213 Miles From Shea

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.

I have been trying to think of words to describe this idea and I think the only thing I was able to come up with is Bizarre. Below is the actual Topps 2010 Basic Card of David Wright:

(Image From The Beckett Blog)

Now this card is normal featuring the Topps 2010 design. Now basic baseball card sets due special sets called Insert Sets (I do not know when this started, I know it has been at least a decade, I think). Insert sets are basically another set of cards within the master set that all have a common theme. Other Insert Sets in the Past for Topps have been Trading Places (featuring Players who changed Teams) or The History of Game.

Well Topps is doing a set now and its Bizarre. Its called When they were young. Thats right, it shows famous players from the Little League days including our very own David Wright:

(From DA Card World).

Like I said, this just seems like a Bizarre set to collect.

Every baseball season I am blown away by the marketing department of the Brooklyn Cyclones. They routinely think of things that are either unique or extremely awesome (or both). There was a link featured on uniwatcblog today that showcases another great move by the Cyclones. If you are unaware, the Cyclones (the Mets Class A short season team if you are really that unaware) are celebrating their 10th anniversary. In celebration this summer, on 7 Thursday Nights this summer they will feature a new Jersey.

Here is the list of the Jersey's:

1) Home Replica
2) Boardwalk Blues
3) Cyclones '86 Backman
4) Italian Hertiage
5) Irish Hertiage
6) Pitch Black
7) Original Road Replica

(Image from the Brooklyn Cyclones Official Page)

The above picture is the '86 Backman style. Notice how it looks like a 1986 Mets Jersey. Really these are all beautiful designs and will be available for the first 2500 fans on the nights that they are be given out. The actual article on the Brooklyn Cyclones website can be found here, and on that site are the pictures for the other 6 jerseyes. Really check it out. If you like uniform aesthics or if you like Brooklyn you will really like that page. I think my favorite is probably the Italian Jersey.

Over at Fan Huddle yesterday I wrote this article about the whole JJ Putz revelation that came out last week. I know this isn't news anymore, but I wanted to put my two cents in.

So check it out.

To start off my gut answer is a “no” in quotation marks (due to my cynical nature sometimes with the Mets) but of course there is a story that will lead to this conclusion.

Thursday night I was watching the Maryland Basketball game with a few of my fraternity brothers (Alpha Phi Omega- Coed Community Service Fraternity, any other APO Mets fans out there?) and it was a slow night, mainly because the campus was already closing for the major snowstorm that was really 18 hours away at that point, but its DC so thats expected.

Anyway one of my brothers is also a Mets fan and we were talking about the state of the Mets and he was very strongly for trading Fernando Martinez because as he sees it, he's a player with no potential. After I explained in detail why he was wrong, I figured this article was necessary to write.

One of the struggling points with Fmart is ability to stay healthy. He has shown at a few levels in the minors that he can hit and that he has a fantastic swing when he is healthy. He is also very young as well, which can be linked to his lack of power and ability so far to hit at the major league level. I would say that up until last week, he was not being considered at all for the Centerfield job at all next season. We have Pagan and GMJ and Fmart still was not ready at all.

However he released a statement last week via an interview saying that he was expecting to get playing time (before the GMJ trade). Since that statement, he has really been turning it on in the winter leagues. During the actual season in the winter league, he was hitting below .200 but since the playoffs, he has been hitting above .330 and this week alone he has 2 homeruns. If he can continue to play strong into Spring he could potentially make things interesting.

Overall though, even if he comes out of spring with 15 homers, he will ultimately start off in the minors. The Mets already have 2 CF on the roster without Beltran, and Fmart really needs to be playing every day to not only get rythem but to also get stronger for future season. However, I am hoping that he really succeeds in Spring, because we will need him down the road.

Hey Readers,

Today marks the third anniversary for this blog. It was back on January 31st, 2007 that I started this blog as a Mets fan in Baltimore looking to reach out and interact with the Mets community. Since then I have written nearly 1100 articles (a total that should be surpassed this week), contributed to two more Mets blogs and have changed my personal location to outside of DC.

I know this past year has been a rough year for the Mets, but we have gone through rough seasons before and made it back on top. Its easy to say that now as well since Spring is right around the corner, where optimisim is rising to its peak.

Personally, if you have been reading this site, you probably realize there has been a drop off in my writing over the last 6 months or so. I am hoping with this upcoming season to return to my familiar high volume of quality writing for the following season. I normally don't talk on this site too much about what I do outside of the Mets writing world, but I would like to digress for a little bit. I am an undergraduate Astronomy and Physics double major at the University of Maryland College Park. The last several months has been an extremely busy time as I had two labs (including an observation lab at night) which cut a lot into the time I usually try to get some writing done. Hopefully my next semester isn't as busy, which is why I see my writing returning to normal.

This is an exciting time to be a Mets fan, believe it or not. We are either desitined for big things right now, or we are on the cusp or a new generation of players and talent of for the amazin's and possibly (or more hopefully) a more competent front office if needed. Lets Go Mets! Lets get ready for the optimism of Spring and the most optmistic day of the year, Openning Day.

Thank you all for reading, and I am always open for comments and advice,

Elliot Teichman

eteich@umd.edu

Over at Fan Huddle, I just posted this article, where I describe the Mets as the either the awkward kid at the dance or the kid who talks big game and just does nothing at the dance, because that is what it feels like to be a Mets fan.

On top of that I suggest 4 things they can do  If you go read the article, you will know what I would do if I was the GM of the Mets. So check it out.

I was prepping an article about moves made this week, and how Delgado is still be considered, for some reason, for Fan Huddle recently (article not posted yet, should be later tonight and I will post a link here) and I came across something interesting from the Puerto Rico Winter League wikipedia page (and also on Metsblog).

In the Puerto Rico League, there is a draft held for teams that are still competing where they can pick up players from teams that were eliminated. That means, if you are an all-star player, you could possibly continue with a team through the post season?

Can you even imagine if that existed in the MLB? It would be as if the playoff's would be smaller versions of the All-Star game and then eventually, the World Series could basically be the All-Star game.

That is just bizarre. Now I haven't been able to find too much information on this yet, and I am sure there is some limiting fashion to this draft, and that there is a limited number of drafts (or maybe not) but think about competition. Lets use the 2009 Post Season as an example. In September, there was a back and forth battle between the Tigers and the Twins where they both just fought for the last playoff spot. According this league, it would be possible for the Twins then to draft a player for the playoffs from the Tigers, where that player probably just spent the better part of a month hating the Twins and then has to be teamates. Or lets look at the other side of that. What if the Yankees then picked up someone from the Tigers, who could tell them all of the up to date “secrets” of the Twins. This is just so strange to think about.

At the very end of the AFC title game today, they showed a fan waving a the Chicago “W” (for win) flag which got me thinking, which team does Indianapolis root for?

As a quick side note, to all the Jets fans out there, sorry you didn't win today. I was rooting for you. I don't talk about Football here that much, but many of you who follow this blog know that I am born in North Jersey but I was raised in Baltimore. Through my childhood I had a strong connection the New York Mets, but not to any New York football teams. I was in first grade when Baltimore got the Ravens, thus that Baltimore bond was formed (yet I say Baltimore like I'm from the north, so Ravens fans see me as an imposter as well).

The more I started to think about this, the more I realized how complex of a question this is. My knowledge of sports in that region of the United States is slim. In fact, it really only goes as far as knowing that I have relatives that live in Louisville, KY, which basically borders south Ohio and south Indiana. From what I understand, in at least football terms in that part of KY, fans either root for the Bengals, or the slightly farther Colts. 

When it comes to baseball in Indiana though, because that is where this article focuses on, there are no major league teams in the state, but the state is surrounded by several teams. In neighboring Illinois, there are the Cubs and White Sox. In neighboring Ohio, there are the Indians and the closer Reds. In fact, the Reds seem to be the closest team to Indianapolis. That does not mean that Colt fans root for the Reds.

My understanding of fandom out in most of the country is mostly due to this map. While I take this map with a grain of salt (mainly because it does over exaggerate a lot of places), there is some truth in it. The Cubs are an extremely popular team, an atribute that is helped out by their coverage on WGN. Of course there is also the ever popular Cards as well.  Another team to cosider (oddly) is the Pirates. Conventional thinking would say that the Pirates are too far away however Indianopolis does have a baseball team, and its the AAA affialties of the Pirates.

I think this is just a long explanation to say that I have no idea who Colt fans root for, and if any of you out there know, I would really appreciate it.