213 Miles From Shea

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.

The Mets announced today that the starting rotation will be Santana, Dickey, Niese, Pelfrey and Gee.

It’s common knowledge that the only time the rotation really matters in a sense of ace on ace matchups is April. Starting in May the matchups will start to get mixed up. There is also the looming idea on the horizon of adding a sixth man into the rotation as a way to decrease the amount of innings that Santana pitches (although that will also decrease the totals for everyone).

The other way to look at this rotation:

• Left Handed Change-Up
• Right Handed Knuckleball
• Left Handed Curveball
• Right Handed Sinker
• Right Handed Pitcher

Overall, I like the theory of this lineup. It feels nice to have the left handers split with the knuckleball to keep teams off balance, and to have a normally steady Niese to back up an unpredictable Pelfrey.

I get a little nervous about “theory” with rotations mainly because Jerry Manuel used to love to try to push Dickey to the start of a series. That aside, I like how the pitchers are situated.

And, of course, the rotation order does nothing to impact the talent of the pitchers in the rotation.

I have a personal problems with asterisks, and it has nothing to do with steroids. I feel compelled to use them to explain the whole truth of the situation, even when the truth is not poetic, wordy, and takes meaning away from a special event.

For example, as a High School Physics teacher, I cringe inside when I tell my students one of the laws of Physics is that “Matter Cannot Be Created Or Destroyed”, when theoretically that law can be broken on a quantum level as long as the effects are nullified within a Planck time. I then cringe because I know my students are just not there yet to start talking about quantum physics (maybe in June).

So if you are sitting by a computer next week, wondering what I feel about Opening Day, or standing by a tree, or walking down the street, you can probably guess how I feel about it. Although, I do highly doubt you, as a reader, are concerned at all about my personal feelings about Opening Day.

I will be cringing, or wailing (let’s get melodramatic at 5:45 in the morning), that its not really Opening Day. It may be Opening  Day for the Mets, that would be completely true. However Opening Day was yesterday. Zero Fan Fare. Zero cares given by this guy writing this article (which surprised me too).

Opening Day is my favorite Day of the year, and it just doesn’t feel quite the same since the season already started.

There were two big stories to come out of the Mets ownership department yesterday. First, the Mets settled on Picard case with a 162 million settlement. Second, the Mets completed selling minority shares of the team, totaling 240 million. The News is that the Mets have already committed the Money to the MLB and Bank of America to pay back their loans.

That leaves only one major financial case ahead of the Mets, to see if the Owners will be compensated for Madoff, thus negating the 162 million in the settlement.

Those are the facts, but they leave a lot of room for speculation. On one side is Mike Francesca, who sees a brighter future of the Mets because he envisions a Mets team now where the owners can commingle assets with the Mets franchise to start spending money again. The thought here would be that the Mets were not doing this because they didn’t know what accounts were toxic.

Bob Klapisch disagrees. He asserts that there is no guarantee that the Wilpons will put the money inside of the team.

And honestly this is where the problem for the future of team lies. Up until this point,  the question was whether the Wilpons would have to sell the team, and that hampered the Mets on field moves. Now the question is, since the Wilpons will be able to own the team for a while, will they actually invest in the team? Will they keep the team in standstill as it is now or try to push it forward.

It is no secret that the Wilpons want the team to start bringing in more money before additional heavy investment, but they aren’t going to get the income without bringing something to the team, especially with the division as it is now.

I can’t commit myself to saying the team is better off now or not, because I don’t know. Hopefully we’ll see a different approach to the offseason before the 2013 season, which will put a lot of these conversations to rest.

Yesterday’s 7-1 loss to the Cards was a rough game all around.

Let’s start off with something positive. The hits in today’s game came from the starters on the team. Murphy had a 2-4 day, Bay had a double, Torres had a hit. Acosta, Parnell and Olson all had clean outings out of the bullpen.

The pitching was the real problem in this game. Pelfrey pitched 4.1 innings allowing 4 ER off of 2 homers and a flat sinkers. Francisco pitched an inning allowing 2 hits and an earned run. Ramirez allowed 2 earned runs over three hits over 1 inning.

It’s still early in spring, however it is easy to start to see hope fading from the team with outings like this plus all of the injuries that are starting to pile up. I’m hoping the team rebounds today because they need something to hold onto.

The Mets stagnated their record at 3-5-1 today after a 7-7 with the Detroit Tigers. The highlight of the game was Lucas Duda, who went 1-2 with a Grand Slam. Duda was playing his first game back from injury and it was really good to see him back at good level of play. Nickeas also had a good game with a 2-3 day at the plate with a run, 2 RBI’s and a double. Nickeas, who is still slated to be the opening day back up catcher thanks to his defense, is showing a good display of offense this Spring, which has suddenly become important with the rise of Lucas May. Also having a good day at the plate was Valdespin, who went 2-4 with a triple and a run.

On the pitching side, Niese on the stat side, had a rough day allowing 3 ER over 3 innings of work. He kept things quiet in the first two innings, but couldn’t hold off the Tigers in the 3rd. Carson, who has become more important with the news of Byrdak’s surgery, had a good day on the mound today pitching a scoreless inning.

Tomorrow the Mets return to Port St. Lucie to take on the Cardinals.