213 Miles From Shea

We all remeber him. A very average player, whenever he was above average, he followed it by being below average. Our very own human rain delay, he would take his time between pitches. When the Mets didn't retain him, I was very excited…only to find out that he went to the Orioles, who I usually watch because I don't get the Mets on TV down here. So I got to see the guy pitch more than ever over the last few seasons.
Well today the Orioles announced that their time with Trachsel is over. They designated him for assignment today, and now he is on waivers. This year, he has been horrible. He almost blew a 9-1 lead in the ninth inning over the weekend for the Orioles and his season ERA is 8.39. He has also developed a nasty habit this year for walking 2 batters for everyone 1 batter he strikes out.
He has said a few times this season that if the Orioles let him go, he would retire. (He did hit his 2500 inning pitched this year, which is a nice accomplishment for him). If no one claims him, he will most likely retire rather than go to the minors. He had a good career because in this game, when you are average, that means your good (wish more things in life are like that). So, while its always sad to see someone go, it really is time for Trachsel, because I really doubt anyone will pick him up.

By the way, Omar, Trachsel is not a solution in anyway to the Mets current problems.

The Mets will try to turn around the ship tonight as John Maine and the Mets take on the first place Diamondbacks. The Mets have already played Diamondbacks in a three game set where the Mets took 2 out of 3. To win today, they will have to beat Owings (again) and shut down the dangerous Arizona offense.
Last time the Mets faced Owings, they really teed off on him. He lasted 5.2 innings allowing 10 hits, 7 runs (6 earned), walked three and struck out 2 on his way to a loss. He has an identical record as Maine this year at 6-4, but his ERA is 4.50 over 72 innings. In 2007, he got a no decision against the Mets over 6 innings, allowing 3 runs, 4 walks and striking out 5. Here are some numbers the Mets offense have put up against him:
    Beltran 1-3, HR, 4 BB
    Reyes 3-7, 2B, 3B
    Wright 3-7, 2B, HR
    Delgado 2-5
The Mets will miss Church today, who is 3-7, 2B, HR, BB against Owings, but they have enough offense that have good numbers against him. Key here is for Reyes and Wright to get back to hitting today, and put San Diego behind them.
Maine also has a start against Arizona this year. He got the win with 6 innings pitched, allowing 2 runs, walking 2 and striking out 6. In 2007, he had a 1-1 record in as many games against Arizona pitching 12 innings, with 3 ER, BB, 14 K. Maine is fresh off a good start in San Francisco, and hopefully his good fortunes traveled back with him. Here are some Arizona numbers against Maine:
    Hudson 3-13, 2B
    Drew 1-8, 2B
    Jackson 5-9
    Young 3-8
    Reynolds 0-6
The two most dangerous players in the lineup against Maine are Young and Jackson. If he contains those two tonight, he should be able to breeze through this line up and lead the Mets back into the win column.
Lets Go Mets!

With all of the attention on the MLB Draft the past couple of days, we should also spend some time and look at what we have in our system. We have plenty of players who are doing well and who, in a few seasons could be making an impact in New York. Today, the focus is on Tobi Stoner, a 23 year old RHP who is currently playing Port St. Lucie. The Mets drafted Stoner out of Davis and Elkins College (WV) in the 2006 Draft. He was selected in the 16th round and 484th overall.
While searching on the internet I was able to locate his 2006 college stats over at The Metropolitans:
    2006: 8-5, 2.90 ERA, 1.5 BB/9, 7.9 K/9
If anyone knows other locations of his college stats on the internet, I would greatly appreciate it. You could email me at eteich@umd.edu or just post them in a comment below this article.
Despite his 1-5 record this season, his other numbers look really good. He has a 2.60 ERA over 52.0 Innings pitched, stuck out 48 batter while only allowing 9 to walk. His WHIP this season has also been very good at 1.06. Here are his other Minor League season stats:
    2006- BRK: 14 G, 6-2, 2.15 ERA, 83.2 IP, .99 WHIP, 6.71 K/9, 1.84 BB/9
    2007- SAV: 11 G, 3-5, 3.61 ERA, 57.1 IP, 1.33 WHIP, 7.88 K/9, 2.68 BB/9
    2007- STL: 16 G, 4-5, 4.90 ERA, 82.2 IP, 1.39 WHIP, 6.29 K/9, 2.74 BB/9
If this was written before 2008, he would not really be considered a prospect because he struggled in 2007, especially compared to his 2006 Brooklyn Numbers where he dominated. However, so far in 2008 he has really performed well, and his numbers are resembling his Brooklyn numbers, which occurred at a much easier level of play than what he is up against now. I am really impressed by the amount of innings that Stoner is pitching, and if he can pitch a similar amount of inning this year, and keep up his ERA, strikeout, and walk numbers that he posting now, his record will turn around and we could be seeing in Spring Training next year and possibly, in AA and AAA next year.
Other Tobi Stoner information at:
    Baseball Reference
    New York Future Stars

With the Mets first pick in the 2008 MLB draft, #18 overall, they selected Ike Davis, a 1B/OF/LHP out of Arizona State University. There have been scouts on Davis since high school. He was drafted by the Rays in 2005 in the 19th round, 568th overall, but decided to go to college.
When in high school, he was really considered to be a pitcher, due to his family ties (his father is Ron Davis) (Baseball America) but has developed good hitting skills and the arm he has as a pitcher is an asset to him in the OF. For the Mets, this is a good pick because after trading Gomez, the Mets really do not have many prospects in the OF. They have FMart, who will probably be a centerfielder. He will probably be treated similarly to Nick Evans, who is also a 1B/OF type of player.
MLB.com talks about how his swing (Left handed batter) could eventually produce more power in the future. He is projected to be a below average to average base runner in terms of speed, so developing power will be key for him to make it in the next level of play. When he was in high school, he hit .447 with 48 doubles and 106 RBI's and led his team to three straight Arizona state titles. When he was a freshman at ASU, he set a record for ASU freshman with batting in 65 runners. He was the Pac-10 freshman of the year, on the All Pac-10 first team, the Jewish Sports Review First Team All American, among many others.
He received many awards his sophomore year as well, to read them and the complete list of freshman awards he received, check out his his ASU player profile here.
During the offseason, Davis will have a formal Get To Know a Prospect done. Complete with 2008 numbers. It is very exciting to read about him and hopefully he can pan out and provide some pop in Queens and Citi Field one day.

The Mariners have had a pretty lousy season so far, especially one that started off with a lot of acclaim due to their addition of Bedard and how it would help out their rotation and more specifically, Felix Hernandez. Well the season hasn't gone the way they would like it, and now the rumors will start about who will be shopped.
MLB Trade Rumors, an excellent site for all baseball news, suggests that a last ditch effort could be trading Bedard. They quote John McGrath (Mariners writer), suggesting that the Mariners should work out a trade with the Phillies for Carrasco, Cardenas, and Savery. Another good point by MLB Trade Rumors is that the Phillies have used the same 5 starters all season.
If this were to happen, this would be a huge boost for the Phillies. Bedard was going to be the strikeout leader in the AL last year, and was a head by a monster amount with over a month to go, and then he got injured. This year he hasn't been as dominant, but he is young and he will be a force in the future years.
It is also important to note that MLB Trade Rumors has not heard any substantial rumors about Bedard being on the trading block. If something pops up, it will be all over the internet in a heart beat.

Just when the Mets were getting on a nice streak, winning a few series, and starting to distance themselves from the .500 line, all of their work gets erased in one series where they failed to win a game out of four games. The first thing that really frustrates me out of these four games is that on 3 of them, the Mets to outstanding pitching performances. As a team they had an ERA of 2.00 for those three games. The Mets could not do anything with that! I am not blaming Reyes, but when for some reason, this team lives and dies with Reyes' bat. When he does well, the team does well, when he doesn't, the team doesn't. David Wright wasn't helping these past four days that much either. The offense would be better if it wasn't for all of the injuries that are affecting it. Without Alou and Chuch (and Pagan), the team is struggling out there with making Chavez and Tatis play every day. I am sure this recent stretch has produced more than enough red flags to Omar that he should be looking for a player with a good bat, that can play LF, RF and 1B (or at least two of those positions).

Yesterday and today were the first days in a while that I have woken up without that good feeling about the Mets, that feeling that was so evident before the Marlins series before the team started to turn things around. The good thing right now is that the team gets a day off, the first one in a while and hopefully they will be fully rested for their key series at home with the Dbacks when they will try to get back on track. The dynamics of this team have changed a lot since they win at home and not on the road. (Unlike the past couple of years). Lets hope for some consistent baseball.

If the Mets are not on the right side of a 2-1 score, I might lose my cool. The team needs to get back on the right track today, otherwise the plane back to New York will be a long one. I also always find it important to win before a day off, so that winning spirit can pour into the next series, which is the Dbacks at home (where the Mets are doing well this year). So today Pedro and the Mets will try win a game, prevent the second four game sweep of the season. To do that, they will have to get through Ledezma.
Ledezma has pitched 13 games this year and started 5 (0-2), over 40.2 inning with a 4.43 ERA. He got a No Decision in his last start pitching 4.2 innings and allowing 3 runs over 3 hits while walking 5 striking out 3. Last season he pitched .2 innings against the Mets where he allowed a hit, and no walks. The following Mets have these numbers against Ledezma:
    Beltran 1-3, 2 BB, 3B
    Castillo 0-3
    Easily 1-1
    Reyes 0-1
Keys for tonight is not stranding runners at third. It felt like the Mets were leaving runners at third base left and right last night and that cannot happen. The second key for tonight, in terms of Mets bats, is for Reyes to get involved. He has been very good over the last few weeks so hopefully he will be back to his normal ways tonight.
The always exciting Pedro will be out on the mound tonight. He had a good game his last time up allowing 3 runs over 6 and he had a good game with his bat getting a few hits in there. He also had a few strikeouts in the game. He pitched two games against the Padres in 2006 to the tune of a 2-0 record and an 1.88 ERA. Over those 14.1 innings, he walked 6, struck out 13 and also allowed 3 homeruns. The following Padres have these numbers against Pedro:
    Clark 7-22, 2 HR
    Giles 4-22, 2 HR
    Gerut 3-8, 2B
    Greene 1-6
The amount of homers hit off Pedro makes me a little nervous, but hopefully the Mets offense has gotten enough rest to finally come out swinging.
Lets Go Mets!
   

The Mets will try to find their bats again today as they go for a series split in San Diego. To do this they will need their starting pitcher, Oliver Perez, to do something that he has not done in a while, be effective over an appropriate amount of innings today. Last time Perez started, he didn't even give the Mets a chance as he allowed 6 runs over one out, but more on Perez later. The Mets bats will have to awaken to Baek's pitching tonight.
Baek is from Mariners where in 10 games there, he only made one start. Since coming over to the Padres, he has pitched in two games making one start in that process. For the season, he has 12 games pitched, 35.1 innings, and has an ERA of 5.60. The Mets will really need to light him up tonight. The challenge for the Mets: He is an unknown quantity. According to Baseball Reference, the only Mets to have any AB's against Baek is Delgado, who is 0-2 lifetime against him. Right handed batters have hit .296 against him, and left handed batters have hit .236 against him this season.
I don't even want to talk about his last few starts. We don't have to look at the numbers to know that they have been bad, we can just use are recent memories to remind us of that. The last time he pitched against the Padres was 2006, and his numbers there do not look good at all. He lasted 3 innings and allowed 5 runs over 9 hits. A positive from that game was that he walked none and struck out five. Here are some more positive numbers, and they are current Padre's offensive numbers against Perez:
    Barrett 2-9, HR
    Giles 2-9
    Greene 2-8
    Hairston 1-6
So if Perez can reach down and bring out the Dr. Jekyll, the good side of his pitching. And shut down the Padre's. Then he could give the Mets a chance to win tonight and split this series.
Lets Go Mets!

I watched the first hour of the draft on Thursday on ESPN 2. Its always a little goofy watching the MLB draft on TV, because only a few players show up, so its basically watching Baseball Tonight, just focused on High School and College Players. One of the more interesting aspects of the program was when they showed the War Rooms for a few teams right after they made their pick. Teams really set up differently for the draft. For example, the White Sox seemed to be in a small, narrow conference room with Ozzie, the GM and a few scouts surrounding a table with a lot of computers and a TV set. Then that was contrasted with the Athletics, who were in a large empty room, with a ton of people in a complicated table design. It looked like they had almost all of their scouts in their War Room. I had to leave before the Mets made their first pick, so I didn't get to see their war room, if they showed it on air.

Now to “darker times”. So the Mets have hit a little funk right now. They were cruising for a while and now they hit a road block again. I am not worried right now because all it would take is one big inning, and an offensive showing, to get the team back on track. It is just a shame that the Mets can't hit when the pitching has been really dominant. Its just bad timing. Lets hope Perez turns it around tonight to give another strong pitching performance.

This is the final part in the three part series listing the 52 players that the Mets drafted over the past two days. Same comments apply from the last article at 3:55, which ended with Mike Lynn (914), so without further ado, here is the final group of Mets draftees:
    944 Michael Powers
    974 Mark Grbavac
    1004 Neil Medchill
    1034 Justin Garber
    1064 Kyle Suire
    1094 Jacob Goldberg
    1124 Timothy Erickson
    1154 Chris Hilliard
    1184 Charles Hinojosa
    1214 Seth Williams
    1244 Tyler Howe
    1274 Timothy Smith
    1304 Mark McGonigle
    1334 Jean-Francois Ricard
    1362 David Phillips
    1389 Brian Gump
    1416 Matthew Bischoff
    1443 Tyler Baisley
    1470 Douglas McNutty
    1497 Kameron Brunty
If you are interested, the last pick in the draft was by the Red Sox, and with the 1504th pick in the draft they took Kyle Stroup, an RHP out of Grant Community High School in Illinois. Well thats the 2008 MLB draft!
   

1:10 Mets Draft Picks Update
3:55 Mets Draft Picks Update