213 Miles From Shea

The Mets and Braves play game one of their weekend series tonight, on Jackie Robinson day. The Mets are in a bad place right now. It feels like they are always in the game and they have a chance, but just can't get there. If winning is that dish on the top shelf, the Mets are just an inch or two short right now to reach it. Here's hoping that starting tonight they find that stool that will get them that winning dish.

Making a spot start for the Mets tonight will be D.J. Carrasco. So far this season he has pitched in 6 games logging 6.2 innings with 4.05 ERA. Last season he pitched 1 innings against the Braves and it was a scoreless one. The Braves have the following numbers against D.J.:

Hinske 3-6, 2B, 2 HR

Gonzalez 1-2

McLouth 0-1

The Mets will draw one of the stronger members of Braves rotation in Derek Lowe. He is 1-2 on the season with a 1.45 ERA over 18.2 innings of work. Last season against the Mets he was 1-2 with a 2.96 ERA over 24.1 innings of work. During that time, he struck out 12 Mets while walking 6. The Mets have the following numbers against Lowe:

Beltran 7-37

Harris 7-32, 2B

Wright 10-31, 3 2B, HR

Murphy 4-12, 2 2B, HR

Thole 4-9

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets suffered another frustrating loss last night as they just seemed a tick behind their opponent. Today, the Mets will be playing back to back games to make up for the rain out on Tuesday. The first game will feature Greg Reynolds vs R.A. Dickey and the second game will feature Jorge de la Rosa vs Chris Capuano. For the Mets, the focus will be on strikes. For some reason this team went from throwing strikes in the Spring to not throwing strikes in April. The great thing is though, with two games today, two wins can completely wash away these feelings.

Game1:

R.A. Dickey in his first two starts of the season is 1-1 with a 2.45 ERA over 11.0 innings pitched with 3 ER. Essentially, his first start was awesome, his second start was not so much. Dickey has actually never faced the Rockies, so there are only a few players who have actually seen him:

Jose Lopez 3-5, 2 2B

Wigginton 1-4

Gonzalez 0-3

Giambi 0-1

The Mets bats will contend with Greg Reynolds in the first game who in his first start of this season, got a no decision in 6 innings of work where he allowed 2 ER. This is his first year in the majors since his rookie year back in 2008 where he faced the Mets twice logging 13 innings against the Amazins with a 4.85 ERA. The current Mets have the following numbers against Greg:

Reyes 1-7, 3B

Beltran 1-5, HR

Wright 1-5

Hairston 1-2, HR

Game 2:

In the afternoon cap, Capauno will get the start. So far on the season he has pitched in two games and one start with a 6.75 ERA. However, I feel he has pitched better than that. In his last start, he made one mistake which cost him a lot of runs, but when he was throwing strikes he was on point (7 K's). Last season he pitched 1 inning against the Rockies where he allowed no hits and no walks and struck out two batters. The Rockies have these numbers on him:

Helton 5-23, 2 2B

Wigginton 1-5

Tulowitzki 3-3, HR

Stewart 0-1

The Met batters will draw Jorge de la Rosa in the afternoon game who has a 1.74 ERA in 10.1 innings pitched. Last season he pitched in one game against the Mets where he lasted 6.0 innings and allowed 4 ER (5 runs total). The Mets have the following numbers against Jorge:

Hairston 5-15, 2B, 2 HR

Wright 2-8, 2B

Pagan 2-9, 2B

Reyes 2-6, 2B

Harris 3-5, 2B

Let's Go Mets!

Yesterday's Game was rained out, and there will be a doubleheader tomorrow. However for tonight, the pitching match-up is the same, so here's a repost:

The Mets are on a slide right now, and they will look to Jon Niese to pull the team up. Last night the Mets and the Rockies went back and forth and then sadly the bats couldn't squeeze another run out and the bullpen couldn't stop the bleeding. Jon Niese is coming off of a bad game after a great game. He is now 0-1 on the season with a 6.55 ERA over 11 innings pitched. Last season he faced the Rockies twice, pitching 12 innings while posting 4.50 ERA. Over those 12 innings he walked only one batter while striking out 9. The Rockies have these numbers on Jon:

Helton 4-10, 2 2B

Tulowitzki 2-7

Fowler 1-6

Iannetta 2-5

Gonzalez 0-3

The Mets batters will deal with Esmil Rogers tonight, who allowed one earned run in 7.1 innings of work in his first start of the season. Last season he was 2-3 over 72.0 innings of work while posting a 6.13 ERA. Last season he pitched in relief for three innings over two games against the Mets allowing one earned run. The Mets have the following numbers on Rogers:

Wright 0-0, 2 BB

Reyes 1-1

Pagan 1-1

Let's Go Mets!

We all know that this year was going to have an interesting dynamic to it, in that no matter the success of this squad, there are several names coming up through the system that look to impact the Mets in 2012. Specifically, no matter the success of Young and Capuano this year, their contracts end this season. There will of course be a discussion of whether the Mets should resign them, and it is way too premature to have that conversation.

With that stated it is worthy to post the following numbers:

Havey – 2 G, 11.0 IP, 2-0, 0.00 ERA, 0 R, 17 K, 4 BB, 1.091 WHIP, 13.9 K/9 (St. Lucie)

Mejia – 1 G, 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K

It is fairly apparent with that type of pitching Harvey will be moving up the Mets ladder rather soon, with AA his next stop. I am really curious to see if he can continue these numbers at a higher level because they are just ridiculous. I am also curious to see if Mejia can continue his success in his next start. I do not support moving either player to the major level this year, but if they both have good years in the minors, thinking of a rotation with Harvey, Mejia, Neise, Dickey and (Pelfrey/Santana?) next season does get me optimistically delusional.

The Mets are on a slide right now, and they will look to Jon Niese to pull the team up. Last night the Mets and the Rockies went back and forth and then sadly the bats couldn't squeeze another run out and the bullpen couldn't stop the bleeding. Jon Niese is coming off of a bad game after a great game. He is now 0-1 on the season with a 6.55 ERA over 11 innings pitched. Last season he faced the Rockies twice, pitching 12 innings while posting 4.50 ERA. Over those 12 innings he walked only one batter while striking out 9. The Rockies have these numbers on Jon:

Helton 4-10, 2 2B

Tulowitzki 2-7

Fowler 1-6

Iannetta 2-5

Gonzalez 0-3

The Mets batters will deal with Esmil Rogers tonight, who allowed one earned run in 7.1 innings of work in his first start of the season. Last season he was 2-3 over 72.0 innings of work while posting a 6.13 ERA. Last season he pitched in relief for three innings over two games against the Mets allowing one earned run. The Mets have the following numbers on Rogers:

Wright 0-0, 2 BB

Reyes 1-1

Pagan 1-1

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets start their second home series of the season tonight with the Rockies. The Mets were cruising to a victory yesterday until the some hiccups in the bullpen and inability to bring runners home from third cost the Mets the game and the series. Tonight's game should be interesting as the Mets look to see if Mike Pelfrey will look more like the ace he has the ability to be. In his first two games of the season he is 0-1 with an ERA of around 15. Last season he was 2-0 with allowing 0 ER over 14 innings of work against the Rockies. Hopefully he can channel that into his game tonight. The Rockies have the following numbers on Big Pelf:

Tulowitzki 5-15, 2B

Helton 6-10, HR

Fowler 2-10, 2B

Wiggington 1-8

Gonzalez 2-5, 2B, HR

Jason Hammel will be getting the start for the Rockies tonight and he is looking to bounce back from a rough first start of the season where he allowed 4 ER over 6 innings. Last season Jason was 10-9 with a 4.81 ERA over 177.2 innings. He lost his only start against the Mets last year pitching 7 innings allowing 4 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Hammel:

Pagan 2-6

Reyes 2-4

Beltran 2-3

Davis 1-3, 2B

Murphy 1-1, 2B

It's worth nothing that the Mets have a .359 BA against Hammel, 14-39, but only two extrabase hits.

Let's Go Mets!

I wouldn't say 4-5 is a failure at this point, but the Mets could be better than. Part of the problem has been the bullpen, and I think after 9 days it is time for a change. Boyer did a good job in Spring but just couldn't get it done right now in the major leagues. Luckily the Mets have depth, because you need depth in these situations, and the Mets were able to bring up two pitchers to help out with consistency in the pen.

(It is worth noting that the pen has had to get through a lot of work in this opening week as the starters are still building arm strength, which seems to be a phenomenon across the league and I wonder if moving the season up by half a week has had an impact on the time pitchers were able to get ready this season).

Anyway, Izzy says he is ready, and he could be a nice addition to the pen. Also Igarashi has shown in the past that he can be very effective, and the opposite is also true. I think this is a good move just to bring some additional consistency in the pen.

With regards to Duda, we have learned in the first week that Harris is a threat with the bat, so it is detrimental for Duda to be in the majors at this point. He needs to play everyday or near everyday, which was not happening with the big league club.

We all know that we are in the age of mass exploitation. You win a world series? Fantastic! You have the right to buy shirts, hats, sweatshirts, blankets, posters, bumper stickers, furniture, any thing you can think of with your team and World Series Champions covered all over it.

I also like the ring ceremony for the winning team. It's nice. The rings look fantastic, the players look so happy and the fans usually get in on it with some nice replica rings.

However this maybe taking it too far.

You can now buy shirts that commemorate the ring ceremony? Really? I'm not surprised but, really MLB?

Three series played in 2011. Three rubber games played. In the first series of the season, the Mets were able to take the rubber game on the road against the Marlins, something they struggled to do all last season. In the last series against the Phillies, the Mets were not able to win the rubber game. Now the Amazin's are at home against the Nationals and have another shot at winning a rubber game. In the first game of the series the Mets were wild and it cost them the game. Last night they stuck around all night, constantly scratched back and were able to get out with a 8-4 win. This afternoon Jason Marquis will get the ball for the Nationals while the Mets send out the tallest person ever in Chris Young.

Chris had a very memorable first game as a Met, and it wasn't for his pitching. Going 5.1 innings, allowing only one earned run and striking out 7 in Philly for your Mets debut is memorable but he also made Mets history with his bat. Young became the first Mets pitcher ever to have two hits in the same inning, and would go on to have a 3-3 day at the plate. The last time Young has pitched against the Nationals was back in 2008 where he picked up the win in 7 innings of work allowing 0 runs over 2 hits, 4 walks and 5 K's. The Nationals have these numbers on Young:

LaRoche 3-18, 2B, HR

Zimmerman 3-11, 2B, HR

Pudge 0-6

Werth 0-4

Ankiel 0-3

The Mets will see a familiar foe in Jason Marquis today who in his first start pitched 6.2 innings allowing 2 earned runs. He hasn't seen the Mets since 2009 where he went 0-2 over two starts and 11 innings pitched allowing 8 runs (7 earned). The Mets have the following numbers on Jason:

Wright 12-30, 2 2B, 2 HR

Reyes 9-28, 2B

Beltran 4-21, HR

Murphy 3-9, 3 2B

Pagan 2-10

Capuano 2-5, 2B (For Real)

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and Nationals play game two tonight in Citi Field. Both teams will have starters making their first start of the season as the Mets will try out new pitcher Chris Capuano and the Nationals will try out their new pitcher in Tom Gorzelanny. Last night was a fairly frustrating game to watch as walking 9 batters just does not sit well. The Mets look to reverse that tonight and get some hits on a way to a victory.

Chirs Capuano has pitched .2 innings this season allowing one earned run. Last season he had a 3.95 ERA in 66.0 innings of work, and that was his first time back in the majors since 2007 due to injury. In his career he has faced the Washington Nationals 4 times with a 1-2 record over 27.2 innings of work and a 3.58 ERA. The Nationals have the following numbers on Chris:

Hairston 4-14, HR

LaRoche 2-7

Zimmerman 4-7, 2B, HR

Werth 1-5

Ankiel 0-3

The Mets will face former Chicago Cub Tom Gorzelanny who was 7-9 with a 4.09 ERA over 136.1 innings last season. He faced the Mets once last season picking up the loss in 5.2 innings of work allowing 2 earned runs, 4 runs total over 4 hits, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts. The Mets have the following numbers on Tom:

Reyes 2-10

Wright 3-10, 3 2B

Beltran 0-2

Davis 2-3

Lets Go Mets!