213 Miles From Shea

Spring Training starts today and for the Amazin's and they needed to reach today. A few seasons ago, it seemed like the most important Spring Training in Mets history was going to be the one after the first collapse however this one seems just as important. The Mets went into last season with high hopes and it just felt like the season was taken away thanks to all of the injuries to the roster. Since then, with pretty much the same roster, the Mets in many eyes of the National Media went from a top team in the division to a team that it would be surprising if they finished third or higher at the end of upcoming season. This is the Mets time to start to show that not only are they healthy, but they are here to compete. Its time to throwaway last season.

One of the few positives out of last season was David Wright stepping up and becoming a leader of the team and as the leader he has already been asked the tough question of Spring, the question that has gotten the Mets in a lot of trouble in previous Springs. David Wright handled the question with the best answer I have ever heard:

“We feel like we’re going to go out there and win the National League
East and go deep in the playoffs and win the World Series,”
(from Metsblog, please go there to read the rest of the quote where Wright addresses the rest of the teams in the division)

Thats the attitude the Mets need right now. They need to have the championship on the their minds because the season hasn't even started yet, there is no reason to write the Mets off. So here's to Spring Training and for the Mets actually playing baseball again. Its a great feeling and now starts the fun one and half month road to one of the most anticipated days of the year, Openning Day. the day of clean slates.

There were two positions that were hotly debated the entire offseason, and they were first base and catcher. Over at first base, the debate focused around giving Murphy a chance, platooning Murphy, or signing a power hitter to replace Murphy.  The latter was basically thrown out because the Mets didn't want to do anything that could possibly block Ike Davis. Later in the off season, Delgado kept popping up as a possibility. Well going into Spring now, the options are getting clearer. It looks like the major contenders for first base will be Murphy, a platoon of Murphy and Tatis, and “newcomer” Mike Jacobs.

Before breaking down predictions, advantages, obsticles, etc, here are some stats from last season:

Dan Murphy: Here's a disclaimer: I am very biased towards Murphy (probably due to his work ethic). Anyway, the Mets asked Murphy to do some very tough things last year. They started him off in an unfamiliar position in LF, and a tough LF in Citi, and then later moved him over to another unfamiliar position at firstbase. So in his first major league season, he had to take on two unfamiliar positions which means two position transitions, and due to the injuries on the team, he was also asked to do a lot with his bat. If he is allowed to be the starter I have complete faith that he will hit between 15-20 homers and 40 doubles. With a healthy lineup around him, he will get the protection he needs to get more favorable stats.

Mike Jacobs: Going into Spring Training Jacobs will have a lot of work to do. At this point, the firstbase job is either Murphy's to lose to a platoon position, and Jacobs will have to be stellar in order to upset Murphy and a Murphy-Tatis platoon. That being said, we cannot write Jacobs off yet (especially since Spring Training hasn't even officially started yet). It has been said by a few people that if Jacobs does not make the major league club, the Mets will probably grant him a release. I wouldn't mind seeing Jacobs at 1B if his work this spring warrants it.

Tatis: Tatis has been a (surprising) assesst for the Mets the last few seasons and he looks to be the Mets go to guy off of the bench this season. In terms of playing time at first base, if it looks like Murphy has problems with lefties again, Tatis will get some serious playing time in a platoon situation. The Mets have furthered this as a possibility as they have signed a good amount of outfielders who can play backup for the starters, a position that Tatis played often over the last couple of season.

Real Outside Chances: Ike Davis, Carlos Delgado (who will be listed until he signs with another team or formly retires)

Its very easy to see from this article that I really want Murphy to be the starter this upcoming season. For him to be the starter coming out Spring, he will need to demonstrate that he can hit lefties and that he has developed more power. If that doesn't happen, he will open up options for the other contenders for firstbase.

Two links today:

First the Mets were featured positively on Buster Olney's Sportscenter segment while the Braves were slammed. Check it out.

Second, Although the 18th is the official start for pitchers and catchers at Mets camp, many players have already arrived, and Adam Rubin has some great photos to get you thinking of baseball. Sandy Koufax is also at Mets camp. Check it out.

My roommate sent me this link last night. My roommate, from Baltimore, is an Oriole fan and he attached a note to the link saying “At least your team didn't get injured like this.”

The gist of link is a young promising pitcher for the Orioles, Bergesen, was injured while filming a promotional commercial for the upcoming baseball season. He started to throw off a mound without really warming up or having any serious workouts around his time on the mound. The production crew was pressuring him to make it look realistic, so he decided to really make it look realistic by digging in an putting some strength in the pitches. (The injury was to a capsul in his arm).

(Side note, this took place in December)

I'm sure if the Mets were involved with something like this, the injury would have been season ending. Bergensen at this point is only 10 days behind where he should be, so thankfully it isn't too bad.

Mid-February is that time for those early fantasy baseball drafts are scheduled, and companies start to produce their fantasy baseball guides. MLB.com recently released their fantasy baseball guide and they added some new features to it that I don't remember in previous years mainly I do not remember them having a team option where they rank the best players by team (along with their normal categories of position, top 100 and top 100 prospects).

The following are the Mets players featured in the MLB.com guide. The first number represents their team position (I only did the top 10 for the Mets out of the 27 they listed). The second number is how the player ranks for their position, and the final number is their rank in the top 100 (if ranked):

David Wright (1, 3, 14)
Jose Reyes (2, 3, 21)
Santana (3, 8, 36)
Bay (4, 10, 51)
Krod (5, 5, 67)
Beltran (6, 29, X)
Maine (7, 45, X)
Francoeur (8, 69, X)
Castillo (9, 27, X)
Murphy (10, 43, X)
Delgado (X, 33, X)

Top 100 Prospect list – – Mejia 96

For the most part, no surprises with this list. I found it funny for the first basemen they have Delgado listed at 33 and Murphy at 43 but that has a lot to do with this being a fantasy baseball guide, and for firstbasemen, first off you should be looking for nonplatooning starters and second, if your “starting”  firstbasemen is below 30 on the list, you probably did something wrong in the draft)

Spring Training is right around the corner and its time to start previewing the position battles this Spring and the possible 25 man roster for the upcoming 2010 season and there is no better place to start than one of the most controversial aspects of the Mets roster, the Starting Rotation. The controversy stems from the Mets front office not signing another starting pitcher like they said they would. As of now Starting Rotation looks like this (with the exception of Santana, order at this point is speculative):

1. Santana
2. Pelfrey
3. Maine
4. Perez
5. Battle Zone

As of now there is still a chance, a small chance, that the Mets go out and sign someone for that fifth spot (and at this point, the options are really thin out there).  I have narrowed the competition down to three players who I feel have the best shot at getting that last slot in the rotation. So disregarding the outside signing right now, here are the contenders for that fifth spot:

Jon Niese: Before his injury last season, he had an impressive 4.21 ERA over 25.0 innings pitched at the age of 22. He then of course had a terrible injury that took him out for the rest of the season. What he has going for him is his very impressive curveball, a pitch the Mets would love to see in the majors. What he has going against him is his age. Having such a critical injury at his young age, it gives the Mets more reason to let him build up strength this season and work on his stuff in the minors. Personally, if I was in charge, I would have Niese in the minors for the majority of the season so he can work on his stuff.

Fernando Nieve: In just over 36 innings last season, he had a 2.95 ERA and it really seemed like the Mets got something with Nieve. Sadly, Nieve went down with an injury and his run was over. That short stint with the Mets last season was the most successful in his young career (he will be 27 next season). What he has going for him is a strong winter behind him. He pitched 26 innings earlier this winter and had an ERA of 2.42. As long as he is healthy, he is the pitcher I feel should be holding this spot on the rotation.

Nelson Figueroa: Figueora was a consistent pitcher for the Mets last season with pitching slightly over 70 innings and have an ERA barely over 4. Nelson would be a wise decision for the last spot of the rotation because of his consistency. However, I feel that it is his consistency which will lead to him not getting this position. I think the Mets, and fans (myself included) are looking for lightning, and Nieve or Niese could be a form of that lightning. With lightning comes risk though of either of those pitchers being a dudd. So while a younger pitcher might block out Figueroa at first, he will be at some point this season starting games for the Mets. Besides his consistency, he does have experience on his side.

Really Outside Shots for the Rotation: Meija, Dee. (And I mean, really outside shots)

What it all comes down to though is which pitcher performs the best this Spring. We have seen in the past pitchers come out from no where to take spots before (Joe Smith, Parnell) but recently those pitchers have been in the pen. Lets see who performs the best and gets to round out the rotation (unless a signing comes in and grabs that spot).

Over at Fan Huddle, I debate the Use of Frank Catalanotto. Basically, for the Mets he is a mix of a semi-familiar name and ability to play 5 or 6 positions around the field, but not really a hitting force, especially against lefties.

Check out the article (and its uses of stats too)!

Metstradamus, probably the most entertaining Mets blog (and I would say Sports Blog) out there, has a great piece titled Takahashi Crystals.

In 2006, the last time the Winter Olympics were held, was also the first time the World Baseball Classic was held (which meant that was held in an incredibly busy sports year as World Cup was also played during that time). That was also the time it was becoming more clear that Baseball would not be an Olympic sport in later Olympic games. So baseball would be losing its international stage (which was also hard to claim it had one since that its the only sport where the professionals really do not play during the Olympics thanks to the MLB).

This is where the actual appeal of the WBC comes into play. At some level, international competition is fun to watch. There is a certain pride in rooting for one's native country. However it is here where the problems of the WBC come into light. For an international competition, there are not a lot of countries involved yet. In terms of athletes being ready for the games, the question of when to play the international tournament arises, and that is a very complicated question to answer.

I guess the point of this article is that Internationa Competition is great and I hope in the future the WBC can have a real international prescence.

Are you familiar with Schrodinger's Cat? If not the simple explanation is that. Lets say you put a cat in a completely sealed off box where you cannot see anything going on inside of the box. Inside of the box there is a vile of a toxic (deadly) poison. The vile is protected by a detector which will only release the toxin if it detects a quantum decay. Lets say that quantity that is decaying has an equal chance of decaying or not decaying. That means your cat has an equal chance of being alive and being dead. This is one of the more well known tenants of quantum physics, that something can exist in two states, or that all possibilities can happen are are happening because the box is “closed”.

That is the way I feel the Nationals pitching staff can be. They have signed a lot of pitchers this off season that can be very good and cause a lot of problems for opposing pitchers. Yet all of these pitchers have an equally dangerous side that can be devastating for the Nationals. This trend will continue as they are about to sign Wang (someone I really hoped the Mets would sign at this rate but whatever). So taking Wang aside some of the other pitchers that fall under this umbrella are Matt Capps, Bruney, Guardado, and Speier. On top of that they signed a reliable Marquis and they will also be testing the waters with Strasburg and Zimmermann (not Zimmerman).

This could be a rather good pitching staff, and at the same time it could be abmysmal. The box will have to be openned and that box is 2010 baseball season.

Over at Fan Huddle, I just wrote an article about how the Mets might be signing Mike Jacobs, and how that could be an intriguing situation.

Mainly I focus on it being a low risk situation. I do stress though that statistics show that Jacobs cannot platoon with Murphy, since they both hit RHP's about 40 points  higher than LHP's. (Also, Murphy just hits 20 points higher in both categories), but Jacobs does have the power numbers.