213 Miles From Shea

The Mets and the Diamondbacks open up a series tonight in Citi. The Mets are coming off of their first series win since they faced the Twins in interleague play and it couldn't have come at a more critical time for the Mets this season (although this season it seems like we are having critical moments every two weeks). Anyway the Mets will get to take on Kennedy again while the Pelfrey will be heading out for the Amazins.

Mike is trying to turn it around. On the season he is 10-5 with a 4.00 ERA and in his last start he picked up a no decision against the Dodgers as he allowed 2 ER over 5 innings, while walking 2 and striking out 2. He did face the Diamondbacks earlier this month in an abysmal start where he lasted 1.1 innings letting in 6 ER. Arizona has these numbers on Big Pelf:

Kennedy gets to try his hands at the Mets again and last time he was succesful as he picked up the win in 5 innings of work allowing one run. On the season he is 5-8, with a 4.10 ERA. He struggled in his last outing he picked up the loss allowing 4 ER in 6.2 innings. The Mets have these numbers on Ian:

Lets Go Mets!

There is a player the Mets need to get rid of. It is one of the few times in the history of the Mets that pretty much the entire fan base is behind this movement. Oliver Perez  shows how money and ownership can tie the hands of the manager and almost force an organization to have to make bad decisions. Anyway here's Perez:

Now I wrote this article about 9 PM on Thursday night. Here's hoping by Saturday that he is either traded, cut, or just somehow removed from the team so the Mets can signal to the team that they are as serious as R.A. Dickey about winning and not giving up.

Some quick hits to go with your Friday morning scrambled eggs:

The Nationals have had a very formidable bullpen this year thanks to Matt Capps, who has had a turn-around season. We all know the market for relievers has been crazy for this deadline as the Blue Jays are requiring a Flores type player for Down. So what did the Twins have to give up in order to get Capps? Well the Twins had to give up 22 year old catcher Wilson Rasmos.

Rasmos is already hitting .296 in the majors and is making the Nationals looking like a talent gold mind. They can now add Rasmos to Strasburg, Harper, Desmond and Morgan.

Out of all the trades today, this one intrigues me the most.

It's a busy Thursday in the baseball world as there have been several key trades.

The first move we woke up to this morning, and it with a combination of losing last night's heartbreaker, was a shot to the stomach. The Phillies were able to acquire Roy Oswalt for Happ and two minor league prospects. Further more, they were able to do it with the Astros taking a nice size (or bigger than expected) part of the money on the contract as well AND the Phillies do not have to gurantee Oswalt his 2012 option. Ugh…. It's just hard to digest all of that. Essentially Happ is Niese except Niese is better than Happ. So why couldn't the Mets get this done? Well mainly, they never really were considering it, and even with Happ having a decent upside, he has not been an integral part of the Phillies team this year. For the Mets two of their most talented rookies Niese and Davis are having a huge impact on the team, and their removal could do a lot of damage. I just hope Oswalt doesn't cause trouble with the Mets.

The second big move today really surprised me, Tejada to the Padres. It doesn't really make sense from the Padres perspective, I just didn't expect that to actually happen. The Orioles will recieve Wynn Pelzer, a talented pitcher (7th overall in the Padres system). The Orioles need pitching, terribly, and they don't need an underperforming thirdbasemen, so for them this makes sense for the birds, they can at least lose with a younger team getting experience. The problem for the Padres is that Tejada really is a shadow of his former self. I guess they are hoping, and I hopy for Miggy, that he can turn it on in San Diego and help out the team with his bat.

Other Moves so far today:

In the second installment for the Major Leagues best promotions. Today we look at the National League, which on the whole, will be much more interesting in August 2010 than the American League. There has been one common theme between the two leagues, the catcher bags for kids. I guess all the teams were pitched this last offseason and a lot of them said yes? I'm not sure, but there are a lot of them.

Atlanta: The Braves will be having a very special Hall of Fame Induction this year where they will be inducting, now legendary, Tom Glavine into their hall of fame. It is beyond special because the Braves will also be raising up the #47 as the retire the number.

Florida: Seriously what is up with all of the Catcher style bookbags this month? Well the Marlins will have their Baker bag:

Washington: Fans are getting DVD's in the District this month. DVD's of Strasburg's debut. Even if he was a New York Met, I would think this promotion is a little much, but whatever:

Cinncy: Yep, another team with the catcher's bag:

Houston: Also has to join in the catcher bag fad:

Brewers: Some great bobbles this month out of one of the more creative franchises. First up they have one of the racing sausages in a bobble. Next, they celebrate the decades with a rental player, CC. Yeah, they are really doing that:

Pittsburgh: A bobble with attitude. Oh, and they have a bag as well:

Arizona: This is a first, they will be giving a replica of not their actual stadium, but their Spring Stadium. Bizarre.

LA Dodgers: Sometimes you see a bobblehead that makes you go “wow”. This is one of those:

I have always found All-Star teams intriguing in the sense that how does one expect to put together tons of talent from across the league, give them a day or so to work together, and then expect them to be a great team. It just doesn't quite gel (this is where those who really believe in team chemistry rejoice). The problem is that there aren't many sports that this can be proven in because you have to assemble a team of all-stars that are close in talent to a team for another league. For example, MLB All-Stars against teams in Japan is not a fair assessment because the play level is completely different. You can't take an MLB team and play them against MLB All-Stars because players should be on both teams.

However, for those of us who are interested in this really bizarre and unimportant topic, there is a league who has to rely on this: MLS. Because of the MLS development, there is not enough All-Star talent yet to field two teams in the MLB so they decide to do something much more interesting, bring in a big name team (For the record, they can do tradtional East West games, but it is not as interesting). This year it was Manchester United. While the players in the EPL (English Premier League) are better than those in the MLS, the MLS All-Stars should be on par with Manchester United. So here the difference is how the team works.

MLS has used this system since 2003 till now (with the exception of 2004) and in each of those games so far, the All-Stars have lost. Its starting to be clear that either our All-Stars suck, or their really is something to concept of a team. Just food for thought I guess.

An Open Letter to ESPN, Fox, and other non-SNY/WPIX/WFAN announcers:

To whom it may concern:

Hi, I'm a Mets fan and I have bone to pick with you guys. This is not one of those, I am angry about what you say about my team, or why don't you respect my team rants. This is a request to make sure you actually supply the public with correct information when talking about the big, spacious ball park, the Mets play in. There are a lot of stats out there that can be very misleading, especially when you don't fully explain them.

While the ball park is big, there are some key numbers you need to remember to represent correctly. While it is accurate to point out that David Wright has only hit 4 out of 15 homers at home this season, you need to stop talking about his power outage last year and the connection to Citi Field. While he may have altered his swing, he had an even split of 5 and 5 for homers at home and on the road. So, for example, if you want to use last year's example of Wright, you need to mention that he hit an even amount of homers on the road and at home and if Citi had an effect, it had one on his swing, that it became a mental issue (or you could talk about the protection he had in the lineup, which was minimal at best).

The other player you need to present more information on is Jason Bay. Yes he is really struggling this year, but its possible, just possible, that is not entirely the dimensions of Citi-Field to blame. He is by definition a streaky hitter and he has not gotten on a power streak yet. If he hit all 6 of his jacks on the road, I would be inclined to agree with you that it is a home problem, however is also splitting them 3-3 home and away (and for what its worth, his slugging is about 100 points higher at home, thanks to triples). Also for what its worth, last year he hit 15 homers at Fenway while hitting 21 on the road.

So please announcers, you can continue to talk about how big of a stadium the Mets play in, and you can talk about how the Mets have changed their swings to take advantage of it (thus players like Bay having a higher slugging percentage because balls they hit out in the gaps, that could be singles in other parks can quickly become doubles and triples against teams that are not used to the dimensions), but please be careful when you talk about homers, because you may misrepresent the numbers, and then in the end it, it is you who looks foolish.

A Disgruntled Statstician,
Elliot Teichman

The Mets lost a really tough game last night as they came back to tie to 7-7 but lost it in extras. Tonight is a crucial game as the Mets need to keep winning, or establishing some form of momemntum, and not suffer from a hangover from last night's game. Anyway todays game will feature RA Dickey vs Blake Hawksworth.

Dickey makes a start after a frustrating start for him, but not for the normal reasons. Before he was taken out of the game he was dealing pitching 5.2 scoreless innings and then he was pulled for an injury. He was, rightfully so, furious about that. On the season he is still 6-4 but now with a nice 2.55 ERA. In the month of July he was 0-3 but he pitched 33.1 innings with a 1.89 ERA (showing that record may not actually be his fault). In 2009 he pitched 1.1 scoreless innings against the Cards who have these numbers on R.A.:

The Mets bats will get a chance at Blake Hawksworth this afternoon who is 4-6 with a 5.23 ERA. His record in his last three games is a 2-1 with an ERA above 6. He has logged three innings against the Mets this year not allowing any runs but allowing 4 hits. The Mets have these numbers against Blake: