213 Miles From Shea

Have you ever wondered different ways to get your baseball news? Well Choi Hoon does it very differently in Korea. He writes every week a Baseball Comic that talks about different issues. This is one of the first ones I ever saw back in 2006 and I loved the illustration from that game. (I remeber exactly where I was when LoDuca tagged out both Dodger runners at the plate). Anyway, over The International Pastime, I take a closer look into Hoon's more recent comics.
His comics are good, and there is a translation for one over at The International Pastime so check it out!.

The Mets, winner of four of their last 5, go for two wins straight and to get the Diamondbacks into the double digit loss column today as Mike Pelfrey takes on Ace Brandon Webb. Before we get into the preview, has anyone visited the schedule on the Mets official website recently? There is a picture of Indiana Jones on May 22, when the movie comes out. That might be crossing the advertising/commercial line in baseball. I have no doubt though that by the end of the season MLB will do another advertising act that will disappointment more than this one. Anyway back to today's game.
Webb has won all of his stars so far this season posting a 6-0 record over 41.0 innings pitched, 1.98 ERA, 14 BB and 34 K's. The Mets faced off against Webb twice last year, and surprise surprise, the Mets lost to Webb at Shea, and beat him in Arizona (continuing their dominance in Arizona). Overall in 2 games, Webb pitched 14 innings, 3.21 ERA, 5 ER, 5 BB, and 11 K. In the game at Shea, Webb went 8 innings allowing no runs, walking one and striking out 8 meaning that at Chase last year vs. the Mets, he lasted 6 innings, allowed 5 runs, walked 4, and struck out 3. The Mets have some pretty good numbers against Webb:
    Alou 11-23, 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .478 BA, .538 OBP
    Beltran 5-20, 2 2B, HR, 3 RBI
    Reyes 7-24, HR, RBI
    Wright, 6-15, .400 BA, .438 OBP
    Church 5-10, 3 2B
This was a great time for Alou to come back, especially with his numbers against Webb. It also seems that one of best surprises for the Mets this year, Church, also has good numbers vs Webb, and hopefully Willie will bat him second again today, as that has been working out pretty well for the Mets this year.
Pelfrey will try to forget about his bad start last week today, as he tries to go back to the form he was in at the start of the season. Last year, Pelfrey pitched a game against Diamondbacks where he took the loss giving up 3 runs over 5.1 IP, walking 4 striking out 1. The Dbacks have these hitting stats against Pelf:
    Young, Hudson, Drew, Burke 0-10
    Jackson 1-2, 2B
    Byrnes 1-1, 2B, BB
The Mets try to lock up the series today and continue winning ways! Lets Go Mets!

The Mets start a very tough series today against the Diamondbacks in Arizona against the hitting sensation, and possibly a pitching sensation, Micah Owings. Owings faced the Mets once last year picking up a no decision in 6 innings pitched, allowing 3 earned runs, 4 BB and striking out 5. The above 4.00 ERA Owings last year is now two ticks below 3.50 this season pitching 5 games with 31 innings pitched to the tune of a 4-0 record.
More amazing is his batting line which is 5 R, 8 H, 2B, HR, 3 RBI (.421 BA) in only 19 AB this season. Last year he hit 4 home runs on his way to a Silver Slugger. In other words, he stands in between Santana and the silver slugger award this year. The bad news really is that the majority of the Mets have poor numbers against Owings:
    Beltran 1-1, HR, 2 BB
    Delgado, Reyes, Wright 0-9, 2 K (Both Delgado)
    Pagan 1-2, 3B, 2 RBI
    Casnova 1-3, 3B
Maine will be pitching for the Mets tonight and last year he was pretty good against the Dbacks. In two games and a 1-1 record he pitched 12 innings, walked one, struck out 14 and posted a 2.25 ERA. With the exception of Jackson, the Diamondbacks struggle against Maine:
    Hudson 2-10
    Byrnes 1-6
    Jackson 4-6
    Young 1-5
    Reynolds 0-3
Owings has no plate appearances against Maine yet, needless to say, he is not the automatic out at the bottom of the lineup. If we get the Maine that we saw in Spring Training this year, the Mets will stand a chance in this game.If we get the Maine that has struggled a bit this year (referring to his first start) then this game will be tough to win, but still winnable. Just forget their record and go for it.
Lets Go Mets!

The Mets first month of the season is in the books and it has been a up and down month as the Mets have shown true brightness, specifically in a five game winning streak, and some dark streaks through several 3 game losing streaks. By the numbers, the Mets have been as high as 4 games above .500 and have ended at two games above .500. With all of this turbulence, the Mets are still only a half game out of first place.
Before we get into player performances, there is one thing I am worried about as I reflect on how I physically feel at the end of this month. I, like all of you who read this blog, do not play for the Mets, and I wonder if you feel as drained as I do. It's not the drained one feels when they burn out, but just watching and reading about the games is like a marathon. This stress cannot be good for the players and I really hope that they take their one game at a time mentality to heart.
Anyway lets start with the first month disappointments and then move to the month heroes and pleasant surprises. I guess Delgado should be listed here, but he has basically been listed here for over a year. Joining him this month is Beltran, who never has hit for high average consistently, but .220? Come on Beltran, you gotta start hitting. Sosa and Heilman are also on this list this month due to their abysmal outings from the pen. They both had very strong Springs and it just turned off once the season started.
This month's heroes are Wright, Wagner and Feliciano. Wright has led the team like he should during rallies. Feliciano has done an extremely good job out of the pen this month posting a 0.96 ERA. Wagner has been amazing with his month with his 0.00 ERA and his 0.42 WHIP.
For the pleasant surprises, they are both being handed two the duo from Washington. Schneider's leadership of the pitching staff has had a real effect, and his bat this month has been much better than anyone expected, especially considering his numbers from the past few season. Church has shown great fielding, but his offense stats are really what got him here. He is hitting well above .500 and his RBI total is second on the team. I have him starting over Beltran in a fantasy league. Lets hope his numbers continue.
May ahead! Lets Go Mets!

By now, you have all heard about the first basemen, Nick Evans and Mike Carp, down in AA who are on a tear. Well one rung below, in A+, there is another first basemen who is starting to get into the groove himself and his name is Lucas Duda. (Duda in college also played in the OF). Duda is not built as a power hitter.When you look at his numbers so far in the minors, he hits a lot of singles, and if he developed better plate discipline, he can be a lead-off hitter. Another possibility is that we have not seen his power yet because he will only be 22 during this season.
Before we get into the numbers, Duda played three seasons at USC. In 2007, the Mets drafted Duda in the seventh round which was pick #243 overall.
Minor League Stats:
07: 67 G, 234 AB, 32 R, 70 H, 20 2B, 4 HR, 32 RBI, .299 BA, .398 OBP
08: 26 G, 103 AB, 14 R, 34 H, 6 2B, 2 HR, 19 RBI, .330 BA, .415 OBP
If you extrapolate his current 2008 stats over 234 AB, as many as he had in 2007 (Brooklyn), he should have 33 R, 77 H, 13 2B, 4.5 HR, 43 RBI. In other words, his stats stay mostly stay the same except for a decrease in doubles and an increase in RBI's. What I am really impressed with is his .330 BA. If he keeps that up for the year, then the Mets will have to consider moving him to AA next year. In the case that AA becomes to crowded with 1B, he can play in OF, he could also be used as trade bait.
He should have a lot more AB this year because he is playing a season of full professional ball, and he already is on pace for AB per game than last year. He should be interesting to keep an eye on and see how he develops.

One of my favorite things about baseball are the promotions. Promotions these days have really started to go down hill overall because most teams are becoming less and less creative. (I don't know about you guys out there, but I really miss the Mets culture week at Shea, it was a fun time). Anyway, there are a few teams in May that have made the effort to produce a promotion that is thinking outside of the box, and in some cases, wacky.
First off, I am sucker for free Jerseys, and this month Oakland has taken that to a whole new level. On May 4th, they are giveing away Retro Jerseys from the 60's that look like they should. They are vests and say Oakland across the chest.
The least creative of the bunch here goes to the Mariners, but by normal standards it is still a creative promotion. On May 30th, they are giving away the JJ Putz Flamethrower Express. It is a model train (engine) that is black with flames and a picture of JJ Putz. They are also have a Putz bobblehead day this month and last month, they gave out models of his facial hair.
On May 23rd, the Astro's are honoring Craig Biggio with a model helmet. The helmet sits on a base, that looks like a baseball base that on one side says his name and has his seasons played on the other side. The helmet itself is what drives this promotion because they put mud and tar stains on it to make it look like an authentic Biggio helmet.
Lastly, the Twins have won this month's most innovative, creative, and wacky promotion. On May 2nd, tomorrow, they are giving away Joe Mauer fishing lures. When I first heard this, I imagined a little Mauer on a hook. Instead what it is is a fish, just like one on a normal lure, except the fish is wearing a Twins Jersey and on the back it says Mauer #7. Good job with this one, its a real fresh idea.

A huge issue for the Mets this year has been leaving men on base, especially runners in scoring position. Over on the game preview at Metsblog, Mike Nichols brought up a very depressing, but true statistic:
    “The Mets are batting .176 (18-for-102) with two outs and RISP this
season, which ranks them 15th in the National League. The         league
average is .227.”
While this has impacted the team greatly, it also felt like the Mets have left a runners on period this season, including over at first. However, I wasn't sure if that was true of if it just felt like that, because in those situations, a fan can get very frustrated and the conception of what is true and what is fiction can be skewed. The following is the last 9 games the Mets have played, not including today, with the date, the decision, the score (scores not in order of home/away), the first number after that is Mets LOB, and the second number Opponents LOB.
4/29 W (5-4) 12, 11
4/27 W (6-3) 8, 8
4/26 W (4-3) 8, 6
4/25 L (6-3) 5, 12
4/24 L (10-5) 9, 9
4/23 W (7-2) 8, 6
4/22 L (8-1) 9, 13
4/21 L (7-1) 3, 6
4/20 L (5-4) 9, 8
Overall during this period of time, the Mets have left 71 batters on base and their opponents have left 79 batters on base. In Mets wins, they leave more batters on base (36-31). In Mets losses, the opponents have left more batters on base (48 to 35).
So here's the conclusion I am going to reach. It seems like the Mets leave more on because we are passionate fans and we get easily frustrated or stressed when the team is not performing up to level we know they can. I think what it also comes down to is the winning team has more hits than the losing team. Its a rarer for a game where the losing team has more runners on base than the winning team, therefore results make sense.
The reason I was surprised with the mathematical results is because I am mentally in the state of the first result listed. I am frustrated and want to pinpoint a tangible problem. Looks like I'll have to grip on to the RISP BA stat for now.

The Mets attempt to complete the two game sweep with the early afternoon game today at Shea. First off, last night showed the luck of the rain-out as the Mets bullpen got rest and then had to be used heavily last night. Oliver Perez will try to prevent use of the bullpen today as he faces off against his former team.
Perez hasn't had much success against his former team, but like anything with Perez, thats a very complicated statement. When you look at his career line against the Pirates, he has pitched 3 games against the Pirates, and only one against the Pirates after he was traded to the Mets. In those three games, he has an 0-2 record 14 IP, 5.14 ERA, 12 BB and 14 K. Seems like a Perez type line. His 2007 loss to the Pirates has one of more strange lines in baseball: one game, loss, 6 IP, 5 R, 0 ER, BB, 9 K. Basically, thanks to spotty defense, the Mets blew that game for Perez. The hitting stats against Perez are also something to admire:
    Nady 2-5
    Bay, LaRoche, Paulino, Sanchez combined 0-12, 5 K
The pitcher, Tom Gorzelanny, for the Pirates has had a tough year. In any season, when you make 5 starts and only have one quality start, its a tough ride. His last quality start was his first start of the season and since then he has struggled including two outings where he lasted 2.1 and 2.2 innings. Overall he is 1-3, 5 G, 22.1 IP, and 8.46 ERA. To add to his stress, last year he took a loss against the Mets after only last 2.1 innings giving up 6 ER (23.14 ERA), walking 3 and striking out one.Mets hitting against Tom:
    Reyes 2-6, 2 RBI
    Wright 2-5, 2 2B
    Church 0-3
    Delgado 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI
Delgado is the player I will be paying attention to today. He had a great day Sunday, and then followed it up with an 0-5 day at the plate. Depending on what he does today is very important because he needs to show that he can bounce back. Going with that, pay attention to the Mets with runners in scoring position, because over this 3 game winning streak, the Mets have still left, what has felt like, a lot of runners on base.

The game preview for tonight is the same as the one posted yesterday for game 25. I wanted to briefly discuss though how I order the games by number, because there are two ways. Lets say that I was about to post last night's preview after they announced that the game was postponed. Well obviously I would not post it. However, when posting it today, I would still say its game 25, why?
Well technically thats incorrect and I have been doing that all year on purpose. The game tonight is really game 27, thanks to two rain-outs this season. The reason that I do not recognize the rain-out games is because I like to look at games in a row. A player might be in a streak games 13 to 20, and I would want to note that. Later in the season, when this game is made up, that simple statement can get bogged down by saying that a player was in a hot streak games 105-116 including game 26.
So be aware when the articles are titled here, the number is literally coming from the wins + the losses.

Like all things in life, there are exceptions to what was stated above. If a game gets suspended, when it is picked up again, it will be addressed by the number it was when the game was first played.

Also, I would like to welcome readers here from Mets Merized Online. Starting today, Game Preview posts from this site will be simulposted over on Mets Merized Online. I am now on their writing staff as well and I hope if you have not checked out their site yet, that you because it is a very exciting and informative place.
For those of you who are coming over from Mets Merized Online, welcome to 213 Miles From Shea! This site has been around since January 31, 2007 and covers all things Mets and all things baseball related!

I am a pretty talkative guy, and generally will make a comment on anything, even if the comment is irrelevant and pointless. However, there was a picture I saw this weekend that has left me dumbfounded. I am so confused why a person would waste money like this one did in the image below. The image was posted on the Global New York Mets Fan Group on Facebook by Alex Garron. With his permission, it has been reposted below.

Why would anyone do that? Is that person a Mets fan? I am so confused. Maybe he is trying to be funny, if he is, he is doing a very poor job of making a pun.