213 Miles From Shea

The Mets play the concluding game of this three game set this afternoon against the Phillies. Both games this series have seen the Mets bullpen fall apart late, and the Mets bats unable to drive in runners on base as the team has made a strong effort in the first two games but just could not finish the job. Today the Mets hope to reverse the course with Jon Niese as he goes against Worley.

Jon Niese is 3-5 this season with a 4.33 ERA over 60.1 innings. His last start was marred by miscues behind him in the field, and he ended up giving up 6 runs, 2 earned in 5 innings of work. His numbers totaled over both starts against the Phillies this season are 8 earned runs over 10.1 innings. The Phillies batters have been able to put these individual numbers up on Jon over his career:

Polanco 6-16, 4 2B

Ibanez 2-10, HR

Howard 1-10

Rollins 1-9

The Mets batters will get another look at Vance Worley this season. Vance has a very nice 2.14 ERA over 21.0 innings of work. His first start of the season was against the Mets where he shutout the Mets over 6 innings of work allowing only 2 hits. The Mets have the following numbers against Worley:

Reyes 0-4

Bay 0-2

Beltran 0-2

Murphy 1-3

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets dropped the opener last night in a close game, and they will try to bounce back tonight against the Phillies in game two. Getting hits wasn't a problem for the Mets last night, the problem was taking those batters on base, and getting them to touch home plate, that plus a slight self-destruction in the pen, adds up to a Mets loss. Tonight the Mets will sound out Pelfrey to go up against Hamels.

Pelfrey had a confusing start his time out. For the majority of the game he was cruising, looking to be a classic game for him as the Mets were beating the Yankees 3-1. Then he hit a bump at the start of the 7th inning, allowed runs, the pen took the gash and opened farther and all of a sudden the Yankees were winning 9-3. Anyway this season Pelfrey is 3-4 with a 5.37 ERA. Both of his starts against the Phillies this season have been forgettable as in the first one he allowed 7 runs, 6 earned in 2.1 innings of work, and in his second one he allowed 4 earned runs in 4.1 innings of work. The Phillies have the following numbers on Pelfrey:

Howard 14-34, 2 2B, 3 HR

Utley 9-30, 2B, 4 HR

Rollins 9-32, 3B, HR

Ruiz 5-20, 2B

Polanco 3-16

The Mets batters will go up against Hamels tonight, who is 6-2 this season with a 3.06 ERA. He has become more human in his last three stars as he has allowed 4 runs in 6 innings, then a dazzling one run in 8 innings and then 3 runs in 6 innings. The last time the Mets faced him this season was his first start of the year where the Mets pegged him for 6 earned runs over 2.2 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers on Cole:

Reyeys 10-34, 2B

Beltran 10-33, 2 2B, 3 HR

Pagan 8-28, 2B, HR

Hairston 6-17, 2 2B, 3 HR

Paulino 3-8, 2B

Let's Go Mets!

For the first time this season, the Mets and the Phillies will play in Queens, as the Mets look to reverse their recent mini-slump and beat the Phillies. Yesterday, the Mets lost the game and the series to the Cubs, and in the process also lost Dickey to an injury. So the shorthanded rotation just got smaller, and now the Mets will really need to make the most of their starters, like Capuano, who gets the nod tonight. He will be facing Roy Oswalt.

Chris is 3-5 this season with a 5.36 ERA over 37.1 innings of work. He was off to a strong start in the Month of May as he pitched 18.0 innings and recorded an ERA of 3.00, however he lost it in his last start against the Yankees where he allowed 6 earned runs over 5.1 innings of work. He has not faced the Phillies yet this season, and last season he allowed only one earned run against them in 5 innings. The Phils have the following numbers on Capuano:

Rollins 3-12, HR

Utley 1-8

Howard 3-8

Ruiz 0-5

Polanco 1-3

The Mets batters will get Roy Oswalt tonight, who is 3-2 with a 2.77 ERA so far this season. His two starts in this month have been good as he has pitched a total of 12 innings, and allowed only 2 ER while walking 3 and striking out 6. He is yet to face the Mets this season, but last year he threw one of his best games against the Amazin's as he held the Mets to 4 hits in a complete game shut out. The Mets have the following numbers on Roy:

Bay 11-31, 4 2B

Reyes 9-32, 2 2B

Beltran 9-24, 2 2B, HR

Murphy 1-6

Paulino 2-13

Let's Go Mets!

Yesterday was a mixed day for the Mets, but honestly what day isn't. The Daily News probably said best where yesterday was a day of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Where the good would be the Mets getting a new minority owner, giving some renewed sense of stability in the front office, the bad would be losing to the Cubs, and the ugly would be losing Dickey to injury. Anyway, your Back Pages New York:

David Einhorn, President of Greenlight Capital (Hedge Fund) became the Minority owner of the Mets today with a 200 million dollar investment.

But who is the 43 year old?

Einhorn is a lifelong Mets fan, and as it is getting reported through a variety of sources today, actually dressed up in a homemade Dave Kingman Jersey for Halloween when he was a child. He graduated from Cornell in 1991 (BA – Government). You can read about his business adventures on Wikipedia, I'll openly admit that reading about hedge funds, investments, and banking generally gives me a head ache, something that started my Freshman year of college where I was surrounded as a Communication Major by the Business School Rejects, where they would all talk about investments in a generally very incorrect manner. I would soon vacate that major and move to Astronomy and Physics, and far away from Business greed as possible.

Anyway, Einhorn is also very involved with charity, especially the Michael J. Fox Foundation. In 2006 he actually finished 18th in the World Series of poker, and he donated his earnings to the foundation.

Other notes about Einhorn:

– He publicly “attacked” the Lehman Brothers

– Apparently, publicly “attacked” Microsoft Today

All in all, I'm excited. Einhorn is young, and he is a Mets fan. I'm hoping that he is the perfect owner in the sense that stays out of the picture, and allows the General Manager to do his own thing. Sadly though, he still is the Minority owner, and only in a situation where the Wilpon issues get worse, does he get to take over the team. I'm just ready for this situation with the Mets ownership to come to an end, and for the Mets to “have the money” they need to do things like resign Reyes (I still think they had the money before this, but whatever).

The Mets and Cubs play a classic day game in Chicago. Last night, the Mets bounced back from a terrible opening game with a 7-4 win in a rain shortened game. Yesterday, the Mets found themselves in a quick 4-1 hole, but they came roaring back in the top of the second, scoring 5 runs, putting the game out of reach for the Cubs. Today Dickey will go up against the always fiery Zambrano.

This season Robert Allen is 2-5 with an ERA of 4.71. He bounced back from his bad outing in Houston nicely against the Yankees last week where pitched 6 innings allowing only one earned run. Last season he had an abysmal start against the Cubs where he pitched 6 innings allowing 7 earned runs. The Cubs have the following numbers on the knuckleballer:

Pena 2-10, 2 HR

DeWitt 2-5, HR

Soriano 2-5, HR

Castro 2-3

Fukedome 0-3

Johnson 1-3, 2B

The Mets will get another bout with Carlos Zambrano today, who is 4-2 with a 4.88 ERA over 62.2 innings of work. In his last three starts he has pitched 18.1 innings while allowing 13 earned runs (6.50 ERA). Before that streak started, his ERA was 4.23 and it has raised a good bit. Last season he was 1-1 over 2 games over 13 innings with a 2.77 ERA against the Mets. The Mets have the following numbers against Carlos:

Bay 14-41, 4 2B, 3B, 5 HR

Beltran 3-18, HR

Paulino 1-19 (Ouch)

Reyes 5-21, 2B, 3B

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets try to bounce back from two headache losses. (Headache Loss: When the mental miscues from Professional Athletes cause a fan to hit their head on a desk, wall, or other object, thus giving the fan a headache). Tonight Dillon Gee looks to continue his pitching from his last strong outing and the Mets bats look to take out frustrations on Casey Coleman of the Cubs.

Dillon Gee was fantastic last time out as he pitched 7 shutout innings allowing 2 hits and not hits to the first 17 batters of the game. Probably the best part of the start was something you could only get in the Mid-Atlantic region, listening to the broadcasters try to explain the Nationals vs Gee. They downplayed Gee, showed some unprofessional conduct as they made excuses for the Nationals. It was like watching political pundits still throw mud after their side losses an election. Anyway, last season Gee didn't face the Cubs and there is no one on the Cubs who has faced Gee with another team, so Dillon is a complete mystery to the Chicago lineup, and it will be interesting to see how he uses that to his advantage tonight in the Windy City.

Casey Coleman gets the start for the Cubbies tonight. Over 34.1 innings of work this year, he has a 6.03 ERA and a 2-3 record. If you look at his game record, there is very rarely a middle ground. Casey is generally either terrible (slightly more often) or great. He made his debut last season and never saw the Mets, however one player on the roster does have some experience against him (Harris 0-2, BB). Casey will be a mystery for our ball club tonight as well, so it should be an interesting game.

Let's Go Mets!

Where the New York Mets are, there is Drama. Where there is Drama and Sports, the New York Back Pages are always there to lend an opinion.

The Mets start a series in the Windy City tonight as they try to get back on the winning track after dropping two straight to the Yankees. The Mets have had a stressing weekend where they started off finally getting back to .500, then dropping the next game, and then looked to go back to .500 on Sunday, but blew up in the 7th inning and got crushed. Tonight the Mets will send out Jon Niese to go up against Ryan Dempster.

Niese is 3-4 on the season over 55.1 innings with a 4.39 ERA. He bounced back in his last start really nicely. Two starts ago, he struggled against the Rockies where he allowed 5 ER over 7 innings of work. Last time out, he allowed 6 hits over 7.0 innings and no runs. During that time he walked only one batter, while striking out 7. Last season he pitched 11.2 innings against the Cubs where posted an ERA of 3.86. The Cubs have the following numbers against him:

Ramirez 2-8, HR

Soriano 2-7, 2B

Baker 4-6

Castro 0-3

The Mets will try to get consistent tonight against Ryan Dempster who is 2-4 over 56.0 innings with an ERA of 6.91. Ryan got the season off to a terrible start, and then in May he looked to start to turn it around with three good starts in a row, a streak that was snapped in his last outing where he allowed 5 ER over 5 innings of work. So in some ways, tonight is a crossroad for him (like how Pelfrey's next start will be). Does Dempster return to be the pitcher at the start of May? Or the one in April? Last season he pitched 4.2 innings against the Mets where he allowed 7 runs, 3 earned. The Mets have the following numbers on Dempster:

Bay 2-13

Beltran 6-9, HR

Reyes 2-5, 3B

Harris 2-4

Thole 1-3, 2B

Let's Go Mets!

The problem the Mets face with Reyes right now is making a decision of what they are going to do.

I'm sure internally, because despite what the majority of us think, the Mets are an actual sport franchise, thus they must have these discussions about what to do with Reyes.

Reyes is a key part of this Mets team. As of right now, he is not replaceable. There are players in the minors who could eventually provide some offense at SS, but realistically speaking, there is no such thing as another Jose Reyes out there, because of what Reyes the person means to this team and the locker room. In this regard, Reyes is essentially priceless. On top of the off the field stuff, he is one of the best players this season with the bat, and he is having a great year with the glove. The Mets, if they want to be successful, need to retain Reyes.

The problem starts with “Can We Afford Reyes?” If we can afford Reyes, than the solution is to sign him to an extension, and not trade him. Continue to build a team around Reyes, Wright and Davis and see what happens.

The idea right now is the Mets cannot afford Reyes. If that is the case, if the Mets really cannot afford Reyes, then we have to trade him. I still feel the Mets have a real shot at being competitive this season, however, winning a World Series, is a long shot. If we were in the running to win the World Series this year, then the Mets could take the risk of retaining Reyes and then losing him at the ending of the season, because of the few things that are more invaluable than a sparkplug, is a championship.

However, since we are probably not going to win a World Series this season, and if we cannot afford to sign Reyes to an extension, then Reyes must be traded for some team's entire farm system. Luckily, Reyes has been playing like that this season, that he can demand a large chunk of someone's system. We need players that are major league ready, because the only prospect that we have that is maybe (and that is a strong maybe) major league ready is Mejia. If this is the case, we should probably trade Beltran as well (because going halfway would also be a waste of time).

The take home point of this article, is the Mets are going to soon have to commit to a plan. If they don't trade Reyes, then they must make it a priority to sign him to an extension. If they do trade Reyes, they must get Major League prospects, and then they must try to move Beltran, K-rod or both to set up the farm system for the next 5 years. The worst possible thing for the Mets to do is to keep Reyes this season, and then not resign him. Because if that happens, the Mets just lose.