213 Miles From Shea

With the first game of the season comes the first off day of the season. It is funny in a very non-humorous way that we wait so long for opening day only to have it followed by an off day. I don't know about you but off days are really terrible for me during the regular season. At least we didn't lose yesterday, an off day after a loss is terrible. Time ticks by slowly, the game replays through your head, you have a long time to wait for redemption. Anyway, baseball will be back again tomorrow and hopefully Mets bats will also be back again tomorrow.

That being said, I do have some random baseball thoughts I want to put out there. I did watch Sunday's game of the Phillies vs the Braves because I don't want to root for our rivals, the Braves, and I don't want to root for the Phillies either (please note where I placed the word rivalry, this “hate” thing with the Mets and the Phillies needs to continue a few more seasons before I recognize it as a rivalry. Right now it still feels like something the Phillies fans are trying to make up). Anyway, believe it or not I'm glad the Braves won on Sunday. The Phillies did something that only two other teams have done, and I feel that it has no class. On their uniforms on Sunday they bordered the team name in Gold to represent their championship. The Red Sox did it for the ring ceremony and the Cards did it in 2007. So both teams to do it in the actual game have lost (the Cards actually got swept by the Mets in 07). That being said, I'll go for a Braves loss tonight to give them both .500 records.

On another note, living in Baltimore (well now DC) I caught part of the O's game last night and man the Yankees played terrible. They were making stupid base running mistakes, they weren't getting their pitching right, and that thing on the back of their hats for the new stadium looks really stupid, and uncomfortable. If it was someplace else on the hat or the jersey, I would say nice patch, but on the back of the hat, just too much going on.

The Mets won the first game of season today, bringing their opening day winning streak up to four games (2006, 2007, 2008, and now 2009, remember 2005 when we started 0-5, not fun). The real story today was originally going to be Murphy, who still is a big story from today, but then it became the pen with their 3.1 innings of hitless work. Santana pitched well today but had a few problems. The first inning was rough with two strikeouts followed by two walks. The weather at times seemed to bother Santana (and who wouldn't it bother) as he was blowing on his hand a lot during this game). He then pitched well for the rest of the game until he ran into some issues in the sixth inning (highlight: 3rd inning, only 6 pitches). It was the right move to pull him there because Encarcion can hit Santana and can hit him well. That is where the real story came out. Green 1.1, Putz 1.0, Krod 1.0. Those where those innings, and they allowed no hits. How long has it been since we as fans of the Mets have had that much confidence in the pen? It feels great and I have no idea when I felt this last. Lets hope this is a sign.

Another sign of hope for was Murphy. He nailed that pitch out of the park on his homer and he had that RBI ground out. So he was the Mets offense today. Which leads to a continuing trend from last year which can drive a fan nuts. So many times the Mets got players on base and they left so many on. It really is unacceptable. Now I don't want to get worked up over this because there are 161 games left in the season, and I would like to be alive to see the 2010 season, but seriously, we got to hit with RISP!

Next up for the Mets is a day off followed by the Reds again.

The first game of the season! The Mets will hopefully taking on the Reds today, the hopefully there because the weather might have another idea. It is going to be cold, wet, nasty, possibly icy, and maybe even snowy today in Cincinnati. If the weather is tolerable, the Mets will open up the season with their ace Johan Santana and the Reds will open with Harang. Johan faced the Reds twice last year while Harang hasn't seen the Amazin's since 2007.

Johan had two very differnet starts against the Reds last season. Hist first start against them on May 8 was a nicely pitched win, the second game was a no decision where Johan was not very effective. Stat line in May: 6.0 IP, 3 ER, BB, 5K. Stat line in July: 4.0 IP, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2K. Here are some stats of Reds against Santana:
   Bruce 1-3, 2B, RBI, K
   Encarnacion 4-5, 2 HR
   Votto 1-5
There are two keys of the game for Santana tomorrow. The first is to get Encarnacion out. The second is to keep the ball in the park. Votto, Bruce amoung others can hit the ball hard and far. If he can keep the ball in yard, he will cruise to victory. Over those two games he had against the Reds last year, he allowed three jacks. Keeping the lineup controlled will be the objective for the entire pitching staff because the Reds have a lineup that can hit, but their pitching is weak. Keep them scoring fewer runs than their pitchers can handle, and the Mets will get the win.

Trying to stop the Mets tomorrow will be Harang. Harang played in the WBC this year and is getting the nod for Opening Day. He hasn't pitched against the Mets since 2007 and back then players like Shawn Green really knew how to hit him. The Mets still have some players that can light him up, but they have some that were clueless:
     Beltran 1-5
     Delgado 2-5, 2B
     Reyes 0-5
     Wright 4-6, 2B, HR
Should be a nice day for Wright tomorrow. With the Mets lineup, there are a few stories to watch. The first is how Murphy will do. How will he handle the hype. The second is if Sheff is going to play and if he does, what will he do, and how will he be in the clubhouse. Last year the Mets won 7-2 on Openning Day thanks to Santana's nice start. Lets Go Mets! Lets Start the season on the right foot, and lets try to stay warm!

It is time for the annual opening day article. Yes its a bit cliche but it is so necessary. Tonight everyone has the same record. Mathematically everyone has the same shot of making the playoffs. Hope Springs Eternal. Optimism right now is king. The end of the Spring is hear and the work for the last two months and the entire offseason is about to go into action.

The story lines from last year pick up with new characters. The Marathon starts. The train leaves the station and the airplane takes flight. Are you ready to start the exhaustive 162 game roller coaster that will send your emotions up and send them down make you cheer and make you cry. Will this be the year where our team is number one looking down on the top of the mountain looking at the other 29 teams? Or will we be looking at that summit again shaking our heads comforting each other with, “Maybe next year?”

Well I cannot answer these questions, in fact no one can answer these questions. The time has come to stop hoping because the days in March have just ran out and we are ticking ever closer to that first pitch in the first inning in the first game in the first series in the season. So put on your socks and button your jersey, put on your hat and lace up your shoes. Its go time once again. A new season. The 2009 season of Major League Baseball.

Just for fun, I decided to try to predict all of the Opening Day games from tonight through Tuesday (15 games). The one thing every team has in common right now is they all have the same record of 0-0, and they all have that equal mathematical shot at the post season. The long 162 game journey will start tonight, and goes on till October. Lets Go:

Yankees over Orioles: This one isn't too hard to call. CC starts for the Yanks, Gutherie for Orioles. The Yankees just over power the Orioles in everyway, and its probably going to be an away home game for the Yanks tomorrow. The only advantage the Orioles have is they historically usually play well on opening day.

Red Sox over Rays: This one was tough to call but I feel that Beckett will out duel Shields and the atmosphere at Fenway will make it tough for the American League champs. Losing for the Rays will not be a trend.

Royals over White Sox: The Royals are going to show the world tomorrow that they can play ball, and make a ruckus in the weak AL Central.

Indians over Texas: Lee vs Millwood, I'll take Lee thank you.

Jays over Detroit: Tiger fans I hope you like MSU, because the Tigers are going to disappoint.

Angels over Athletics: This is fairley obvious.

Mariners over Twins: This is only because I have a huge bias towards Felix Hernandez, and I don't think Liriano is ready yet.

Dbacks over the Rockies: Webb beating Cook, this is not a surprise.

Atlanta over Philly: Myers usually starts off slow, the Phils are also missing JC Romero, their bullpen is weak. Lowe is ready to play.

Cubs over Astros: The domination of the Cubs in the NL Central Begins.

Mets over Reds: Part Bias, part true. Johan will hopefully be Johan and the Mets hould handle Harang well, (preview of this game later) the big story of the day will be the Mets bullpen (flashbacks of a few seasons ago openning in Cinncy with Pedro doing a great job and Looper just blowing it in the ninth make me shiver and cringe).

Marlins over the Nationals: The Nats played in Florida on Thursday, Norfolk, VA on Friday, played in DC on Saturday and now are going back to Florida tomorrow, why do that?

Dodgers over Padres: Peavy is great, but the Padres have no bats.

Giants over the Brewers: Linecum picks up where he left off.

Cards over Pirates: Because that is predictable, lets hope for an upset.

This journey is now over. 36 games ago we started looking at stats and started to see who will play what and last night it all ended with the last exhibition game of the season, and a trip to see the Reds for Opening Day tomorrow. This was just the tip of the iceberg with the real start of the grueling season looming. It will start off like how it always does, optimistic, and looks to be another roller coaster. Anyway, back to reality, Perez looked terrible, apparently he couldn't grip the ball. Uh, what? He made a bad throw to Castillo that then opened the flood gates allowing 5 unearned runs in .2 innings and really showed his main weakness again which is the inability to regain control after a mistake. Anyway here are the box highlights from the last exhibition game:
The Good:
     Murphy 1-2, 2B, RBI, BB, SB
     Reed 2-2, 3B, RBI
     Reyes 1-2, BB, 2 SB
     Maine 2.0 IP, H, 2 BB
     O'Day 1.0 IP, K
The Bad:
      Perez .2 IP, 2H, 6R, ER, 4BB
      Wright 0-2
      Tatis 0-4
      Church 0-4
Murphy continues to hit the ball hard. As of now I have him one of my fantasy leagues, I took him in the last round, and I have a feeling that I might actually start him this week because of the way he is hitting. He also stole his third base of Spring last night. He is criticized about his speed, but he is trying to do something about that. The more this kid plays the more I see him being a major part of this team this year. He really could be that X-factor. Tomorrow we also start to see how much our starters were “faking it” this Spring. By that I mean, a lot of time during the Spring you go up with the mentality “I really need to work on my curve today” so you throw a lot of them, which is what the Spring is for. Now that its over, its time to get into some real pitching, some real hitting and some real games. Lets Get the Season Started!

Today I went to Nationals Park to see the Nationals take on the Orioles for an exhibition game, the last one of the Spring for both teams. As always, I have plenty of stories from the game because if you go to a game and you don't come back with stories, then something is wrong. Its why you go to the game. My initial thought when I got to the ball park was that my subway ticket to get from College Park to the Navy Yards (where the stadium) cost me more round trip than my $5 upperdeck ticket, actually my drink at the ball park cost more than that too (on another side note, because I have a lot of jumbled thoughts in my head right now, beer at Nationals Park was 7.50 and from what I understand it is that way at Citi as well, (for some types) which is incredible, one would expect it to be higher in New York). Anyway, there is nothing like seeing a game for five bucks, because these days that is practically free. We were also the only section in the ballpark for that price, and the only one that was quasi full, no other section was more than 50% full, and the majority of sections had under 10 fans. Now I know its the Nationals but they are also playing a local “rival”.

Nationals Park is in its second season and it is still a beautiful ballpark. I went with a friend and it was his first time in the ballpark and his reaction was that park reminded him of a theme park, and the more I looked at it, the more I agree. If you have ever been to a Nationals game, you know that they overdo the fireworks. Plus the kids area is huge. They also pay tribute on pillers in the ballpark to really just random Hall of Famers, that have no connection to the Washington Nationals.

Now no game is complete without crazy fans. Someone was shown on the screen wearing a Mets jersey, so I let out a cheer and then the guy behind said, “The Mets are worse than the Nationals, why? Well every year they just tease their fans.” It was really funny. There were these three kids in front of us at the game, they were about 10 years old, maybe younger. And as soon as I booed Lastings Milledge (who now wears 85 because Dunn has 44) they turned around said, with their Middle fingers up, “F you, F the Orioles.” (They actually said the world, I like to keep this site clean). And then in the first inning, Josh Willmingham hit a Grand Slam and the kids just turned aroumd to the section and continued to F the Orioles. Thanks to their age, and their size, it was way too funny for anyone to actually take offense (Another side note: everytime I see Willmingham, he always does the opposite of what is good for the cause I that I'm supporting). Anyway the kids left in the 3rd inning, and in the 6th inning there was this T-Shirt toss and we saw on the screens that they made it all the way down to the first row behind first base. This is why we go to games, because you never know what will happen on the field and off the field.

Here are some statistical achievements and even numbers some Mets players could pass this year (In no Particular Order):

Sheffield 500 HR
Castillo 1500 G
Delgado 1500 RBI
Beltran 1000 RBI
Reyes 1000 H
Delgado 500 2B
Delgado 500 HR
Wright 200 2B
Wright 500 RBI
Wright 100 SB
Reyes 200 2B
Reyes 300 SB

The Mets opened up Citi with a win last night and it was my first time seeing the Mets new home…on the computer of course (I have looked at my schedule and the first time this season I think I possibly can make the trip to Queens will be in late August…ugh). Anyway, I was very glad to see the retired numbers on the OF wall, I was wondering where they would go. It is also nice to see they brought over the one that said Shea, because its important to remember where you come from. One of my favorite parts of the game was Kevin Burkhart at the Pepsi Porch trying to get Fernando Tatis's attention. It was pretty funny. Oh, by the way, a game took place as well and the Mets won. Here are some of the box highlights:
The Good:
    Beltarn 1-2, R, RBI, BB
    Tatis 2-3, 2B, RBI, BB
    Delgado 1-2, R, BB
    Hernandez 3.0 IP, H, 2 BB, 3K
    Parnell 1.0 IP, H, K
    Krod 1.0 IP, K
The Bad:
    Reyes 0-3
    Castillo 0-3
    Green 1.0 IP, 2H, ER, K
    Putz 1.0 IP, 2H, ER, K
Some interesting notes about the field. I feel that Left field will be a pitchers park, and right now until the RF figure out the right side of the field, it is going to be a hitters park. The Left side is deep, its huge, and the wall is high. It is going to be tough place to feel but even tougher to field. The Right side will be a hitters field and not because of the Pepsi Porch. The wall takes a funny turn where the the stadium goes from a lot of foul territory to none, as Castillo found out when he flipped over the wall. Plus, as it was also shown, when the ball hits the wall at the right angle, it will bounce well into the field. It will take some time to figure out the nooks and crannies of how Citi will play.

A couple of days ago I wrote about how much I love Sheffield and how much I wanted him to not go to the Phillies or the Braves so I could still root for him. I was not expecting him to actually end up a Met. At first I felt that this was a terrible deal. He would eat up Church's playing time, he would be bad in the club house and he would hurt the overall team first mentality that the Mets have.

Then I found how much of that was Mike F on the Fan and what actually went down. After reading Minaya's remarks, I realized how good of a deal this was for the Mets. Apparently Sheff knows from Manuel what his role is and that he will have to work for playing time. He knows that this a team and not a place for him to just pad his stats. In that case, this is a great deal for the Mets because they get a powerful right handed bat in the lineup, they get it for 400,000 and they get rid of Marlon, who has had his good times with the Mets, but all good things must come to an end. This is a low risk high reward situation for the Mets because if he doesn't work, the Mets will just cut him and then they can move someone like Evans up to the majors.

And in the end, now I really get to root for Sheffield and his amazing swing, lets hope for the best, this could be a big thing for the Mets. (This is either the last piece of the puzzle, or the piece that causes the scale to spill over, and only time will tell). On a side note, the Phillies players were calling Sheff to convince him to come to the Phills, so take that Philly, now you have no Sheff and no Jenkins.