213 Miles From Shea

The Mets look to clinch their last series of the season this afternoon while the Nationals are hoping to prevent another season where they do not reach the 70 win mark (yes folks, high stakes today). Last night's game featured another late September walk-off for this Mets club as Misch was fantastic as a starter and Thole played savior with his third homer of the year. Valdes will get the start for the Mets out of the pen today as Maya will get the start for the Nationals.

Valdes will get the start today, and it is his first start of the season and his career. He has had an up and down season totaling 53.1 innings, a 3-3 record with 2 holds and a 5.63 ERA. The Nationals have been able to hit Valdes this season as they have scored 5 earned runs over 8.2 innings of work. They have the following numbers on Raul:

The Mets will get a look at Maya who is 0-3 this season with 21 innings logged and a 6.43 ERA. He actually made his major league debut against the Mets where he allowed 4 ER over 5 innings in a loss. The Mets have the following numbers agianst Maya:

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets open up their last series of 2010 against the Nationals tonight. In last night's game, the Mets guranteed that they will have a losing season for a consecutive season. Tonight's game will feature Pat Misch for the Amazins and he will get to pitch against Zimmermann, who is constantly confused as a relative of Ryan Zimmerman, despite the different spellings of their last name.

Misch (0-4) had another “eh” start in his last outing as he pitched 4.2 innings allowing 3 ER against the Phillies. So far this season he has faced the Nationals once totalling only .1 innings pitched and just facing one batter. Anyway, the Nationals have these numbers on Pat:

On the other side of the mound will be Zimmermann. Jordan is 1-2 this season with a 5.67 ERA. He faced the Mets earlier this season pitching 4 innings allowing one earned runs, three runs total. The Mets have these numbers on Jordan:

Lets Go Mets!

Here's a tradition that even the young Mets fans can remember. Victory Smokes. Victory Cigars. Whatever you want to call them. One of the most iconic images of the 2006 Playoff Berth for the Mets was David Wright, cigar in Mouth, holding up the Champs sign around Shea Stadium. Of course when things like this happen in America (in this day and age) there will be some sort of complaint, especially when it is broadcasted on TV.

This was taken to a new level though this week with the Reds and the NL Central Division Championship. Not one, or two but five people actually called the State Health Inspection Department in Ohio saying that the Reds were violating the ban on Indoor smoking since they were smoking cigars in the Lockeroom. The department will now be conducting a health inspection. Seriously. Oh, and they won't be able to blame this one on some rookie or veteran who didn't know any better. These cigars were from the owner.

What is really telling about this story, is that I am not surprised about this at all. But to some degree, when does a building stop being a building and starts being a private home? I know legally the lockerroom is still considered a building, therefore no smoking, but where is that line?

In what will be a developing story throughout the weekend, 7 Train to Shea is reporting that Omar Minaya will be fired on Monday, and that Jerry's contract will not be renewed.

There's not much to say about this at the moment, because I want to hear more conclusive evidence from the team that Minaya will be terminated and that they will not be re-hiring Jerry.

If this is true though, then hopefully changes will be coming to Queens. Let's hope for a clean house (with a few exceptions of course).

The Mets look to bounce back from their double loss yesterday by throwing out Gee vs Narveson tonight. Gee has been fantastic so far in September, and while we will have months to analyze his performance and the merits, I'm looking forward to seeing another start tonight. In his first four major league games he is 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA including two nice starts against the Phillies and Braves. Over those four games he has pitched 27 innings, walked 12 batters and struck out 15. The Brewers have not seen Gee.

The Brewers will go with Chris Narveson tonight, who is 11-9 this season with a 5.14 ERA. In the month of September he has logged 30.2 innings pitched with a 3.52 ERA. However not only has he not faced the Mets this year, he has no record against any Mets batters. So in the space that I would usually discuss the Mets hitters vs the opposing starter, let's talk about David Wright. He is ending the season on a strong streak and although he is the Mets strikeout king, he clinched his 5 season last night with 100 RBI's and now has 28 homers on the season.

Well, Lets Go Mets!

Thank You R.A. Dickey.

Thank you for everything you have done for the Mets this season. Thank you for your knuckleball, your attitude, your ability, your mindset, your hope and your stats.

Thank you for giving us Mets fans a reason to watch this season. Your knuckleball was unlike anything this franchise has seen in a while, or really baseball has seen in a while thanks to its speed and dance. The way you started this season, 6-0, was historic and surprising. The success at such a low price made Oliver Perez a “little” more tolerable.

But really, thank your hope. Your story about how you arrived at Spring Training on a bike and ended up being our most reliable is inspiring. Every time you started, I thought “OK, no hitter time.” Every time you started, I expected a Mets win. Every time you started, I saw a player who expected to win and expected his teammates to win. Your attitude needs to be replicated on every baseball team, bur especially our team, the New York Mets, who look to lose drive and will power. But you never lost the will, lost that drive, never lost the edge.

Thank your Robert Allen for keeping Mets baseball fun.

-Elliot Teichman

PS:
Thank you for how you raise your children. It is inspiring to hear that you want your children to understand the human condition. If more children could be raised in a home that drove the point of understanding compassion home, the Nation and the world would be a much better place.

The Mets play two games today astarting at 4 as part of a day-night, single-admission doubleheader. Last night's game was actually really exciting as there were some great defensive plays for both teams, and a come from behind, walk off win for the Mets via a two run double from Tejada. Anyway the first game today will feature Gallardo vs Niese as the second game will feature Bush vs Dickey.

Niese is looking to wrap up what has been a very successful season. September however has not been a fantastic month for him as he has been having a few struggles. In the past he has made one start against the Brewers and it wasn't good as he pitched 3 innings and allowed 5 ER. The Brewers have the following numbers against Niese:

The Mets in the first game will get a chance to try to crack Gallardo.  He is 14-7 on the season with a 3.57 ERA. In the month of September he is 3-1 with a 1.95 ERA and his only start against the Mets this year was a gem as he pitched a complete game shutout. The Mets have the following numbers on Gallardo:

In the second game, the Mets will be starting Dickey who looks to continue his Amazin' season. He needed to rebound in his last start and he was able to do it as he pitched 6 innings allowing only 2 ER. His second win of the season was against the Brewers as he pitched 7 innings allowing 4 ER. The Brewers have the following numbers on Robert Allen:

The Mets bats will get a look at Bush today who is 7-13 with a 4.70 ERA
on the season. In the month of September he has made 4 starts with 21.1
innings with an ERA of 4.64 (or in another words, his September is a
good example of his season). Bush didn't play against the Mets yet this
season, but last season he made one start where he pitched 6 innings,
allowed 3 ER and got a no decision. The Mets have these numbers on Dave:

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Brewers start a series tonight as the Mets will try to
avoid a losing season after the opener was rained out last night. The Amazin's are coming off of a series win in
Philly where they at least blocked the Phillies from celebrating their
division championship in Philly. The Brewers are coming off a series
win against the Marlins where they clinched a losing season.

Pelfrey
gets the start for the Mets and he's looking to build off of three
consecutive good starts. In those three starts he has pitched 21.1
innings with a 2.11 ERA while walking 4 and striking out 13. The last
time Pelfrey faced the Brewers was in 2009 where he pitched 7 shutout
innings for the win. The Brewers have these numbers on Big Pelf:

The Mets will now face Randy Wolf in the opener who is 13-11 this season and a 4.24 ERA. He has been very good in the month of September with a 1.21 ERA over 29.2 innings in four starts. He was the losing pitcher against the Mets earlier this season as he picked up the loss in 5 innings of work where he allowed 2 ER. The Mets have the following numbers on Randy:

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Brewers start a series tonight as the Mets will try to avoid a losing season. The Amazin's are coming off of a series win in Philly where they at least blocked the Phillies from celebrating their division championship in Philly. The Brewers are coming off a series win against the Marlins where they clinched a losing season.

Pelfrey gets the start for the Mets and he's looking to build off of three consecutive good starts. In those three starts he has pitched 21.1 innings with a 2.11 ERA while walking 4 and striking out 13. The last time Pelfrey faced the Brewers was in 2009 where he pitched 7 shutout innings for the win. The Brewers have these numbers on Big Pelf:

The Mets bats will get a look at Bush today who is 7-13 with a 4.70 ERA on the season. In the month of September he has made 4 starts with 21.1 innings with an ERA of 4.64 (or in another words, his September is a good example of his season). Bush didn't play against the Mets yet this season, but last season he made one start where he pitched 6 innings, allowed 3 ER and got a no decision. The Mets have these numbers on Dave:

Lets Go Mets!

All signs are already pointing to another crowded outfield next season. If you recall, one major issue going into last spring was a large group of players descending to the OF, fighting essentially for one spot. The Mets will most likely have the same problem this upcoming season as Jason Bay holds down Left Field (and with his contract, you can pretty much ink him in as the starter, and I'm sure he'll be better next season, but that is another topic), and Pagan's play this season should land him a job in center.

Then there is right field. The Mets still have Beltran, who is coming around all of sudden, they also will need to carry Evans next season since he is out of options and finally the Mets will have young players in Duda and F-Mart.

Duda was pretty far down the depth chart at the start of 2010, but amoung some circles, his 2009 campaign was starting to cause some whispers. His strong start to 2010 then made him a household name coming into September. Once he finally got the Queens, he was awful at first. He was the victim of bad luck on some plays and just not being able to get the job done. In his first 33 AB's he had one hit, a double, and an RBI. Duda was quickly fading in an impatient city.

Of late though, he is back in the conversation across dinner tables (ok so probably not, but you get the mental image idea) as he has really turned up his play. In his last 21 AB's he has had 9 hits (.429 BA) with 4 doubles and two homers (.905 SLG) and has posted 9 RBI's. He was the hero in Saturday's game as he knocked in a huge three run double against the Phillies.

The question is now what to do with Duda. It is really hard to extrapolate too much from his numbers, both good and bad, because play in September sometimes resembles a glorified Spring Training game. As good as he has been at times this season, would he really be better than a Bay/Pagan/Beltran/Evans outfield? Can he match Fmart? Is he good enough to trade?

These are the questions that will have to be answered over the next few months leading up to Openning Day 2011.