The Mets look to put their last series behind them when they came into Houston flat after a high energy series in Colorado. In the last series the Mets bats slipped off while the bullpen fell down into darkness. Dillon Gee will be taking on Wade Miley in tonight’s game.
Dillon Gee is 2-2 on the season with a 4.85 ERA over 26.0 innings of work with 23 strikeouts. His last start (7.0 IP, 4 R, 3 ER) was a good rebound from his previous start (6.2 IP, 7 ER). He made two starts against the Diamondbacks with a 1-1 record over 11.0 innings with a 4.91 ERA. The Diamondbacks have the following numbers against Gee:
Overbay 1-6
Roberts 1-6
Uptson 2-5, HR
Montero 1-5, HR
Parra 1-5
The Mets bats will get a crack at Wade Miley who is 3-0 with an ERA of 1.29 over 21.0 innings of work. Last season he made 7 starts for Arizona with a record of 4-2 over 40.0 innings with a 4.50 ERA. Wade has never made a start against the Mets, and has no batting record against any Mets player. For the Mets bats, Davis is finally starting to hit as he had a .333 BA over the last road trip so hopefully he brings that back with him to Queens.
One of the main responsibilities of my job is to help my students think critically and help them think through problems in the world logically. A common topic that often comes up in class is when a student talks about an object that has, for a lack of a better word, bullshit properties. I then work with the student and we talk about all of the science that is in the object and how it doesn’t have any of those properties, etc.
Now, as a teacher, I don’t curse in class. I also get frustrated in a very loud manner when my children curse in class, so it is weird for me to type the word “bullshit” but when I saw what the Dodgers were giving away this month, I actually yelled “That’s BULLSHIT” at my laptop.
Let’s backtrack this story. On Sunday, 4/29 (actually when I wrote this article) I was working on all of the Team Promotion articles for May. At the end of each month, I open up Google Chrome and go through every major league team to see if any of them are giving away anything interesting that would be worth writing about. When I got to the Giants page, I saw that they were giving away those “Power” Necklaces that do nothing, however they called it a rope necklace. Nothing wrong with that.
Then I got to the Dodgers page, and they are giving away “Power Necklaces” and calling them “Power Necklaces”. That’s when I lost it.
Power Necklaces and all of their other forms are basically pieces of metal and cloth that con-men try to sell to saps. Period. They don’t work. They don’t do anything. Before you write me an angry letter saying “but I FEEL BETTER when I wear it”, you are just experiencing the placebo effect. For those of you who have a demonstration done at shopping mall, where the agents show you these necklaces give you balance, well I have bad news for you:
We clear now? All of the bracelets are frauds. There is no magical energy/resonance in your body / quantum whatever. It all sound scientific, but none of it is real. Try to trust me, I teach physics and I have degree in astrophysics. But if you don’t want to trust me, there are a lot of people a lot more qualified than me that support this claim that these are bullshit.
The reason they have a money back guarantee is that they need it. If they didn’t, you could sue them for false advertising and bring the entire operation down! They are selling you a necklace or bracelet for 20-50 bucks that does NOTHING.
Honestly, I believe a lot of you know that these are bull, and they don’t do anything. However we never speak up about it.
Obviously, children look up to athletes and a good amount of athletes wear these accessories (ie. Pedro Feliciano). We are doing a disservice to the science literacy of this country by calling these necklaces power necklaces, and then giving them to our children. Of course a good amount of our children will believe they restore balance to their bodies if we tell them they do because children trust us! This isn’t like telling a child about Santa Claus or that the necklace will make them shoot lasers out of their eyes. In a child’s mind, and too many adults, when we say these help with balance, that claim is completely plausible. As people responsible for the collective critical thinking ability as a species on Earth, we need to help children and adults think through these claims and see them for the scam that it is.
So shame on the Dodgers for perpetuating this. Thank you to the Giants for calling the giveaway what it is, just a rope necklace.
The Mets look to salvage the series in Houston this afternoon as they look to avoid the sweep. The Mets dropped their second game in a row in Houston yesterday as they were unable to help Niese out after a bad start. The Mets will be sending Schwinden today as he takes on Rodriquez of the Astros.
Schwinden made his first start of the season last time out. He pitched 4.0 innings, 6 runs, 5 earned. Since Chris made limited starts last year, he doesn’t have any numbers against the young Astros team. He will need to watch out for the surprising offensive powers of the Astros who score a lot and get on base more.
Wandy Rodriguez will get the start against the Mets this afternoon. On the season he is 2-2 over 5 games on the season with a sparkling 1.72 ERA. In his last two starts he pitched 13.0 innings allowing 2 ER, 5 BB and 12 K. Last season he pitched 7.0 innings against the Mets where he picked up the win after allowing 1 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Wandy:
The Mets look to bounce back from last night’s game with a win tonight in Houston. If you missed it last night, the Mets were in a pitchers’ duel until the bottom of the 7th when the Astros were able to get three runs off of Dickey thanks to the long ball and a few misplayed balls in the outfield. The Mets bats got Dickey back in the next frame by scoring three runs, however the Astros were able to tack on another run in the bottom of the 8th for the eventual win. Tonight Jon Niese will get the start for the Mets as he takes on J.A. Happ.
Niese is 2-0 this season with a 2.81 ERA over 25.2 innings of work and over his last two starts he has recorded two no decisions over 13.0 innings of work with a 3.46 ERA. He played the Astros once last season allowing 2 ER over 7 hits in 6 innings of work in the eventual loss. The Astros have the following numbers against Niese:
Lee 2-8
Schafer 0-8
Johnson 2-6, 2B
Castro 0-3
The Mets will get a look at a familiar foe in J.A. Happ tonight. Happ is 1-1 on the season over 4 starts and 23.2 innings of work with an ERA of 4.70. He is 0-1 in his last two starts pitching 11.0 innings while posting an ERA of 5.73. He made two starts against the Mets in 2011 where he allowed 8 ER over 10.2 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Happ:
Yesterday was just a heart pounding game for the Mets. In case you missed it, the Mets were gliding through the game nicely until Todd Helton tied the game on a pinch hit grand slam, and at that point it was a back and forth battle through the 11th inning when the Mets got ahead and took the series. The Mets overall in their last series scored 21 runs over 3 games and now go to Houston for another series in a hitter’s ballpark. Tonight R.A. Dickey will take on Bud Norris and Astros.
Dickey is 3-1 0n the season with a 4.44 ERA. In his last start, he needed to rebound off of a bad start in Atlanta (4.1 IP, 8 ER) and he did just that as he allowed 1 ER over 7 innings as he picked up his third win of the year. Last season Dickey pitched 13.1 innings against Houston where he allowed 10 ER over 19 hits. The Astros have the following numbers against Dickey:
Lee 8-21, 3 2B, HR (Suffering a Sprain)
Johnson 4-14, 2B
Schaefer 3-7
Snyder 0-5
The Mets will look to continue the hit parade against Bud Norris who is 1-1 on the season over 4 games with an ERA of 5.84 over 24.2 innings. Last season Bud had two no decisions against the Mets over 13.1 innings with an ERA of 4.73. The Mets have the following numbers against Bud Norris over his career:
New month, new crazy promotions! Here are the May highlights:
Miami Marlins: Practical promotions are always fantastic and the Miami Marlins will be giving out a very practical set of Marlin Earbuds:
Pittsburgh Pirates: A nice give away on Mothers Day. Mothers will get a pink Walker replica jersey while kids will get Walker replica jerseys as well. A nice day out in the park for the family!
St. Louis Cardinals: Two great promotions this month! First off, if you read this site, you know I love lapel pin giveaways and bobbleheads that mark milestones:
After being blown out on Friday night, the Mets came back in a back and forth game last night to take game two of the series by the score of 7-5. This afternoon the Mets will try to take the rubber game behind Johan Santana as he takes on the oldest pitcher in the game, Jamie Moyer. Fun game you can play (maybe with an adult beverage) would be to count (or sip the aforementioned drink) every time Moyer’s age is brought up in today’s game.
Santana is coming off his strongest start of the season as he pitched 6.2 innings while allowing one earned run, walking two batters and striking out 11. Overall on the season, Santana has pitched 18.0 innings, with a 3.00 ERA while striking out 24 batters. The last time Santana pitched against the Rockies he pitched a complete game shutout in 2010 where he walked two batters while striking out 10. The Rockies have the following numbers against Santana:
The Mets batters will be taking on Jamie Moyer who is 1-2 this season over 23.2 innings with a 2.28 ERA. His last two starts have been great (13.0 Innings, 1 ER, 5 BB). Actually, an interesting note on his stats have been his walks. In his two “bad” starts this year, he walked two batters over 10.2 innings, so the better he pitches, the more he walks guys. He faced the Mets back in 2010 where he allowed 9 ER in 13 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
The Mets will try to put last night’s ugly game behind them today as they take on the Rockies in game two. The positive from last night would be Hairston, who hit for the cycle, the first from the Mets since 2006 when Jose Reyes did the same feet. Besides that, last night was a wash of bad defense and bad pitching (and bad pitching for both teams). The Mets will call on Dillon Gee to right the ship tonight as he takes on Moscoso of the Rockies, who will be making his first start of the of the season.
Dillon Gee is 1-2 on the season with a 5.21 ERA and those numbers have been heavily influenced by his last start against San Francisco where he allowed 7 ER over 6.2 innings of work. Gee has never faced the Rockies in his young career and he has never faced any current hitters on the Rockies, so he will be a complete mystery to their lineup. This is stating the obvious but he will need to stick to the game plan with Tulowitzki, who has become a Mets killer over his career. In the first inning yesterday, as soon as Chris stopped pitching Troy outside, he deposited the pitch over the wall.
The Mets batters and Rockies fans will get their first look at Moscoso tonight who is making his 2012 debut. Moscoso is a product of the Texas farm system where he was used in a very limited capacity in the 2009 and 2010 season out of the bullpen. Last season the Athletics changed him into a starter where he pitched in 23 games (21 starts) with an 8-10 record over 128.0 innings with a 3.38 ERA. He was traded to Colorado in the Seth Smith trade. He has made four starts in AAA this season with a 1-3 record while allowing 17 ER in 19.1 innings (so not that effective so far this year). The only Met who has ever faced him is Hairston, who is 0-1.
