213 Miles From Shea

The other day I read a really interesting article in the New York Times last week about the dirt in St. Lucie. Apparently they finally decided to bring the same dirt that is used in the infield in Queens down to Florida. The coaches interviewed in the article talk about how it just makes logical sense to practice on the same material that you will playing on all year.

I full heartily agree.

I am also confused. Why did this take so long to figure out (assuming that St Lucie didn't have Shea dirt when Shea was made). Playing on a different surface is like using an SAT study guide to prepare for GRE Exam. Or actually, better yet, it's like learning how to drive in a broken down car, when you are going to use a clean, efficient, working car on the driving exam. It just makes sense to practice in the closest scenario to the real thing as possible.

So rather than complain about the Mets not making good decisions early, let's celebrate them switching over to correct idea. I'm sure the playing surface in Spring Training will not impact the team significantly going forward, but it may have some impact.

Anyway, if you get a chance read the article. It's a good read.

The Mets improved to 4-4-1 and to 2.5 games back of the Grapefruit League “Championship”. Anyway, the big story of the game was Carlos Beltran who went 1-3 in his Spring debut and scored a run. He has been quoted this morning that he feels the good type of sore today, and will most likely DH again today. The Mets also flashed some power today as Ike Davis blasted his first homer of Spring (a two run shot) and then Duda hit a homer later in the game that put the Mets back in the lead. Other hitters that had a good day yesterday would be Pagan who went 1-3 with a double, Murphy who went 1-3, Bay who went 2-3, 2 R, RBI, and Hairston who also went 2-3.

I'm not concerned about Wright, as he has had productive outs in Spring. But he has not had a hit in a Spring Training Game yet.

In terms of pitching yesterday, Krod had a good outing pitching a perfect inning with a strikeout. Igarashi also had a good outing allowing no hits, walking one and striking out 2. Niese wasn't bad, slightly worse than average yesterday, pitching 3.2 innings allowing 2 ER. What was promising was he struck out 4 batters. I'm assuming, I don't know for sure, that he may have hit a pitch count limit yesterday. IF he got one more out, statistically he would have been average. So all in all, it was a positive outing for NIese as well yesterday.

Next up for the Amazins is two straight days of Izzy pitching and more Beltran hitting.

I of course think of the Mets.

This entry isn't meant to be as critical as more of “How'd they think of this?” While surfing through Mets products for this entry, I came across a series of Plush toys that featured the Mets logo and cap on a Pretzel, Ice Cream Cone, Hamburger and Peanut. I completely understand why these products exist. They're cute, the appeal to young children, they have the Mets logo on them, they sell, they aren't stupid. Also, I'm fairly confident, on just speculation alone, that this wasn't an original idea by the New York Mets. I just wish I could have been wit the company that decided one day to make this for the first sports team/city/corporation etc.

Anyway, here are the pictures:

The Ice Cream Cone.

The Pretzel.

The Peanut.

The Hamburger.

The Mets dropped a game to the Braves today by the score of 6-4. The “story” that MLB.com has been pushing was the Braves flirting with a no hitter for a period of time. Essentially what happened today was the vast majority of starters went hitless in todays game (Wright 0-2, Reyes 0-2, Harris 0-3, Thole 0-2). Ike Davis also went hitless today, but he also had no official AB's (0-0, 2 BB). Nick Evans continued to impress yesterday as he picked up a hit, as did Fernando Martinez (another double). Only one Met had more than one hit today as Turner finally had a good day at the plate going 2-2.

Mike Pelfrey wasn't perfect today but he was terrible either. He pitched 3 innings allowing 4 hits, 2 runs and one earned while walking none and striking out none. Dillon Gee was next up, and he struggled in his two innings of work allowing 3 earned runs and a homer while striking out 1 and walking 1. Parnell and Beato each contributed a scoreless inning of work while walking one batter.

Through 8 games now we are starting to learn a few things about this Mets club. First, Collins likes Evans (which is awesome) and is giving him every chance he can to prove himself and try to wedge himself in the roster. We are also learning that Beato could fit in the bullpen, as he has steadily improved over the last week. Finally, we are seeing another Spring where Martinez is fantastic, but the question remains if he and his health can keep it together during the regular season.

Up next for the Mets is the big reveal of Carlos Beltran this afternoon at home against the Red Sox. Niese and Krod will get opportunities to pitch. Murphy will get the start at 2B. Also, Monday and Tuesday Izzy will pitch on back to back days.

The Mets and the Marlins played their first of like 7 or 8 games this Spring (thats a lot against a team we are going to play 18 times over the regular season) yesterday, and the Mets took the first game by the score of 4-3. We have focused a lot of pitching here, so I want to start off with the bats, just to give them an equal representation on this website. Anyway, there were three Mets hitters who had two hits. Evans went 2-3 with 2 R and a BB. Hairston 2-3, R, 2B. Duda 2-3, RBI (and thats nice to see cause he has been struggling this season). Fmart had a chance to increase his high Spring Batting average, instead he got a walk. In short, lots of positives with the bats. The only negative was Castillo was 0-3 followed by Emaus being 0-2.

Chris Young had another good day, and thats great. He went 3.0 IP with 2 hits and one unearned run while walking 2 and striking one out. What is critical about his performance is he did not have his best stuff by far, yet he was still effective. That is really promising (I am overflowing with optimism about Young on the roster). Misch took a step back today allowing 2 runs, 1 earned over 2 innings with 5 hits. While that isn't terrible, when he is on the outside bubble of the rotation looking in, thats not going to help him. Oh, and Carrasco did well.

After 7 games now, what is becoming clear for this Mets team is that the options in competition positions are looking good. It doesn't look like we are deciding between the lesser of two evils. Which is refreshing and awesome. But I probably say that every Spring.

Perez may have made things more complicated by appearing competent on the mound, but don't let that fool you, he won't be on this team.

It was announced earlier today via the Daily News that Oliver is not factoring into the Mets rotation in 2011. This makes sense. The Mets have essentially three positions locked (Pelfrey, Dickey, Niese) with two more positions essentially locked by recent acquisitions (Capuano, Young) and then have two other players trying to break in (Gee, Misch). There is no room for Perez. Especially when you consider the hopeful return of Santana in July.

What that leaves for Perez is the bullpen. Terry has already stated that he has about two spots open in the bullpen, and there seems to be 7 or more players going for those two spots. For Perez to get one, the Mets have to have to say, “We Believe that Oliver Perez is more dependable and predictable than these other players. We believe he is more effective than these other players.” Although he did well today, can the Mets really say that with confidence?

That's why I feel the next appearance for Perez will be a big one as he will have to be as effective as he was yeas yesterday again to show that he could be a reliable arm in the pen.

I just don't see that happening.

The Mets stopped their slide with a shutout win over the Cardinals yesterday by the score of 3-0. The main headline of the day was Oliver Perez, who needed to perform in order to stay with the team, and he did that by pitching 2 scoreless innings allowing 2 hits while walking 0 and striking out 0. It was a big day for Perez, but it hasn't answered all of the question marks around him yet (there will be a more detailed post about that at Noon today). After Perez was another controversial pitcher for the Mets, Frankie Rodriguez. Krod was pretty good today. He allowed a hit, but also struck out a batter showing that he can throw the ball effectively. As you can imagine, going down the list, since the Mets staff pitched a shutout (8 pitchers today) it was a big day for everybody. Other participants in this was Capuano, Izzy, and Mejia. Out of that group, we already know that Capuano is most likely going to be with the team and Mejia is going to AAA, so the question mark is Izzy. He threw another good inning (on blight was a walk) as he continues to be a surprise contender for the Mets bullpen.

Some quick offense highlights:

Reyes 1-3
Tejada 1-1 (Now Batting .556 in Spring)
Wright 0-1, RBI, BB
Davis 2-2, 2B, RBI, BB (Big Day)
Murphy 1-3, RBI
Fmart 1-2, BB (Now Batting .600)
Thole 2-3

The only player who had a really bad day at the plate was Duda (0-4) but he really wasn't factoring too much into this 2011 squad anyway. It was just an all around good day for a number of players on the Mets, and it is hard to not get filled with optimism and hope seeing the Mets performing the way they are.

The Mets dropped another Spring Training Game yesterday, but that really doesn't matter. What does matter is that it was Dickey's first start of Spring, and he looked pretty good. He pitched 3 innings allowing 1 earned run over three hits while striking out 4. From various reports, he was keeping hitters off balance and it was just good to hear that Dickey was Dickey. If this feels like deju vu, it should as this was pretty much exactly what I was saying yesterday after Neise's start. We may only be one week into Spring Training games, but there seems to be a lot to be happy about in terms of starting pitchers.

Three Mets had double hits yesterday, and they are all people I'm happy to see produce. First would be Bay who went 2-3 at the plate and it is just nice to see him hit because if Bay is like Bay, that is a huge boost for this lineup. The second is the player everyone forgets who is trying to get on the bench, Nick Evans, who went 2-4 with a double. Finally there was Tejada who was playing SS going 2-3, with an RBI. As he continues to kill the ball, he really may be working himself back into the 2B conversation as he has the benefits of the glove, which Murphy and Emaus do not.

The Mets will play the Cardinals again today, and this time it will be on SNY, MLB.tv, etc.

The Mets dropped their second game in a row this Spring yesterday, 5-3, to the Washington Nationals (like it actually means something). There was god news for the Mets rotation once again yesterday as Jon Niese got the start, and he did a pretty good job. He pitched 3 innings allowing 2 hits, 2 BB, and 2 K's. So while his WHIP was over 1, he didn't allow any runs and he was effective. The rotation is going to be key for this team, and so far things aren't looking so bad yet. Parnell also had an average outing as he pitched two innings, allowed an earned run with 4 hits. Ideally he doesn't want to give up as many hits as he did yesterday, but it wasn't a bad day for him. Also having a good day yesterday was Beato who pitched a scorless inning where he allowed one hit. The only pitcher who struggled yesterday was Alvarez who allowed 4 ER in one inning of work.

Fernando Martinez continued his killing the ball yesterday going 2-3 with his first double of the Spring. He is now batting .625 this Spring, but he isn't going to go to Queens if he isn't going to start. Besides that there really wasn't much to write home about with the Mets bats. Emaus got to play and went 1-3, but, really not a lot to concentrate on yesterday.

It has been a good couple of years since MLB has done any major changes to the Opening Day logo. For the most part the logo really hasn't changed much at all in the last few years:

The 2010 Logo.

The 2009 Logo.

The 2008 Logo.

The 2007 Logo.

The 2006 Logo.

As you can imagine, the idea of having an opening day logo is a rather new one, when Baseball started to move closer to the idea of a spectacle in the late capitalist economy. The adding of a logo adds to the grander of the event, the cognitive dissonance of going to Opening Day, and the manufactured “fun” of day. At the heart of that previous really cynical statement, is the idea that Opening Day was fine before all of the added Hoop-Lah.

As you can see there is a fairly uniform theme in these logos, and they are big departure from the 2002 and the 2003 logos.

Finally we get to the 2011 logo. It still has the main theme of the 2006-2010 logos, but the new font is a departure from the old in a big way, so it's welcomed. You can probably tell from my wording previously that I am not too fond of the idea of this logo, but yet it exists so I share it with you.