213 Miles From Shea

The Mets and the Phillies play the rubber game of their three game set today as the Mets try to take the series from the Phils. The first game on Friday night was gritty and ended up being a loss for the Mets. Last night wasn't looking much better for the Mets until the seventh inning. First, Beltran had the hard slide, which was awesome. Then the Mets put up a five spot, which was even more awesome. Today the Mets will throw Misch to counter Hamels.

Misch is 0-4 on the season with 9 games and 4 starts in the books totaling 24.1 innings pitched with an ERA of 4.44. The last time he pitched was on the 19th against the Braves where he had a scoreless outing and the last time he started was at the end of August and it was a pretty ugly start. So far against the Phillies this year he has made a relief outing and a start where he has totaled 6.1 innings pitched and one earned run. The Phils have these numbers on Pat:

The Mets will have to deal with Cole Hamels today who is 12-10 on the season with a 2.93 ERA. He has been very good in the month of September with a 28.2 innings pitched posting a 0.63 ERA over that time. This season he has also been fantastic against the Mets in terms of ERA where he has posted a 1.69 ERA over 21.1 innings in three games. However every time he pitches against the Mets, the Mets pitchers seem to be near perfect, so Cole's record against the Mets this season is 0-3. The Mets have these numbers on Hamels:

Lets Go Mets!

Over the last few days there have been reports from several different sources noting that some of the fan favorite individuals to be considered for the GM position here in New York are probably or are definitely off the table. The first person to fall was Kevin Towers, the 48 year old GM of the Padres. Kevin would have been a great mix of experience and energy (leaning way more to the experience side) but has agreed to become the GM of the Diamondbacks.

Originally, this looked like good news for the Mets as the other person they were looking at was the exciting interim GM of the Diamondbacks, Jerry Dipoto. He was cited as stating that he would probably be leaving the organization now that Towers is at the helm. However, MLBtraderumors has found out that may not be true. Jerry and Kevin had a talk the other day and now Jerry is really leaning towards staying with Diamondbacks as the Vice President.

Finally, another canidate that a group of Mets fans have been hoping for, Josh Daniels the GM of the Rangers, is probably staying put. Metsmerized Online wonders if it is that he would rather work Nolan Ryan over the Wilpons, and I have to agree with Joe over at Metsmerized that who wouldn't prefer working with Ryan over the Wilpons?

So where does this leave the Mets?

Out of these three, the only one they probably still have a strong shot of snagging away would Dipoto. However, it would really have to be a bold offer, since it looks like he would be comfortable staying in Arizona now. There are other names out there (and I'm not going to pretend that I understand who they are, because I really haven't looked into them since I was really hoping for Towers).

In the end, what I care about is the Mets making a move. I want it to be bold, and I really would prefer a clean house (no more Minaya) . I just hope they big wigs in the Mets organization are not bluffing.

The Mets should really want to win tonight.

Like really really want to win.

Tonight they should want to win not just because the Phillies are a rival team, that Utley destroyed Tejada on a slide. The Amazin's should want to win tonight because if they don't, they will have a first row seat to watching the Phillies clinch the division. Anyway last night was a real, physical tough game that the Mets were on the losing side of. Tonight they look at awesome surprise, Dillon Gee, to get the Mets back on track. Gee is 1-1 this season over three games with a 1.80 ERA over 20 innings pitched. In those three starts he has faced the Nationals, Pirates and the Braves.

The Mets will get another crack at Kendrick this season who is 10-9 with a 4.78 ERA. In his last three games he has allowed 9 ER over 15 innings this season with a 5.40 ERA. In three starts against the Mets this season, Kyle is 1-2 with a 3.78 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers on Kendrick:

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets return to Philly tonight into probably the loudest environment they have played in, in a long time. Tonight's game will feature R.A. Dickey for the Amazins as he tries to push back Blanton and the Phillies. Dickey will attempting to bounce back from his last start where he allowed 4 ER over 6 innings to the Braves as he picked up the loss. In the start before that, Dickey was amazing as he pitched a one run complete game. Against the Phillies this year he has a 2-1 record over three starts with a 2.00 ERA over 18 innings of work. The Phillies have these numbers against Robert Allen:

The Mets bats will try to crack Joe Blanton tonight, who is 7-6 on the season with a 5.04 ERA. He is looking to bounce back from a start with similar numbers as Dickey. Blanton in his last start allowed 4 ER over 6 innings of work. This season he is 0-1 against the Mets while allowing 7 ER over 12 innings of work. so the Mets are going to try to repeat that tonight. The Mets have these numbers on Joe the pitcher:

Lets Go Mets!

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!