213 Miles From Shea

In the second installment of this series, we will be taking a look into NL West, which was one of the weaker divisions last year. The telling story of this division for the upcoming season is that that they have so much young talent that they can jump out at any moment and surprise a lot of people of what is to come in this division but at the same time, they can easily, and probably will, fade into mediocre play again this season (and that opinion is probably the result of my giagantic east coast bias). Anyway here are my predictions:
1) Dodgers
2) Diamondbacks
3) Giants
4) Rockies
5) Padres

1) The Dodgers have an edge up in the division because the NL West on the whole is weak. Their lineup is by far the best with Manny, as a key piece but look for Kemp and Ethier to have huge seasons this year (it is their time). The big worry for the Dodgers is the rortation, if it silps below average the Dbacks or Giants will jump. Chad Billingsley needs to have a big year for them to win the division and Kershaw at the age of 21 must play very well. If they perform, then the Dodgers take the West again.

2) The Dbacks are on the verge of the whole team bubbling over with talent. They easily have the best rotation in the NL West because of the 1-2 punch with Webb and Haren. In order to keep their ground, Schezer will need to show his star power and his 98 mph heater. Their lineups main weakness is that it is a young lineup that can either explode with greatness but more than likely won't, and will fizzle out as the season goes on due to fatigue (see last year). For them to have a big year, look for Young, Drew and Jackso to step up big at the plate.

3) The Giants are by far my personal favorite in this division because I love the potential in their rotation. Lincecum is a freak, but Cain, when he gets run support, can be very very good. They both will benefit with Randy Johnson in the club house. As for the lineup, it is still weak but Lewis can perform it can get better. Their concern should be Rowand because of his .287 / .256 away to home split. If he can't hit at home then this team is done. They also have a weak bullpen. If the rotation locks down, and the lineup hits, then they are my dark horse for this division.

4) The Rockies really have no shot at this division because even though their lineup can hit, between the loss of Holiday and the their pitching staff, things will not go well for the mile high team. Cook is their only real reliable starter and besides Street, the bullpen looks really shotty. 2007 seems like a long time ago for this team.

5) The Padres failed at their #1 objective this offseason of trading Peavy but they can still get that done during the season if they want to. The only bright spot on this team is Chris Young the pitcher and Heath Bell and if they enter a rebuilding mode, it should be around those two young pitchers. Gonzalez gets little love over here in the East, so I feel I should mention he is their best bat and glove and that he is very good. They have a few good OF and 1B on the farm (Decker, Kalbacki, Hunter, Blanks) that should make Friar fans happy.

Quick Recap:
   Best Lineup: Dodgers, Dbacks 2nd
   Best Rotation: Dbacks, Dodgers 2nd
   Best Pen: Dodgers, Dbacks 2nd

The title says it all. That is the big story for last night's 4-1 win over the Nationals in a night time spring training game. Santana went out there for 7 innings allowed only 4 hits, one run, didn't walk anyone and then struck out 6 batters. This is the Santana that we all expect to see, and I think this puts an end to a lot of speculation over his health that has been going on for the last month or so. If you like Mets pitchers, everyone did well last night, and no one really did bad overall in the game. Here are the box highlights:
The Good:
    Delgado 2-4, 2R, 2B
    Beltran 1-4, R, 2B
    Tatis 1-4, 2 RBI
    Murphy 3-4, 2 RBI
    Santana 7.0 IP, 4 H, ER, 6K
    Krod 1.0 IP, 2H, 2K
    Feliciano 1.0 IP, K
The Bad:
    Reyes 0-4
    Anderson 0-1
After Santana's great performance, Krod came in and did his job and then did Feliciano. With the cuts made to the team yesterday, it looks like Feliciano will be the only left hander in the bullpen, so I am wondering how long that will last. It was great to see the Mets pitch well last night because that is how championships are won and with the struggles of Pelfrey and Maine over the last week, it was just refreshing. Murphy continued to hit the ball well as did Delagado, so now its just time to count down to the regular season. Livan was supposed to start today's game against the Marlins but he will start in the minors instead so Manuel can get another look at Dillon Gee.

The Mets beat the Cards yesterday by the score of 9-5 thanks to some nice offense from the heart of our lineup and some average pitching by John Maine. Maine allowed three runs in 5 innings, but he allowed only one earned run. He is working with a new delivery but things seem to be getting better, so hopefully he will be spot on when its time to get to the regular season. Anyway, here are some of the highlights from yesterday's game:
The good:
    Reyes 2-4, R, 3 RBI, BB, 2B, SB
    Santos 1-1, R, 2 RBI, HR
    Beltran 2-5, R, 2B
    Delgado 2-4, RBI
    Valentine 2-3, 2R
    Maine 5.0 IP, 6H, 3 R, ER, 5 K
    Putz 1.0 IP, K
    Parnell 1.0 IP, BB
The Bad:
    Castillo 0-3
    Murphy 0-3
    Evans 0-2
Back on the topic of Maine for a second, you can tell that he is starting to right the ship due to his strikeout numbers that are starting to rise again. On the topic of pitchers, Putz showed why its good to have him and Parnell continues to make his case for the bullpen even stronger. It was really a good game yesterday, with the exception of the 0 spots from Murphy and Castillo, the team really hit well and they pitched well. The Mets I believe had a 7 run inning at one point. At this point I would like to see the Mets tighten up their defense but we are getting to that time where players are probably getting restless and ready for the regular season.

Its time to start the season previews! Starting today we will be crossing America one division and region at a time as we move over to the East Coast, and the Mets. As a series preview, this will be broken into 8 parts. One part for each division in baseball, one for the playoffs and one just devoted to the New York Mets. We start today with the AL West, which is my weakest division in personal knowledge thanks to my heavy east coast bias.
Division Prediction:
1) Angels
2) Rangers
3) Mariners
4) Atheltics

1) The Angels are the strongest team in this division by far for a few reasons. The first is that their rotation is the most stable and strongest. Their lineup is good, not the best in the division, but can still be devastating. When you have good pitching like they do, you don't need the lineup to score 10 runs a game. They lost Krod, but they got Fuentes and the bullpen is till good overall because they have a great system there for getting pitchers ready for bigger rolls. Two players to watch this year are Guerrero, because he will have a big year, even though he is slipping out fo this prime and Mike Napoli. Napoli is a catcher who has a lot of pop in his bat, but when he starts to slump, he really starts to slump. If he has a big year, they are a lock to win this division.

2) The Rangers have one of the most prolific lineups in baseball, they can really hit the ball hard and often. The reason it will be tough for them to take over this division is they need to get better pitching, which is something they don't have. If their pitching can step up then look for the Rangers to make a run at the Angels. Players to watch on this team will first be Hamilton, who will have to reproduce without Milton's protection and Saltalamacchia. He came over from the Braves in the Texieria deal and he has to show that his high status as a major prospect is true (plus anything to make Braves fans sweat).

3) The Mariners are my dark horse team in this division. I am a big Felix Hernandez fan, a big Eric Bedard fan and I think that Carlos Silva will also bounce back. If all of them have great years, then they really can make a surprise run. For that to happen though, the lineup will have to start hitting. For the most part, their lineup can, if just focus (looking at you Beltre). Also of Jose Lopez has a good year, then this could be a very good team.

4) Poor Athletics. I really like them, and they could take over third if the pitchers fail for the Mariners again, but they are placing a lot on Jason Giambi. They need Giambi to hit, otherwise Matt Holiday does not get the protection in the lineup that he needs to hit. Thier pitchers are young, so its a mystery on the rotation as well.

To summarize:
Best Rotation: Angels, Mariners 2nd
Best Lineup: Rangers, Angels 2nd
Best Bullpen: Angels…No Clear 2nd

Look for Part 2 soon, as we take a look at the NL West!

The Mets bounced back a little bit from their 8-0 loss yesterday to a 10-6 lost today. Really the lost today can be pinned on a struggling Perez and a struggling Villone. The two combined for all 10 earned runs in about 4.2 innings of work. The hitting came back mostly in the form of some of starters slashing the ball around. Here are the highlights:
The Good:
    Reyes 2-3, R, 2B
    Schnieder 1-2, 2RBI
    Beltran 2-3, R, RBI, 2B
    Reed 2-2
    Malo 2-5, R, RBI
    Tatis 3-3, R, RBI, 2B
    Parnell 1.0 IP, H, K
    Stokes 2.0 IP, 2K
The Bad:
     Perez 3.2 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 6 BB, 4 K
     Villone 1.0 IP, 4H, 4 ER, BB
     Cora 0-2
     Kielty 0-4
     Evans 0-2
Eventhough it is Spring Training, it is always disconcerning when on back to back days the starting pitchers struggle. Here, Perez's demise was his walks. Hopefully this is a slight mechanical issue and he will get it back together soon, especiallly because he was pretty good in his last start. I also think that this outing by Villone, might be the one that takes him out of the pen picture, especially with Parnell and Stokes doing so well today. Both of their outings are worthy of getting to the major league club (which is pretty much certain for Stokes since he is out of options).

Beltran returned and had some nice hitting today, so did Reyes. That was also helped by Reed and Tatis having good days. As each day goes by, it is becoming more clear that Reed will make it on the team, he is having a terrific Spring. Tatis jsut continues to prove that he will be that go to guy for PH situations. On the Phillies last year, Jenkins made a huge impact for the team in that role, if Tatis carries this through the season, then the Mets will also have that pop on the bench. In other Mets news today, Krod and Putz both had good outings in a Mets minor league game today.

Yesterday's Spring Training game was really disappointing because there really is very little to write home about. The pitching for the most part was terrible and the hitting was worse. I guess I am upset because Pelfrey struggled and he is one of those players I really like to see do well, he's one of our guys you know. Anyway, the Mets lost 8-0 to the Astros, which I guess this evens out with the 10-2 whipping we did against them earlier last week. Here are some highlights, although they really aren't “highlights”:
The Good:
    Castro 1-2
    Kielty 1-2
    O'day 1.0 IP, K
The Bad:
     Pelfrey 4.2 IP, 10 H, 6 ER, BB, K
     Malo 0-4
     Murphy 0-3
     Evans 0-2
     Anderson 0-2
     Reed 0-3
There really isn't much to say. It was great to see O'day doing well, hopefully he will have a big year for us, especially when grouped with Feliciano. The two of them in tamden I think will be a very powerful combination. The Bats were silient, luckily in today's game, the bats woke up, but the pitching still sucked.

Yesterday Olney listed Murphy third on his top ten players to watch and for good reason. He talked about how everyone talks about Murphy's nack for hitting and how his swing looks really good. (On a side note, I got Murphy in the very last round of a 25 player draft last week and I am so glad. He's a back up OF and could move up to a starter) How serious is he taking it? He is featured in the Pop Culture Grid for Sports Illustrated and when he was asked about when not to disturb him he said hitting, because that is his job (how amazing does that sound). The other players around him said eating or sleeping. This kid has a really nice upside, and to think he was all but unknown before last Spring.

On another Dan Murphy note, it seems that Manuel made his decision to bat Murphy 2nd. At first I was against this only because I feel that Castillo does not add anything to the lineup if he is not batting 2nd but then I realized something else. Batting after Reyes and before either Wright or Beltran (depending on who bats third this year, lineup preview coming soon) Murphy is going to get a lot of good pitches to hit because pitchers are not going to want to mess with the rest of the lineup. This should inflate his stats a bit but also show the rest of the baseball world how could of a swing he has.

In case you missed it, yesterday the Mets had an intrasquad minor league game with Freddy Garcia taking on the Livan Hernandez. Prior to this game, it was pretty much clear that Livan would be the Mets starting fifth pitcher come opening day, so in a sense, this was Garcia's last chance to impress. Well to make a short story even shorter, he didn't impress and Hernandez looks to be the Mets fifth starter. Why? First off, Hernandez allowe 1 run over 5 innings of work again while Garcia allowed 3 over 4 innings of work. Second, and more important, Garcia got moved to the minor league camp today which all but ties up Hernandez's hold on the fifth spot of the rotation. So for now we can put this story to rest until Redding gets healthy, and then we will have to deal with Redding vs Hernandez vs the ethics of losing a spot because you were injuried vs the ethics of knowing that you were worse anyway.

In other news, the Marlins finally got a ballpark approved in Miami. The the photos of the renderings look amazing and it will take place on the same spot where the Orange bowl is located. It will also have a retractable roof and possibly the name will be changed to the Miami Marlins (I have not heard anything official about that, but I wouldn't be surprised). A lot of people are pointing at two big stories with this deal. One, the Marlins will then retain Hanely Ramierez because the ballpark is set to open in 2012 and he will be the face of the franchise and  second, now the Marlins might expand their rosters and stop doing this turnover act they have become famous for over the last decade.

Japan beat Korea in a classic game last night, one that is worthy of all of the praise it is getting. If you missed last nights game, it focused on fundamentals, it focused on slugging when needed and bunting when needed and it focused on Baseball. Going into this game, since 2000, in international play, Korea had a one game advantage over Japan. In the classic, Japan one the first meeting of these two teams, Korea then took the next two and Japan took the forth. so the stage was set to finsiht this as a best of five for the trophy and all of the bragging rights.

Every Korea would creep back up, Japan would creep farther ahead and then it hit a crucial moment in the ninth inning. One of the best pitchers for Japan, Yu Darvish was on on the mound and he had to get the save. He allowed two walks and then struck two out. Korea then got a hit and tied the game against one of the best pitchers in the world. In the top of the ninth, Ichiro, the most notable player on team Japan if you are American, came through big time as he got a crucial tenth inning hit that bruoght across two runners and put Japan ahead and they would never look back.

That ends the WBC in a classic game which was preceded by many great games, over the next day or so, I am going to put together a top ten WBC moments as a nice wrap up for this great tournament.

We are getting close to the end of Spring meaning it is time to once again look at the bench and see who is going to be going to New York with the big league squad and who will return, also to New York, but to play with AAA Buffalo. Assuming the Mets carry a five person bench (they will most likely start with a 6 person bench and then drop to a five person bench when its time to get the fifth starter) the Mets probably have two spots open on the roster. Tatis has a guranteed position on the bench, he can play both corner outfiield spots, third base and can play first base if he really has to, he is also a big bat off the bench. Castro has the spot as the back up catcher. Cora has the spot as the back up middle infielder. With Pagan injured, that leaves two spots open for the following players:
    Anderson 34 AB, R, 9 H, 2 2B, 3 RBI, .265 AVG
    Reed 47 AB, 10R, 20 H, 6 2B, HR, 9 RBI, .426 AVG
    Sullivan 45 AB, 10 R, HR, 3 RBI, .222 AVG
    Kielty 43 AB, 6 R, 15 H, 3 2B, HR, 10 RBI, .349 AVG
    Evans 64 AB, 11 R, 19 H, 5 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 12 RBI, .297 AVG
Right off the bat Reed gets a spot on team. He can play all three outfielder spots and his bat is doing pretty well right now. Defensiviely he is very similar to Sullivan but I think due to his hitting skills he gets the nod over Sullivan and gets to the big league club. That means there is one spot left.

Evans will most likely not get the spot (although he could get that sixth spot because he has options). That means the competition is down to Kielty and Anderson. The advantage that Marlon has over Bobby is that Marlon can play in the corner positions and he can play second base and first base. Kielty can play first base but is pretty much restricted to the outfield. I really like Kielty's bat over Anderson, but I think do to defense alignments Anderson will get the spot so the Mets have another middle infielder on the bench. If he doesn't produce though, I really hope the Mets do not hesistate to make a switch. Also the problem of keeping either one of them is moving them around, because they have to go through claimers and all of that. Overall, its probably a wash between the two of them because you are talking about the last bench spot, a position that is going to change and change and change as the team goes on.