213 Miles From Shea

The above graph really shows the story of the season. It represents the games over or under .500 the Mets found themselves after each game this season (thus at game 1, they were 1 game above .500). Looking at this graph you really can see the moments of pain and the moments of joy for this season.

You also see how streaky this team is. There are a lot of straight lines, whether they be going up or going down, all over this graph.

The final observation from this graph, it really seems like a roller coaster. It's very interesting to see a visual of the Mets win/loss record because of the story it tells.

Some quick hits to go with your Wednesday morning acai bowl*:

*A Healthy Brazilian Breakfast

(via Mets Merized Online)

This was not exactly a well pitched game for the Mets, but the offense showed its head again putting up 7 runs a game after scoring 11 runs. But before we get into the bats big night, lets go over the pitching performance. Santana flew through the first inning but then ran into some trouble in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th inning. However after the Mets bats gave him a boost, Santana being an ace knew what to do with a lead and was able to handle the Indians through the 7th inning. Feliciano then came on to throw a mostly clean 8th and then came Krod. Krod allowed a lead off single, then go two quick outs. However with those two outs Duncan hit a blast out of the park making the game 7-6. Krod would bounce back and get the Mets the save and the win. Lets chalk this up to Krod wanting to make the Mets 1-run game recond better, or K-rod just wanting to add some drama….or something.

The real story of the Mets was the bats. For a 4th straight game the Mets scored a run in the first inning, however that wouldn't be enough. The Mets found themselves at one point down by a score of 4-1 but (for a second straight game) put up 5 runs in one inning which led to the Mets lead. At that point the Mets would never look back as they eventually won the game 7-6. David Wright helped tie the game adding RBI's 2 and 3 on the night (more on him later) however the hero was Ike Davis who hit the go-ahead two-run homer, for his 8th jack on the season.

David Wright struck out twice tonight, but he also scored a run, collected 3 hits in his other 3 AB's and (most importantly) collected 3 RBI's. In his last two games, Wright has knocked in 7 RBI's. That means he has 50 on the season. In an 162 game season, he would have 126 RBI's at this rate. So he continues his statistical strange season as he has some amazing good stats and some amazing bad stats.

Coming off of a three game sweep of the Orioles on the road, the Mets come into Cleveland riding a 4 game winning streak and winners of 8 of their last 10. The Indians, who have been a struggling ball club this year, will come into the series after taking 2 of 3 from the Nationals and winning 4 of the their last 5 (the other two wins were against the Red Sox). For the Indians, many have linked their (very) recent resurgence to their call up of prospect Carlos Santana. Well Santana will have to deal with Santana tonight.

Johan Santana (4-3, 2.96 ERA) will get a chance to bounce back from his last start where allowed 4 runs and 4 BB over 6.2 innings in a loss to the Padres. Even taking that outing into account, in his last 6 starts he has an ERA of 1.45 over 43.1 innings pitched. Over Santana's career, the Indians have posted these numbers:

The Mets haven't seen much of Masterson in his career. Pagan has one hit in as many AB's, Barajas is 0-2, Wright is 0-1, etc. Masterson this season he is 2-5 with a 4.74 ERA over 68.1 innings. He is coming off of his best start of the year where he pitched a complete game shutout against the Red Sox. Actually, the Mets are catching him at the wrong time this season. His last three starts really have been his best. If you use the definition that a quality start is 6 innings and 3 ER, he has had 4 of those in his last 10 appearances, and 3 of those 4 have been his last three games. Hopefully the Mets will be able to get Materson to revert to his less effective side.

Lets Go Mets!

Before I get into my actual opinion about the All-Star game, I wanted to first present the views of the two camps of thinking where one camp is for fan voting, one camp is not. The idea for fan voting connects with the idea that the All-Star game is the “fan's game” that the lineup doesn't necessarily need reflect the best current players in the majors but should replicate the lineup made up of players that the fans want to see play with each other. In that school of thought, the popular players “need” to play because that would create a popular team.

The other side is that the fans should not vote, because they are not going to select the best players. We do see this actually happening. The popular players win out, large market teams that play well “enough” are represented the most on the starting lineup. The ripples from this mean that its not really an All-Star game because not all these players are All-Stars. The bench ends up carrying the actual All-Stars, but this also means that actual All-Star slots are taken away so players that deserve the honor do not get it.

The challenge (thus the opinion part here) is reconciling these two camps of thought. One idea that has become increasingly popular in bar room conversations might be the solution. MLB (whether its managers, GM's, players, whatever) pick the All-Star team. After that happens (meaning, hopefully, the team actually has All-Stars on it) the fans then get to vote from that team who gets to start. This won't make everyone happy, but it seems to be a good balance. As good of an idea as this is it probably won't happen due to money. There's a lot money in it for major league baseball to have the most popular players possible out on that diamond, because that means ratings.

Even if the system doesn't get fixed (and I really don't expect that it ever will) baseball still has the best All-Star game out of every other professional sport.

Some quick hits to go with your Tuesday morning Tang:

In a continuing look at the far reaching obscurity of the MLB Product pushing empire, today we will take a look into what the Twin players “created” as part of the Players Choice Signature Series. Majestic chose four poor souls from the Twins roster to be part of this uniform set: Punto, Slowey, Hardy and Morneau.  Brace yourself, it is as ridiculous as every other team. [All Images are via MLB.com, and they can be found here, along with other images not included in this article]

The Good: Kevin Slowey. I'm impressed, his design is normal, and actually resembles something that normal people would wear:

The Canandian: For some reason, this series of uniform designs loves Canada. While Morneau's isn't as bad as Bay's its still pretty Canada:

Notice on the above T-shirt, there is a hockey goalie on the back. As if it wasn't Canada-themed enough.

The “UGHKDJIEKSIE”: Hardy and Punto had to go with the extra graphic on the back of the jersey. Hardy went with the ball park, so it wasn't too bad but Punto had to go with an image of himself:

There have been several players over the last few years that have been fairly vocal about their opinions about the New York Mets, their attitude, and organization. The short list includes Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Nelson Figueroa and Heath Bell. Bell felt like he was tossed away from the Mets, that he was never really given a chance. That being said, he has also gone on record saying that he gets extra fired up playing his former team. This passionate hatred to the Mets has been, at least, my perception of Heath Bell.

That was until I read this interview posted at New York Baseball Digest.

I feel like I understand Bell so much better now. Its not really that he holds a grudge against the Mets organization as that he is angry he didn't get a full opportunity to pitch here. From the way he was talking about the city, its obvious that he cares about New York. This respect comes up all over the place in the interview. His favorite place to visit is New York City. Two of the four toughest batters he has faced are Mets (Reyes and Wright). Talent he wish he had? He wish he was David Wright (seriously, its actually reall funny, go read it). He also wants to know what it would be like to hit a homer for the Mets.

The most interesting part of the interview was when he was describing the circles in his career, I'll led you read that. He also talks about returning to the Mets. He is actually very open to it and would love to return to New York. He says if he has to go in a different direction wth the Padres, New York would be where he would want to end up. Well current and futrue Mets GM's, I hope you hear that. If Bell goes on the market in free agency, he should be very courtable.

Today's Oriole Bird Comic From the Baltimore Sun:

(via The Baltimore Sun)

Some quick hits to go with your Monday morning Life Cereal: