213 Miles From Shea

Seriously. This is real. I. Don't. Understand.

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It just looks so odd.

The 90's keep coming back. I forgot to include another version of the 90's cap, this one is called the Blockshed Cap and it is being modeled by the Atlanta Braves below. Like all the other 90's caps, it also is a snapback.

The Mets and Reds play the early game today as the Mets look to complete a four game sweep. Yesterday, right after the Beltran trade, everyone on the Mets roster showed up to play. David Wright had several big hits, Reyes had his 48th multi-hit game of the season, Murphy had 4 hits (now hitting .319!) and Pelfrey had a tremendous start. The Mets will look to repeat all of that today behind starter Chris Capuano as he takes on Homer Bailey.

Capuano is 8-10 this season with a 4.26 ERA. After starting off the month of July well, with back to back starts of 6 innings and 2 ER, the last two starts have been a struggle as he has pitched 13.2 innings with a 5.27 ERA. Against the Reds last year, he pitched 12.2 innings allowing a total of 9 ER. The Reds have the following numbers on Chris:

Phillips 10-23, 2B, HR

Renteria 2-15

Cairo 1-7

Stubbs 3-7, HR

Votto 2-6

The Mets bats will get a crack at Homer Bailey today who is 5-4 on the season with a 3.67 ERA. In the month of July he has pitched 26.1 innings with a 3.42 ERA. In his career, Bailey has never actually faced the New York Mets. There are only a few Mets that have actually seen him:

Hairston 2-7, HR

Harris 1-1

Paulino 0-2

Let's Go Mets!

The newest Met, pending trade approvals, is the young flamethrower Zach Wheeler. Wheeler was drafted in 2009 out of high school as the sixth overall pick by the San Francisco Giants, and even in high school, he was throwing his fastball in the mid-90's. It is no secret when building a farm system, you can never have too many young talented pitchers, which is exactly what Wheeler is (The Baseball Cube ranks him as an A+ prospect).

As of now, the 21 year old Wheeler is mainly a two pitch pitcher with an above average fastball (now hitting 96) and a strong curve. He needs work on his changeup and his control. It was both of those two things that kept him as the 49th overall prospect in 2010 and 55th overall in 2011 by Baseball America. If you were to draw a projection for Wheeler right now, he is looking to be at least a back of the rotation pitcher with the ability to become a number 2 pitcher later on in his career. Here are his numbers the last two seasons:

2010: A Level, 58.2 IP, 3.99 ERA, 5.8 BB/9, 10.7 K/9

2011: A+ level, 88.0 IP, 3.99 ERA, 4.8 BB/9, 10.0 K/9

So far this year, he has already surpassed, by a long shot, the amount of innings he pitched last season and he has been able to drop his BB/9 down by a full walk (although his K/9 has dropped by almost a full K). This is a really good sign that he is starting to develop better control.

I'm excited for Wheeler. Between Wheeler, Niese, Mejia, Harvey, Gee and Familia, the Mets now have a strong core of prospects and young pitchers (Niese is no longer a prospect) that I am very excited to see at the next level.

The Mets finally agreed to trade Beltran this afternoon to the Giants for prospect pitcher Zach Wheeler (and more about him in a later article). In the deal, which is still awaiting league and Beltran approval, has been in the works for a while, and let's break it down.

In the proposed deal, the Mets receive one of the top prospects in the Giants farm system while the Giants receive a major bat for their lineup. The Mets will also pay for 4 million of the 6 million owed to Beltran and the Giants will not be able to offer arbitration to Beltran for draft picks.

There have been a lot of rumors in the last week ranging from the Mets will get top prospects all the way down to the Mets are crazy to think Beltran, a two month rental, is worth top prospects. To his credit, Sandy Alderson did not back down from his request for top prospects, specifically:

Phillies: Dom Brown

Braves: Mike Minor

Giants: Gary Brown OR Zach Wheeler OR Belt

When it looked like the Giants were going to win the sweepstakes, the thought was they would be giving up Gary Brown (Wheeler and Belt seemed like untouchables), so I was genuinely surprised today to hear the Mets were getting Zach Wheeler. In the end, I feel good about this trade. Part of me is sad because of how much Beltran has meant to the team over the last few years and because the Mets are still mathematically in it. At the same time, this trade feels good because the Mets got a lot for what boils down to a two month rental, with a slim but really unlikely chance of resigning Beltran in the winter.

Best of luck Beltran, and welcome to New York Wheeler.

The Mets and Reds play game three of the set today as the Mets try to make it three in a row and try to win the set. Last night was a back and forth game where the Mets eventually edged out the Reds to win the ball game by the score of 8-6, on a night where they needed to use the bullpen for 4 innings, and use it without Parnell and Izzy. The Mets eventually got it done and today they will try to get it done behind Pelfrey as he takes on Arroyo.

Pelfrey is 5-9 on the season with a 4.73 ERA and his last two starts have been a struggle. In those two starts he has lasted 5 and 6 innings respectively allowing 4 ER in each of those starts. Last season against the Reds he allowed 7 earned runs in 4.2 innings. The Reds have the following numbers against Big Pelf:

Phillips 6-15, 2B, HR

Votto 3-10, 2 HR

Bruce 3-9, 2B

Lewis 1-6, 2B

The Mets bats will get a chance to contend with Arroyo tonight who is 7-8 this season with a 5.56 ERA. In the month of July though, he has pitched 24.1 innings and has an ERA of 7.77. Last season against the Mets he totaled 15.0 innings of work, allowing 5 ER, or posting an ERA of 3.00. The Mets have the following numbers on him:

Wright 6-29, HR

Reyes 8-29, 4 2B, HR

Bay 6-24, 2 2B

Murphy 4-7

Paulino 6-14, 3 2B

Let's Go Mets!

Earlier this week we looked at the Everett AquaSox's cool version of the Mariner old logo, and now we get to look at their version of the classic double sox logo:

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The Mets and Reds play game two tonight. Last night, the Mets took the opener by the score of 4-2. Tonight, Jon Niese will get the start of Cueto.

Jon Niese is 9-8 on the season with a 3.76 ERA. In his last start he really faltered as he allowed 5 ER in 6 innings of work. In the month of July overall he is 2-2 over 26.1 innings with a 4.10 ERA. Last season he pitched in two games against the Reds totaling 13.2 innings with a 4.61 ERA. The Reds have the following numbers against Jon NIese:

Gomes 3-7, HR

Phillips 4-7, 2B

Stubbs 1-7

Votto 1-6

The Mets batters will get to deal with Cueto tonight, who is 6-3 with a 1.98 ERA. In the month of July he has pitched 27.1 innings with a 2.30 ERA. Last season he made one start against the Mets where he pitched 6 innings allowing 3 earned runs. The Mets have the following numbers on Cueto:

Wright 4-11, HR

Bay 2-9, 2B

Beltran 2-5, 2B, HR

Murphy 0-2

Let's Go Mets!

One of my favorite retro logos is the barrel man for the Brewers. This fashion cap has a giant version of famous old fashion logo: