213 Miles From Shea

The Mets did their part last night to eliminate an undefeated team, and now Major League Baseball is down to three teams left. There are also three teams left that haven't won a game:

Undefeated Teams:

Baltimore Orioles: Today will be tough for the birds as they will need Brad Bergenson to be more effective than Justin Verlander

Texas Rangers: Home of the best record (5-0) they too will have to face an ace tonight in Felix Hernandez, and they counter with their ace CJ Wilson.

Cincinnati Reds: Probably have the best chance to continue winning tonight, they draw Nelson Figueora's first start of the season against the winless Astros.

Winless Teams:

Tampa Bay Rays: Will have to beat Dan Haren to get into the win column.

Boston Red Sox: Have to figure out how to beat the Indians

Houston Astros: Need to remember how to win.

Will this list shrink tonight?

With tonight's win the Mets guaranteed themselves that they would be at least coming back to New York on Friday night at .500 record. Of course that isn't the actual goal. The actual goal is to win ball games which is something the Mets did tonight. They got excellent hitting, pitching and all around mechanics in their 7-1 beating of the Phillies and Cole Hamels.

The big inning for the Mets came in the third as Chris Young led off with a single, and the hits and walks would keep coming. The Mets would eventually send 6 runners across the plate as they stole bases, put the ball in play, and took advantage of wild pitches eventually knocking Cole out of the game after 2.2 innings of work. Chris Young also became the Mets first pitcher ever to have two hits in the same inning, and ended the game with three hits total. His pitching was pretty good too as he pitched 5.1 innings (as Gary, Keith and Ron noted, he normally doesn't get too far into games, plus the whole it being the first start of the season and in cold weather for him also had an impact) while allowed one earned run, walked 4 and struck out 7 (which was awesome).

D.J. Carrasco knows how to make an impression. After Spring, I wasn't so up on him, but he has been fantastic so far in 2011. Specifically, both time's he has pitched, he has been in charge of preventing a rally from starting. On Sunday, he had to get out of a bases loaded jam, which he did. Today, the Phillies had two on with one out, where he was able to get the double play ball and get out of the inning. That is the type of swagger out of the pen this ball club needs, and I hope it continues.

Lastly, the Mets on Sunday showed their power, but today they showed their speed and ability to get on base. Today they had 13 hits, and only one was an extra base hit. On top of the 13 hits, they drew 4 walks and without power were still able to score 7 times. Specifically, Wright had a great day as he went 4-5, scoring 2 runs, recording 2 RBI's and getting his first steal of the year. Reyes also had his first steal of the year and Pagan added his second.

The Mets played really well today, and I hope it carries through to tomorrow.

The Mets continue their opening road series of 2011 with a trip to Philly. The Mets won their road series in Florida, something they didn't do in 2010 until June (against Baltimore). Philly also started their season off on a strong note with a three game sweep of the Houston Astros, including an impressive rally on Opening Day. The Mets will be sounding out Chris Young for his 2011 debut while the Phillies will counter with Cole Hamels.

Chris Young pitched only 20 innings in an injury shortened 2010, but he posted an impressive 0.90 ERA during that time. In 2009 he was 4-6 with a 5.12 ERA over 76 innings (another injury shortened season). He pitched two games against Philly in 2010 where he allowed 10 earned runs over 9.2 innings of work. Considering those numbers, his career numbers are quite good as he has a 4.50 ERA against Philly over 28.0 innings of work. The Phillies have these numbers against Young:

Ibanez 7-26, 2B, 3B

Howard 2-8, 2B, HR

Rollins 1-9

Victorino 3-9, 2B

Valdez 2-5, 2B

On the other side of the field, the Mets will get to contend with Cole Hamels who is coming off a good season where he pitched 208.0 innings, had a 3.06 ERA and a 12-11 record (ok, that's better than a good season). Oddly, Hamels wasn't able to beat the Mets last season, but still posted good numbers. He went 0-4 over 25.1 innings with a 3.20 ERA (Including a complete game). The Mets have these numbers on Cole:

Wright 11-35, 3 2B, 3B, 2 HR

Reyes 8-32, 2B

Beltran 10-31, 2 2B, 3 HR

Pagan 8-28, 2B, HR

Hairston 6-16, 2 2B, 3 HR

Harris 0-6

Let's Go Mets!

The last time we checked in, after two games in the season, there were 9 teams that were 2-0 that had a chance to sweep their way into the new season. Now that Sunday's games are over, let's take a look at the standings (All teams are 3-0 or 0-3 unless otherwise noted).

Undefeated Teams:

Baltimore Orioles (4-0) (Seriously, Buck Showalter has had a positive impact)

Texas Rangers (4-0) (Killing with homers).

Philadelphia Phillies (We can change this tomorrow)

Cincinnati Reds

Winless Teams:

Boston Red Sox (Panic In Boston? Only if you overreact)

Tampa Bay Rays

Houston Astros

Milwaukee Brewers (0-4) (Almost beat the Braves today)

So as expected, the list took a dive from 18 teams total down to 8 teams.

As continuation of yesterday's article, we will now go though some of the more unusual giveaways in the National League (Excluding the Mets, who will get their own article tomorrow):

Chicago Cubs:

It's cold in Chicago. Early in the month they will be giving away winter gloves (no photo) and then later they will be giving Winter Scarves. No winter caps?

Phillies:

I guess I have to give them a nod for giving out a NL East banner, since I did it for the Rays yesterday. No Photo though (not a bias, website didn't have it when this article was written).

Pittsburgh Pirates:

Forget bobble heads. Give the kids player action figures. Like what the Dodgers did last season, minus the Superhero part.

Brewers:

Normally I wouldn't put a schedule on this list, but this one is different. Most teams just give out magnets. The Brewers are putting it inside a pen. Awesome.

Reds:

Like the complement I gave to the Mariners yesterday, the Reds giveaway a bobblehead marking the day Votto became an MVP.

San Francisco Giants:

Lots of good stuff, which you'd expect since they won the World Series. Fans in April will get a Replica Ring, a Pin for Posey ROY, and Championship Banner.

Diamondbacks:

A free lapel pin and Silly Bandz highlight the list.

Dodgers:

Yep. Another snuggie.

National League. In terms of promotions, so much better than the American League in the department of promotions.

The Mets finished their first series of the season with a 2-1 record, and it was a good first step for this club. Over the last three days the Mets have shown fight, pitching ability and flashes of power, all things that have been questioned by the media as a whole.

Probably the most important event of this series was the tenth inning in Saturday's game. Mets fans, myself included, have almost been conditioned over the last several seasons to expect the worst after a blown save. I thought the game was over. However the Mets batters came back and the Mets got their first win of the year. That momentum carried into today's game, against a pitcher who was historically good against the Amazin's as the Mets quickly jumped to a 7-0 win.

Furthermore over these three games the Mets have shown an ability to capitalize in situations. Specifically, today, the Marlins gave the Mets a lot of extra chances between walks and errors. In response the Mets scored 9 runs today.

I know it is only three games into the season, but I like what I'm seeing out of these Mets. They are playing like they should win, and that attitude is carrying on the field in a productive way. Next up the Mets will face the first place Phillies. Although these are only the 4th – 6th games of the season, a strong statement in Philly can go a long way in this division. As it stand right now, we are tied for 2nd in the division, and we have every reason to believe.

The Mets and Marlins finish off their opening series with a rubber game today in beautiful Florida (before traveling North to dreary Philly). For the Amazin's, one of last year's heroes will get the start as R.A. Dickey opens up his 2011 season. On the other side of the field, Javier Vazquez starts his season of redemption after a disappointing year for the Yankees.

Last season Robert Allen logged in 174.1 innings with a 11-9 record as he recorded a 2.84 ERA and became the Mets most consistent pitcher on staff. This year, he looks to bring his new slower knuckle into games more to mix in with his unusual fast knuckle. Last season he also posted his highest K/BB ratio ever a 2.48 (closest would be in 2003 when he had a 2.47 K/BB ratio). Anyway, in a theme that has been developing over the last two previews, Dickey also struggled against the Marlins last season. He recorded a 6.38 in 3 games and 18.1 innings against the fish last year with a 1-1 record. The Marlins have these numbers against Robert Allen:

Infante 8-14, 2B, HR

Ramirez 6-12, 3 2B

Sanchez 4-8, 2B, HR

Coghlan 2-5

Stanton 0-5

The Mets bats will get their first crack of the season against Javier, who went 10-10 with a 5.32 ERA over 157.1 innings for the Yankees. As bad as Vazquez was last year, he was very effective against the New York Mets. In his two starts he had a 1-1 record and pitched 13 innings where 1 ER (0.69 ERA) and struck out the Mets 10 times. The Amazin's have these numbers against Javier:

Reyes 3-19, 3B

Wright 4-12, 2 2B, HR

Beltran 2-9, 2 HR

Pagan 2-7. 2B

Davis 1-5

Lineup:

Reyes (SS)

Harris (LF)

Wright (3B)

Davis (1B)

Pagan (CF)

Duda (RF)

Murphy (2B)

Thole (C)

Dickey (P)

(I'm not going to lie, I'm a little puzzled why Murphy gets the start for a groundball pitcher, but I think it's mainly due to how the schedule rolls out. I'm still happy to see him in the lineup).

Let's Go Mets!

Although the baseball season generally comes down to who get's hot at the end of the year, a lot can be said about first impressions. For example, back in 2007, the Mets got off to a hot start, but cooled by the end of the May. However, due to the start, they looked incredibly tough, until everything came down in September. So the idea behind this article is too look after, every day, the teams that are off to a hot start and the ones that are off to a cold one. Today is a particularly important day because it is sweep day. Which of these winning teams can complete the sweep or which of these losing teams can finally squeeze out a win.

2-0 Teams:

Baltimore Orioles (they would now have to lose the next 16 games to replicate last season)

New York Yankees

Toronto Blue Jays

Chicago White Sox

Seattle Mariners

Texas Rangers

Philadelphia Phillies

Cincinnati Reds

San Diego Padres

0-2 Teams:

Boston Red Sox

Tampa Bay Rays

Detroit Tigers

Cleveland Indians

Minnesota Twins

Oakland Athletics

Houston Astros

Milwaukee Brewers

St. Louis Cardinals

From the above numbers:

We know that in 8 of the 15 opening series, the same team has won the first two games. We also see that right now, all of the 0-2 teams in the National League are coming from Central Division. if this list doesn't look much different after today's games, it probably will look a lot different on Tuesday.

The Mets and Marlins play game two tonight at Sun Life, as the Mets look for the first win of the 2011 season. Last night the Mets weren't able to get through Josh Johnson, and they look to have better luck tonight dealing with Nolasco. The Mets will send out Jon Niese, looking to improve off of a successful season last year. Niese went 9-10 last year with 173.2 innings pitched while posting a 4.20 ERA. The Marlins were a tricky team for Niese last year (and looking at the season stats, I think the Marlins were just a tricky team for the Mets in general last year) as he had a 1-4 record with 26.1 innings pitched and a 6.49 ERA. The fish have these numbers against Niese:

Infante 3-15, 2 2B

Sanchez 3-12, 2B

Ramirez 2-8, HR

Coghlan 1-6, 2B

Morrison 2-4, 2B

(Uggla was his major thorn in his side)

Ricky Nolasco last season pitched 157.2 innings with a 14-9 record and a 4.51 ERA. Last season he was 2-0 against the Mets over 4 games with a 3.96 ERA and 25 innings pitched. Those were huge improvements over his career against the Mets where he is 5-6 with a 5.46 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Nolasco:

Wright 18-47, 4 2B, 3 HR

Reyes 15-40, 2B, 3B, 3 HR

Beltran 11-30, HR

Murphy 6-17, 2 2B

Pagan 4-11, 2B

Davis 0-8

Starting Lineup:

Reyes (SS)

Pagan (CF)

Wright (3B)

Beltran (RF)

Davis (1B)

Duda (LF)

Emaus (2B)

Thole (C)

Niese (P)

Lets Go Mets!

Even though season started a day ago, I feel it is still early enough in the month to start this three day series of articles (I didn't do it earlier because of the preview articles, and didn't want to overload the front page of this website with content that generally takes quite a bit of time to write). Anyway if this is your first time around here, I love looking around teams across the league to see what they are doing for promotions during the seasons. I'm a sucker for free jerseys and free lapel pins, and anything abnormal. Anyway, here are the highlights:

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays are a staple in this article series. When other teams always disappoint, the Rays generally don't. In April they have two items that are worth highlighting. First, whenever a team wins anything that is worth hanging up in a banner, then its worth it to give the banner to the fans. Second, armsleeves? Wicked.

Kansas City Royals:

The Royals get an automatic mention with their Replica Road Jersey Giveaway. Nice.

Texas Rangers:

American League Champions Ring. (No Photo, sorry).

Seattle Mariners:

The Mariners know how to make a bobblehead. The key to a good giveaway bobblehead is that there is some sort of date or event that it is tied to. For example, if it is just the player playing, then it could be confused with a normal bobblehead that you can pick up in the store. However, here, for King Felix, it's him holding his Cy Young award. Perfect.

Oakland Athletics:

Ditto From Above. Just Ricky Henderson Style.

And that's it. Not that much creativity from the American League in the first month of the season.