213 Miles From Shea

Some quick hits to go with your Friday morning Granny Smith Apples:

The Mets go for a series sweep tonight as the Mets play game three against Tigers tonight. The Mets offense took the spotlight during game one, and that spotlight shifted over the dazzling R.A. Dickey last night. Now the Mets look to get the bats going behind Takahashi in the series capper.

Takahashi (6-2, 3.13 ERA) takes the mound for the Amazin's as he looks to build off of the success from his last two starts. In those starts (against the major league worst Orioles and the major league best Yankees) Takahashi is 2-0 over 13.0 innings while allowing only one earned run (0.69 ERA) while striking out 5 and walking 3. If Takahashi can keep those last two games in mind, and replicate his calmness on the mound, thats exactly what the Mets need. Since he is a rookie, he has never faced the Tigers or any of their batters in his time in the majors.

The batters get a chance to take on one of the most talked about pitchers so far this season, Galarraga (for known reasons, not going to get into it here). On the season he is 7-6 with a 3.38 ERA. Over his last three games he is 3-0 while pitching 17.0 innings and allowing 8 ER (4.24 ERA). Because Armando has only pitched for three seasons, all in the American League, he has only faced two Mets batters. Barajas is 1-2 while Bay is 0-2.

Lets Go Mets!

Before this season there was talk about an crowded outfield as soon as the Mets signed Jason Bay. Of course back then, things looked different. The problem then was Bay moved Murphy to first base and then the outfield was filled out by Beltran and Francoeur. However, Fmart was coming up, and it wasn't clear (especially during Spring Training when Fmart was rolling) when Fmart would actually show up. If he came in 2010 (which was not a realistic possibility) there would be no spot for him. If he came up in 2011 (more realistic) then probably Francoeur would be the odd man out.

The situation then went into the opposite direction at the start of the 2010 campaign as it became obvious that Beltran would be out much longer than mid to late May. The question was if Pagan or GMJ could round it out in CF. The outfield went from being crowded to sparse. While GMJ struggled (and some how managed to still get playing time, bewildering) Pagan started to heat up. Now he is the only player in the Mets lineup actually hitting above .300 and he has 35 RBI's (more than Bay, Reyes, Davis, etc). With Francoeur now heating up, raising his BA from .200 something to .275 in the past month, and Bay making a good amount of money, the Mets find themselves with an interesting question:

With Beltran returning in 20 days (knock on wood) where does he fit? If he is hitting, he is one of the best players in the game.

This problem is shaping up to look like its going to be a rotation isssue. Or will be at least for the first few weeks as Bay, Beltran, Francoeur and Pagan will probably shuffle around in the OF, probably based on who's playing second base or who's catching (ie, different substitutions in other positions impact which offensive pieces they will need from OF). The other “logical” option is well Francoeur gets benched. However, when he is in the zone, he is in the zone and needs to be in that lineup. Also, his prescence alone causes third base coaches to hold up those stop signs at 3B. Thats a huge assest. The Mets would also be in dangerous territory again with two CF. Communication hasn't been one of our stronger suits over the last few seasons.

Pagan's hitting, defense, and overall ability presents another problem for the Mets. Remember that old crowded outfield problem? Well now its Bay, Francoeur, Beltran, Pagan, and Fmart (and maybe Carter and Murphy, but not really). The offseason could be interesting for the Mets now because they have 5 peices to plug into three positions.

To me personally, the decision would be to have Bay, Francoeur and Beltran rotate while keeping Pagan in CF the entire time. He has become very valuable in the number 2 spot, and it would really hurt to remove him.

Dickey stars on the back of the Daily News:

(NY Daily News)

Some quick hits to go with your Thursday morning Maple Frosted Mini Wheats:

(via Page By Dave)

The Mets take another series at home tonight as the win against the Tigers clinch a series victory against a good ball club. The Mets now have a pitcher who is 6-0 and another pitcher who has an ERA at around 2.30 (2.33 to be exact). Also, you can add another shutout to the books tonight as the Mets beat the Tigers 5-0.

Let's focus on R.A. Dickey tonight. He was amazin'. Looking back at all of his starts now he has this theme of starting a little rough and then getting on a roll (which I've heard on various telecasts is typical of knuckle ball pitchers). Also (I was watching the ESPN telecast since I am currently in DC) the announcers kept talking about how the game, as the night went on, became Dickey's environment. He likes cool(er) temperatures and with a slight breeze (which, lets be honest, is pretty much any night game in Queens). Anyway his line was amazing as he pitched 8.0 innings while allowing 0 runs, walking 2 and striking out 4. He dropped his ERA from 2.82 down to 2.33. These numbers are even more impressive when you consider that he loaded the bases in the first inning. Another attribute of his game is that when he pitches, you want to watch. As a fan, you want to see how he mixes his pitches and mixes his speeds to get batters out. Its fun!

Oh, and Dickey is the first pitcher to start off his career as a Met with a 6-0 record. Well done.

In terms of offense, Jose Reyes was on fire tonight. He opened up with a triple, and didn't score. Then he got a single (and scored), and hit a homer (obvisously scored) and then reached on a fielder's choice (and then scored). He also got his 19th stolen base of the year as he continues to be a key piece of the offense for the ball club this month. Other notes include David Wright notching in his 20th double of the season and also recording his 56th RBI of the season. Jesus Feliciano recorded his first RBI of his career tonight as well.

Next up for the Mets is a three game sweep of the Tigers. That would be a great explanation point on the season so far and lets hope the Mets can do that tomorrow. The Mets will draw Galarraga in that game as they will send out Takahashi.

Check out the new banner at mets.com:

Sorry about the blurry-ness, I had a copy/paste/crop/resize Microsoft Word to Paint fail. Anyway keep pushing for Wright. The NL needs him to start at 3B.

The Mets will try to make it 2 in a row tonight as they play the Tigers in game two of this series. The first game featured, rain, offense, hits, scoring, late hours and uh, more scoring. The question for the Mets going into this homestand was if they could keep up this up winning pace. Winning tonight would show that this time, their winning ways are more sustainable than earlier in the season.

Hip Hip R.A.! It's time to knuckle down again at Citi Field as Dickey takes the mound for the Amazin's. Dickey is having a historic start for the Amazins as he makes his seventh start. In his first six starts he is 5-0 over 38.1 innings pitched with a 2.82 ERA. Dickey has had some recent trouble as his knuckle has been hit a little more, but thats also due to him ramping up the speed (the trade-off of course between a knuckleball and its speed). Last season Dickey was 0-1 over 3 games against the Tigers as he logged 7.1 innings against them allowing 4 runs. Here are the numbers the Tigers have against Dickey;

The Mets batters will get to face Bonderman on the mound tonight. On the season Jeremy has a 3-4 record with a 4.09 ERA over 75 innings pitched. In the month of June, Bonderman has made 4 starts with a 1-2 record over 27.2 innings pitched with a 4.55 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Bonderman:

Look I hate being hypocritical (and I also hate the word hate) but every once in a while I find myself having to be hypocritical. In the recent and not so recent past, I have been vocal about how I am not pleased with the concept of fans voting for the All-Star game. Now I need to flip it around though. Over the last few weeks Wright has been gaining in his position for the All-Star game, but he is still about 131,000 votes back (he has closed the gap by about 70,000 votes in the last week). He needs to be the All-Star.

Wright is chasing Polanco, but the only thing Polanco really has on Wright is his batting average. Polanco is hitting .313 while Wright is hitting about .283. However outside of that, Wright is much better than Polanco. Wright has (not including last night's games) 53 RBI's while Polanco has 25. Wright also has 4 more doubles, 9 more stolen bases, 1 more triple, and 7 more homers.

From a statistical point of view, Wright is the winner. From a leadership point of view, Wright is the winner. However for the real question for the All-Star game is if there was one third basemen, you would want to play at third in order to get the NL home field advantage, you would, or should, pick David Wright.

So now its up to us, the fans. We need to get Wright into the All-Star game. I'm confident that he will be picked as an alternate, however, he needs to be starting this game.