213 Miles From Shea

The Mets look to avoid the sweep in the Windy City this afternoon as they take on the Cubs for game three. The Cubs offense was too much for the Mets on Friday and yesterday the Mets just couldn't get it done as they played catchup the entire game. Today they hope for a better start from Jon Niese who has struggled in his last couple of starts. Two starts ago he allowed 7 ER over 5.2 innings and last timeout he allowed 3 ER over 4.2 innings, however he allowed 8 runs total. He had a good outing against the Cubs earlier this season where he allowed a run, none earned against Chicago in 5.2 innings. The Cubs have these numbers on Jon:

The Mets will get a crack at Dempster who 12-9 this season with a 3.71 ERA. He is coming off of a terrible start where he pitched three innings, allowing 7 hits and 7 ER. The last time that he played the Mets was in 2009 where he allowed 4 ER over 6 innings and still managed to get the win. The Mets have these numbers on Ryan:

Lets Go Mets!

This season has been a new type of frustration for Mets fans. Well maybe not a new type, just a type we were hoping to not have to experience. Essentially, for the vast majority of the season, we have been told that “we are a contender and because we are a contender, we now need to rush this prospect and force them into this role”. On face value, there is nothing too wrong with this statement because we were a contender for a period of time. The problem arises in statements like, “The player hasn't succeeded in the role that we want him to, but we need to keep him around.”

Now we are just duping oursevles.

Gary and Keith had a great discussion about this yesterday. Keith obvisouly thinks that Mejia should have been down in AAA the entire time. Which is what we all think. Gary however played a good voice of reason. He explained what the Mets were thinking, and then where the Mets went wrong. The Mets were thinking we just lost Escobar and now we need an 8th inning man. Mejia should take that spot. Gary pointed out that this went wrong in April when it became clear that Mejia was not an 8th inning guy, and he should have been sent down at that point, not over a month later.

So what have we learned? We have now acquired a very specific example amoung many on why the problems with this organization go deeper than players and manager. That changes need to be made from the top down, where it goes all the way up to the owner, where the owner needs to reevaluate how accomplish the goal of winning a championship.

We reached the end of our journey for the 2005 Mr. Met commercials! In this final entry, Mr. Met digs up a blast from the past, the bullpen car, and tries to launch in the air by driving it over an ramp:

The Mets lost a disappointing game yesterday, but they have to put it behind them as they play another day game in the Windy City as Jenry Mejia makes his Major League start. Mejia has been on a tear recently as he destroyed AA ball and then in his only AAA start he went 8 strong innings allowing only one earned run. In his brief time in the Majors earlier this season, he was effective as he had an 0-2 record and a 3.25 ERA. Also earlier this season, he pitched two scoreless innings against the Cubs who have these numbers against him:

On the other side of the mound, the Mets get to see the always entertaining Carlos Zambrano as he looks to continue his 6-6 record with a 4.36 ERA. He was the losing pitcher the last time these teams met in April as he pitched 6 innings while allowing 6 hits and 2 earned runs. The Mets have these numbers on Carlos:

Lets Go Mets!

We are nearing the end of our journey! In this installment, Mr. Met decides that the radar guns used by scouts and for the in house speed clock would be better used clocking how fast Mr. Met can run:

The Mets left Atlanta late last night as winners (finally) and their reward is a day game after a night game on the road in two different cities (seriously, that disappointing scheduling). Anyway, the Amazin's descend into the Windy City as they look to make it two in a row behind R.A. Dickey this afternoon. Dickey rebounded really nicely from his poor start (two starts ago) by going 7 strong innings allowing only 1 ER. Robert Allen has actually never pitched in Chicago and has never faced the Cubs anywhere so there are only three batters he has faced on the current Cubs team. Byrd and DeWitt are both 0-2 and Soriano is 1-2.

The Mets will get a crack at Randy Wells today and he is 6-12 this season with a 4.50 ERA. In his last two starts he has allowed 7 ER over 12 innings, so he is looking for the rebound tonight and he is doing it against a team that he had success against earlier this season when he pitched 6 innings of one run ball against the Mets, in a game the Cubs eventually lost. The Mets have these numbers on Wells:

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets end their four game set with the Braves tonight as they still look to avoid the sweep. Johan Santana will take the mound for the Amazins who need some positive starting pitching (and some offense, but whatever). In his last outing he pitched 7 innings while allowing 4 ER in an losing effort. He is 1-1 this year against the Braves in three games with 21.0 innings logged and a 2.57 ERA. The Braves have these numbers against the ATL:

The Mets have to deal with Timmy Hudson tonight who is 15-5 this year with a sparkling 2.24 ERA. He is coming off of a great start where he allowed only one earned run over 7 innings of work. He is 2-0 against the Mets this year over 13.0 innings pitched with a 0.69 ERA. The Mets have these numbers against Tim:

Lets Go Mets!

On Tuesday we saw the first variant of the Mr. Met golfing commercial and today we get to see the second one, where Mr. Met causes a bit more damage than he did the first time around:

September 1st brought a new chapter in the life of Joaquin Arias. The once highly touted prospect was traded away from an organization that was loosing faith in him to an organization that is searching for answers. Arias may already be coming into New York with an interesting target on his back. The Mets fans may (and I really do mean may, its just a possibility) expect big things from Arias since he was traded for an everyday Major League player.

At this point in Arias's career, which has had him bouncing around from the Majors and the Minors since he was 21, he needs to find a spark to get his career in motion. The good about Arias is that he is quick. He is quick on the field, and quick on the base paths. He also gets hits. He is a career .286 hitter and this season a .276 hitter. The problem is that has practically zero power and zero patience at the plate. In his 101 AB this year he has 2 BB and 6 extra base hits. When that is the case, he needs to be hitting .276 (which is ok to hit when you are slugging and getting on base in other ways).

Even as early of 2007 he was still on the top 10 list of the Rangers prospect ranked at #6. In the 2004 and 2005 season he was hitting above .300 in the minors. Things were looking ver good. He was brought up for a very quick stint in 2006 where he smoked the ball going 6-11. The next time he retuned was 2008 where he went 32-110 (.291 BA) with 7 doubles and 3 triples. That is where he had the height of the performance. In 2009 he took a huge slide in the minors only hitting .266 and then when he went to the majors he went 0-8.

Now its 2010. In a young career Arias has been all over the place. The only way for the Mets to know what they have in him is to let him play and let him take Castillo's spot (we can't keep using him off the bench if we want an in-depth view). He projects right now to be a utility infielder, to be carried for his defense and thats about it.

The calendar flipped to September, which means it is acceptable now for a team to fall out of contention mathematically (sorry Pirates and Orioles). In step with what was alluded in the last edition of this article, now that the Pirates and Orioles are out, it will be a few days, probably 5 at least until the next falls from all hope for the 2010 season:

It's the race to mathematically hopelessness and as almost as exciting as the race for the best pick in next year's draft!