 20 starts for the Bisons. His main weakness this year has been his control, which leads to his walks 3.9 BB/9. Obviously, he has no official AB’s against Major League batters.

The Mets bats will get a look at Wade Miley who is 11-5 over 15 games, 16 starts with a 3.02 ERA over 113.1 innings of work. In the month of July he has pitched 19.1 innings with a 3.72 ERA and is coming off of a strong 7 IP , 1 ER performance. Earlier this year he pitched 6.0 innings against the Mets while allowed 4 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Davis 0-3
Hairston 1-3, 2B
Murphy 1-3, 2B
Tejada 0-2
Torres 2-3, 2B
Wright 1-1, 2 BB

Let’s Go Mets !

The Mets and Nationals play a day game tomorrow as the Mets try to pull themselves out of a tailspin. Yesterday the Mets had a 1-0 lead until the Nationals tied it, then exploded out to a 5-1 lead. Another pinch-hit Valdespin homer made the game 5-2, but the Mets would not pull any closer. Today Jeremy Hefner makes his first start in the absence of Johan Santana as he takes on Stephen Strasburg.

Jeremy Hefner is 1-3 on the season over 12 games and 3 starts with a 5.85 ERA over 32.1 innings. In the minors, he is 5-2 over 10 games and 9 starts with a 2.77 ERA. His last start for the Mets was against the Nationals as he picked up the loss after allowing 4 runs, 3 earned over 6 innings. The Nationals have the following numbers against Hefner:

Espinosa 1-3
Flores 0-3
Harper 0-3
LaRoche 2-3, HR
Lombardozzi 1-3
Morse 2-3

Strasburg is 10-4 on the season over 19 starts with a 2.85 ERA with 110.1 innings of work. He is 1-3 in his last five starts while pitching 26.1 innings of work posting a 4.10 ERA. His last start was rough as he allowed 4 ER over 5.1 innings. His only start against the Mets this year was a win as he held the Mets scoreless over 6 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Stephen:

Davis 2-5
Bay 1-5, 2B
Tejada 1-5
Thole 1-3
Murphy 0-2
Wright 1-3
Torres 1-2, HR

Let’s Go Mets!

You can take the name “Florida” out of the Marlins. You can replace the color scheme. You can give them a new stadium. You can spend a lot of money on a team in the offseason.

You can do all of these things as part of a major effort to rebrand the Marlins Franchise. Not only were the Marlins supposed to be competitive this year, but they were supposed to be turning over a new leaf in their massive sell off strategy. They even traded FOR Carlos Lee a few weeks to show that they are serious this year. Buster Olney has similar sentiments.

Except things just didn’t work out and they ended up trading Anibal Sanchez, Omar Infante, Hanley Ramirez and Randy Choate over the last couple of days.

Look, I get that its a good baseball move to trade these guys, its just bizarre that after this campaign that the Marlins would be different this year, they’re the same. Now they are saddled with three large contracts and a diminishing amount of support pieces.

Finally, the other major news story over night is the Phillies and Hamels have reached a 6-year, 144 million dollar extension. Where the money comes from, who knows but the Phillies keep one of their best pitchers and further lock themselves into a future that looks similar and older to what they have now.