213 Miles From Shea

Somewhere along the line I forgot to analyze the new Washington Set. Washington has been plagued by an Identity crisis since its inception. They list different establishment years (is the Senators? the Expos? the most current team). Do they use the DC logo or the W? This current uniform set try to reconcile the latter issue by completely switching the Nationals to the “W”. They no longer have the DC logo on the uniforms, on the hats, and on the blue jerseys. All of the home jerseys look like copies of their old red, “softball” style uniforms. You can look at the old uniform set here.

Anyway they kept the road uniform the same and they kept the Red Alternate uniform the same. The change now occurs in the White Home Uniform and the Blue Home Uniform. So they lost the script on the White uniforms that was always getting misspelled and they replaced the DC with a W on the Blue uniforms. Also if you look at the sleeves, the main logo patch also has the W on it now.

Look the Nationals set was pretty bad to begin with. The best upgrade they ever did was to the road uniforms last year. There was a prototype for a new home uniform that I wrote about earlier, that had a script Nationals plate that looked pretty nice. I will come off as highly critical of this new set because I don't like softball style jerseys.

The positives of the new set is they have unifying theme now, an identity, and the Red that DC loves to show off has a strong placehold.

The negatives are first, the Blue shouldn't exist, it doesn't fit in with the culture they are trying to develop between all the sport teams in DC. Second, the softball style uniforms is a little much every night, which they will now have for at least 81 games this year. Overall, the new set is an upgrade of what they used to have, but not an overall upgrade to what they could have had.

16 Days Until Spring Training!

A few weeks ago we discussed the importance of the Tankersley signing for memorable facial hair on the team, but we didn't really get into who Taylor is, or the merits he brings as a non-roster invitee to camp this year.

Taylor was a very good player in high school (Vicksburgh, Mississippi) and had success in college (three years at the University of Alabama). His strengths and talents were the reasons why the Marlins selected him in the first round of the 2004 draft. He made his debut when he was 23 years old in what was his best season as a pitcher in the majors recording a 2-1 record and a 2.85 ERA in 49 games and 41 innings pitched. His second season wasn't as good as his first, but was still pretty good with a 3.99 ERA (also as a side note, in his second season he had a 6-1 record, which is fantastic for a reliever, you normally don't think of a reliever picking up that many wins or having that type of spread of wins and losses in a season). From 2008 on he has been bounced around the Marlins organization levels as he struggles with various arm injuries.

Last season in the minors he posted a 3.42 ERA in 26.1 innings of work while striking out 22 batters in the AAA level. The Mets are looking for Taylor to factor in at the battle to be left handed specialist (ie Feliciano's replacement). He will be 28 this upcoming season, and could be a valuable part of the Mets and at least adds an interesting piece of depth to the roster.

Those of you who have read this blog for four years now (officially today! really!) know that one concept I struggle with is who is the Mets rival. Is it the Braves? Is it the Phillies? At what point does being competitive with a team mean that we are rivals? When does the length of a “hatred” make it a rivalry?

Well I've had a change of heart now. With the consumer consumption culture associated with major sport leagues in the United States, I feel it is appropriate to declare a team is our rival when makers of products declare that we have a rival and we need to spend money to punctuate it (yes this oozes with cynicism). Anyway, feast your eyes on the crowning item that declares the rival of the New York Mets:

Source

Yeah. I'll admit. I'm completely fine with the Phillies being our rival, because now their is a knockoff of a childhood favorite board game declaring it (sarcasm again, but on another point, I will admit now that I do see Philly as a rival). It's a bit of a ridiculous item, but with all of the other ridiculous items out their in the world, for baseball and for board games, this product fits in, and has brethren.

Dear Readers,

Thank you for another great year! It was four years ago today that I decided to start blogging about the New York Mets, a team where misery somehow equals a good time, some of the time.

Anyway, it has been a really big year for this website as we partnered up here with Yard Barker which has caused a boom in traffic. We started to do some reoccurring series like Memorabilia Monday, Facial Hair Friday etc. Hopefully they will start up again with this upcoming season. This year my goal is to double the readership. In the last four years there have been about 56,000 visitors to this website, with around 20 K from last year. Knowing that, I would love this year to have 50 K, making the total over 100 K. This is a difficult goal, but maybe it can be reached, only with your help of course.

Speaking of this season. There is a lot to be excited about! The team is a bit of a mystery, there are no expectations, yet on paper we don't seem terrible. Let's just have a good time this year, win some games, make some noise, and do something great.

Lets Go Mets!

And Thanks For Reading –

Elliot Teichman

17 Days Until Spring Training!

We continue down a list of non-roster invitee Pitchers to Spring Training with Mike O'Connor. Mike is a 30 year old pitcher who made his debut with the Washington Nationals is 2006. Since the 2006 season, where he had 105 innings logged, he hasn't really pitched at all except for 9 innings with Nationals in 2008. He has also bounced all over the place in the last few years as he was traded from the Nationals to the Padres in 2009 midseason. Later that same season he was released and then picked up by the Royals to finish the season. The Mets signed before the start of the 2010 season.

Looking at his 2010 numbers with Bisons, it is easy to see why the Mets want to at least look at him this Spring before setting rosters. This past season he pitched in 51 games totaling 70.2 innings with a 2.67 ERA where he also recorded 6 saves. The most striking statistics for Mike last season was his K/BB ratio which was at 4.12. He struck out 70 batters while only walking 17. So he strikes out one batter per inning, on average and his ratio is fantastic.

It is players like O'Connor that get me very frustrated with Perez. Can you image if O'Connor was given a chance last season? His numbers in the minors were fantastic and he is also a left handed tosser.

If he has a strong start to Spring Training, one that reflects his numbers from last season, expect him to stay in camp longer than people originally expected (if they expected anything).

Get Excited For This One.

On Friday, Uni Watch Blog had a link in their main article that showed the new uniform for the Oakland Athletics.

But before we discuss the uniform, we need to have some back story. The Athletics are one of those teams, like the Mets, who have black jerseys for really no reason. They have no black in their color scheme, yet the jerseys exist. The difference though is, unlike the Mets, the Athletics other home alternate is Forest Green (which makes sense cause that is one of their two colors) and Forest Green is rather dark, so the Athletics have had two dark uniforms.

The advantage to this gold uniforms is that punctuates the other main color of the Athletics, and, like their Forest Green Uniforms, is also unusual when compared to other teams, which is always a plus (the more variety across the league the better). So they will stop having a uniform like everyone else, and now will be more unique.

I am surprised to some degree that I like the uniforms, because I normally do not like uniforms with a team logo on one side of the front of Jersey, but the A looks so classy, it is really hard not to like this new uniform.

So upgrade to the Athletics, who now may have one of the best overall uniform sets in the majors.

18 Days Until Spring Training!

When the Met signed Byrdak on the 19th of January, I was wondering why his name sounded so familiar. After looking up his stats on Baseball Reference, I realized that he was on the Baltimore Orioles when I started to write this blog, and back then, since I was relying pretty much on Baltimore Newspapers to get by, I was very familiar with the Orioles club (now-a-days, I can hardly tell you about their pitching staff, but I think most people from Baltimore are in the same boat on that one, as the pitching staff nearly has a full turnover every season).

Anyways, Byrdak doesn't look to be a major component of this years pen (yet). The veteran (37 year old) has played nine seasons in the big leagues all as a reliever (343 games in those nine seasons). His career numbers look good though as he has pitched 266.2 innings with a 4.35 ERA. What has held him back in his career are injuries. He is another one of those players in camp that with a good Spring Training, could probably surprise his way onto the roster. Working against him is his minor league contract and non-40 man status, so if it comes down to similar players with similar numbers, he might lose out just on that. Anyway here are some objective numbers from the last two seasons.

2010 – 64 G, 38.2 IP, 3.49 ERA, 20 BB, 29 K

2009 – 76 G, 61.1 IP, 3.23 ERA, 36 BB, 58 K

As it stands, I wouldn't mind seeing him on the team as in the last three seasons he has appeared in at least 59 games and has an ERA under 4, which is very consistent as relievers are concerned.

Byrdak also brings a wealth of other stories with him. In 2003 he faced a 77 year old, Minnie Minoso, and according to his Wikipedia article, when was with the Tigers (2007), he worked the overnight shift at Target. (No Reference Though).

Earlier this week there was a discussion about the uniform changes to the Padres. At that time we had, via Uni Watch Blog, images of the uniform changes to the Sunday camo uniforms and the logo patch. Also at that time, it was said there was going to be a change to the Road uniform as well.

Well here is an image of it, via the ticker on Uni Watch Blog on this past Thursday.

Overall this is an upgrade. If you remember, the road uniform used to be sand, and the hat used to have a gold SD on it. This looks much better, probably because it looks more traditional.

Now that we have images for all of the uniform changes to the set, I think it is safe to say that these changes overall (including the change to the camo) are an overall upgrade to Padres uniform set.

19 Days To Spring Training!

We continue looking at non-roster invites today. Blaine Boyer signed a minor league contract with the Mets on January 21st, so only a few days ago. Boyer, if he makes the team, is a relief pitcher who continues to add to the depth of the bullpen the Mets wish to have in 2011. The will be 29 year old has bounced around between minors and the majors since his debut in 2005 at the age of 25.

Blaine was drafted out of high school by one of our favorite teams, the Atlanta Braves. He played a minor rule in their pen over the last few seasons. In 2009 he was traded to the Cardinals for Barton. He was later DFA'd and then picked up by the Diamondbacks. Now he is New York Met. Anyway here are some recent stats:

2010 (Major) – 57.0 IP, 3-2, 4.26 ERA, 54 G, 29 BB, 29 K

Majors Career – 227.1 IP, 6 Seasons, 4.63 ERA, 1.73 K/BB

Minors Career – 571.1 IP, 8 Seasons, 3.58 ERA, 1.89 K/BB

What impresses me about Boyer is K/BB, but if you look at 2010, those numbers were nothing like his career. They were .73 lower than his career in fact. This why I am intrigued about him being in on Mets camp. He was one of the best members in the Diamondbacks bullpen last season (which isn't saying much). Since he is not guaranteed a spot at all, he really does no harm. He's not going to be the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year, but he could be a benefit if the bullpen wears thin.

Hooray for depth?

Yesterday we here at 213 briefly discussed how the Mets didn't have any prospects on the Top 50 prospects list. There was also a report that came out earlier this week on ESPN that the Mets had the 26th best farm system (its really hard to use the word “best” in that scenario) in the league. So the question lingering is, who do we have in the system? In order to paint a picture in context, I wanted to compare lists of Top 10 Prospects for the 2011, 2010, and 2009 seasons. In each ranking, the 2011 name will be listed first, followed by 2010 and 2009. All are from Baseball America with the 2011 list from Matt Eddy and 2010/2009 lists come from Adam Rubin (and the difference in writers can of course make a difference when comparing rankings).

1. Jenry Mejia, Jenry Mejia, Fernando Martinez

2. Wilmer Flores, Wilmer Flores, Wilmer Flores

3. Cesar Puello, Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese

4. Matt Harvey, Ike Davis, Brad Holt

5. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Brad Holt, Bobby Parnell

6. Reese Havens, Jon Niese, Jefry Marte

7. Lucas Duda, Reese Havens, Jenry Mejia

8. Fernando Martinez, Josh Thole, Reese Havens

9. Aderlin Rodriguez, Ruben Tejada, Nick Evans

10. Brad Holt, Juan Urbina, Eddie Kunz

1. The Falling Stock of Fernando Martinez.

At the start of the 2009 season was the last really high point of the next hitting machine. Since then questions have risen about Martninez's health. For the most part his talents have not diminished but because he can't stay healthy, he hasn't been able to develop. This has put a question mark on his overall status as a player and as a trade chip.

2. The Constant Stock of Wilmer Flores

Flores is the only player to be at the same spot every year, and would be the only player to be able to do that. Flores came into the Mets as a young player, in fact last season he was 18 years old. I look forward to the rest of his development.

3. The “Disrespect” for Jon Niese

His stock dropped from 2009 to 2010, yet he is a key member of the team. He is, of course, not on the 2011 list because he is no longer a prospect. This goes to show the difficulty in compiling these lists.

4. Big Seasons Mean Big Rewards

Captain Kirk and Lucas Duda both had big seasons last year and their reward is they both have found themselves on the 2011 prospect list.

5. Other Quick Notes:

-Reese Havens Continues to Rise

-Brad Holt Continues to drop

-In addition, we have to feel bad for Nick Evans, and the lack of love he seems to receive.