213 Miles From Shea

The Most important thing about the Mets 9-8 loss to the Cards yesterday was the first two pitchers. Before the game even started, these two pitchers were vital for the game. Why? Well the first pitcher was fifth starter hopeful, and longshot, Livan Hernandez and the second was the new favorite for the fifth starter spot, Freddy Garcia.

Well, if t the rankings of the starters was murky before the game, now it could be a wide competition.

Livan went out there and had really good stuff. His breaking stuff was spot on. Even though he had only one strikeout, he was getting hitters to swing at bad pitches. If that is the form he is going to be in this season, then I can easily see him being the fifth starter on this squad. Then it was Garcia's turn. He has already been scrutinized over his intrasquad performance with his flat fastball, and he didn't impress anyone yesterday. He was just bad pitch after bad pitch. Granted there was an error in the inning, but he could not pull it together. Before further analysis, lets check out some highlighted good and bad boxes from yesterday:
The Good:
    Hernandez 2.0 IP, 0ER, K
    Church 1-3, R, RBI, 2B
    Kielty 1-1, HR, R, 3 RBI
The Bad:
    Garcia 0.2 IP, 4R, 2ER, 3BB
    Knight 1.0 IP, 4 H, 3ER, BB, 2K
Garcia's line is really terrible and it is a good reflection on how he performed yesterday. Althought Knight had some K's, he really struggled yesterday as well. He is a really longshot to make this team, but if he wants any chance at the bullpen, he has to perform every chance he get. On the other side of the plate, the Mets didn't have too much to write home about. As a team they got a lot of walks but they couldn't do anything with it (including twice allowing the bases to get loaded via walks and hits). However, Church continued to impress this Spring and Kielty came up in a situation where he needed to perform and just knocked one out of the park. Next up for the Mets is the Tigers today, the only way you can really catch it is Game Day Audio, or if you live close enough to Detroit to pick up their AM signal.

I've had a lot of baseball thoughts over the last few days, but nothing substantial enough for one per article, so this is going to be basically a tour through my mind right now. The other day, I saw a WBC commercial for the first time, and once again I thought ESPN did a good job getting the fans pumped up for this tournament. I'm very excited and that commercial got me even more ready. Last Classsic, ESPN and MLB put together a good advertisement campaign with the players flags over their faces. On the topic of the WBC, how nice was it today to see Mike Piazza as a coach. I had no idea he was the hitting coach forTeam Italy until today and I'm glad he's doing something in baseball again. Let's hope he starts a coaching career.

More on the WBC, Davey Johnson has decided to take the route of the Mets and the Phillies over the last few seasons and had declared Team USA as the team to beat in the classic. That wasn't really a bold statement when you look at the roster and the way the team has formed. The roster looks amazing and on top of that everyone on Team USA wants to win, not just play, but wants to win, and they want it bad, they are willing to bat ninth. Next week starts some great games, and I can't wait to see how things pan out.

On an unrelated note, I wasn't originally going to post this, but my friends in the Lab this afternoon convinced me it was worthy of typing. Everytime Rocky Cherry starts to pitch I think about how the Mets could stand to capitalize from naming some desserts after him. Like the Rocky Cherry's Rocky Road and Cherry Ice Cream Helmet. Its just a thought.

The Mets played their second Spring Training game today against the Marlins, and there was nothing to complain about at all in the game. They just played a great game. They won 9-0, had the hitting, had the pitching. Before we get to the analysis, lets see some Box highlights of the Mets Amazin' day:
    Beltran 1-4, R, 3 RBI
    Reyes 2-4, 2R, 6 RBI, 2 HR
    Castillo, 1-1, 2R, 2BB
    Delgado 2-3, 2B, 2R
    Wright 2-4
    Perez 2.0 IP, BB, 3K
    Gee 2.0 IP, H, 2K
The star of the day has to be Reyes, who in his first AB had a ground out to get the RBI, playing some good smallball, then went with the biggest of the long ball, the grandslam in his next AB and later had a solo shot. It was a joy to see him perform so well. More important for Spring, Castillo and Delgado both had great games as well. Castillo built off of yesterday with getting on base in all three trips and Delgado got his extra base and a single to cap off a good day for him. On the pitcher side, Perez, who I will admit I was iffy about in the offseason, impressed today with great control over his two innings of work with three K's. His first two K's looked really good. I was also glad to see Gee in the game. He is a really underated prospect in the Mets system, and he deserves some attention. Tommorow the Mets play the Cards.

I was very surprised to see how many good things came from today's game. When only a few starters were going over, it didn't look like too many good things would happen. All of the position starters had good games and really no one had a terrible day. I listened to the first 30 minutes of the game before I had to leave but I have some notes from what I heard before we get to some box scores. First off, the Orioles have 67 players in camp this Spring, and 37 of them are pitchers. The Oriole announcers were commenting on the 17 lbs that Castillo lost. Green would have had a much better outing if Wright was starting. The first batter of the game hit a slow roller to Valentine at third, it was that play that Wright really has perfected. If that out was recorded, then not only does Green get a 1-2-3 inning, I don't think he gets injured. So he gets the unlucky award of the day. Anyway here are some Boxes:
The Good:
   Castillo 2-3, 4 RBI, R, 2B
   Murphy 2-3, 2R, BB
   Pagan 3-4, R, BB
   Church 2-3, 3 RBI, 2 2B
   Evans 3-4, 3R
The “Bad”:
    Valentine 0-3
    Sanchez 1.0 IP, H, ER, 2 BB
Pagan's walk was a really good one because he actually started off down 0-2 in the count then got the walk. Castillo, Murphy and Church, all starters with stuff to prove all went out and did it in a big way They got hits, they scored runs, they got RBI's and it feels great that they were able to perform so well. Pagan and Evans also had big games. Both of them are trying to get on the bench and if they keep this up, it will be hard to ignore them. Its hard to say anyone had a bad game, but if I had to pick two I would pick these two. Castro also went 0-3, but Valentine is trying to make this team, and its a long shot, so he needs to perform every chance he has. Same goes for Sanchez, who could be cut, so he needs to perform.

Baseball America released their top 100 prospects going into this season today, and while the order is not really surprising, I want to point out the four Mets that made the list this year. The list started off with Wieters from the Orioles system and he was followed by David Price in Rays system. I had the opportunity to see Wieters play a few times last year since he played for AA Bowie, which is fairly close to where I live. This kid is the real deal. Those of you who have been to Minor League games, and have seen future stars come from them can tell when someone is the real deal, even when they have an off night. He wasn't the star the night I saw him but every hack he took with the bat looked good, sounded good and when he made contact, he made good contact. I believe he went 2-4 on the night with a double and a single, but his two outs where hard line-outs. Anyway back to the Mets, here are the Mets that made the list:
   30- FMart, ETA 2010
   47- W Flores, ETA 2012
   77- Niese, ETA 2009
   94- Holt, ETA, 2010
They had an interesting note for both Fmart and Flores. Fmart was the youngest player last year in AA and Flores was the youngest player in all of proball last year. With Niese they talked about his innings pitched and Holt they talked about his dazzling 1.87 ERA last year. These names are not surprsing. These are the guys that we are starting to hear about. Flores is interesting because he is so young, only 17, we will really get to see this guy develop. I look foward to reading about him this year in the minors. With Niese's performance yesterday, he is not completely knocked out of getting that last starting job. Young players are exciting, and we might have some coming up soon.

Those of you who have followed the Intrasquad game know that it was an intrasquad game and not that exciting boxscore wise (I'm writing this after only 5 innings).The Mets loaded the bases once against the Mets, but the inning ended before a score because Figueroa reached his pitching quota. Despite these goofy rules, it is really nice seeing or reading about live baseball again.

I don't know about all of you out in Mets world, but there is a new feeling this year. Yes we were optimistic in 2006 and 2007 and 2008 but there is something different about this 2009 season. There is sense that things with the team are more complete, that things are more packed. This is being joined with this feeling of team mentality that has been fostered during the Spring so far. Normally I don't get too excited about Spring Training games. But this year I am. I am very excited about the games this year, I'm very excited that baseball is back period. Its going to be great getting scores, watching plays, strikeouts and homers again.

I think the WBC also has a lot to do with that this year. Last time it was very experimental but this time around the players are all very excited about representing their countries. The lineups look much better on the whole than they did last time around and lets see what happens. Obvisously I'll be rooting for team USA, but thanks to the Mets being all over the world, we pretty much have players to root for and against on almost every team.

Baseball is back. I'm ready, are you?

According to MLB.com,
Jerry Manuel today released a big decision about the Outfield. Instead
of having a platoon of Murphy and Tatis in Left, he will now have
Murphy be the starting left fielder with the a platoon of Tatis and
Church in Right. Murphy has a .400 against Lefties, but that is from 4
hits in 10 AB. Manuel believes because of his hitting skills and work
ethic that Murphy will be able to produce regularly against lefties
which is why he will have the starting job. Overall last season in the
majors, in 131 AB, Murphy posted a strong .313 BA, and also showed a
strong sense of hitting.

The other reason why the platoon was
switched was Manuel sees overall Murphy doing better against righties
and lefties rather than Church against righties and lefties. Of course,
if Church produces a strong Spring and strong start, then he will also
have a starting job in Right which will make Tatis just a pinch hitter.

Murphy really has been impressing so far this Spring with his
work ethic in the 80-pitch drill and if he can produce good results on
the field, then this is a good move for the Mets to make. Hopefully
Church can return to form before his concussion, and then having Tatis
on the bench just as a PH will make the Mets bench that much stronger

Redding hurt his arm trying to get back into form to make the Mets roster as a starter this season. He's claiming that the injury will delay him only a week because it just pushes him back to long toss, and then in a week he can go back to the mound. Although the Mets would like to have the world believing that they had all confidence in Redding, that he was going to be the Fifth starter, the actions the Mets have taken speak louder and with signing Garcia and Hernandez, it was going to be open season this sprign to get that last starting spot. With Redding out for a little bit, it is really on as the playing field is leveled,  only if it wasn't for Redding, because I still feel that going into Spring each of these pitchers had an equal chance, well maybe not Hernandez, to get that last rotation spot.

Like most Mets fans, I would prefer to see Garcia in that last spot. He's more risky but when he's good he is good. Redding is more consistent, but he is also consistently below average, and although the Mets have a good bullpen this year, its still nice to only have to use the bullpen 2-3 innings a game, not 4+ which it would more than likely be for Redding consistently. The Games start next week and its exciting because that means these races will be on.

In other Baseball news the Athletics and the Phillies are both interested in Garciapparra for the bench, Hudson passed his physical, and the Astros and the Mets are both not interested in Pudge, leaving the Marlins on his list, but they don't really have aviallbility.

So far this offseason, we have seen two Citi-Field Patches, a new Yankee Stadium Patch, and a special Padres patch. While searching the internet, I have found some more teams that are celebrating anniversaries and other events this year and have patches for those events. First up is the Kansas City Royals, who are celebrating thier 40th anniversary:

This is a nice, classy patch, using the colors of the Royals well and it just looks nice. Next up is the Twins, who are leaving the Metrodome this year, and have patch celebrating their time there:

Classic Stadium closing patch. Has the name of the stadium, the years there, and a picture of the stadium with a logo of the team. To bad the metrodome doesn't look that appealing, otherwise this patch would look better (the other way to view that statement is if the stadium looked better, they might not be leaving.). Next up is the Cardinals, with their patch celebrating the All-Star game this year:

Nice, classic logo. Has the name of the event, the year, the MLB logo, the Cards logo, and part of the city in the patch. Good job St. Louis. All images came from Patch Collectibles, a great place online to get classic patches from over many years of Baseball events and other sports events.

Another patch is starting to circulate around the internet. Apparently, the Mets will have two patches. They are still going to wear the ugly citifield patch on their sleeves. But there is another patch that has surfaced that will be on official items for the Mets this year, like hats, T-shirts, and I would assume booklets and pins and such and it looks like this:

Image from Mets Guys In Michigan

This is purely speculative but I would assume that this patch was not the original plan and might have been made after the uniform disgust that literally everyone head off of the old the Citi Field Patch. This one looks quite nice. They already have produced the other patch on a number of items, so I don't think they will switch, but at least the Mets have a logo for this year that is pleasant to the eye. As a side note, this patch is sort-of on the uniform, its actually going to be on the hat.