213 Miles From Shea

More continue to fall as we are nearing the approach of when a large group of teams will fall around the same time. Anyway here are your teams that are far and away gone:

Teams that are soon about to join that list:

September is the month for young talent to come up to the majors and show the Mets brass the skills they have and what role they should have with the team going forward. This week we are going to feature some video's here of young Mets making great plays this season. Today we will see Fernando Martinez hit a walk off Grand Slam from June 14th via Bisons TV:

In what feels like a streak of 10 day games in a row, the Mets and Nationals play a 1:00 game in beautiful (and it really is beautiful here today) DC. The Mets are coming off another series where they needed to win the last game in order to avoid the sweep, however, yesterday the Mets, for whatever reason, were able to score 18 runs off of the Cubs. Anyway today they will get behind Mike Pelfrey as they try to take down Jordan Zimmermann and the Nationals.

Pelfrey is coming off of his first weak start (5 IP, 4 ER) in a while, so its important for him to get back on the right track today against a team he is 1-0 against this season with a 4.63 ERA while allowing 6 ER in 11 innings of work. (Or in other words, one good start against the Nats and one bad start). The Nationals have these numbers on Mike:

The Mets will get a crack today at Zimmermann who is not related to Ryan Zimmerman (notice that they have two different spellings of their last name, yet they are still confused as relatives). Jordan has been very average in both starts he has made this season where he has pitched 10 innings allowing 5 ER (4.50 ERA). Last season he was 1-1 in as many games against the Mets with an ERA above 5. The Mets have these numbers against him:

Lets Go Mets!

I literally didn't believe the score at first today. Earlier today it was a beautiful day in DC, and the Mets were trailing at that moment 3-2 and I decided that, well, I should probably go outside and enjoy the day. It was a really nice day and I do not regret that decision. When I checked the score when I got back home, well, what a surprise. Seriously, I didn't believe mlb.com when it said 18-5, especially for a day without David Wright in the lineup.

However, it actually happened. Even Tejada hit a homer. Just check out a few of the lines from the box score:

Overall the Mets only hit two homers in today's game, but scored 18 runs meaning they did the impossible. They had to string together hits and get those RISP in. The Mets, in fact, had 13 hits with runners in scoring position in 25 opportunities. Crazy. Especially for the team that seems to have like negative 7 hits in 39390 chances this season.

Obvisously this game, even in a fantastic season, is a statistical outlier. Today's results though show some hope as the Mets young players have talent and possibility.

While looking for random video's, I found this 30 second gem. If you look at in a critical way, I think you can extract what makes the minor leagues so much fun. The video is a little goofy, colorful and just seems fun, like the minors. Anyway, check it out:

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: