213 Miles From Shea

The interesting statistical young players continue to come out of Brooklyn. This week lets focus on Joe Bonfe, the 22-year old third basemen out of Minnesota. Before getting into specifics about Bonfe, there are two things that work in tandem that really strike me about Bonfe. The first is that he was drafted in the 21st round of the 2009 draft, so he was a late round pick. He also seems to hit, a lot. In fact that is just about what he does. He performed great in Kingsport last season, but then only got one hit in eleven AB's in Brooklyn. This season he has been quite the opposite in Brooklyn:

The thing about Bonfe is he hits. He is getting the ball in play at the lower levels. Of course this only means so much, he in order to really be a prospect he needs to do this at higher levels, and I hope he gets a chance (whether its winter ball, or next season) at a tougher level. If he continues to get hits, then he is going to deserve some attention from the organization. Also, his defense does leave something to be desired (which is important when considering his stock).

Bonfe may be young, but he already has some impressive accolades to his resume. This season he was one of the 8 All-Stars from the Brooklyn Cyclones. In 2009 he was chosen to be the Big 8 Conference MVP and he was chosen to the JC All American team. He was also the MVP for his team, Sierra College Baseball Team. (Please note that this Big 8 is the Big 8 for California Community Colleges, not the Big 8 Conference that disolved in 1996).

The Mets and Marlins play game two tonight after last night's walk-off victory for the Amazin's as they beat the Marlins by the score of 6-5. In order to continue their winning ways the Mets will have to take down Sanabia tonight while the fish will attempt to take a crack at Misch. Misch is 0-2 this season in as many starts with a 3.00 ERA. His first game was fantastic as he allowed only one run against the Phillies over 6 and he had a quality start against the Astros. In both games he was a victim to a lack of offense by the Mets, thus a poor pitching record (or at least as poor as it good be for pitchin two games this season). Last season he was 1-1 in as many games against the Marlins as he allowed 5 ER over 15 innings (3.00 ERA). The fish have these numbers against Pat:

The Mets will get their first looks at rookie Alex Sanabia as a starter. This season he has appeared in 8 games, 5 of them starts with a 2-1 record over 31.0 innings with a 3.77 ERA. He has had one outing against the Mets were he pitched two innings allowing 2 runs, 1 earned and picked up the loss. The Mets have these numbers on Alex:

Lets Go Mets!

The title says it all. In Jenry's last several starts he has been amazing. Overall, since joining the Binghamton Mets, Mejia has pitched in 6 games and has totaled 27.1 innings and in that time he has had a 1.32 ERA. However it has been his last two outings that have been amazing:

It is numbers like this that get me really excited for Mejia being a starter next season. He proved earlier this season that he could be an effective pitcher in the majors, albeit a relief pitcher, and we are nearing the time when he should get a shot at being a starter next season (and maybe a starter this season if they decide to shut down Niese due to innings pitched).

Of course, it is hard to be happy about these numbers without being upset at the same time. Infused with 20-20 hindsight, most fans wanted Mejia to go down to the minors at the start of the season. To be a starter the entire season. However Jerry really liked what he saw and the Mets, who have been notorious over the last few seasons for doing this, bumped Mejia up to the majors to be in the pen and to not pitch on a consistent basis. It is hard to extrapolate any positive or negative effects from this experiment, but it does boil the blood a bit (especially when it is compounded with other boneheaded roster moves this season).

The time of mathematical reckoning is nigh. Teams that have played deplorable baseball this year quiver at late August as the worst of the worst look at to be eliminated completely from all hope.

Alright, that was overly dramatic. There are a lot of teams that no that their playoff chances ended a long time ago, but there are some teams that know that time of no mathematical hope is upon them and they are:

Racing mascots around stadiums has Minor League written all over it and one of the best at this would be the Brooklyn Cyclones which has 5 (3 are selected for each race) hot dogs race from Nathans into the park (so they actually start in the park though) and then down the baseball diamond. The following video was for their Jersey? Sure! Night therefore the hot dogs start to do the fistpump dance move that the Jersey Shore made so popular.

The Mets took the opener tonight from the Marlins by the score of 6-5 with a walk-off single in the ninth inning via (believe it or not) Luis Castillo. With this win the Mets were able to re-take the third place spot in the NL East division and are now only 9.5 games back from the first place.

Anyway R.A. Dickey wasn't his best tonight as he allowed 5 ER over 7 innings of work. This isn't too surprising because, although he has been great this season, he just hasn't been able to figure out the Marlins bats. After his outing, Parnell and Takahashi both posted scorelss innings of work, with Takahashi picking up the win.

The story for the Mets was the bats. The bats were able to stay in the game the entire night and were able to make a comeback when it counted. In other words, the pitching didn't need to be perfect tonight. When the offense does well, there are a few players to thank. Obviously Castillo gets a mention because he had the winning RBI but there are a few other players that need credit. They include Beltran who had the game tying RBI in the 8th and overal went 2-3 with a run, and 2 RBI's. Wright had a nice night as he went 2-5, R, with a 3B.

The best performance goes to Pagan who was 4-5 tonight with 2 doubles, a stolen base and three runs on the night.

It was good to see the Mets play with fight, and to see them win again. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets are fresh off of a road series victory and hope to continue their winning ways back in Queens tonight as they take on NL East division rivals, the Florida Marlins. The Marlins and the Mets are essentially tied for third and forth place in the division, and both teams, if for nothing else than pride, would like to finish higher than the other. Also, both teams, still have slim mathematical hopes for making it to the playoffs this year. Tonight the Mets get to face the ace of the staff in Josh Johnson and the Marlins will have to deal with Robert Allen Dickey.

Dickey continues to be a nice surprise on the season as he brings his 8-5 record and 2.41 ERA in Citi tonight. Dickey had an impressive start his last time out as he pitched 8.1 innings while allowing only 2 ER. In his last two starts he has allowed 2 ER over 17.1 innings, or has an ERA of 1.04. The Marlins however are a team he hasn't been exactly stellar against as he has allowed 8 ER over 11.1 innings. The Marlins have these numbers against Robert Allen:

The Mets bats, who have appeared in two of the last three games, look to fight back against Josh Johnson who is 11-5 this season with a 2.27 ERA and is a Cy Young canidate. He is 1-2 over 25.1 innings and four games this month while sporting a 5.33 ERA. Josh has an 0-1 record against the Mets this season with a 3.75 ERA over two games. The Mets have these numbers against Johnson:

Lets Go Mets!

I am almost always critical of the Nationals ballpark. However, there is one event that I really enjoy at the ballpark: they have a fantastic mascot race. Only at National Park you can see George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, and Teddy race against each other with a Geico Lizard at the finish line. The punchline of course is that Teddy Never wins.

Once again this week, I'm going to break the norm of what is usually shown in this article. Generally I focus on one time uniforms for special events (like Star Wars Night, odd Throwbacks, etc) but tonight I want to highlight a team's actual uniform set. For the Flying Squirrels of Richmond, it isn't really the uniforms that are strange, but their moniker. And by strange I mean really totally awesome. I would love to root for the Flying Squirrels.

Generally when I discuss uniforms I like, I focus on uniforms that are clean cut, serious looking, and have a strong classic feel to them. I generally don't like things that feel gimicky. Well throw that out the window. The reason that these somewhat goofy uniforms actually look good is because if your moniker is “Flying Squirrels” then your uniforms should have the same amount of personality. (In other words, if the Mets were to do something really non-Traditional it would feel gimicky and awful because the look would not fit the moniker). Anyway here are some highlights, all from their official shop:

(via Richmond Flying Squirrels Official Shop)

(via Richmond Flying Squirrels Official Shop)

Above are the two alternate jerseys. The one of the left features the same patch the squirrel on that hat is wearing and I included the one on the right because I wanted to highlight how they write the “R”. If you look closely, the diagonal line out of the “R” is actually a squirrel tail. Nice touch because it goes along with and matches (please note the subtle difference in those statements) the team moniker.

(via Richmond Flying Squirrels Official Shop)

Normally I would hate the typeface of the above jerseys. However I feel that typface matches the persona of the team and is indeed a nice touch.