213 Miles From Shea

King James had the world centered on him last night as he made his decision to kill Eastern League Basketball go to the Heat (I'm actually a Nets fan and if he wasn't going there, I wanted him to stay in Cleveland). However this once again shows the main difference between baseball and basketball as sports (I mean besides the obvious ones including action, time management, etc). The Heat have been able to really re-shape their team by spending money, its not as drastic as when the Celtics did it (since they were going bottom of the league to top) but its the same process. Basketball is a sport, since its only 5 on the court at the time, where one player really can make that big of a difference.

I was trying to think through baseball's history and I couldn't think of a player that would be able to pull off what James did last night. The reason is that there is no one player through the history of baseball that can take a bad team and make them into a winner. The most recent example of one team spending a lot of money and then getting the championship, would be the Yankees. However even though they got CC, AJ and Tex in one offseason, they already had Arod, Jeter, Mariano, etc. This is what makes baseball unique. One can spend money and buy the best players, and make significant improvements, but there are so many roles that need to be filled, there is no one player that really can flip an entire franchise.

One thing about basketball free agency that has always impressed me though is the speed of it (aided by the cap), how its finished so quick after it starts. After watching many baseball offseasons, a quicker baseball offseason would be a welcome change of pace (but then us bloggers would have nothing to write about, so I guess I'm ok with our free agency going on forever).

David Wright. The 5 Time All-Star. 2006-2010. That means he has had 5 different All-Star Jerseys so far so lets take a stroll down memory lane:

(2010 – mlb.com)

(2009)

(2008)

(2007)

(2006)

Some quick hits to go with your Friday morning Waffles with Strawberry Syrup:

There's a lot to like about the young pitcher on the Mets staff, and I really don't feel that I have, personally, appreciated what he brings to the team until last night. Home grown players always add a spark to lineup because they come with none of that “spoiled” feeling on them. They seem pure in the sense that they are, for at least some period of time, void of greed and don't have a corporate, money-minded, cynical aura around them. This is automatic in home grown talent (at least until the time for the first major extension).

As a pitcher though, there is a lot to like about Niese. As I alluded to before, here at 213, I don't think I spend enough time highlighting him as a player and that is sad because he really embodies a lot of qualities that I like to see in players. First and foremost, he seems very modest. When describing himself for the first half of the season, he said he feel's that he has been “allright”. Niese, you have been a lot more than “allright”. The recent pitching performances you have had since coming off of the DL put you right behind Santana and Pelfrey on this team. No longer is there a feeling of (although I don't believe there ever was) “awww man Niese is pitching today” because your games dictate that you are better than that.

When I do talk about Niese here, I generally spend a lot of time on his curveball. However there are three other aspects of Niese the pitcher that I really should focus on more. The first is that he works extremely quickly. I like baseball as much as any other fan, but sometimes games can get really long and really boring. The monotonous looking at the bases and routines before throwing add minutes to the game that are superfluous. Niese working quickly makes him seem more confident and makes the game easier to watch while being more entertaining. The other two aspects of Niese that are not really spoken about here are two of his other pitches, his fastball and cutter. I am generally a fan of when a pitcher can throw that high heat, and not get into trouble with it. It reminds me a bit of 2006 and 2007 John Maine. However, his cutter is really the star. It has become a great pitch and really is starting to give some hitters a lot of trouble, especially with that late movement. His K's from the last several starts show that he is getting behind his stuff.

Anyway, I know that was a bit of a ramble but I was just going through some posts recently and I realize for all the time I spend on Santana, Pelfrey, Dickey, Wright, K-Rod, Pagan, etc, I really should share some thoughts on Niese more.  

Some players are born to have slogans and Ike Davis was one of those players. As soon as he started to fly through the system, the Mets Faithful already knew that Ike Davis was destined to have a catchphrase, a slogan, a chant, and a T-shirt:

(Two Eight Nine Shirts)

Yes this was now are slogan, rescued from political pass from Eisenhower and back into the public spotlight. And it works too! It's not like we are rhyming with “We Like Ike” it's the exact same slogan. We just have to hope that no other team uses this slogan for a ridiculous voting campaign for some sort of popularity contest that is just a propaganda machine for Major League Baseball……..

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The Rangers have used “I Like Mike” in their effort to get former All-Star MVP Mike Young into the game this year on the final fan vote, not that he has a chance sine he will be going against Swish and Youk. So this is obviously not as big of a deal as I'm presenting it as, I just wanted to point out that someone is encroaching on our sayings and chants….when was the last time that happened?

(via If Blogs Run Free and Ump Bump)

Some quick hits to go with your Thursday morning Fruity Cheerios:

The Mets bounced back from a tough Monday night game against the Reds with a classic game last night as Johan Santana pitched the second complete game shutout on the Mets pitching staff. The other pitcher on the Mets staff to do that this year? Well it would be the pitcher who will be going tonight, Niese, who threw a one hitter earlier this year. Jon is 6-2 over 82 innings this season with an ERA of 3.62. Since returning from the DL, Niese is 5-0 in 6 games with a 2.43 ERA. He did pitch against the Reds earlier this season where he picked up the loss while allowing 4 ER over 6 innings. The Reds have these numbers on Jon:

If you have been following my previews, you probably realized I made a pretty large mistake yesterday (and I apologize about that). Yesterday I wrote about Arroyo being the starter for the Reds well actually he is the starter tonight. The Mets will get to bat off against Arroyo tonight who is 8-4 on the
season with a 4.25 ERA. In his last three games he is 2-1 with a 2.84
ERA. Arroyo did pitche against the Mets the first time these teams met
this season and he was the only Reds starter to get a loss against the
Amazins as he allowed 4 ER over 7 innings pitched. The Mets have these
numbers agianst Bronson:

Lets Go Mets!

No, I'm not talking about merchandise (for once) here, I'm talking about MLB.com's opinion writer Bauman. At the risk of sounding extremely cynical, I cannot possibly take his Monday entry on the All Star Vote seriously. Bauman makes his arguement that fans voting is the best thing possible for the game. Mainly, that it makes it democratic and helps teams that are not in big markets. Before I rip into while I believe his main arguement is deeply flawed, I want to address where my cynacism comes in. I feel that this is like reading an article from an Oil Company that 100% gasoline powered cars are the best possible thing for the world. There's an inheriant conflict of interest when an arguement about fan voting being the way to go comes on the source that provides the service. It just seems wrong. Thats the type of situation that you try to teach people recognize the motives of the writers or the financial supporters. Bauman has a right his opinion, and this really may be his opinion, but it is his connection to the MLB that makes his stance weak.

Anyway back to his actual opinion. It's really funny that he believes that voting helps smaller market teams. I have to respectfully disagree. He says that his proof of this is having Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria making the team coming from a small market team.  In my opinion, their making the team is a combination of their level of play but also the media hype machine. There is a very good chance that these players would have been selected to the team before the season actually started because these are players the media loves to talk about. Crawford trade rumors were all over the place over the winter. Longoria has been the darling of the sport since he made his debut. Their election to the team, beyond their skills, shows the success of large market areas and the evolution of a national market that hypes the same players over and over again.

Bauman would have been correct in his argument if players like Gonzalez got superior recogniton in fan voting or if someone like Olivo made the team as a starter. However this was not the case. It is my opinion that voting perputates the larger market and media dominance over the game, rather than the skills of the game itself. This is of course fine. The All-Star game is the game of where fans pick the players, so its more like a popularity game which is alright, we just have to change our definition of All-Star (which is something I wouldn't want to do).