213 Miles From Shea

The Mets continue to grab the back pages, and in the case of the New York Post, also the front prage:

Some numbers sound so much better than others. No one would have complained with a 2-1 start. But 3-0 sounds so much better than 2-1.

The Mets have a difficult schedule in April due to the amount of NL East opponents they play, starting off 3-0 against the favorites for the Wild Card is a great way to start the season.

The major story line through this game would be Jon Niese, who took a no hitter into the 7th inning. His first two innings were a little rocky with 3 walks but after that he settled down and started to strike batters out. His line of 4 runs, 3 earned over 6 + does not do Jon justice on how well he pitched today. On top of that, it would be easy to understand the amount of pressure that could have been on him today with the combination of his first start of the season and the big contract. The success of this team in the first three games has been the good starts by the starting pitchers, who then have handed the game over to a nearly perfect bullpen, included Francisco who set a Mets club record for saving the first three games of the season.

On the side of the ball, the Mets bats had another double digit hit day. The difference today would be hitting with RISP. The Mets failed in the first two games to bring in runs on base, but today they were able to bring those runners home. Probably the turning point of the game in terms of, “Oh, the Mets are going to win this” would be Murphy’s two RBI double.

Speaking of hitting, congrats to Ruben Tejada who had 4 hits on the day, with .368 BA on the year, nearly 90 points better than Jose Reyes. (Although it would be reckless to think Tejada would hit .368 all season).

The Mets go for the series sweep today at Citi Field as the Mets take on the Braves for game 3 of the season. Yesterday the Mets beat the Braves 4-2 thanks to a good outing by Dickey, a strong bullpen, and homers from Wright and Duda. Last season the Mets only had 9 games all season where they went yard a collective three times, but it already happened in 2012. As a whole, the Mets will look to improve on hitting with runners in scoring position (1-8 yesterday) as they take on Mike Minor and the Braves.

The Braves bats will have to deal with Jon Niese in his season debut today. Niese last season had a 11-11 record with a 4.40 ERA over 157.1 innings. His 2011 season was cut short due to injury. This past spring Jon pitched 22.0 innings with a 5.23 ERA. Last year against the Braves Jon totaled 19 innings in 3 starts with a record of 2-0 and an ERA of 4.26. The Braves have put the following numbers on Niese in his career:

Uggla 7-23, 3 2B
Prado 5-19, 3 2B, 3B
Ross 6-13, 2B, 3B, HR
Diaz 1-8
Bourn 4-7
Heyward 4-8, 2B, HR
McCann 0-6

The Mets bats will look to continue hitting today against Mike Minor of the Braves. Minor was 5-3 last season over 15 starts and 82.2 innings pitched where he posted an ERA of 4.14. During that time he faced the Mets three times with a record of 1-0 over 15.0 innings of work an an ERA of 7.80. The Mets have the following numbers on Mike Minor:

Turner 3-7
Wright 1-8, 2B
Bay 3-6, HR
Tejada 2-7
Duda 2-3, 2B

Let’s Go Mets! Sweep the Braves!

After yesterday’s home run show, the New York pages actually ignored the 0-2 Yankees to write about the Mets:

I do have to admit that the puns for the Yankees on both papers were pretty good (the “Woe and Two” and the “Kuroda to Nowhere”)

The Mets clinched their first series win of 2012 today as they took down the Atlanta Braves by the score of 4-2. Just as impressive as the score for today’s game was what the Mets bats were able to do. The Mets hit three solo home runs today, one from Wright, two from Duda. Last season, the Mets  had only 9 games where the team hit a combined 3 homers or before. It also puts the Mets on pace, albeit very early (so don’t take this next sentence too seriously) for at least a homer a game, something only 6 National League teams did last year.

Anyway, Dickey had a good outing for the Mets today as he allowed only 2 runs over 6 innings. The toughest stretch for him last season was April. He is on record saying that a great knuckleball doesn’t care about the weather but a mediocre knuckleball is impacted by the wind, and April is the month of cold winds. On the same side of the ball, while it would have been tempting to go with the same combination as Thursday, today’s bullpen was just as effective. Parnell shut the door in the 7th, followed by Rauch again and then by Francisco, who made it interesting but still kept that door closed for the Braves.

The disturbing trend that continued from Monday’s game was the Mets left too many runners on base. For all of the hits today, they should have had more runners crossing the plate. Today was better, but not perfect. If you missed the game, the stars at the plate would be David Wright (3-5, HR), Duda (2 HR’s), and Thole with the go-ahead RBI. Also Captain Kirk had two hits in his major league debut.

Let’s Go Mets! Sweep the Braves tomorrow!

The Mets play game two of the season this afternoon as they take on the Atlanta Braves. The Mets pitching locked down the Braves in the Home Opener as Santana pitched 5 scoreless and a near perfect bullpen closed the door behind them. On the other side of the ball, the Mets were able to get runners on the bases, but bringing them in was a major problem as they beat the Braves by 1-0. The smudge on an otherwise great day would be losing Torres to the DL, but the Mets have called up Captain Kirk.  The Mets looked to continue the pitching and improve on the hitting today as Dickey takes on Jurrjens.

R.A. Dickey last season was 8-13 with a 3.28 ERA over 208.2 innings pitched. Last season he pitched in 5 games making 4 starts against the Braves totaling 27.2 innings with a 2.60 ERA. In the Spring, Dickey recorded 17.1 innings with a 3.63 ERA. The Braves have the following the numbers against the Knuckleballer:

Bourn 5-21, 3B
Hinske 3-20, 2 2B
Uggla 0-21
McCann 3-14, HR
Prado 2-17
Freeman 3-9, 2 2B

Jair Jurrjens will make his season debut today. Last season he was 13-6 with a 2.96 ERA over 152.0 innings of work.  Last season he made three starts against the Mets pitching 18.2 innings with a 1-2 record and a 3.38 ERA. In 2010 he pitched 12.1 innings against the Mets with a 4.38 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers on Jair:

Wright 6-29, 2B, 3B, HR
Murphy 7-23, 2 2B, 3B
Bay 3-15, 2B
Thole 3-11, 2B, 3B
Davis 0-7

Let’s Go Mets!

The “joke” circulating between reporters, team officials and fans would be that the Mets would have to bubble wrap Andres Torres between games. Barely half a game in his Mets career, he went down with a calf strain, thus prompting and immediate trip to the DL. For all the injury problems the Mets have had in the past 3 years, this may have been one of the quickest decisions made. Usually they at least wait overnight or Day by Day for a game or two (even though that is usually a mistake) but he said right after the game he is going back down to Florida.

The quickness in making that decision probably lends itself to the extreme lack of depth the Mets have in the Outfield, especially CF. It wouldn’t be terrible to have Scott Hairston as a fill in, but it is so far away from ideal.

The Mets announced today that will be calling up Kirk Nieuwenhuis to fill in Torres’ roster spot. I’m hoping with Kirk that they allow him to be the starting CF because if he is up with the Mets for an extended period of time, he will need AB’s (and I’m not really convinced that anyone on the bench is significantly better than him). If Vinny Rottino, or Adam Loewen were called up, then I would have expected Scott Hairston to be the starter.

There was speculation that Captain Kirk’s time in Citi Field would have started in June, but now we get some young player blood earlier. Here are some relevant stats for the Captain:

Spring Training: 4 G, 10 AB, 2 H, BB
Minor Leagues
2011: 188 AB, 56 H (.298 BA), 17 2B, 2 3B, 6 HR, 14 RBI, 5 SB
2010: 514 AB, 141 H (.274 BA), 43 2B, 3 3B, 18 HR, 77 RBI, 13 SB
2009: 514 AB, 145 H (.282 BA), 38 2B, 6 3B, 17 HR, 73 RBI, 17 SB

Baseball Prospectus 2012 Projects Captain Kirk: .245 BA, 6 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 117 PA

So BP doesn’t see Captain Kirk getting too much playing time this year, but they also had having 584 plate appearances.

It will be interesting to see what the Mets do come Saturday in an already hectic 2012 baseball season.

This was the first Opening Day for the Mets I have ever gone to, and it was wonderful to see Citi Field filled with so many Mets Fans. My Uncle and I got to the game early to explore the stadium and watch some Mets Baseball.

In terms of PR, the Mets did a good job today. A lot of people have already talked about how it was a good move for the Mets to put the patch on the outfield wall, so I won’t go into that more. What I really enjoyed about today’s game is the class that the Mets had with the Opening Day Ceremonies. If you follow this blog, you know I’m from Baltimore, so the Opening Days I have been to in the past have been for the Orioles who have the players run out from Center Field at the start of the season. It’s fun, I won’t lie, but it’s not really classy. Having Howie Rose and Ralph Kiner introduce the clubs? That’s classy, and how it should be done.

Normally I wouldn’t care enough to write about an issue of class during Opening Day introductions, or even think about it, if it wasn’t for the Marlins. It was already odd enough that the Marlins had dancers bring out the players to the field. The progressive in me was angry at the reinforcing of objectifying women and patriarchal structure of sports. However, trying to have Ali, the Greatest of All Time, throw out the first pitch, was overboard and distasteful. Even if this was done with good intentions, and I believe it was (I’m a believer of people are stupid and benign on average, not mean), it ended with a strong mental image of how age and illness has impacted the life of the one greatest athletes ever.

Anyway, back to actual baseball.

It was incredibly refreshing to see Johan Santana on the mound. His outing was a great showcase to his progress and provided a glimmer of hope for this season.

Same goes for the bullpen. This game could have easily gone the other way, thanks to a lack of offensive support. Everyone in the pen did their job and got the Mets the W today. Well done, especially Frank who has struggled in Spring.

The offense could not get it done today, which to some extent was expected. Despite last years numbers, Hansen has done well against the Mets in his career and the Mets have not fared well against the Atlanta pen. The Mets did get a lot of runners on base, so it is disturbing that with all of those hits, the Mets only pushed one run across. Alas, it is only game 1.

Finally, a word has to be said about Andres Torres. This team needs a CF’er. Hopefully we find one. (Yep, that’s it for that topic).

Baseball finally returns today as the Mets take on the Braves in Queens to start the 2012 season. Let’s just jump right into what is going on today, rather than focus on the season as a whole, which is usually what today is for. For the Mets the major story line of the day is the return of Johan Santana who will be pitching in the majors for the first time since September 2010. Back in 2010, Santana pitched 199.0 innings with a record of 11-9 and a 2.98 ERA. In 2010 Johan faced the Braves 4 times totaling 26.0 innings of work with a 2-1 record and a 2.42 ERA. Fast forward to this past Spring, Johan pitched 18.1 innings with an ERA of  3.44. The Braves the following career numbers against Johan Santana:

Matt Diaz 16-32, 3 2B, HR (I forgot how much Diaz can hit off of Santana)
McCann 8-29, 2B, 3 HR
Prado 3-20, 2B
Uggla 1-19, HR, 10 K
Bourn 5-11

On the other side of the diamond, the Mets bats will be taking on Tommy Hanson. Hanson was 11-7 with a 3.60 ERA last season over 130.0 IP.  He faced the Mets in two games last season where he pitched 8.1 innings and allowed 10 ER. However back in 2010, Hanson pitched 23.2 innings against the Mets over 4 games with a 2.32 ERA, so take those two lines for what they are worth. Anyway, the Mets have put up the following numbers on Tommy:

Wright 2-18, 2 2B (Yikes)
Thole 7-16, 2B, HR
Davis 2-10, 2B
Bay 3-9, HR
Duda 3-6, HR
Murphy 3-5, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

I’m not going to lose the few shreds of credibility I have and say that the Mets will be in the playoffs this year. Honestly I don’t think it will happen, I’m not that optimistic. The Mets could make the playoffs, but literally everything needs to go right, or Wright (haha, one pun per article). Wright needs to have a fantastic season, Davis needs to be an All-Star, Duda has to be a surprise to the league, Murphy needs to hit and field, Bay needs to actually hit, Torres will need to be effective and healthy, Santana needs to be Santana of old, Pelfrey needs to shape up, Dickey has to repeat and Niese and Gee need to mature. All of these things CAN happen, but the probability of them happening at the same time is very slim.

However, I don’t think the Mets will be as bad as the media is making them out to be, because it is really hard to be as bad as the media is making them out to be. It is almost chic to say the Mets will win under 70 games. That’s really difficult!

In 2009 the Mets won exactly 70 games. The last Mets team to win under 70 games was in 2003 when the Mets won 66 games.

The question then becomes, are the Mets as bad as the 2003 Mets?

Just as a reminder, here is the roster for the 2003 Mets:

• Vance Wilson
• Jason Phillips
• Roberto Alomar
• Jose Reyes
• Ty Wigginton
• Cliff Floyd
• Jeff Duncan
• Roger Cedeno
• Joe McEwig
• Mike Piazza
• Steve Traschel
• Tom Glavine
• Jae Seo
• Al Leiter
• Aaron Heilman
• Armando Benitez
• David Weathers
• Mike Stanton

Look, the 2012 Mets are not great, but the offense is much better than the 2003 bunch and the pitching in 2012 will probably be a notch better. At the end of the day, the talent that is on the 2012 Mets projects them to be in the 76 win range, where if injuries pull down the team, they will probably win 71 games, and everything goes slightly better than expected, they could possibly hit 81 games. In other words, we are looking at either a cellar, or 4th place finish. We are going to struggle, but the Mets will not be as bad as they are being projected to be.

Sleeper of the Year: Lucas Duda. (Although calling him a sleeper doesn’t even feel right)

Struggle of the Year: Frank Francisco. This injury to his foot or knee or whatever seems like it could resonate with disorder throughout the whole pen.

Come Back of the Year: Johan Santana or Ike Davis.

MVP of the Team: David Wright. I think he returns to form this year. Strong second half of last year points to a positive progression

Rookie of the Year: I think this one depends on injuries. If Torres goes down, I think Captain Kirk could be in line for this. Most likely this goes to Matt Harvey.