213 Miles From Shea

Some quick hits to go with your Wednesday morning Corn Flakes:

The calender is about to flip to June. Summer Time. The kids are out from school and the Mets will be hoping to get families into Citi to see some ball games. Lets take a look at what the PR department has set up for June (all images via Mets.com):

June 5th: Sports Bag

This is a nice giveaway mainly because its useful. It looks to be pretty small, so it could also be used as a carry-on for flying if going to the gym isn't your thing, and it focuses on the real colors of the Mets (ie, not black and white). Thumbs up.

June 6th: Beach Towel

Beach towels are always great give-aways, but it depends on the design. The above has a crisp, simple design focusing on the retro Mr. Met that used be everywhere around Shea Stadium, and doesn't feature an overly large corporate tag. Thumbs up.

June 26: Mets Cap

Caps are always a popular giveaway. Usually I don't think much of them, but its nice to see the reveral of colors here, making this hat stand out a bit more than usual. Still rating is: average.

June 27th: Travel Mug.
No picture. I'm going to assume its lame.

Strasburg is set to make his last AAA start this week before going to the majors, and the Mets are lucky enough that his last start will be in Buffalo. Like all of his other minor league starts, this game should be highly attended. Strasburg will be expected to throw around 95 pitches, or six innings. He will also get to pitch against one of the Mets rising starting pitchers, Gee.

For the Mets, this is an excellent opporuntity to not only scout a talented pitcher who will be in the division for years, but it is also a great opportunity to see how our hitting prospects (Thole, Tejada, Murphy (not a propsect), Fmart, Pridie) fare against a strong pitcher.

Anyway, the game is at 1:05 on June 3rd. You'll probably see coverage on ESPN as they have been following all of Strasburg's games.

Some quick hits to go with your Tuesday morning Wild Grape Pop Tart:

The Mets start a series with the Padres tonight, who are the owners of one of the best home records in baseball, and the holders of first place in the National League West. Overall, they have been a very surprising team and people are wondering if they will be able to continue their upstart success for this season. For the Mets, this is an important series because (a) the Padres a good team and you want to beat good teams and (b) the Mets eally need to start winning on the road.

The Mets will start the game with Takahashi, who has been a breath of fresh air in the rotation. So far this season Takahashi has appeared in 17 games pitching 38 innings with a 2.13 ERA. In his first two starts of the season, he has pitched 12.0 innings and didn't allow any runs while walking only one and recording 11 strikeouts. As you probably could have guessed, because Takahashi is a rookie in this league, he has not faced any hitters in the Padres lineup.

The bats, who have scored 16 runs in the last two games, will get a chance to hit off of Correia (4-4, 4.03 ERA) tonight. In the month of May he made four starts with an 0-3 record and a 4.24 ERA. All of his starts were slightly below average to bad, except his last start where he he pitched 6 scoreless innings. Last season he had 0-1 record in two starts against the Mets with an 1.64 ERA (the Mets scored 4 runs, 2 earned over 12 innings last season). The Mets have these numbers over his Correia career:

Lets Go Mets!

Side Note: The Starting graphic is a preview of the redesigning process for this website. If you become a fan of the page on facebook, you will get to see the first 34 images that will be used to redo this website.

The role of the Long Man in the bullpen is to fill in for a starter who falters. At that point the Long Man has to come into the game, limit the damage, and save the bullpen. Our first long man in the pen (this season, and not necessarily intended) was Takahashi, then it was Valdes, and we know in an emergency it can be Dickey or Nieve.

However there is another pitcher making his home there and not being used, his name, of course, is Oliver Perez. A struggling starting pitcher, that happens to be in the pen, makes the most sense to be the Long Man. But why is not being used? Well the entire team has no confidence in him any more. He clearly needed to go back to the minors and work on his stuff, but he refused. The result was an 8 day period when he wasn't used, and he came into a game and was a mess.

He has been asked several times apparently to take a rehab assignment, and he has refused several times. This is getting to the point that he is about to cross over into the worst possible athlete scenario.

There are four different combination's that an athlete can be. He or she could be a good athlete and a good teammate, a good athlete and a bad teammate, a bad teammate and a good athlete and finally, a bad athlete and a bad teammate. Now in terms of good and bad athlete, I'm talking about the ability to play the specific game at that specific moment in time (thus the word athlete might be wrong, but it's much easier to write).

Perez currently is in the “bad athlete” area right now. His stuff is a mess, he's not locating pitches, etc etc etc. But he also has a chance to get out of this, but he'll need to make a sacrifice for the team, by going to the minors. By refusing this, he is now also a bad teammate. When a player falls into this category, there is no reason to keep that player. If this is the attitude that Perez is going to have, then it might really be time to eat up the contract and let him free, because being on the roster is hurting the team and now hurting the clubhouse.

In the end, this is just another distraction that needs to be taken care of. I hope Perez comes to his senses and takes the assignment so he can find himself. 

Some quick hits to go with your Monday morning Cup of Joe:

This is just a thought that I wanted to post.

What about Dontrelle Willis?.

Willis, the once dominating Florida pitcher has been struggling since (and maybe slightly before) his move to Detroit and Detroit has had enough. They just designated him for assignment, which means he may be had via a trade, waive, etc. If this doesn't cost us that much, Willis might be worth taking on.

Now I know the last thing we need is another reconstruction project (we have Oliver Perez, and Garcia/Redding projects last year didn't work out). But if we can get Willis for cheap, and if we can get him down in the minors and try to figure out whats wrong with him, then maybe this is a move that might be worth making.

In all honesty, its the beginning of June. Pitchers like Westbrook, Millwood and Lee will not be moved for another month at least, and sources say that Willis is probably not going to be traded for, or claimed. Getting Willis may not be the smartest move in the book, but if the Mets can some how get him (cheaply) and get him in the minors, and see what they can do, then we could potentially be in a low risk scenario where we can lose a little, but maybe gain a lot.

I want to go on record saying that obviously I would support a starter like Millwood or Lee way over Willis, but given the problems with Perez, if Willis is cheap (and I'm gonna sound like a broken record) and we can get convince/get him in the minors, this is a move worth making, but only under those conditions. What do you think?

The Mets try to avoid the sweep today as they take on the Brewers for game three. The first two games of this series have been so far apart from each other that they defy analogy or metaphor. Friday was, with the exception of the ninth, a great pitched game. Last night featured runs everywhere, and until later in the game, pitchers not hitting their spots. This afternoon the Mets will sound out R.A. Dickey to battle Wolf in order to avoid the sweep.

In two starts this year Dickey is 1-0 over 12.0 inning with a 1.50 ERA. His last start was a masterful breakdown of the Phillies lineup as he mixed in his (faster than league average) knuckleball with is (surprisingly effective) fastball. Last season he made two relief appearances against the Brew Crew totaling 3 innings of work where he allowed one hit. The only Brewer to get a hit off of him last season was JJ Hardy, who is no longer on the team.

The Mets will get to face a pitcher who as of the last few seasons, seems to do well against the Mets, Randy Wolf (4-4, 4.52 ERA). This season, Wolf is not as crisp as he has been in the past and in the last three games he has a 5.89 ERA (which is pretty high considering his last start was seven innings of shutout ball). Last season he was 1-0 against the Mets in two starts where he pitched 14 innings and allowed 4 runs (2.57 ERA). The Mets have put these numbers on him over his career:

Let Go Mets!