213 Miles From Shea

You may or may not recall this from last year, but the Mets were the test run for a ridiculous idea from Majestic. Representatives of the companies contacted Mets players last year to design their own T-shirts, hats and Jerseys, and then sold them to the public. The Mets were the only team that was involved with this last year. Man, this stuff looked bizarre. Anyway there were whispers of it happening again this year, when images from Spring rose of some Mets players interacting with these representatives. Well the Mets stuff hasn't completely surfaced, but I do recall some strange jerseys floating around the web, and I believe these are the Mets 2010 line. In the mean time though, there has already been a 2010 line released for the Yankees and the Phillies. I'll review them at a later time, but what you will see is that the 2010 lines for those teams feature stars (and for the Mets as well, I have reason to believe the Mets line will have Francoeur and Bay). Anyway, the 2009 line didn't really feature that much star power, but it was memorable non to less.

Dan Murphy: His was my favorite, only because it was normal. I actually have the T-shirt which is just green with the Mets New York script on the front and his name and number on the back. Its just a more Irish version of the Irish shirts you probably see every March. Here's a picture of his jersey, the most normal looking one of all:

(Biz of Baseball)

Bobby Parnell Jersey:

(MLB.com)

John Maine: His jersey is the start of what a lot of player did this year, with a picture below the numbers. However most players have pictures of themselves…which is just weird, Anyway, take it away John:

(MLB.com)

The other players that were picked were Omir Santos, JJ Putz and Gary Sheffield. As you will see in the images I was able to find below, some stuff got strange. Like:

(MLB.com)

Seriously Gary? Your face in the 10? Some shirts for JJ and Omir:

(Biz of baseball)

If you can't wait to see the posts here of the Yanks and Phils stuff for this year, head over to MLB.com. This will be a topic I'll be following probably all Summer, because I really find it hilarious.

Some quick hits to go with your Tuesday morning Banana Waffle:

I've already done a pretty comprehensive profile in terms of numbers, analysis, etc on Matt Harvey, which can be found here. However, sometimes seeing is better than reading. Below are three videos from youtube that show Harvey. Two of them show his pitching, one of them, from high school, shows his old hitting ability:

While I know you all are really interested in Matt Harvey (click for an in house profile of Harvey), I wanted to highlight some back pages from this morning:

(NY Post)

(NY Daily News)

(CNN)

The Baseball Hall of Fame has some really weird stuff in it, and that is why it's always worth it to go to Cooperstown. They have recently opened a new exhibit called Viva Beisball! honoring the Latin America cultural impact for the game. There is one display that apparently has food in it and Reyes has item next to the Omar Vizquel Salsa. Jose was recently involved with a wine company that makes wine named after baseball players.

So as of right now, Reyes has a bottle of his wine, CaberReyes (yes I'm serious), in the Hall of Fame. And according this article, he is really happy about it, as he should be.

The Wine was made by Longball Cellars as part of Charity Wines. Being a North East product, they focus mainly on Red Sox, Yankees and Mets wines. The three wines they have for the Mets are the CaberReyes, Santana's Select and Schneider Schardonnay. As the name Charity Wines suggests, the proceeds from these wines support different charity organizations, basically of the players choice (for example, Santana's goes to the Johan Santana Foundation).

Check out their site, the wine bottles are certainly interesting to look at.

Some quick hits to go with your Monday morning Cupcake Pebbles Cereal*:

*I was at the local grocery store yesterday and stopped in my tracks when I saw this cereal. Seriously, cupcakes for breakfast? Ridiculous! I'll probably have it some day though.

Two of the most talked about minor leaguers will be called up today for clubs that are anxiously awaiting them. The first one is a pitcher you have probably heard about more than any other pitcher ever in the minors. His starts make national coverage and his jersey was being sold last year for his club. This pitcher is of course Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg has been incredible in the minors with a groundout to flyout ratio that was better than anyone in the majors. Curt Schilling has said once he get's called up he will be the best pitcher in the majors. From what it looks like, ESPN might be having all day coverage of his call-up, which is a little ridiculous but whatever. It's a big day for Washington.

This has overshadowed a call-up that was just announced today. The Marlins will be calling up their 20 year old slugger, Mike Stanton, to the majors as he has destroyed minor league pitching. In AA this year, he has had a .311 BA and has smashed a minor league leading 21 homers (which is also more than anyone in the majors). The right fielder was drafted in 2007. Last year he knocked in 39 homers, so he was on pace to really pass that mark. The Marlins have a dangerous lineup, but if Stanton comes in and hits, and Coghlan starts hitting, this will be a really dangerous lineup.

That being said, every team but the Phillies this year has had a really big name in their system come up. The Braves had Heyward followed by the Mets with Davis and now the Nationals and the Marlins get their players up. The East really is the Beast.

During this recent blitz of profiles, (with of course the exception of Bryce Harper) there haven't been any profiles of high school players. For those of you who are new to baseball drafts, high school draftees do not generally make an immediate impact (unless they are amazing players, like Jason Heyward). A lot of players look more appealing in high school because their ceilings are higher. The players out of college are equivalent of some time in the minors, some skill development and the ceiling generally comes down.

Anyway there's a pitcher named Karsten Whitson, whom Baseball America thinks will be drafted by the Mets. I've done a good amount of searching, and I haven't been able to find high school statistics for him, but I'm sure they will pop up after the draft. Anyway the right hander throws his fastball between 91 mph and 96 mph with average movement. Reports also indicate that he could learn to throw harder. He also throws a slider and a changeup. As of right now, the slider needs work. Scouts believe it can and will probably be his out pitch once he gets older and learns how to throw it better. His changeup is already an average pitch.

What makes him very likeable is his control. If he can keep his control in the minors, (and his pitches will get stronger as he does) then his ceiling will be pretty high. Also, he pans to be more signable than other high school draftees. He's an interesting prospect. Not my first pick, but depending on how the draft goes, I would probably still take him.

The Amazin's go for the sweep today as they take on the Marlins for the final game of this series. In the first game of the series, the Marlins took the lead earlier, and then the Mets roared back. Yesterday was just domination by the Mets from the start to the end of the game. Today's game will feature Nolasco for the fish and Takahashi for the Mets.

Takahashi (4-2, 3.21 ERA) really struggled in his last outing (6 ER over 4 IP). However before that he was a force to be reckoned with as a Mets starter so hopefully he will get back to being awesome today. The Marlins have seen him 3 times this year as Takahashi has pitched 4.1 innings against them. During that time he has allowed 3 ER, 6 BB and 4 K. However the majority of that damage came in one outing where he didn't have his stuff. The Marlins have these numbers on him:

The Mets bats will get to face Nolasco (5-4, 4.57 ERA) again today. In his two first games against the Mets this year he is 1-0 pitching 12.2 innings allowing 6 runs 5 earned. In his last three outings he has pitched 16.1 innings with a 7.71 ERA. The Mets have been able to put these numbers on him throughout his career:

Lets Go Mets!

Some quick hits to go with your Sunday morning  Orange Gatorade: