213 Miles From Shea

May is here with winter becoming a distant memory and Summer coming up fast. May is traditionally a month where we start to see more Summer themed giveaways and a lot of Mother Day items. In this article we will take a tour of the best the American League has to offer this month in terms of promotions:

New York Yankees – This is an odd one. The Yankees will be giving a way a Grass Seed Planter. I just have never merged planters with baseball. I mean grass makes sense, but still.

Tampa Bay Rays – You can almost always count on the Rays to come up with some odd, strange promotions. This month they will be giving out a rather creepy bank, a pillow case and a cape. Wow.

Cleveland Indians – “Weather Education Day with Weather Curriculum Book” I fully support education at the ballpark.

Kansas City Royals – This hat is awesome.

Los Angeles Angels – LA is doing it big this month. Instead of just having a normal bobblehead day, they are giving out two different Morales bobbleheads (one per entry) because he's a switch hitter. So there's a left handed one, and a right handed one, both wearing different jerseys. They also are giving out troll and a wrestling mask.

Seattle Mariners – Great Idea! Instead of just a normal Ichiro bobblehead, this one has a hit counter on its base. They always seem to do something great.

(Side Note: Yes, I am aware I could have titled this article with a cheesy pun)

When things go right, good things happen and it tends to be contagious. The old saying in baseball, rightfully so, is that it all depends on your starting pitching. Everything else can be built off of that. During this last homestand where the Mets went 4-2, the starters averaged 7 innings a start with and opponents batting average of .243 and an ERA of 2.63.

After the first two games, the rest of the Mets responded to the new found success of the starting pitching with hitting and bullpen pitching. Specifically, the Mets batters on Thursday night went on a home run tear and a hitting tear. In the past four games we have seen Davis go deep three times, Wright do the same, Bay hit is first homer of the season and Pridie and Nickeas both hit their first major league homers. In total the Mets have had over 50 hits in their last five games.

With good starting pitching, we finally saw a consistent basis the back end of the bullpen in their well defined roles. There is Beato as the amazing surprise, Izzy with the veteran set-up and Krod, back to his normal chaotically in control.

I guess the point of this is, that this is all a cause/effect with the starting pitching. Their success paves the way for everyone else. When they pick up the load, the pressure is off everyone else, which then circles back to the starters getting the pressure off of them. When it rains it pours, and the opposite is true as well. Probably the most important observation is the feeling of winning now. It looks like the players are going out expecting to win, and that started on Friday when Ike hit the go ahead two run homer.

Let's keep this going, and Let's Go Mets!

The Mets go for the sweep this afternoon in Citi Field against the Diamondbacks. Yesterday, we saw the continuation of the power surge the Mets are in right now as both Bay and Davis powered long balls out of the park. For Bay it was the first of this year (already 17% of the way there to last year's total!) and for Davis it was his third in as many days. It was also the second time in as many days the Mets showed fight. Yesterday they took an early 4-1 lead, let it slip back to 4-4, then immediately responded with a run, and than insurance run later to go up for good. Jon Niese will get the start for the Mets today as he faces Galarraga.

Niese is still looking for win number 1 this year with his 0-3 record over 4 starts, 23 innings of work and a 5.87 ERA. Last season he struggled against the Diamondbacks logging in 9.1 innings of work over two games allowing 8 ER during that stretch. Arizona has the following numbers on Jon Niese:

Johnson 3-6, 2B

Nady 1-6

Upton 4-6, 2B

Young 1-5, HR

Montero 0-3

Drew 0-2

The Mets will get a shot at Galarraga, who on the season has pitched three games over 18 innings of work with a 3-0 record and a 6.00 ERA. Armando actually faced the Mets last year where he picked up the win in 6 innings of work while allowing 4 earned runs. The Mets have the following numbers on him:

Bay 1-4

Wright 2-3, 2B

Davis 0-3

Reyes 0-1, 2 BB

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and the Rockies will try to play a game this afternoon in Flushing with the threat of heavy showers throughout the day. The Mets are coming off of back to back wins including a come from behind victory last night thanks to some muscle by Ike and then insurance runs in the 8th inning. They will be looking to win three straight for the second time this season, and win their first home series. Taking the ball for the Amazin's is Dillon Gee and Barry Enright gets the honors for the Diamondbacks.

Dillon Gee played the role of stopper in his last outing as he logged in 5.2 innings of work with a 1.59 ERA.That game brought his career totals to a 2.09 ERA in 38.2 innings of work. In his short career, he has never faced the Diamondbacks nor does he have any actual statistics against any Diamondback hitters. Young could be nearing a return, so the best thing that Gee can do right now is force a difficult decision on the Mets by performing really well today.

On the other side of the field, Barry Enright will be trying to get his season on track. This season he has pitched 17.2 innings with a 6.23 ERA while walking 6 and striking out 12. In his rookie season he was effective against the Mets as he pitched against us twice, totaling 14.0 innings of work with a 1.93 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Barry:

Reyes 3-7

Beltran 0-5

Davis 1-5

Thole 1-6, HR

Wright 1-6

Bay 0-3

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets look for back to back wins for the first time since the start of the season tonight as they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in Queens. Last night the Mets had strong starting pitching, relieving relief, and a whole lotta offense (more runs than their previous 5 games combine). Mike Pelfrey looks to show his ace stuff tonight against Joe Saunders.

Mike Pelfrey has had a rough season so far with an 0-2 record over 4 starts with a 9.72 ERA over 16.2 innings of work. Last season he struggled against the Diamondbacks pitching in two games against them with a 12.86 ERA over 7 innings of work. The Dbacks have the following numbers on Big Pelf:

Johnson 6-24, 2B, HR

Drew 5-19, 2B

Young 6-15, 2B

Montero 7-12, 4 2B

Upton 2-7, 2B

The Mets will get a shot at Joe Saunders tonight who is 0-2 this season with a 6.32 ERA, a far cry of what he has been in the past. Not surprisingly, since he started his career with the Angels and this is his first season with the Diamondbacks, he has never faced the Mets in his career before. There are three Mets that have logged AB's against him:

Bay 4-10, 2 HR

Hairston 2-8, 2B

Hu 0-3

Lets Go Mets!

It's too early to panic.

The Mets are off to a very rough start to the 2011 season with a 6-13 record, currently the worst in the majors, however it is too early to panic. During this time time, there have been a lot of calls to start to dismantle to the team while the value for Reyes is at its highest, and I think we all need to take a deep breath and take a step back for a second.

What we have is a 19 game sample, from 162 game season, and it is way too early to start extrapolating numbers from it. Before we look at the Mets as a team. Let's look at the 2007 Mets. They had a phenomenal April, however once Mary rolled around, they went on cruise control for the rest of the season. That ended with their cushion being dismantled in a terrible collapse at the end of the season. However, if we went just by their April numbers, they were above and beyond the best team and baseball.

Let's focus on this 2011 squad. These first 19 games have featured two statistical anomalies for the Amazin's which have had a devastating negative impact. Pagan is batting around .150 and Wright is batting around .240. I'm not saying that we expect both of them to have career years, but it is safe to assume that on a conservative estimate, Wright should be hitting .290 and Pagan at least .280. A combination of them returning to their average numbers, plus the return of Jason Bay, which we saw last night, should bring this offense around to at least being competitive.

The starting pitching has to come around as well. Over the last week it started to flash potential, but with 0 bats behind it, it just fell apart.

What I'm saying is, there is too much talent on this team to assume that we are going to continue with this 6-13 record, and it is way to early to start thinking of blowing this team up.

The Mets lost the second game of the series last night in a way that could only be described as 1962-esque. If it was any other team, it would be funny how the Mets find these odd, unlucky situations to lose games, but its our team, so its just hard to watch. Anyway, the Mets will try to stop the bleeding again tonight against J.A. Happ and the Astros with Chris Capuano.

Chris Capuano has pitched in four games with two starts and a 1-1 record with a 8.53 ERA over 12.2 innings of work. In 10.2 innings of work against the Astros last season he posted a nice ERA of 2.53. The Astros have these numbers against Chris:

Lee 2-9

Bourn 1-6

Johnson 1-3, HR

Pence 0-4

Sanchez 0-3

The Mets bats will get a shot of a familiar foe in J.A. Happ who is 1-2 on the season over 18.2 innings pitched with a 5.79 ERA. He didn't face the Mets in 2010 but in 2009 he faced the Mets 4 times, including 2 starts totaling 18.0 innings with a 2.50 ERA. The Mets have these numbers against J.A.:

Beltran 3-11, 2 HR

Wright 4-8, 2B, 2 HR

Murphy 1-4, 2B

Pagan 2-4, 2B

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets lost the opener to the Astros last night, and tonight they play again (in an effort to not have the worst record in the National League). As it normally goes with losing streaks, the problem at the start of the streak is not same problem though out the streak. At the start, the Mets bats were producing more than enough runs to allow the pitchers a chance to win. Now, for the most part, the Mets pitching has been good enough to keep the Mets in the game, but the Mets bats have not been able to produce runs. Tonight the Mets batters will get Bud Norris while the Astros will get R.A. Dickey.

Dickey will be making his 4th start of the season, pitching in his fifth game of the year (he got some work in on Sunday). The knuckler has 18.1 innings logged this season with a 3.96 ERA with 12 BB and 15 K. Last season he was 1-0 in two games with a 1.76 ERA against the Astros where he pitched 15.1 innings and struck out 8 batters. The Astros have the following numbers against Robert Allen:

Lee 7-14, 3 2B, HR

Bourn 2-8

Johnson 0-7

Pence 0-6

The Mets batters will try to break out of their collective slump against Bud Norris who is 1-1 this season over 16 innings (3 games) with a 5.06 ERA. Last season he was 1-1 against the Mets over 12.1 innings with a 4.97 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers on Norris:

Davis 1-5, 2B

Pagan 1-5

Wright 0-4

Beltran 0-3

Thole 2-2, HR

Let's Go Mets!

The 5-11 Mets will face the 5-11 Astros at Citi Field tonight. The Mets just ended a 7 game losing streak and are looking to rebound against a struggling Houston Astros team. When you have two teams with similar records, especially early on in the season, you'd expect to find other similar stories as well. Both of tonight's starters (Wandy Rodriguez and Niese) have struggled at the start of the season, and they both would like to reverse that tonight.

Niese is 0-2 this season with a 6.88 ERA over 17 innings of work. One positive for Niese has been his control. He has has struck out 15 batters while walking 5, and that would be a nice trend to continue. He pitched against the Astros once last season where he allowed 1 earned run in 7 innings of work while walking none and striking out 5. The Astros have these numbers on Niese:

Lee 0-5

Pence 1-6

Sanchez 1-4

Bourn 0-2

Hall 1-2

The Mets batters come back to Citi tonight where they will have to deal with Wandy. Rodriguez is 0-2 in three starts on the season with a 7.31 ERA pitching 16 innings, walking only 3 and striking out 11 batters. He got a no decision last year against the Mets in a game where he pitched 7 innings, allowing 1 earned run over 4 hits. The Mets have the following numbers on Wandy:

Beltran 6-16, 2 2B, 2 HR

Wright 6-16, 2 2B

Hairston 6-11, 2 2B, 2 HR

Pagan 2-11, HR

Harris 2-3, HR

Let's Go Mets!

It seems like the MLB is doing taking a page out of the NFL playbook this year with allowing fans to customize their own name and number jersey with the front, back and sleeves. This new feature on the MLB website allows you to make the shirt for anyone on the Mets roster. Blaine Boyer anyone? It's still possible to make one if you want it…seriously. Anyway let's make this interactive!

Go to Mets.com and click on shop. One of the first things you should see is design your own apparel, click that.

Next, select the Men's shirt for 21.99, which was a bit more expensive for the last player name/number shirt I purchased a few years back.

I went with a large black shirt. It doesn't matter too much here, any color will do, and as long as its not too big of a shirt, it won't change the price. Now we have to customize the shirt.

I went for the Mets script across the front, Josh Thole on the back (I was tempted to make a Beato), a “30” on the left sleeve, and the basic Mets circle logo on the right sleeve.

And, BOOM, a 43.99 shirt.

Have fun?