213 Miles From Shea

The first note is something I've been meaning to post for a few days now. The other day (I think Saturday) Keith, Gary and Ron were talking about how Delgado taps his glove when he is about to make a catch, an art that has not been seen for a while. Then they talked about other notable Mets who did the same thing, and they were Willie Mays and Tommy Agee, which is great company to be listed with. My other note about Delgado is I'm wondering how long it will be until we start seeing actually try to pull the ball down the right field line at Citi. I know he normally tries not to, to go against the shift but I think if sees a fastball or hanging breaking ball in his wheel house, he should pull it because that right field line seems pretty close, as Gerut pointed out to the Mets last night.

During the telecast last night (being in DC, I was watching it on ESPN with Steve Phillips, joy) did they point out on the SNY broadcast the people who hung the number 17 over the balcony to suggest retiring the number. I saw it very quickly when they were showing the stadium, but I would assume they would make a bigger deal about that SNY. Also, the more and more I look at it, that outfield seems huge. Any mistakes out there can be really costly, can't wait for the Marlins to come to town, lets hope they make some errors out there.

Finally Jackie Robinson day is approaching and this year they want everyone to wear the 42. This has really evolved over the years from a few people wanting to do it, to several on a team, to full teams doing it and now the entire league doing, which is the right thing because in reality, either everyone should wear it or no one wears it because we want to remember his legacy now as intergrating and including everyone. So, good move Selig.

Usually I hate losing the day before an off day because all you think about (in terms of baseball) is losing the day before, but today I'm glad the Mets are off. The Mets have lost back to back games for the first time this season and both games were very winnable in the sense that some point in the game the Offense or the Pitching put the team into position to actually win the game however in both games mental mistakes on DEFENSE have cost us the game. Sunday it was a dropped fly ball by Murphy. And last night you can take your pick between Church and fielding a hit or Feliciano and his balk.

I really hope a lot this has been about opening at Citi because when it comes down to it, these are mistakes that are really easy to correct. It feels like this team is ready to burst out in a big way at any moment now, and it would be nice if they actually do it soon. The Mets are now in forth place from yesterday's loss, and although they aren't in danger right now of falling to fifth, they really need to turn it on and start to fight back. Win this series, fight in the next series, repeat for the next series. A strong April will be very important for the Mets because they do not play the Braves or the Phillies in April, so it allow the Mets to develop a cushion for May, where the schedule will take a hard turn.

The Mets open up their world class home tonight as the Padres come to town for a special night at Citi Field. The game tonight features Pelfrey vs Walter Silva (more on him later) but more importantly it features the Mets new field, its wierd tendencies, and (as many of us have heard) amazing food. The Mets had a good, not great, but not bad, road trip at 3-3 and are ready to use that home team support (yes support, in other words do NOT boo tonight, please) as they start off a homestand against the Padres who have jumped out of the gate with a record of 5-2 and a first place spot in the West.

The Mets will be facing Walter Silva tonight. If you have never heard of him before, thats because this is the first year he is playing ball in America. He has had four seasons I believe in the Mexican league and this year made it to the Padres starting lineup. In his last outing, he didn't get a decision, lasted 5 innings, allowed 5 hits, allowed 2 runs (earned), walked 4 and struck out 1. This spring he was 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA over 11 innings and three games where he allowed 6 ER, walked 2 and struck out 5. Last year in Mexico he posted a 7-8 record with a 4.21 ERA, 115.1 innings pitched, 49 BB, 60 K. He is unknown to the Mets and we will see tongiht for the first time in 2009 how the Mets will deal with an unknown pitcher.

The Pitcher that is going for hte Mets tonight knows the Padres, and is a pretty big fan of them when it comes to facing them. Last year Pelfrey was 1-0 in two games against the Padres with a 2.13 ERA. He pitched 12.2 IP, walked 4 and struck out 4. Even with those numbers, the batting numbers against Pelfrey are a little surprising:
    Gerut 4-7
    Giles 1-4
    Gonzalez 1-5, HR
    Kouzmanhoff 2-6, HR
You would think with his record against the Padres, that these numbers would be a little more favorable. I am very curious to see how Big Pelf pitches in Big Citi Field. With all of that space, his weakness, the longball, is going to be taken away to some degree and could be very favorable (or not, you never know until it happens). This is a big night for the Mets as they open a stadium for the third time in their franchise and open a new stadium for the second time. Lets make it happen tonight! Lets Go Mets!

That was just a hard loss yesterday. Santana gave one of the best performances of his career and he gets slapped with the loss. Its hard to not blame Dan Murphy for yesterday, but at the same time we have to remember that he is barely over a rookie. He took full responsibility and I bet we just won't see it happen again because of the way this kid plays, he is going to go strong every day out there. I'm just thankful the Mets got a hit, let alone a run, and weren't no hit by the Marlins, because that would have been the worse.

So its very early to look at standings, but the Mets are tied with the Phillies at third in the division, with even records of 3-3 while the Braves and the Marlins sit at top with records at 5-1. The Nationals are now the only team in Major League Baseball to not have a win yet. Looking ahead, after the Padres, the Mets catch a bit of a break with the Brewers and the Nationals to help pad the standings. The Padres should also be one of these teams but right now they are off to a hot start, and it would be impressive at the moment if the Mets can put them down and quiet them for a little.

That leads me to today. How great is today? No matter what the score is, no matter what you feel about having a new stadium, it is just an exciting day. The Mets are finally home for the first time this year and they have a new home, a world class home and its just exciting to be a Mets fan today. That being said, if you are reading this, and you are lucky enough to go to the game please read this very carefully:

I would like to express the feelings that many Mets fans have recently developed. Us Mets fans, that have been fans for a while (ie, before the spending that started in 2005) would like to ask you newer fans to get with the program in that we do NOT boo our own team, especially in the first month of the season. Do NOT boo Castillo, for he just had a 4 hit game and he deserves a clean slate. Do NOT boo Dan Murphy because he will make up for his mistakes. Do NOT boo Oliver Perez because he still deserves another chance this year and above all Do NOT boo the Mets on the first game of their new stadium, this is supposed to be an amazin event that if you are attending, you will remember for the rest of your life, do NOT scare it with boo's.

The Rubber game of this series has arrived. The Marlins beat the Mets in a close game on Friday. The Mets responded by remembering how to hit with RISP last night to bring down the Marlins 8-4. We have our ace going today in the form of Johan Santana. The Marlins have their ace (thats my opinion) going today in the form of Josh Johnson, who basically is Nolan Ryan and Cy Young rolled into one pitcher when he faces the Mets.

This is the perfect day for the Mets to have Santana pitching. With Johnson pitching for the Marlins, runs might be scarce for the Mets so this is the time to have the ace go up and secure a win and to secure a 4-2 Road Trip to start the season. Santana had a lot of success last year against the fish going 3-0 in as many games over 23 innings pitched, walking 7 and striking out 24. His ERA over that time was 1.96. Here are the numbers the Marlins have put up against Santana:
     Cantu 5-23, 8K
     Ramirez 2-12, 4K
     Uggla 1-14, 8K
     Ross 3-10
     Bonifacio 0-5, 3K
The Mets were able to handle Bonifacio a little better last night, and that is going to be the key for the pitching staff in this game as well. If they can keep him off the bases, then the rest of the lineup will become easier to handle. Of course, the Mets will also have to handle Ramirez who plays as advertised against the Mets. To help out Santana, the Mets are going to have to figure out Johnson.

Since 2006, Johnson is 4-0 against the Mets but the splits tell different stories. Last year he went 2-0 pitched 13.2 innings, had 4BB and 7K on his way to a 3.95 ERA. In 2006 (didn't pitch against the Mets in 07) he went 2-0 in three games, allowed NO runs agaisnt the mets over 17 innings, walked 8 and struck out 16. So in 2006, he was basically untouchable against the Mets and in 2008 the Mets were able to touch him but were not able to produce runs. Here are the Mets lines against Johnson:
      Beltran 1-11
      Delgado 0-11
      Reyes 3-9
      Wright 1-11
      Castillo 1-3
      Murphy 1-2
Before we break down the offense, last nights performance by Castillo caused his BA to jump from about .100 to .357 (Don' you love the stats at the start of the season?). If there are a lot of bench players starting today, it would make sense. The Mets have not been able to figure out Johnson at the plate and they might have to change the lineup around. The other side of that story is that the Mets have been hitting well so far this season, and they have an off day tomorrow, so we will see what the Jerry decides to do. Need less to say, the goal of the game is to get hits, hit often, break back into that Marlins pen. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets basically looked their problems in the eye tonight and just fought through them. Part of the problems they have been facing stems from Luis Castillo getting off to an extremely slow start. He came out in a big way tonight with a four hit night (at one point it was five hits until it was overruled) and just about all of his hits were important. The Mets tonight did a much better job of bringing runners home and moving them over, as the scoreboard shows with their 8 runs scored. David Wright also got his first RBI of the season. Hopefully now that he has his first one out of the way, he will start to hit the ball better and keep this lineup going. With as much praise that Castillo should be getting tonight, Delgado and Reyes deserve some because they had nice games too.

Of course you can't talk about players that had good games, and not talk about Livan Hernandez. He went farther than any pitcher on the Mets staff tonight and he did a pretty good job of it only giving up two runs in 6.2, and those runs came at the end of the game. If he can always pitch like that, then he can really solidifly this rotation (its amazing how we can feel so much better about this rotation after back to back good starts by Maine and Hernandez). O'day had a very good 8th inning, after a really tough week for him, and although he struggled in the ninth, he has the stuff to become a force in the pen, he just has to build that confidence.

Finally I just want to mention Church. He handled the whole platoon with Tatis then platoon with Sheff thing well in words, but now he is using his bat to show that he should have that spot every day. His .533 AVG is amazing and if he keeps this up, I can't see Sheff getting many starts over him.

In this addition of Numbers Daily, I wanted to take a look at Mets who have had hits in every game so far this season:
     Murphy
     Beltran
     Church
     Wright
Church has been hitting the skin off the ball lately, and you have to think if he continues to do that, and Murphy continues to do what he does, its gonna be very tough for Sheff to crack the lineup.

Other Numbers:
.533 BA of Church through the first five games
159- Jose Reyes's Rank on the all time SB list
12- Jose Reyes's Rank on the active SB list
0- As of Saturday, the Mets total amount of back page features on the Daily News
5- As of Saturday, the Yankees streak of having the back page story on the Daily News
6.2- The amount of Innings Livan has on the season, and leads the entire Mets pitching staff in IP

The world of the Marlins sure is a strange one. Sure its pretty lonely, unless a good team comes to town then its filled with a bunch of strange people, but even with that, the things that go on in Miami can raise your eyebrows, and I'm not just talking about Rameriez's flip out or am I talking about the Manatees. I am talking about this weird concept they have of the Mets. I was watching the game last night on the Marlins network and they are convinced, CONVINCED that the Mets and the Marlins have a rivalry apart from just a normal Divisional rivalvry. Thats right forget the Braves (who I feel are our only rivals) forget the Phillies (who are quickly becoming our rivals) the big rivalry we have is with THE MARLINS! They basically link this to how the Marlins have enjoyed taking away the postseason from the Mets the last two years. They sure do act like its a rivalry, did you see how much the celbrated last night….on the forth game of the season. However, for it to be a rivalry it has to go two ways, and very, very, very few Mets fans would agree that we have a rivalry with the Marlins. (Seriously, how do you have a rivalry with a team where the two best players from each team want to be/are godfathers for each others kids? It doesn't make sense! Wake up Florida, we don't hate you!).

Bud Selig announced today, in a move that has been speculated since yesterday, that the Arizona Diamondbacks will host the 2011 All-Star game, which makes sense because their stadium is really nice and really deserves a game. It is hard to think when the Mets might actually get the game (maybe 2012, please? More than likely 2014 though) due to all of the new ballparks opening around the league and all of the ball parks that havn't hosted yet. The advantage the Mets have is they have not hosted since '64 and their are a host of ballparks opening next year through 2012. The disadvantage the Mets have is that the Yankees had the game last year so it would only be 4 years in 2012 since NYC had the game. We'll see how it goes!

The Mets try to bounce back tonight and end their two game losing streak as they play the Marlins for the second game of this series. The game starts at 6 thanks to Flo Rida and the Marlins and it looks like the first hour will not be televised. The Mets send up the first fifth starter of the season in the form of Livan Hernandez and the Marlins will send out Nolasco, who won his first start of the season.

Hernandez didn't see action against the Marlins at all last year but in 2007 he went 2-0 in as many games, pitched 14.0 innings, walked 2 and struck out 5. During that time, his ERA against them was 3.21. The previous year though, he went 0-2 against the fish in three games with an ERA above 11. Here are the numbers the Fish have against him:
     Uggla 3-13, 3B, HR
     Ramierez 5-11, 2B, HR
     Hermida 3-11
     Cantu 0-3
The Marlins always start off hot, right now the Mets really need to stop them because I have a feeling that one loss might cause the train to go off the tracks a bit. As of right now they are hitting very well and the Mets need to get them under control. Hernandez is going to need a lot of run support.

Nolasco gets to handle a Mets lineup that has left 14 men on base in the game last night. Last year agaisnt the Mets he was 1-2 in 6 games, 5 starts against the Mets over 33.2 innings and had a 3.48 ERA. The Mets have hit him pretty well, mainly the big stars in our lineup have hit him pretty well. They will need to perform today and score runners as they get on base, otherwise this season will go no where fast. Here are the stat lines the Mets have against Nolasco:
     Reyes 11-26, 3B, 2 HR
     Beltran 8-23, HR
     Wright 12-25, 3 2B, 3 HR
     Delgado 6-21, HR
     Church 1-9
The Mets showed last night that they can agaisnt the Marlins pen. If they can score runs against Nolasco and then hit the Marlins pen, they should have no problem scoring runs. As we have seen over the last few games, that is a big if. Lets Go Mets! Fry some Fish!

The Mets really battled back tonight, only to lose in the bottom of the ninth. In the long run, I hope this game kicks the Mets into gear. Before I get to what the real problem tonight was, I'm wondering if Manuel should give O'day or two off. He was friends with Nick Adenhart who passed away two days ago in a horrific, tragic, unnecessary accident. I don't know if thats getting in his way of pitching but maybe a day away from baseball for a little bit would do him a world of good.

The real problem in my mind tonight was hitting with RISP. In the forth inning and fifth inning, the Mets had runners on second and first, (runner on second most important) and could not get the runner in. They ended ninth with a runner on third. That forth inning though sticks out in my mind the most because the Mets opened the inning up with two on and no out and couldn't do anything else after that point. In today's game (Saturday), the core of the Mets team has done well in the past against Nolasco (stay tuned for the preview later today) so lets hope that translates into runs.

You have to be happy with Maine tonight. Even though he gave up two mistakes, which is his characteristic move (homers I mean), he really did a good job only allowing those two runs over 5 innings, and after the second inning, really buckled down. He worked quickly and he was effective. Its a positive sign for the rest of the season and hopefully next time the Mets will take advantage of Maine keeping them in the game and score some runs.