213 Miles From Shea

As much of the attention in this tailspin has been (rightfully) focused on the Mets bats, the bullpen is a disaster waiting to happen. The Mets announced after the game that they were DFA'ing Fernando Nieve, and that it looks like Acosta (or as my friend, and major Mets fan Victorio likes to call him: Manny “Cost Us A Run”) will be called to replace him.

However that doesn't solve a problem* that I think hasn't really come completely into the open.

The Mets bullpen for the most part this season has been good, but when it comes time to (hopefully) make a move in the starting rotation or bring in someone for the pen, the entire picture is going to explode. The initial problem will be moving Takahashi into the bullpen, if the Mets acquire a starting pitcher. Technically right now, Oliver Perez has the role that Takahashi should have, and the first challenge will be moving Oliver Perez (which no team will probably take him, and Wilpon will force Omar who will force Jerry to keep him where he is).

The next problem is Acosta. I do not believe his the solution for Nieve. I'm glad at this point that Nieve has been removed, but I do not have a lot of faith in Acosta and really hope that the Mets bring in someone else because they have another glaring issue in ….

Krod. It seems when things are going wrong (like Feliciano and Parnell not getting into gear) Krod hasn't been incredibly efficient in cleaning up their messes, which is a shame because that is what he is supposed to do. As the closer he's keeping things too close. The Braves are having a lot of success this year on the apart of the effectiveness of Billy Wagner.

How is this problem fixed? Well removing Nieve is a good start. If the Mets could swing it (seriously no pun intended, but it would be nice if they actually could swing and connect on a few pitches) the next best move for them would be to acquire a starting pitcher, move Takahashi to the pen and just get rid of Oliver Perez in some way. Then if things are really going our way, find another good reliever, but at that point I think I'm talking in fantasy world.

*Alas, this would also all go away if the offense woke up again. That is why I feel the bullpen is a problem and that there really is no THE problem. If there was a THE problem, then it probably would have been fixed already. This potential problem in the bullpen is being compacted by the struggling offense. If the Mets bats can hit like they should be, then a lot of this would go away. That is why I'm worried about the bullpen becoming a major issue, because until the Mets bats come out, every game is going to be close.

The Mets lost a really tough one last night, especially when you consider that Oliver Perez pitched, and didn't cause the world to end (I was surprised). The Mets will try put the last three games behind them when they open up a series tonight with the Dodgers in an attempt to resurect this road trip.

This could very well be Takahashi's last start of the season tonight, especially if he pitches poorly again. On the season he is 7-4 with a 4.69 ERA and in his last three starts (and one relief appearance) he has allowed 15 ER in 16.1 innings of work, which is not pretty. Takahashi has shown brilliance at times this season and the Mets could really use one of those starts tonight, so hopefully he can provide it. He faced the Dodgers out of the pen this year picking up the win in 3.1 innings of work allowing only 1 ER. The Dodgers have these numbers on Takahashi:

The Mets bats will get Kuroda in the opening game who is 7-8 with a 3.74 ERA. He is 0-3 in his last three starts with a 6.75 ERA (mostly due a game where he pitched only 1.2 innings while allowing 6 ER). Earlier this season Hiroki picked up the loss against the Mets as he allowed 5 hits and 2 ER over 6 innings against the Amazins. The Mets have put these numbers on him over his career:

Lets Go Mets!

Ever wanted a computer to use some sort of secret algorithm to look at your vocabulary and sentence structure and then some how deduce that you write like a certain famous author from various points in history? Well now you can thanks to I Write Like! When I first head this I was very curious so I popped in a few articles.

First my rant about Over Analyzing Public Opinion said that my writing style was like…Cory Doctrow. Interestingly, if I only include the first paragraph from that article, I write like Isaac Asimov.

If I use a Game Preview when the Mets played Lincecum and the Giants, I write like….Stephen King. Also when I used the article for the first half of the season review, that generated the Stephen King response.

So basically from the above, I'm very skeptical of how this program is analyzing writing and spitting out famous authors. However, even when its a computer program, it is pretty flattering when someone says your writing reminds them of Stephen King (not that I actually think my writing is anywhere on his level).

The Astros made some smaller moves yesterday as they picked up two players off the wire. They first picked up Anderson Hernandez from the Indians and then picked up Nelson Figueroa from the Phillies. The most startling thing about this move is that both players are former Mets (not so surprising because a lot of players are former Mets). Anyway in case you don't remember, Hernandez was a middle infielder for the Mets who started at second a few seasons ago for the Mets before the Castillo era and when Valentine was injured. He was always a peculiar player in that he would tear up winter ball, but once the season started he wasn't able to hit at any level (which happened to him again this year).

Nelson's story is more well known. He gave the Mets another solid Spring after a solid year last year and a solid winter and instead of making the ball club he was sent to the minors where he was then picked up by the Phillies. Once he made it to the Phillies, he ripped apart the Mets organization and how they pass on certain players (like J Feliciano). Anyway, the Phillies just cut ties with him so now he's an Astro.

The Astros add these players to their collection of former Mets. For a while they had Mets-failure Kaz Matsui. Currently they still have two former Mets prospects that were either traded or just didn't pan out. The first is Matt Lindstrom who was traded the Marlins from the Mets and eventually ended up in Houston. The second was the second basemen that many of us wanted to see play in the majors but it was never really meant to be as a Met, and he ended up as a Red for a while. This mystery player is Jeff Keppinger.

Now if only we can get the Astros to take some of our players right now so that we may obtain one of their starters…

Another day, another frustrating loss. The Mets will try to reverse their ways again tonight this time behind Jon Niese. In the opening game of this series, the Mets were just awful on all fronts. In last night's game, it was really just the offense which couldn't capitalize on an early basesloaded, one out, situation and eventually would lose by one run.

Niese, a bright spot for the Mets, will take the mound again for Amazins. On the season he is 6-4 with a 3.44 ERA. He picked up the loss in his last game even though he pitched great as he allowed only 1 ER over 7 innings. In his last four games pitched he is 2-2 with a fantastic 1.63 ERA. He has not faced the Diamondbacks and has only faced two batters (Johnson 2-4, LaRoce 1-3). Hopefully he will perform tonight like he has in his recent starts.

The Mets bats will take a crack at Dan Haren who is 7-8 with a 4.60 ERA. The Diamondbacks are 0-4 in his last 4 starts with an 0-2 record while recording a 4.39 ERA. Last year, Haren somehow picked up the win against the Mets even though he allowed 5 ER over 7 innings against the Amazins. The Mets have these numbers against Dan:

Lets Go Mets!

Over the last month it has become increasingly obvious that there is a difference between what the front office says and what the front office does. The generic argument, which is generic and will be mostly ignored rest of the way out in this article, is that a front office has to balance putting a good product on the field and recognizing that it is a business, a business that in New York for the most part can be reckless and know that there is still a large enough fan base to attend games, buy merchandise, and tune into the cable network.

The first example of the two-headed front office came with the Cliff Lee trade. After Lee was traded, it became clear that the Mets were never really serious, and it was almost a front to the fans to make them seem like they were interested in Lee. This was excusable then because while championships are invaluable, one cannot trade players that will be involved in that championship run (Niese, Davis).

However today brings the most bizarre move of all. Re-activating Perez. The only reason to re-activate him is because of the money that he is owed for the rest of the season. He has had such a negative impact on this team in the locker-room and on the field because he doesn't perform as an athlete and he doesn't perform as a responsible teammate. The Mets best option at this point would be to cut him lose, and then bring up another pitcher (Gee, Misch) to cover until they can get a starter in a trade. In fact, Gee or Misch would be better than Perez. There is no place for Oliver on a championship roster because as he has shown in his rehab starts, he's not ready.

This move by the office is even more confusing when you include their argument for clubhouse guys on the team (Cora, Francoeur). While there is some truth in their argument, its all for naught when they bring in players like Castillo, GMJ and Perez in the clubhouse. Why would you do that? It's counter productive to the entire the argument for your reasons to bring in veterans on the team.

Time will tell if the front office actually has the best intentions in mind, but until Wilpon gets his hand out of Omar's pot, and until Omar can let Jerry construct his rosters and until Jerry can make responsible moves, this season could start to really spiral.

In honor of current Road Trip on the West Coast, a classic quote from Ralph Kiner:

This was inevitable. Really.

I didn't write this when he I heard he was effectively released earlier last week but I had a feeling the Mets would sign Cordero to a minor league deal. He fits the description of the pitchers that we (and basically a good amount of teams) use when signing relievers to minor league deals midseason. 1) He used to be really effective (In 2005 he had a 1.82 ERA and 47 saves). 2) He's not now. 3) He's really cheap. And that is all there is to it.

Cynicism aside, I'm actually happy about this move, partially because I've been brain-washed living in the DC area thinking that Cordero was a better pitcher than he actually is. For a while he was one of the main T-Shirts you would see around RFK (behind Zimmerman, Guzman, and Mets Suck Deez Nats). He was a very popular player with DC and even got his own nickname (The Chief). Actually, my freshman year at the University of Maryland my floormates (who admittedly for the most part did not follow baseball) would try (jokingly) to make fun of me and the Mets by talking about how when we come to DC we need to deal with Cordero.

Actually on that topic, its probably a really good thing that the Mets have Cordero because when Chad faced the Mets (30.2 career innings) he has a fantastic 1.72 ERA, 13 Saves and 28 strikeouts.

The Mets were off on all every account of the game last night. Their starting pitching was destructive. The bullpen was destructive (Nieve). The offense never really got going (only 2 runs scored). The Mets are looking to completely rebound in every aspect of the game tonight against the Diamondbacks. For the Mets, since 1998 they have been very successful playing in Arizona, it is only recently, since last year, that they have struggled. Both teams in this game will have a common theme (which makes this preview very short) in that neither tean has any major experience against the starting pitcher. 

Dickey will go for the Mets and he will try to get a win (something he really deserves). On the season he is 6-3 with a 2.63 ERA and in his last outing he got the loss in 7 innings of work as he allowed only one earned run. As what will be a theme tonight, hitters have had little experience with the starters. Only two batters have faced R.A. (Johnson and LaRoche) are hitless in two AB's. Barry Enright gets the start for the Diamondbacks and it will be his fourth start of the year for this rookie. In his first three games this season, Barry is 1-2 with a 3.45 ERA. Right Handed batters are hitting a nice .286 off of Enright, a right handed pitcher, while lefties are hitting a cold .176. There is really not much more to say about him. He's logged 15.2 innings and has 13 K's with only 6 BB.

Lets Go Mets!