213 Miles From Shea

Last month this article was the Brooklyn Cyclones. This month…its the Brooklyn Cyclones show. Brooklyn knows hows to make great promotions. Anyway here are notable promotions from around the farm (also sorry that this article is a few days late, I lost track of time):

Buffalo: Interesting juxtaposition of theme nights on August 24th. The game will feature both Faith Nights (something that I am not crazy about, actually sometimes offended by) and Video Game Night. Depending what goes on during Video Game Night, it could be a direct contradiction of Faith Night. Also they will be giving out later in the month Fernando Martinez bobbleheads (no photo).

Binghamton: August 24th is Plunger give-away day…..what?

Port St. Lucie: Nothing Special

Savannah: Nothing Special

Brooklyn: The Best Bobble-Head Ever:

Yeah Ike Davis Upside Down Bobblehead!

Another Fantastic Bobble (Ron Darling in a Cyclones Uniform):

Also by the Cyclones this month, an Irish Jersey and a Black Jersey.

It's a big day for the Amazin's on and off the field. Off the field the Mets will be honoring Frank Cashen, Johnson, Strawberry and Gooden by inducting these heroes of 86 into the Mets Hall of Fame. On the field, the Mets will try to win another series and go 4-2 on the road trip by buidling off last night's walk-off win against the Diamondbacks. Jon Niese will get the nod today and he will get go against Hudson in his first start for Arizona.

Niese starts the rubber game. On the season he is 7-4 with a 3.43 ERA in his last start he was terrific as he picked up the win in 6.0 innings allowing only one earned run. In five starts in July, Niese threw 32.2 innings with a 2-2 record and a 2.48 ERA and 27 K. His only really bad start in the month was against Arizona when he allowed 3 ER over 5 innings. The Diamondbacks have these numbers on Niese:

The Mets get to see Hudson make his first start for Dbacks since he was traded from the White Sox for Edwin Jackson. Hudson 23-year old right-handed pitcher who has struggled so far this season since his call-up with his control. In 15.2 innings this season Hudson is 1-1 with a 6.32 ERA (a far cry from his 3.38 ERA over 18.2 innings last year). As you can probably guess, Hudson has not seen any Met batter over his career.

Lets Go Mets!

Frank Cashen became the General Manager of the Mets organization in 1980. Right before 1980 the Mets were in the National League cellar three years in a row and Payson sold the the team to Doubleday and Wilpon. Doubleday and Wilpon needed a General Manager and they were tipped off to explore Frank Cashen who, as Jeff Pearlman in The Bad Guys Won points out, asked a series of questions to the owners of the Amazins (pg 23):

Cashen completely re-built the Mets from that moment on, and re-built them in ever way. He focused on talent, development, signnings, trades, media (which was no where near Shea at the time), extending the fan-base (similar issue) and taking the Mets into victory lane.

Memories of his success, especially that conversation with Fred Wilpon, need to especially be remembered today with the whole Wilpon-Omar-Jerry situation. Ownership has to take pressure off Omar to allow him to make the best possible moves because if the Mets want a good new GM, they are going to have to show the baseball community that a GM would want to work for the Mets. If the Mets want a new firey manager, than they will need to show that manager that respect trickles down.

The Mets play the second game of the series tonight after losing to Arizona again this season last night. It was bizarre and stressful game last night as the strike zone was about the size of an apple, the Mets had power to rally (early), Valdes self-destructed, and Citi-Field continued to fall apart. The Mets look to turn this around tonight as Takahashi takes on Enright.

Takahashi is 7-5 on the season with a 4.47 ERA. He rebounded in his last start allowing only 2 earned runs in 7 innings of work against the Dodgers, but the Mets couldn't get anything done offensively so he got saddled with the loss. He also pitched a scorless inning of relief against the Cards in the Mets during that 13 inning game. Takahashi missed the Dbacks last week, and since he is a rookie, the he has not seen any of the Dbacks in his career.

Enright is having a very good rookie season as he is 2-2 with a 2.73 ERA over 29.2 innings of work. He was terrific against the Mets (just what you wanted to hear, right) in his first start against us this season as he allowed only one earned run in 8 innings of work while striking out 8 batters. The only Met who had succes against him was Thole who hit his first homer of the year against him.

Lets Go Mets!

In the last two days it hasn't been our emotions that have been taking a beating at home, its our home that has been taking a beating.

On Thursday Cardinals pitcher MacDougal threw a wild pitch that sailed over his catcher's head and straight into the advertisement behind home plate. A combination of the speed of the undisturbed ball plus angle of entry caused the ball to rip though the advertisement and leave a huge gash:

The destruction of our new ballpark in its sophomore year continued last night as Angel Pagan took his frustration of how bad the game was going last night in the late innings on a glass shield. Ok, so it wasn't intentional but a foul ball by Pagan went straight into a glass panel cause it to crack (but not break, sorta like a car window in a reasonable impact). Picture below:

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: