213 Miles From Shea

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.

I have always felt that Fox Sports is biased against the Mets. Some of those feelings are directed straight at Joe Buck, who I feel hates the Mets, and a lot of those feelings go to the web. Whenever there is a discussion whether the Mets are better than this team of that team, I feel they always pick the team not named the New York Mets. However, an article by Dayn Perry has changed my mind about the fox bias. Perry posted an article today about how Reyes has now passed Jeter as the best Shortstop in New York.

It's about time that a national news source has said what we've known for a while. I am not taking anything away from Jeter's career. If Reyes can have a career like Jeter, that would be fantastic because he would be a hall of famer. Jeter is fantastic, he will go to the hall on his first ballat. As great as he is, he has started to slow a bit due to age, and current Reyes really puts up better numbers than Jeter does. Many, many years from now, we can debate who was better, but you really can't say that 08 Jeter is better than 08 Reyes. Read his article linked above, its a good read, especially on a day like today when there is no game and, I don't know about you, but I'm anxious to get tommorow's series going.

A more recent Arizona Fall League 2008 Mets Preview Can Be found here as well.

The Mets announced a bit over a week ago 5 of their players that will be playing in the fall league (they still have a few pitchers to announce), and there are a few players that will be playing that will be interesting to watch. The quick list is as follows:
     Tobi Stoner, P
     Josh Thole, C
     Dan Murphy, 2B
     Shawn Bowman, 3B/1B
     Jason Vargas, P
The most intriguing player here is of course Murphy because the Mets are returning him to the infield, where he played in the minors. The Mets could be doing this for a number of reasons, one of which is move Evans and Fmart to platoon in the OF. What ever the situation is, if Murphy can keep up his hitting, and get used to playing at a different position, then he can give the Mets a lot of options. (One thing to consider, Murphy has average to below average speed, so ultimatley he should play 1B, which he did in the minors, so he could back up Delgado sometimes or be a future option in 2010, but thats a while into the future).

I've discussed Stoner before. His strikeout to walk ratio is very intriguing, but has problems keeping runners from scoring. He solved those problems in the first half of 08 when he was with Pt St Lucie where he went 1-5 over 9 games and 52 innings pitched where he posted a pretty 2.60 ERA, walked only 9 (thats amazing), and struck out 48 batters. He wasn't as good in AA where he had a 4-6 record so far this year in 15 games, 29 BB, 59 K, and has posted a 4.33 ERA. Josh Thole is a catcher that is very under the radar, because this was the first year where he has done damage offensivley. This year he has had 347 AB, .300 BA, 25 2B, 5 HR and 56 RBI's. Is it for real? If he has a good fall and good season next year, there will be a lot more attention surrounding him.

Bowman has been playing for a while. His first season was when he was 18, and now he is 23. His first half of the year was amazing, and his second half of the year was below average. So, he is another player who is very under radar, and really hasn't impressed too much. Like for many players, a good fall, a good season, and there will be more attention surrounding him as well. In high A this year, he has 97 AB, 33 H (.340 BA), 4 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR and 11 RBI. In AA, he had 113 AB, 28 H, 7 2B, 2 HR, and 10 RBI. So lets see how he does. Should be a good fall for these palyers.

For two teams, the 2008 season has mathematically come a time to play spoiler and a chance to look at younger players. Those teams of course are the Mariners and the Nationals, who are eliminated in both the Wild Card Race and the Division Race. (The Nationals already have starter their spoiler role by beating the Phillies 2 of 3 games). The Pirates and the Reds are also out of their division, and the Padres are out of the Wild Card. Here are the next few teams expected by elimination number, to fall out of the Wild Card Race:
     Royals, 2
     Braves, 3
     Giants and Pirates, 4
     Reds and Orioles, 5
These are the next few teams expected to be out the Division Race:
    Orioles, 3
    Athletics, Braves, 4
    Royals, Padres, 6
The Orioles find themselves on the top of the Division list and gaining ground on the Wild Card Race because of a nice streak they started to build. They are in the midst of a 6 game losing streak, and they play the Wild Card leading Red Sox, so if their losing streak continues, that number should start to free fall. The Padres have been out of the Wild Card for a while, their relatively high Division elimination number just goes to show how bad the NL West is.

Another team joined the three teams that have guranteed themselves winning seasons yesterday. Tampa Bay, Los Angelos (AL), and the Chicago (NL) all have those guarenteed winning seasons, and yesterday's win of the Red Sox over the Orioles have landed the Red Sox in that list with 82 wins.

In the past week, both the Mets and the Phillies played good teams and bad teams. The Mets started off with the bad, the Marlins, and then played the good, the Brewers. The Phillies started off with the good, the Cubs, and then faced the bad, the Brewers. How did they do, well the Mets extended their lead after seeing it shrink a bit over the weekend, out to three games, but completing the sweep tonight and the Phillies losing to the Nationals, again.

So, what has happened over the last few days? Same thing that I've been talking about for a while. The team with a bullpen wins. When the Mets falters, the Phillies generally gain a game on the Mets. However, the past few days, the Mets pen has been very good. The Phillies? Well even though their starter Blanton didn't do so well tonight, the first half of the pen gave the team the lead and then in a 4 run bottom of the eighth, the Nationals attakced the Phillies pen and got the win. The Phillies pen broke down, they lost.

This puts the Mets in a great position. The worst thing that can happen, them being swept, will put the two teams at a tie. As long as the Mets win a game, they will still be on top on the division. That being said, this is the weekend that they need to go to the Phillies Juggular. Remember last year the Mets couldn't sweep? They couldn't step on their opponents neck. Well this year, the Mets have put together good winning streaks, and right now they are on a 4 game one. If they can keep building this streak, they could build enough momemntum to carry themselves into the postseason. Once again, they find themselves in control of their own destiny, so lets finish the job this time. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets left little doubt in the mind that they wanted a sweep this afternoon, because they went of the box swinging. They quickly got base runners on in the first and then Delgado hit a one out single to bring in Murphy. Beltran than walked on 4 pitches and Church went to the plate with the bases juiced. He took his hack and sent everyone home. Later in the inning, Schneider tacked on another run with a solo jack. So after that it was 6-0 Mets and it stayed like that until the bottom of the 6th, where the Brewers tacked on a run. The following bottom half, the Brewers added on another run. So now the score is 6-2, so the Mets decided to tack on the runs to push the game over the edge and scored three more runs. So the Mets played very well today, and any fan can see that.

What I think might go unnoticed, and I really hope it doesn't is the Mets bullpen. Once again they buckled down, and allowed no runs to score. They pitched 2.1 innings and allowed only one hit:
     Smith .1 IP, K
     Sanchez 1.0 IP, K
     Schowenweis 1.0 IP, H
Once again, a great afternoon by the bullpen. They had great control, for the third straight day and its no secret that the pen is a huge reason why the Mets are on a four game winning streak.

The Mets will try to complete the sweep of a playoff contender today as they take on the Brew Crew in an afternoon game. The Mets will be sending up Perez to the mound while the Brewers will be sending up Bush to rubber. This is a possible playoff preview, and if the Mets were in the playoffs today, they would be going for the NLDS win over the Brewers right now.

Perez is 9-7 on the season with 161.1 innings pitched and an ERA of 3.90. He will try for his fourth straight time to get his 10th win on the season. In his last five games, he is 2-0 and his ERA over that stretch has been 3.06. He pitched against the Brewers earlier this year where he had a bad start, but walked away with a no decision. He pitched 4.1 innings and he allowed 6 runs. He will be hoping to replicate those results this afternoon. Here are some Brewer stats against Perez:
     Hall 2-18, HR, 9K
     Hardy 3-14, 2B, HR
     Fielder 1-11, HR
     Cameron 1-7
     Durham 3-7, 2B
     Hart 4-9
For the most part, he can control the Brewer lineup. If he can keep them off the basepahts, he should be fine. For the most part, when the Brewers make contact against him, they make good contact and drive the ball hard, so keep them off the paths, and keep the Mets in the game.

The Mets will face Bush who has been in the majors 4 years, but for the most part, have had a few AB against him. This season he is 9-9 over 25 games and 153.0 innings pitched. During that time he has an ERA of 4.12. He has brought his great stuff in his last five games where his record is 4-0 and his ERA is 2.12. Here are some Mets stats against him:
     Schneider 5-10, 2B
     Castillo 2-7
     Reyes 1-4
     Delgado 2-3, HR
The Mets are going to have to go after him and get that bullpen. I know that always the plan, but after the last two games, both bullpens have been used a lot. So if Perez can give ours a rest, that would be great. If our hitters can start hitting on their's again, that would also be great. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Brewers!

Niese looked allright…until he came out in the fourth inning. His night really could be described in three parts. It started off with his first few batters. Which ended with a homer to his first major league batter and then some walks. Then he got some control, and got some batters out. Then the wheels fell off at the start of the fourth inning as he allowed a complete comeback to the Mets 5-1 lead. So the Mets had to go to their shaky bullpen starting in the forth inning. The pen did their job, from ining 4 to inning 10, they allowed no runs. So, for a highly criticized bullpen, they performed very well tonight.

The offense looked very good in the second and third inning, but disappeared for the rest of the game. All of the Mets big batters couldn't do anything, until the tenth where Murphy and Reyes got on, and then Chavez hit a the go-ahead sacrifice fly. They could have used some more insurance runs, but Wright, on a pretty terrible night, grounded into a double play. Luckily Ayala was able to protect the one run lead in the bottom of the tenth, after allowing two runners to get on base. So, in his normal fashion, he kept the game close, and he finally got the game done.

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets will take on the Brew Crew for the second game in their three game set tonight. Niese will be making his debut for the Mets today and he will face sophomore pitcher Parra today. The Mets gained a game on the Phils yesterday, and the Phils still have to deal with the streaking Nationals. All the Mets need to do is to keep winning, and thats what they intend to do today.

I have written about Niese a twice. There was a prospect preview back in January and then that was updated in August. Niese is young, and still is doing a lot of development right now. His ERA has dropped during his time in the minors. From scouting reports, he tends to be a strikeout pitcher, but we will see how that translates in the majors. Here are his stats in the minors from this year:
     AA- 6-7, 22 G, 124.1 IP, 44 BB, 112 K, 3.04 ERA
     AAA- 5-1, 7 G, 39.2 IP, 14 BB, 32 K, 3.40 ERA
Its hard to remember that Niese is only 21 and putting up these numbers. I am sure there is debate about whether he is too young to be promoted (like should the Mets have waited to next year) but those questions will start to be answered tonight.

Parra is having a pretty good year. He is 10-5 over 148.2 innings pitched. His win totals have changed though drastically through the year. In hist first 16 games, he won 8 and only loss 2 putting up a 3.95 ERA. In his last 11 games, he has been 2-4 with a 4.06 ERA. Last month, he was 1-2 over 5 games with a 4.25 ERA. One of his two losses in the first part of year was from the Mets. When he faced them, they scored 3 runs fast knocking him out after 4 innings of work. Here are some Mets numbers against him:
     Reyes 2-6
     Delgado 1-5
    Wright 1-4, BB
    Easley 2-2
So same story that it always is for the Mets, score early, knock out the starting pitcher, get to their bullpen. It's a pretty basic recipe for success, but like many things in baseball, its much easier said than done. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Brew Crew!

The cycle has always been a stat that has been debated. Its an anomaly, which makes it cool. A hitter collects one of every hit and thats pretty nice. The debate kicks in when players will stop at a certain base instead of pushing or push when they have no shot, to get the cycle. Because then the focus on the game leaves the team, and then goes to the player. Anyway, most of the time I like cycles and its a neat thing to have two cycles on one day (Stephen Drew and Adrian Beltre). The last time that happened was 1920 (Bobby Veach and George Burns)

The Nationals have been streaking now. They have won 7 and they are looking good, too bad they are already eliminated from postseason play. Anyway, yesterday's win over the Phillies, we really should thank Lastings. He only had one hit in the game, but it was a big hit that scored two runs in the first inning. Kendrick really had a terrible game for the Phils, and the now the Phils are 2 games out. They have shot and high hopes today because they have Hamels starting and we have Niese. Lets hope Niese surprises and Hamels fails tonight.On another Philly note, one of my friends pointed out to me yesterday that with the Phillies 63rd loss, they cannot reach Rollins goal of 100 regular season wins. I had completley forgotten about that promise, shows the difference winning makes, you forget about comments by cocky shortstops on the Phillies.

Last, but not least, did you see Parnell yesterday? They should a quick clip on Sportscenter on him walking to the bullpen with a pink backpack. I'm assuming its some sort of bullpen hazing, and it was pretty entertaining.