213 Miles From Shea

This hat is ridiculous, but its a Mets hat! Nothing says you love your team like your logo embedded in the state.

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(Note: This Game Preview was written at 7:15 AM. At that time, the Nationals still have Jason Marquis as a starting pitcher. There is a chance he may be traded at some point today, so obviously he would be pulled from the start)

The Mets and Nationals play the second game of their set tonight as the Mets try to make it 6 games in a row. Last night continued the tradition of getting a lot of hits and scoring a bunch of runs as the Mets scored 8 runs again, which is the 4th time in a row they have done that. The Mets will rally behind RA Dickey tonight as he takes on Marquis (possibly, see note at start of Preview) of the Nationals.

Dickey is 5-8 on the season with a 3.74 ERA. He had two sub-par starts in a row in the month of July but returned to form in his last start allowing 2 ER in 6.2 innings of work. He has a 3.86 in 11.2 innings (2 starts) against the Nationals this season, who have the following numbers against him:

Werth 6-17, 2 2B, HR

Ankiel 5-14, 2 2B

Zimmerman 2-10

Desmond 1-10

Espinosa 0-8

Jason Marquis is drawing some attention from contending teams this year with his 8-5 record and 3.95 ERA. In the month of July he has pitched 21.1 innings over 4 starts with a 5.48 ERA (which is being heavily impacted 1.1 inning, 6 ER performance at the start of the month). He has made one start against the Mets this year where he allowed 3 ER over 6 innings of work and 7 hits to the Mets, who have the following numbers on Jason:

Bay 16-43, 4 2B, 3B, 5 HR

Wright 13-32, 2 2B, 2 HR

Reyes 11-31, 2B

Pagan 3-13

Murphy 3-9, 3 2B

Let's Go Mets!

Earlier this season I wrote a fairly angry article about the Brewers' Military Appreciation hat night, where the team essentially played dress up soldier with their hats, but at least on the web when you go to buy the hat, it doesn't say anything about money going to help veterans.

The Mets and Nationals start a series tonight in the Nation's capital as the Mets look to make it five straight wins. The Mets are fresh off of a four game sweep of the Reds, where in the last two games the Mets scored 18 runs without Carlos Beltran in the lineup. Dillon Gee will be taking the mound for the Amazin's tonight as he faces Chien-Ming Wang, who will be making his 2011 debut.

Gee is 9-3 on the season with a 3.75 ERA. In his last two starts, he has pitched 12 innings, allowing 5 ER, which is an ERA of 3.75. Gee faced the Nationals earlier this season, and it was one of his best starts as he lasted 7.2 innings, allowing only 2 hits, and no runs. The Nationals have the following numbers against Gee:

Bernadina 0-6

Desmond 0-5

Espinosa 0-5

Werth 1-5

Cora 1-3

The Mets will get the first look this season at Chien-Ming Wang. As fans of a team in New York, you are all probably familiar with Wang's story as he was great, ran into some trouble, has bounced around in the minors between teams the last two years, mainly due to injury, and he is finally coming back. In 2009 he was 1-6 with a 9.46 ERA with the Yankees, but he has a a career ERA of 4.16. Overall this season, in 4 minor league levels, he has an ERA of 3.14 (6.00 in A, 0.00 in A+, 0.00 in AA, and 6.75 in AAA). The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 2-11, 2B

Reyes 2-8, 2B

Harris 2-5

Murphy 0-3

Let's Go Mets!

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.