213 Miles From Shea

We are one week into September, and there are a good amount of new members to the eliminated from winning the division and eliminated from winning the wild card club. Last update, Seattle, Washington, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh were all eliminated from their divisions and Seattle, Washington, and San Diego were all eliminated from the Wild Card. While no other team has joined Seattle and Washington from being eliminated all together, both groups have new members.

In the Division races, the Athletics and the Orioles were both eliminated from their divisions. The Royals, Braves, and Pirates were all eliminated from the Wild Card. That brings a total of 6 teams out of the Wild Card, and 6 teams that cannot win their divisions. So who is next to go?
Approaching Wild Card Eliminations:
     San Fransisco, Baltimore: 1
     Oakland, Cincinnati: 2
     Colorado: 4
Approaching Division Eliminations:
     Atlanta: 1
     Kansas City, San Diego: 2
     Texas: 3
     Detroit: 9
There are a few things to look for in this list here. The first is that the next couple of days could be nuts with a bulk of eliminations. Then after that, there will be a break from eliminations for a while because after these teams, we are really getting to teams that have legitimate chances still of making the postseason. That being said, when Texas gets eliminated, the Angels will be the first team to clinch a spot in the postseason by being the 2008 AL West Champions. A lot can happen in the next couple of days, keep your eyes on the scores, or right here.

The Mets dropped Friday's game to the Phillies. The Mets dropped Sunday Game 1 to the Phillies. The lead is down to one. If the Phils win, its a sweep, demons of September's past start to get released, and the division is tied. A Mets win locks away the demons, gets the lead back to two, and prevents a sweep. So, like many had said, last night's game is the game why we got Santana. We got Santana to win when we need a win, to just about carry the team.

Things worked amazingly for the Mets. Santana got in trouble early, but the show of a true champion, he got it back together and pitched 7.1 innings and allowed only 2 runs. When he allowed one run in the first, the Mets bats did exactly what they needed. They stopped Philly from gaining momentum by putting up the quick 3 spot. The rest of the offense went to Mr. Delgado. Two huge homers. They gave the Mets some breathing room, especially his first one that followed a run by the Phillies. So the score was 3-2, and then he brought it right back to a two run lead. I love in his fourth AB, the fans were cheering MVP, MVP, as we should he is a legitamate candidate now, because in the start of the season we were booing (I am guilty of this myself as well back in April). I love when things change for the better.

With the pen, they gave up their first run in a while, but they really did a nice job again. Stokes needs to be getting more attention. Last year with the Rays (Devil Rays back then), his ERA was above 7.00. Now he has a cool 2.35 ERA. So congrats to him for a great season, for the parts that he has played. During the offseason, I'll do a more detailed look into Stokes, but I am very curious to see how he does next year. Also, congrats to Feliciano on his 20th hold of the season.

Well, you can't blame the pen for today's loss in the opener, that's for sure. Once again, Pedro had problems figuring out the Phillies, and they were able to put up a 6 spot in 4 innings. At the same time, the Mets bast could not do anything until Moyer got off the mound. He was amazing over his 7 innings, which was a boost the Phillies needed. The Mets were able to score on the pen though thanks to RBI”s Wright and Beltran.

As much as the loss hurts, you really have to be happy about the Mets pen. For 5 innings, they allowed no runs, only two hits, and only two walks. Thats really great and hopefully since the pen has been good for the last several days, the pressure on the starting pitchers should be decreased, and calmer staff should be able to perform better.

As I write this, the Mets are up 5-2 in the top of sixth, a win here is very important, because that would mean overall, the Phillies only gained one game on the Mets this weekend.

Due to a prior commitment, I will not be able to update this preview based on what happens in the first game this afternoon, so here it goes. The Mets will finish of their day with a night cap on ESPN with an amazing pitching matchup as the ace of the Mets, Johan Santana, takes on the ace of the Phillies, Cole Hamels.

Santana is having a great year, and the Mets need him tonight. He is 12-7 over 29 games, 196.0 innings, has 51 walks and struck out 169 batters so far. Today, he should go over 200 innings, and be the first Met to do that this year. In his last five games, he is 3-0 with 7 walks, 34 strikouts and has a very nice 2.06 ERA. Here are some Philly stats against him:
     Feliz 2-16, 5 K
     Stairs 4-15
     Burrell 5-14, 2 2B
     Rollins 1-13
     Utley 2-14, HR
     Howard 4-11, HR
Santana has handled the lineup pretty well so far this year. This is a big game though, Santana, a big game pitcher, will really need to help out the Mets tonight as they conclude their battle with Philly.

Hamels is going for the Phils tonight and he is also having a great year, Already having surpassed 200 innings pitched, he is 12-8 with a 3.01 ERA on the season. In his last five games, he is 3-0 over 36.1 innings, and a 1.49 ERA. I saw his last start on TV against the Nationals and he got in trouble early. It looked like the Nationals were gonna be able to put up runs fast, but thanks to running mistakes, they turned one out into two outs. So Hamels is hittable right now, and the Mets will have to figure him out, and these are their numbers against him:
     Church 4-17, 2B
     Reyes 3-15
     Beltran 4-15, 2 HR
     Wright 5-15, 2 2B, 3B, HR
     Delgado 4-12, 2B, HR
The two guys that need to perform tonight are Beltran and Wright. They can see the ball well from Hamels and a lot of people on the team cannot. They also have good power numbers against him. The mission is set, knock around Hamels, break up his confidence, and beat the Phils. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets will open up their very important double header today with Philly at 2:15. The pitching matchup, as of 10:48 AM, is Moyer against Pedro, in the rematch of that infamous game last 2 weeks ago when the Mets went up 7-0 on the Phils and then lost in extra innings. That being said, both starting ptichers will want to perform better, and will be doing everything they can to show that.

Like I said last time, Moyer is having a pretty good year. On the season he is 12-7 with a 3.80 ERA. He hasn't seen an ERA that low for a very long time. In his last 5 games, he is 2-0 in 28 innings pitched, where he has given up 13 earned runs for a 3.86 ERA. A lot of that damage on his ERA came against the Mets who scored 6 runs in 3 innings against him his last time out. The Mets have been able to put up these numbers against Moyer is his career:
     Delgado 31-78 (.397 BA), 7 2B, 8 HR
     Beltran 11-51, 3 2B
     Reyes 11-35, 2 2B, 2 3B
     Wright 14-32, 4 2B, 2 HR
The Mets have to hit him early to get the pen. On days with double headers, hurting the pen can help you a lot later (even though the second pitcher today is Hamels who eats innings like they are peanuts). Our three members in the MVP race will all be big players here today, and they need to perform (twice).

Pedro got a win in his last start out. On the season, he is 5-3 with a 5.07 ERA. In his last 5 games he is 2-0 over 31 innings pitched, 9 BB, 25 K and has a 3.77 ERA. These stats are very similar to Moyer's which means that we really have to equal games today stat wise right now. Last time against the Phils, he couldn't protect a 7 run lead, as he allowed 5 runs over 5 innings, most the damage coming in one inning where he allowed 4 runs to score. Here are some numbers the Phils have against Pedro:
     Rollins 12-33, 2 2B, 2 HR
     Burrell 1-26, 11 K
     Utley 7-22, 2B, 3 HR
     Howard, 5-14, 2 HR, 5 K
Pedro is the one pitcher the Mets have who has been able to control the Mets killer that is Burell. If he can keep controling him, and the rest of the Phillies dangerous lineup, then this will be a good day, If he can't it will be another long, long day. Pedro can do it, he's a warrior. Lets Go Mets!

As I was doing research for today's game preview, I came across a page that is keeping the world up to date about the amount of home runs in the history of the MLB. Baseball Reference, if you have never been there, is an excellent site and this just the type of thing you would expect them to do. They have calculated that from May 2nd, 1876, there have been 249,969 home runs in MLB.

That means we are only 31 jacks away from the big quarter million. Yesterday, 42 homers were hit, so that means there is a very, very good chance that the magic homer will be hit today.

Last night was overall frustrating. The offense went away on a vacation, but the pitching showed up to work. Because of that, we should really look at three aspects of the game. First, as hinted by the title, is the good. The Pitching is easily the good. Pelfrey allowed 3 runs (2 earned) over 7 innings, that of course is good. He did all he could to keep the Mets into the game. Then the pen came out, another great day for them. So no blame goes to the pitching last night. There is also one hitter who escapes blame as well, and that would be Murphy.

The Bad is pretty simple. We lost. Thats bad.

The ugly goes to the offense. I know Myers is good right now, but thats no excuse to get shut out and get nothing going for 8 innings. And the Mets couldn't hit against Lidge in the ninth. We gotta hope that they think about their hitting on today's “surprise” day off and put on an offensive display on Sunday. Thats really all we can say about last night. Some parts of the night sucked, some parts were pretty good, but the good parts were severly overshadowed by the bad parts because in the end, the game resulted as a loss.

No surprise here, today's afternoon, Nationally Televised game against the Phillies has been postponed due to Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression Hannah (I live outside of DC, so I know its a TS here, and its no baseball weather). So this means the Mets have a very, very important Double Header tomorrow against the Phillies, where they need to win at least one of those games.

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets start their highly anticipated, very important three game set with the Phillies tonight at Shea. Three teams separate these teams in the division and each of these games are very important for some breathing room in the NL East. The Mets are coming off of a very successful road trip, where they rebounded from a terrible loss from Philly to finish the trip 6-2, including a sweep of the Brewers and a current 4 game winning streak. The Phillies just lost 2 of 3 from the Nationals. The stage is set, the time is now, who is gonna get to October? That path continues on tonight.

The Phillies will be sending a resurgent Bret Myers to the mound tonight, who has really been pitching well. In his last 5 games, he is 4-1 with 37.2 innings pitched, 7 walks and a really nice 39 strikeouts, all with an ERA of 1.43. He has only pitched one game against the Mets this year, where he allowed 3 runs after 5 innings of worked, walked 5, and struck out 2. The Mets would eventually win that game. Some Mets have hit Myers well, others have not:
     Reyes 12-39, 2 2B, 2 3B, HR
     Castillo 6-34, 8 K
     Beltran 9-29, 3 2B, HR
     Wright 5-25, 2B, 3 HR, 6 BB
     Delgado, 7-17, 4 2B, 5 BB
Wright's numbers are interesting because for the most part, he doesn't hit off of Myers. However, when he does make contact, and it is a hit, 80% of the time its for extra bases, and 60% its leaving the ballpark. He also has a lot of walks against Myers. Game plan for Wright then would be to wait for the pitch that he can crush becuase if that pitche doesn't come, there is a good chance that he will be walked. For the most part, the Mets have good power numbers agaisnt Myers, the downside is that Myers really is getting into a rythem as of late, and the Mets have to hope to derail that rythem.

The Mets will be sending one of the best surprises of the season, Mike Pelfrey, to the rubber, to go toe to toe with Myers tonight. In a great year, Pelfrey is 13-8 in 169.2 innings pitched and a 3.66 ERA. In his last 5 games he is 3-1 in 36.1 innings pithced, has 8 BB, 18 K's and a nice 2.97 ERA. Against Philly this year, he has been allright, one good start and one bad start. Combined he is 1-0 in 10 innings pitched, 6 ER, 4 BB, and 5 K. He conquered his demons in Florida last time out, and hopefully he will be able to do it again tonight. The Phillies have done this against him:
     Howard 2-8
     Utley 3-8, 2B, 2 HR
     Burrell 2-5
     Rollins 1-3, HR
I am always scared of Utley. He has the ability to drive that ball out of the yard at any time, and hopefully Pelfrey can handle him. It's no surprise that Burrell has good numbers against Mike, because his an all around Met killer. Lets see if Pelfrey can put them in there place and put the Mets in a position to take the opening game of this series. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Phillies!
  

Adam Rubin of the Daily News suggested that the Mets might be shopping Luis Castillio this offseason. If you recall, last year, in a slightly controversial extension, they signed Castillo to a four year deal, even though he was injury plagued and his offensive stats were on the decline. However, now with the success of Reyes (Argenis), Murphy, and Easely, the question is where to does Castillo fit?

It's not as simple as just having Murphy continue to platoon with Evans, because they are both hitting well. Earlier this year it looked like one of them could move back to first, but Delgado has turned it on, so he'll be staying next year. The club might also want to make room for Fmart in the outfield as well, and the team cannot carry a 3 person platoon of Evans/Fmart/Murphy and get them all enough playing time to develop their skills. Murphy will be playign 2B this fall, and the team might not need Castillo.

There are some disadvantages of losing Castillo though. One, he is a veteran player and helps the team as a leader. He knows how to hit in the 2 hole behind Reyes, but with time, we would need to teach someone elsoe that anyway, because Castillo is always injuried. What I am worried about is Santana. Santana and Castillo are good friends, and I hope that Santana still pitches very well after a potential Castillo trade. When Castillo got traded from the Twins to the Mets, Santana was terrible the rest of the year. Since the trade will more likely happen during the offseason, Santana's stats shouldn't fall, and there were other reason why he was upset last time (like trying to understand the Castillo for practically nothing trade when the Twins were still in the race), so this Santana thing isn't too much of a concern, I am just a nervous person.

The entire situation is a bit intriging, Orlando Hudson will also be on the market this year too, so if Castillo was traded, then the Mets might bring in Hudson, but then what about all of the other players. This will be a topic that will be discussed later after this season is over.