213 Miles From Shea

Quasi Positive news in Metsville today. Well, not really positive as its just nice to not have to hear about criminal cases and mediocre play on the field. The word on the street is, via Adam Rubin of ESPNEWYORK, is that Dan Murphy is still working on playing second base. Furthermore, he will play second in the Arizona Fall League and in the Dominican League this winter (giving us something to watch, I hope).

This is great news for the Mets because now the Mets have a slew of options at second base for next season, barring something stupid (ie, trying to acquire Chrone Figgins, keeping Luis Castillo, etc). I'm generally happy about the Murphy situation for another reason because now I can wear my Murphy shirt in public in DC and instead of giving a long complicated story of who he is, I can just say, “Oh, he's on the bench”.

Essentially going into next season these are the Mets options at second base:

At this moment in time, if I was forced to make a decision right now, I would go with Tejada. He is young, great defensively and his bat might come around. It's worth giving Turner another look and then I guess we will see what happens.

Without thinking too much, the person who should be most worried in this situation is Chris Carter. He already is the bat off the bench and not really a defensive replacement. Murphy probably provides a similar offense off the bench but Murphy can play corner OF (like Carter), second, and first.

This will probably a topic of conversation all winter again, like last offseason with Murphy at first base.

The Mets and the Marlins play game two tonight, a night after the Mets were officially mathematically eliminated from all post season play in 2010. The Mets look for Niese to bounce back from his last outing tonight as last time he allowed 6 runs over 4 innings of work. It is worth to note, however, that he allowed 0 ER, and defensive miscues around him were just killer. The Marlins have been terrible for Niese this year as he has a 1-3 record over 4 games and a 5.66 ERA against them. Hopefully he will be able to turn it around today. Anyway here are the Marlins numbers against Niese:

The Mets will get their third look at Sanabia tonight. In June they saw him in relief where allowed 1 ER, 2 runs total over 2 innings of work and then saw him as a starter in August where he picked up the win in 6.1 innings of work allowing 2 ER, 3 total against the Amazin's. Overall on the season Sanabia is 4-3 with a 3.88 with about 60 innings of work. The Mets have these numbers on Alex:

Lets Go Mets!

What has been pretty consistent with this season, the Mets last week were both very good and very bad. They swept the Pirates in a four game set only to face the Braves and be swept by them. The Mets, with an elimination number of 1 in the Wild Card, look to rebound tonight as they take on the Marlins and their rookie starter Mendez.

Pelfrey is coming off of a strong start in his last outing. Pelfrey is actually 2-0 in his last two starts with 14.1 innings logged in with an ERA of 2.51. His one start against the Marlins was rough this season as he allowed 4 ER over 4.2 innings (and it seems the Marlins always give him some sort of problem). The fish have these numbers against him:

The Mets get their first crack at 28 year old rookie Mendez who is 1-1 in his two starts in the majors with a 1.74 ERA. His first start against the Phillies was very good as he picked up the win 6 innings of shutout ball. Eight days later he pitched against the Phillies again and allowed 4 runs, 2 earned in 4.1 innings of work. So he's had ups and downs against the same team.

Lets Go Mets!

One of the things I am concerned about for this upcoming off season is that the Mets will make changes, but the changes won't actually be changes, and it will just usher in another era of the same old same old in New York. Essentially, what I am nervous about is ownership playing up all of their changes, when in fact the changes are just who holds the titles, but the results will still be the same.

I was actually going to hold off writing this article until the end of the season, but with Torre's comments yesterday about how he is waiting for the phone to ring from the Mets office and would love to hear their offer, I feel compelled to write this article now. The following are crucial events to either in order to have actual change next season:

Those are the three main things the Mets need to do this offseason from an office standpoint to make sure changes will actually come to Queens by next season. If any of the above three don't happen, then there is a good chance that mid way through next season,.we will see the Mets acting like this year because the personality change via a personnel change did not occur.

There were a lot of skeptical looks at the New York Daily News last week when one of its writers came out in support for Mazzilli for Mets manager, a name that at that point of time was not being thrown around by anyone. I've been thinking about it for a week, and I think under certain conditions, that is exactly right. First a preliminary introduction of “canididates”, names that different people in or outside the organziation have thrown around, with a brief amount of information of what they bring to the table:

We can toss out a bunch of names on this list from the start. Bob Melvin, Joe Torre and Jerry all are wrong for this young team who need some passion from who ever is managing the team. That leaves Backman, Valentine and Mazzilli. The problem with Backman is we really don't know what we will get from him. He doesn't have the experience, and in this critical junction in Mets history, trial by fire is not the way to go. He could be very successful, but we need more time to see. He should manage at higher level or join the bench somewhere for a bit to see what he can do.

In a perfect world Bobby V is the perfect fit. The problem for Bobby V is the money. The Wilpons are some sort of money binge and while they know you have to spend money to make money, their money over the last two seasons has been placed in all the wrong places and the deal to bring Bobby V to New York might be too much money over too long a period of time to get him here. In a perfect world, he is the perfect fit, but this isn't a perfect world.

Because we don't live in a perfect world, Lee Mazzilli should be highly considered. He has some experience, and he wasn't terrible as an Oriole manager and he has a lot of the other qualities that the other members of this list have, except he hasn't led a team to the playoffs.

To actually understand what life for Mazzilli was in Baltimore while he was here, you need to talk to a Mets fan living in Baltimore during that time. Lucky for you, I am that person, and I have a good amount to say. The public was pretty much against Lee from the beginning because he was a New Yorker. This ranged from fan, to media to owner. If there was something wrong with the team, it was that manager from New York's fault. Because of this, a lot of his success was forgotten. One season he essentially had the Orioles in first place until May and this was in the height of the Yankees and really that great Red Sox team. He was then handed one of the toughest situations that a team can handle. One of the best players on the team, the player who just got his 3000th hit that season and was immensley popular, Rafeal Palmeiro, turned up a positve sterioids test.

At that point the entire team fell apart as Lee couldn't help with the moral in the lockerroom and helping the players through the media boom. Since then Lee has been a part of the media in New York, and the media is something that the most of the players in New York are already used to.

Mazzilli also has fire. I was at the game where got thrown out for a disputed home run call as Mazilli was fighting for his players and ended up throwing bubble gum all over the field.

In short, Lee Mazzilli was a lot better in Baltimore than history will let one remember, and if the Mets cannot afford Bobby V, then Lee would make a fantastic choice to lead the Amazins and their players who could really use a firey manager.

The Mets look to avoid the sweep this afternoon as they continue their series with the Braves. Yesterday, Gee kept the Mets in the game throughout his outing but the Mets were not able to get players from bases to the plate as the Mets lost yesterday by the score of 4-2. The Mets will look to bounce back today vs Lowe while Dickey goes out to fight the Braves.

Dickey was amazing in his last outing where he allowed only one earned run on his way to pitch a complete game win. That outing pushed his ERA down to 2.80 and rasied his innings pitched to 154.1 (which is important because if he wants to get the team ERA crown, he needs to finish with more than 162 innings pitched). Dickey this season is 0-1 over 2 starts against the Braves with a 3.55 ERA. The Braves have these numbers against Robert Allen:

The Mets will get another crack this season at Dereck Lowe who is 13-12 this season with a 4.22 ERA. In the month of September, Lowe has recorded 14 innings pitched and has allowed only 1 earned run. He has also faced the Mets three times this season totaling 18.1 innings, allowed 6 ER (2.95 ERA) with an 0-2 record. The Mets have these numbers against Lowe:

Lets Go Mets!

We end our musical week tour with a classic, redone. As you noticed I really avoided posting Meet the Mets, because we all have heard in numerous times. In the 80's, the team actually had a cover of it done. It sounds slightly different, and its an interesting take on a sports music classic:

The Mets dropped the first game of the series last night and look to rebound this afternoon behind rookie Dillon Gee. Gee has been phenomenal in his first two starts of the season where he has allowed only one earned run in 13 innings of work while striking out 7. In those 13 innings of work he has allowed only 14 base runners in the form of seven walks and seven hits. Also, since he has made only two starts this season, he has not faced anybody on the Braves yet.

The Mets batters will get a familiar face this afternoon in Tim Hudson who is 15-8 with a 2.62 ERA this season. He is 0-3 in his last three starts with an ERA of 6.03. His first loss of those three was against the Mets where he allowed 3 earned, 4 total runs in 7 innings of work. The Mets have these numbers on Tim:

Lets Go Mets!

Atlanta could be in trouble. After commanding the division for the majority of the season, they now find themselves three games out. In the Wild Card their lead has shrunk to half a game as the insanely hot West look to upset the power in the National League that looked set all season. The Braves are probably looking forward to playing three games against the Mets. So guys, tonight it is time to play spoiler. The Mets have now won 4 games in a row and are looking to cause a little noise in the East before the season closes.

The Mets will be sending out Jon Niese tonight had a good start in his outing as he pitched 7 innings with 3 ER. Tonight could be a big personal night for him as he looks to get to double digit wins this season, something he really deserves and probably would have it, if it wasn't for the Mets offense at times. He is 0-1 against the Braves this season in two games but has a nice 3.60 ERA. The Braves have these numbers on Jon:

The Mets will get another crack at Tommy Hanson this season who is 9-11 with a 3.54 ERA. He has had a very good month of September where he has pitched 20 innings with an ERA of 1.80. He has also been very good against the Mets this season with a 1-1 record with an ERA of 1.02. Hopefully the Mets can light him up tonight. The Mets Sport these numbers:

Lets Go Mets!

Ok folks, lets leave the 80's today to bring this gem from modern times. The song is based off of Whine Up, and the singer who sang Whine up also did this song, which adds to its feel. This is a good one folks: