213 Miles From Shea

Wow it must feel like the 60's the mid 90's because right now their is a tremendous excitement about Baseball in Baltimore and it all comes in the form of Matt Wieters, the young minor league player of the year, form first round (fifth overall) pick who will be making his much anticipated debut in Baltimore tonight. Everyday sine his debut was announced, the papers have been covered in Oriole coverage. On facebook, all of my friends who are Orioles fans have status's related to Wieters and it really feels almost like a playoff game in Baltimore tonight as 10 (plus) years of frustrated fans look at Wieters as their hope.

Not too much pressure for a Major League Debut, right?

This is how losing and winning can affect a fan's psyche. We have been reading, watching, writing about Fmart for years now, but when he came up this week it was nothing like how when Wieters' arrival was announced simply because of the state of the franchises. The Mets have been much better over the last ten years than the Orioles. Going back to 99, the Mets have been in the playoffs three times and have a pennant. In the last two years they have been in it till basically the last day of the season. The Orioles the last few years are pretty much eliminated by August. I will not be able to make the game tonight, but I have a lot of friends that will be there, and I am very curious to hear about the energy in the stadium, because it could be something that Orioles fans haven't felt since, well probably 96 or 97.

I wonder what this means for the Nationals as their hopes could very well be pinned on Strasburg when he gets drafted. I heard today he might skip the minors (which I think is extreme and is the subject of another post for another day) but its always interesting to see how hopes can be pinned on these young players. It also makes you appreciate home grown talent like Wright and Reyes even more.

The Mets hope to continue their three game winning streak tonight by taking on the Marlins. The Marlins had the Mets number in the beginning of the season but they are much different team from that point as they are now four games below five hundred. The Mets will have to face a rookie making his second start of the season and they will send out Pelfrey to wrestle with his demons. That being said it should be a very interesting game.

Sean West will be making the start for the Marlins and in his major league debut he got a no decision in a game the Marlins eventually lost as he went out there for 5 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 runs, 4 walks and 5 K. In the minors this year he was 4-2 over 8 games, where he had pitched 42.2 innings, walked 22, struck out 55 and had a 4.86 ERA. In the spring this year he pitched 4.2 innings with 7 ER, 6 H, 2 BB and 4 K. Now although the Mets usually struggle against new pitchers there are two signs that the Mets need to make sure they remember out there. First his numbers suggest that he has been hit and sometimes hard on all levels. Second, and more importantly, he is a left handed pitcher. That is where the Mets, even without Delgado, have their power.

In our dugout, Pelfrey will be taking the mound as he has a 4-1 record this season over 48.0 IP with a 4.31 ERA. In his last three games he is 2-1 over 20.0 IP, a 2.70 ERA, 4 BB and 11 K. These are the bad numbers though: Last year in 5 games Pelfrey was 0-4 with 20 ER over 25.1 IP against the Marlins. They have his number. He has shown this month that he has the stuff to return to number two in this rotation and this start will be important as its his first against the Marlins this year. Here are some numbers the Marlins have on Pelfrey:
     Ramierez 4-23, HR
     Uggla 7-19, 4 2B
     Hermida 3-11
     Cantu 5-13, 2 2B
     Ross 5-12, 2B, 3B
     Baker 4-8, 2B
The Mets success in this game will have a lot do with Pelfrey. If he can keep the Mets in this game and go deep, then the Mets will have a good chance of giving him his run support. If that doesn't happen, then the Mets will have to hope that their bats are really good. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Marlins!

The Mets got the sweep last night in really a bizarre game. Santana pitched 6 innings and over 120 pitches thanks to a 41 pitch inning. He walked a high amount of batters (6) but at the same time he also struck out 11 batters. He even walked in a run but he still battled back. Murphy hit a homer that was heavily disputed, and wasn't called a homer initially but it was reviewed and ruled a homer. Fmart made not a critical error but a bad mental error where he hit a pop up in front of the plate and just stared at it, and then got out on what would have been an error that would allow him to be on the bag.

Murphy had a big game as even though he had the disputed call, he also hit a key two run double at the end of the game that made the lead almost impossile to reach. Five RBI's was a carear high for him and it was a level of play the Mets needed out of him because right now between all of the injuries the Mets need different players to step up each night.

Through this all, the Mets have regained first place in the NL East and now have a nice 3 game winning streak and have won 5 of their last 6. When it comes to Fmart we have incredible expectations for this kid and he is going to make mistakes. I am trying to not be critical of him because of his age and his experience. This is a hot topic in Baltimore right now (not Fmart but managing expectations) with Matt Wieters starting play on Friday. Now the Mets have the challenge of continuing their winning ways against the Marlins this weekend. Lets Go Mets!

Now I don't know much about the NBA, mostly because when it comes to basketball I stick to my Terps and then remember that I am a baseball fan and it seems to be the only sport I truly understand. I have a feeling that the NBA finals are quickly becoming like the 2003 World Series. Lets go back in time and refresh ourselves with the 2003 ALCS and NLCS. For the ALCS, the series was between the Red Sox and the Yankees. This was before the 2004 and 2007 World Series Championship teams, and Boston was hungry for a championship. On the NLCS side, the series was between the Marlins and Cubs. Although the Cubs have really done nothing on the World Series since then but we all know Chicago is still waiting for those rings to come in the wind.

And as fans we all wanted to see the Red Sox play the Cubs. It would be sport story heaven. Two great teams playing each other and two cities that not just want but need a title (funny how a few years later really changes our opinion about Boston). Well we know how the story goes, those two teams didn't get to move on and the World Series really was the unwanted matchup of the Marlins and the Yankees, with the Marlins winning their second title in their short existance (then prompting a fire sale).

Well it looks like the NBA finals might go the same way as the Magic and the Nuggets might steal the show from the Lakers and the Cavs thus take it away from the LeBron and Kobe matchup we all might want. So the connection here is that we as the public really want to see a specific matchup and we dont get it, which is just the way Sports go. I don't know how strong of a connection it is between the 09 Finals and the 03 Series (depends on who actually gets to the Finals), but it was something I was thinking about during the afternoon commute and I thought I would share.

The Mets go for a sweep against the Nationals for the second time this season as this time they will have their ace on the mound in the form of Johan Santana but they will be facing the same pitcher that beat them last time, Jordan Zimmermann. Notice the two n's at the end of his name, he is not related to Ryan Zimmerman. Many organizations have made this mistake, including the Nationals who spelled his name (Jordan's) Zimmerman on his first set of bats, which caused the Nationals to write in the extra n. Anyway, the Mets have won two straight and 4 of their last 5.

Johan is 6-2 on the season with a 1.50 ERA over 60.0 innings this year where he has only 14 BB and 75 K's. In his last four games he is 3-1 with 27.1 IP, 1.98 ERA, 5 BB and 31 K. The 1.98 ERA is mostly due to his 4 ER he gave up in a win against the Giants earlier this month. In April he faced the Nats and went 6.0 innings, allowed one run, one walk and struck out 10. Here are some Nationals stats against Johan:
     Belliard 4-23, 7 K
     Zimmerman 5-15, HR
     Guzman 8-14, 2B
     Johnson 1-11
     Kearns 2-12
     Harris 1-9
The hottest hitter against Johan by far is Guzman who would love to see Santana tomorrow because after a great start to the season he has really slowed down basically to halt. Hopefully Johan can use that to his advantage and get Guzman to get himself out. One thing Santana would love to see is the Mets to score runs.

Zimmermann really did some good work against the Mets his last time out but since then he has struggled. On the season he is 2-1 over 41.0 IP with a 5.71 ERA. In his last 3 games he has pitched 18.0 IP with 0-0 record, a 6.00 ERA, 6 BB and 21 K. So his K to BB ratio is good, but thats about the only good thing in his last three games. In April against the Mets he pitched 5.1 IP, allowed one ER, 6 H, 2 BB and 5 K. Here are some Mets stats against Zimmermann:
       Beltran 1-3
       Murphy 0-3
       Wright 0-3, 3K
       Santos 1-2
The last time the Mets played the Nationals in April, they were a completely different team then they are now, and I'm not referring to all of the roster injuries, I'm talking about the mentality of this team. Back then it was a losing team, now its a winning team. Earlier this month they got their “killing” instinct back. They have failed at sweeping their last two attempts (Giants and Red Sox) but hopefully the Mets will win this time. Lets Go Mets! Sweep the Nats!

You better believe it.

It seems that it will be sooner rather than later the Orioles will be good. Now the chances of them finishing at .500 might be slim this year but next year teams better watch out. If you need reason to believe it look at the Orioles lineup starting on Friday. Right now in the outfield the Orioles are fielding a strong, young group. The rightfielder should be an All-Star this year in the form of Nick Markakis. The centerfielder is young and is under the radar and his numbers are better than Markakis, of course I am talking about Adam Jones. He is going to be a superstar some day. Their left fielder made his debut recently and he is Nolan Reimold. When I was doing my research project about minor league baseball and its connections to its communities I saw Reimold play a few times and he would crush the ball way over the very high wall.

And on Friday they get to the other player I saw a lot last year, Matt Weiters. He is the real deal. This is with Huff, Mora among other players on the team. The lineup can hit and hit hard. The only thing that is keeping the Orioles from being good right now is pitching but that can change soon as well. Patton, the other major player in the Bedard deal (that brought Jones) is doing very well now and he should be coming up soon for the O's and really they will be in a position this offseason where they will have specific needs, not just general needs.

Things in Baltimore should get very interesting soon.

If you told me before this season that Livan Hernandez would be the first pitcher on this team to pitch a complete game, I would have laughed at you. In fact, I think anyone would have laughed at Livan making this team from the start but he made the team and he has been pretty effective. He did a good job slicing through this lineup and the Mets did a good job backing him up with runs. A lot of that is thanks to a late homer by Sheff, to really put this game out of reach for the Nationals. So far in May Sheff is hitting over .340 and it couldn't be a better situation for the Mets who are not only injuried but they have very little in the power in the lineup with a veteran precence. This was another situation that we probably didn't think we would be in at the start of the season, but we should be thankful for Sheff being here because he has become a crucual piece of the team.

The big story of the game was number 26, Fernando Martinez. He didn't get a hit in this game but he did get an RBI and he is fast. We have been wating for his arrival for a while and now we get to see what he has. This is the perfect time for youth energy on the squad as the team is dropping by flies due to injuries. Lets Go Mets! Lets get that sweep!

The Mets look to take the second game of the series tonight as they play the second game of the series against the Nationals. Last night featured a lot of walks but a lot of clutch pitching to get out of tight spots for the Mets, and they look to continue that as Livan Hernandez, who has seen the Nats a lot via pitching against their players a lot and being their teammate will have to go against an unknown quantity (uh-oh) in the form of Stammen for the Nationals.

Livan is 3-1 on the season as he has pitched 45.2 innings ans has a 4.95 ERA over that stretch. In his last four games he is 2-0 over 24.1 IP and has a 3.33 ERA. Agianst the Nationals last year he was 2-0 in as many games as he pitched 13.0 innings and had a 4.85 ERA. The Nationals lineup is an interesting one for him to face as half the lineup is veterans, which are harder for Livan to trick (in the form of patience) and the other half of the lineup is young, and tends to get impatient at the plate. Here are some stats against Livan:
     Belliard 12-47, 2 2B
     Kearns 12-27, 2B, HR
     Dunn 2-17, 6 K
     Zimmerman 5-16, 2 2B, 2 HR
     Johnson 2-9, 5 K
The Nats bats are probably pretty frustrated after last night, so lets keep up the frustration. Keep them off the bags, keep them off the boards and score some runs.

Scoring runs will be interesting as the Mets will be facing a new pitcher making his second start ever. This is usually a bad sign for the Mets but you never know. Anyway, Stammen in his first start lasted 6.1 IP innings where he allowed 4 runs, walked one and struck out 3 on his way to a no decision in a game the Nationals eventually won. In the minors this year he was 4-2 over 7 games and 40.0 IP with a 1.80 ERA (Triple A Syrcause). In the spring he made only two outings and pitched four innings where he allowed only one run.His track record seems to be pretty good. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Nationals!

The Mets beat the Nationals tonight for the first game of this series despite walking 9 batters in this game. Both teams left a ton of batters on base tonight and in the end it hurt the Nationals more than the Mets. This is very similar to a game that the Mets played against the Pirates early in the year where both teams had the same problem in the game, leaving players on base, but the better team at the end of the day got the job done.

The Mets really built steam in the way of knocking out Lannan thanks to the Umpires taking a long time to make a decision about the Sheff homer. Now from watching the game in Baltimore the announcers were convinced the ball was not a homer. Personally I feel it was very close because although the fan had to reach down to get to the ball, his hands really were not to far away from the fence. (Basically it looked like to me that if undistubred that ball would have hit that ledge between the top of the wall and the fence, which would be a homer) but I also had one view of the play, one more view would probably seal the deal whether this was a homer or not.

Anyway, the Mets got the win tonight against a team they have to beat. The Phillies lost so that means the Mets are only a half game out and now the Mets will face the unknown pitcher tomorrow as Livan goes for the Mets.

The Mets toughest series in the road trip came in the form of the NL West leading and Major League leading Dodgers who beat up on the Mets in three games. Without going into detail, the big problem with these three games was the Mets defense. It was terrible. The Mets lost another shortstop and had to go with Ramon Martinez who between the Dodgers and the Red Sox just kept making errors (although he had some good plays in one of the games against the Red Sox).

The first game had to be the worst game as the Mets had the go ahead run in extra innings in the form of Ryan Church not touch third base and then later would make several mistakes later in the game that would lead to the winning run for the Dodgers. The next game featured another loss by the Mets this time by the score of 5-3 and it started to become obvious that the Mets would need to start hitting homers, which did not happen in that game. The last game was also terrible as the Mets lost 2-1, Reyes had to exit the game and just could not get runners home.

Luckilly for the Mets they would do well in Boston and they would then wrap up this road trip at 5-5 which was fantastic considering the errors and the menal errors the Mets would make in this series and then the injuries the Mets would also have on this trip.