One of the best nights of the year in Buffalo is Star Wars night. As always, this years uniforms look AWESOME:
Anyway in addition to this, Bisons fans will be treated to a lot of major league players tonight as Moyer makes his start for the Tides, and Miguel Tejada and Brian Roberts should be making rehab starts for the Tides as well while the Bisons will have Mejia on the mound to start.
Oh, and there will be an on field lightsaber battle after the game. I really wish I was in Buffalo tonight.
The natural story line for this game would be Subway Series, is Interleague play relevant, last actual event of interleague play, blah blah. However, today the story line is Johan Santana. Eight days ago Johan made history as he became the first pitcher in Mets history to throw a no-hitter and raise the spirits of queens. On a week’s rest after throwing more pitches than he has ever in his career, Johan will take the mound again tonight as faced Hiroki Kuroda and the Yankees. On the season Santana is 3-2 over 11 starts with 68.0 innings of work with a 2.38 ERA. You probably already know this, but in his last 18 innings he hasn’t allowed any runs in that time he has thrown 17 strikeouts. In 2010 he made two starts against the Yankees with a 1-1 record over 13.2 innings with a 3.29 ERA. The Yankees have the following numbers against Santana:
Ibanez 16-46, 2B, 2 HR
Jeter 19-43, 5 2B, HR
Chavez 5-37, 3 2B, HR
A-Rod 7-33, 2 HR
Tex 8-32, 2B, 2 HR
Swisher 4-22
Cano 8-22, 2B
Granderson 1-15
The Mets draw Kuroda tonight who gets a start against a familiar National League team. Kuroda is 4-6 this season with a 68.1 innings of work and a 3.82 ERA. Kuroda was struggling a lot earlier this season but has turned the corner in his last two starts allowing only 2 ER over 15 innings of work. He was 0-2 agaisnt the Mets last year with an ERA of 6.94. The Mets have the following numbers against Kuroda:
Wright 6-14
Bay 2-12, HR
Davis 2-7, 2B, HR
Hairston 3-8, HR
Murphy 2-8, 2 2B
Thole 3-8, 2B
Duda 2-3, 2B
Let’s Go Mets!
From Today’s Papers:
The Mets try to avoid the sweep today as they finish off their series in Washington. Yesterday the Mets just fell short of the Nationals as they lost by a score of 5-3. This afternoon should be the last game that the Mets have to play light handed as they should get a full roster back that is hopefully healthy enough to play over the weekend. Today R.A. Dickey looks to continue his incredible stretch as he takes on Chien-Ming Wang.
Dickey is 8-1 on the season over 11 starts over 73.2 innings of work with an ERA of 2.69. In his last three starts he has pitched 23.1 innings of work with an amazing ERA of 0.39. Last season he had a 1-3 record against the Nationals with a 3.82 ERA over 30.2 innings and 5 starts. The Nationals have the following numbers against Dickey:
Ankiel 9-23, 3 2B, HR
Zimmerman 4-19
Desmond 2-16, HR
Morse 4-15, 2B
Espinosa 0-11
LaRoche 2-9
Chien-Ming Wang is 1-1 on the season with a 6.43 ERA over two games, a start and 7.0 innings of work. In the minors this year he was 3-0 with a 3.52 ERA. Against the Mets last year he made two starts totaling 9.0 innings with a 6.00 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Wang:
Wright 4-16, 2B
Duda 3-4
Murphy 1-5
Thole 1-2, 2B
Let’s Go Mets!
After a disappointing loss last night, the Mets go back at it again in DC. One of the trademarks of the 2012 team is they seem to bounce back from tough losses with good form, so lets hope that continues again tonight. Anyway, the short handed Mets go with Jeremy Hefner tonight as he takes on another new addition to the Nationals team, Edwin Jackson. Hefner is 1-2 on the season with a 5.60 ERA over 17.2 innings. Hefner made a good start back on May 29 where he allowed 3 ER over 6 innings of work. Being a rookie, he has never faced the Nationals and never faced anyone on the Nationals roster.
Edwin Jackson is 1-3 on the season with a 3.17 ERA over 10 starts and 65.1 innings. The month of May was almost exactly like his yearly numbers as he made 6 starts with a 3.18 ERA. His season debut this year was against the Mets where he pitched 5.0 innings allowing 3 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Jackson:
Torres 2-7, 2B, 3B
Hairston 0-7
Wright 1-5
Duda 1-4, 2B
Thole 1-4
Muphy 1-3
Let’s Go Mets!
In a continuation of Monday’s post, last Saturday the Cubs and the Giants played a game where both teams rolled back the clocks to 1912 when the Giants were the New York Giants.
The Cubs participated as well and they wore their 1912 road uniforms which were a solid navy blue set. You gotta hand it to Majestic this year on the Throwback front because they are doing a really good job with these uniforms.
Anyway, like the Giants, the Cubs are making their uniforms for sale on their website as well. Unlike the Giants, the Cubs are selling blank uniforms (I still wish the Giants would as well, that 1912 uniform is awesome). Sadly though, just like the Giants, for the uniforms for players, the Cubs are selling them with names on the back, which is not what was worn on the field. It still baffles me how this can be considered an authentic uniform when it isn’t what they wore on Saturday!
Well sorta Day 1, I guess technically Day 2 (since the first round was in prime time last night). Anyway the following are the Mets draft picks so far, organized by overall pick. Position and institution directly follow the name.
12. Gavin Cecchini (SS) Barbe High
35. Kevin Plawecki (C) Purdue
71. Matt Reynolds (3B) Arkansas
75. Teddy Stankiewicz (RHP) Ft. Worth Christian School
107. Matt Koch (RHP) Louisville
140. Branden Kaupe (SS) Baldwin High
170. Brandon Welch (RHP) Palm Beach CC
200. Jayce Boyd (1B) Florida State
230. Corey Oswalt (RHP) Madison High
260. Tomas Nido (C) Orangewood Christian High
290. Richie Rodriguez (2B) Eastern Kentucky
320. Paul Sewald (RHP) U San Diego
350. Logan Taylor (RHP) Eastern Oklahoma State
380. Robert Whalen (RHP) Haines City High
410. Matthew Bowman (RHP) Princeton
440. Chris Flexen (RHP) Newark Memorial High
470. Nicholas Grant (RHP) Milford High
So that wraps up day 1, or day 1.5 or day 2 or whatever you want to call it. Interestingly, the Mets drafted zero left handed pitchers in the first 15 picks and no one that even throws left handed.
The Mets look to build off their successful homestand as they start a road trip tonight in Washington DC. As you know by now the NL East is a close, close division and for the second time this year the Mets get a shot at the Washington Nationals. Tonight Chris Young will make his debut for the Mets as he takes on Jordan Zimmermann.
The Mets hope their search for a fifth starter ends tonight as Chris Young gets the nod. In the minors this season Young is 1-0 over 4 starts and 23.0 innings with an ERA of 2.35. Before his injury last season, Young made four starts for the Mets with an ERA of 1.88 over 24.0 innings. Two of those starts came against the Nationals where he allowed 4 ER over 11.2 innings of work. The Nationals have the following numbers against Young:
LaRoche 3-22, 2B, HR
Zimmerman 3-11, 2B, HR
Nady 1-10
Ankiel 0-9
Espinosa 0-4
Desmond 0-3
Jordan Zimmermann is 3-5 with a 2.80 ERA over 64.1 innings of work. In his last three starts he has pitched 18.0 innings with an ERA of 4.50. In 2011 he was 1-1 over 3 starts against the Mets where he posted and ERA of 3.78 over 16.2 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Jordan:
Wright 3-16, 2B
Murphy 6-12, 2B, HR
Thole 3-9
Davis 3-6, 2B, HR
Duda 1-6, 2B
Torres 1-3
Let’s Go Mets!
One of the larger media days during Spring Training is when players on the 40 roster (or just at camp period) get their media day photos. However, what about when they aren’t on the team:
Well they get their photo taken at the ball park! Ok, that was obvious but it was interesting to see it during batting practice for Jack Egbert on 5/26. After batting practice and fielding practice, Egbert was called out of the group for five minutes, took all his different official MLB shots, and then joined the team in the clubhouse.
It was interesting to see this live.
In an interesting move, the Mets selected two position players with their first two picks of the 2012 draft. This probably speaks to the high amount of arms in the system, but limited amount of bats. In a not surprising move, with the 35th pick the Mets went with a player from college, someone who will need less time in the minors and is more sure to sign.
In this draft the Mets have gone for positions of high need in the system like SS earlier and now C, which is a thin, thin position in the system. Kevin Plawecki is a solid defensive catcher. Here are some stats for Plawecki:
2012: .348 BA, 223 AB, 80 H, 54 R, 20 2B, 4 3B, 7 HR, 47 RBI
2011: .341 BA, 211 AB, 72 H, 46 R, 14 2B, 2 HR, 39 RBI
2010: .343 BA, 204 AB, 70 H, 36 R, 12 2B, 3B, 8 HR, 53 RBI
From the numbers, its obvious that Kevin has not shown to be a power threat, but he makes good contact and hits for average. His profile reminds me a lot of Josh Thole in a way.
So far he doesn’t project to be a star catcher, but these things are difficult to tell from college numbers anyway. We should know in 2-3 seasons the caliber of player Plawecki is, and he fits into the long term plans. The nice thing about Kevin is he could be with the Mets for a while, get to know the pitchers and develop into a strong battery mate to help the pitchers become dominant in the majors.