213 Miles From Shea

I was at the Mets/Nats game tonight and it was a really fun time. To start off, it was a really new and interesting way of walking into the ballpark. The group I was with took the Subway to the game and from the Subway, you enter the ballpark from centerfield. I'm not sure if any other ballpark does that, but its a strange sight-line because it feels as if the ballpark is opening up towards the entrance.
Anyway, its a really nice sight, the stadium as anyone can imagine is beautiful. We were sitting up in section 402, one of two grandstand. $5 sections, and they still felt pretty close to game. The only downside to them, is you can't see the left fair line touch the pole and the wall from the section. Overall the stadium feels much, much larger than what it actually holds. There something like 41 or 42 thousand seats at the ballpark but by the way it is spaced out, it feels like there are a lot more seats. The upperdeck also has an interesting structure to it. There are two halves to it, and the upper half is reached by a staircase from the lower half. The part we were sitting at, upper deck, way down the leftfield line, has that same concourse style that Citi will have, where the the game can be seen from the concourse itself, which is also really nice.
Now to the game itself. Mets fans were out in full force tonight and it was fun for once to be with other Mets fans. A telling symbol of Mets fans at this point in time was that a few rows down from the group, there was a guy in a Delgado Jersey, but he had an X made out of duct tape going across the name and number.
There weren't any crazy baseball shirts tonight, but it is always fun to see some old player shirts. Tonight there Seaver, Carter, Dykstra and Wiggington shirts. (I myself was wearing an Alfozo jersey, which then led to a conversation with someone at the Subway about the 1999 Mets infield).
The subway on the ride back was packed, as they tell everyone to take it to the ballpark, so everyone has to leave by it. There were officials everywhere with megaphones yelling directions. Overall, it was a pretty comical scene, but one you would have to be at to find funny.
I hope to be at tonights game as well, Lets Go Mets!

Tonight the Mets will stop the bleeding sending Johan Santana to the mound. The Mets actually started their 5 game win streak with a sweep of the Nats, so its fitting that the Mets will try to revive their winning steak against the Nationals tonight.
On another note, I will be at the game tonight, so I am very excited. First game of the season for me, hopefully will be a great night.
Going for the Nationals tonight will be Tim Redding. He has not faced the Mets yet this season, and has been pretty successful with his 3.27 ERA.
When looking at current Mets against Redding, there is one that jumps off the list that should not pinch hit against him. Anderson has not been very successful this season, and really not in his career against Redding. He is 1-12 with a walk.
For Castillo, batting him second shouldn't be a big deal tonight as he is 4-13 with 2 RBI. Other Mets:
    Reyes 4-8, RBI
    Wright 2-4, HR, RBI, 2 BB
    Beltran 2-4, HR, 3 RBI
Go for the win tonight! Go Mets!

The Mets take on the Cubs today in a traditional, afternoon game at Wrigly. For the Cubs, they will be trying to get Ted Lilly back on track this year and the Mets will try to be a roadblock in their plans. Lilly has not been effective this season going 0-3 in 4 games, 18.2 innings, and a 9.16 ERA.
The Mets however generally, or at least feels like, they get the short straw in these situations, as the failing pitcher wakes up and silences the Mets bats. That is more than a possibility tonight when you consider Lilly's game against the Mets last year which he won. He went 7.2 innings, 2.35 ERA, 7 hits, 2 earned runs, one walk and struck out 8 Mets.The following Mets have put up these numbers lifetime against Lilly:
    Delgado 3-14, 2B, 2 BB
    Castillo 4-12, 2B, BB
    Beltran 2-7, HR, RBI
    Reyes 0-4
    Wright 1-3, BB
The Mets will have Nelson again tonight, who can hopefully keep up his excellent pitching from his last two starts. Lets split this series! Go Mets!

One of my favorite series to do on this blog is Get To Know a Prospect, and now that the season has started, we should start to look back at some of the Prospects that were introduced earlier. Dan Murphy was introduced on this blog in March 3rd. I really never heard of him before this year. Randolph had him play a few springs games, and I wanted to see what he was all about, what were his skills, how has been doing.
These were his MILB numbers, not including this season:
160 G, 582 AB, 13 HR, 35 2B, 84 RBI, .275 BA, .334 OBP
Spring Training this year was a different story:
17 AB, 3 H, 3 R, 2B, RBI, .176 BA, .222 OBP

This season so far has been a completely different story for Murphy. He has posted in the las 18 G and 69 AB, 15 R, 29 H, 6 2B, 3B, HR, 15 RBI, .420 BA, and a .468 OBP.
If you take those numbers and extrapolate them out over 582 AB, his minor league career before this year you get a slight drop in homer runs, down to 8.4, a huge boost in 2B, up to 50.6 and a dramatic increase in RBI, rising to 126.5.

Is this for real? Well he's off to a hot start, and history says that he will not be batting .420 all season, but if he finishes off above the .310 mark, then the Mets brass will have to seriously consider moving him to AAA next year, assuming that Tatis does not become a roadblock there. He could also become trade bait, since 3B is occupied here for some time in the Majors.
The story of Murphy will ultimately come down how he plays the rest of the season and if he develops into a full fledge prospect.

I feel like I say this a lot, but tonight is another important test for the Mets. I guess there are a lot of “important tests” for the Mets due to the collapse, as if the team needs to prove themselves at every team. (That isn't true, so after this last “important test” I am really going to try to limit my use of that term on this site from this point on).
The Mets had a nice streak of success for 5 games, and they lost last night. Thats fine. The test now is if they can go back to winning and not have a losing streak followed by a winning streak followed by a losing streak, etc etc etc.
The game tonight is tough too. The Mets will have to square off against Zambrano tonight, who was picked by many for the NL Cy Young this year (mostly by people before the Santana trade happened). This year, he is 2-1 over 4 games and 26.2 IP, posting a 3.04 ERA. If that didn't scare you,, then look at his line from last year against the Mets. He pitched two games to the tune of a 1-0 record, 13 IP, 1.38 ERA, 2 ER, 2 HR, 10 BB, 8 K. Some good numbers against the Mets. Here are some Mets batter stats against Zambrano:
    Chavez 5-17, 3B, HR, 5 RBI
    Delgado 3-13, HR, 4 RBI
    Schneider 4-13, 2 2B, RBI
    Castillo 5-10
    Wright 2-11, 2RBI
The rest of the stats can be found here.

Are you interested in the IBL (Israel Baseball League)? I have been from the start but recently I have wondered about the politics that surround the League and what are the motives, and is it actually getting attention in Israel. On the site, The International Pastime: Exporting America's Game, the start of what should be a series of entries about the Baseball and Israel.
The first post is a quick introduction to some of the conflicting views from a short, 3 minute, video on YouTube that was filmed at the first practice tryout ever for the IBL. Its pretty interesting, go check it out.

If you missed the first post when this blog was introduced, it can be found here.

The Mets last night reached the five game win streak plateau. Last season, that was it for the Amazin's, they could not pass this mark. It would be an incredible gesture for the season if the Mets could win this game tonight because they would have swept their new “rivals”, mark a total of 5 straight against the Phills, past the win streak mark for last season, notch two sweeps in a row on their belt, and start to gain some serious momentum.
Even if they lose tonight, it would still make 2 winning series in a row for the Mets, both of them against division teams, which is important and still give them a good record against the Phils. However, tonight could be a demoralizing punch in the gut of of Philly, so lets make that happen.
Pelfrey pitched once already against the Phillies this year where he he helped stop the skid of 9 games in a row against them. He has an opportunity tonight to help push the winning streak. He is coming off of a very solid performance, and good numbers against the Phillies. In that game on April 8th, he went 5 innings allowing five hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks and striking out 3.
Eaton pitched against the Mets the following night. If it wasn't for a late inning tying run by the Phills, pushing the game into 12 innings, he would have taken the loss in that game. He pitched 6 innings allowing 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks and 5 K's. Here are some current Mets career numbers against Eaton:
    Castillo 4-17, 2B, RBI
    Wright, 1-13, 2B, 3 BB
    Beltran, 3-13, 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI
    Reyes 4-12, RBI
Lets Go Mets! Go for 6 straight!

The Mets and the Phillies have a recent rivalry. The rivalry, really, is verging on its second or third year of existence and the only reason that many fans care is because of the collapse last year. That being said, the behavior of the Philly fans recently is really unwarranted. Yes, in the beginning of last year, the Mets jeered Rollins, but to go as far as to cheering for someone to get hurt? Thats just not right.
In the world of fans there are a few things that are taboo. Until recently, I really thought that cheering for players to be injured was one of those areas. When you want to beat a team, you want to beat them with their full staff on, so there are no reservations and fewer what-ifs. Cheering for injuries is just plain mean and its really inhumane.
The next time the Phillies come to Shea, I really hope that the Mets fans show the Phillies fans how to be fans. Yes I know our own behavior as of late has become questionable, especially because of the booing of our team, but we have not crossed that line into inhumane behavior yet.
I hope a group of Phillies fans step and realize what they, and their fellow fans, are doing to their team. They are about to give their team a reputation that no one wants, especially in a city that is known for Brotherly love. The fans have to realize there is more to be a fan to love hatting the other team and start to see when they act like the way they do they are creating a dark spot on their team, their city, the sport of Baseball and most of all themselves.

So if you are a Phillies fan reading this, next time you are about to cheer for a player to be injured, please thing about what you are doing. (This article is in reference for the headfirst slide Reyes had the other game where he was nearly knocked out and the fans started to jeer with a Jose-Jose-Jose then boo when he took some time to check if he was ok)

I know I have had a lot of these in a row, so expect some different stuff coming down the pipe soon (hopefully another get to know a prospect, they seem pretty popular according to some recent site data, especially Scott Moviel and Dan Murphy, so maybe something about one of them, especially Murphy who has been terrific so far this year). Anyway heres looking at tomorrow's or today's (depending on when you read this) game against the Phillies.
Before we get into details about the game, I want to briefly discuss the importance of tonight's, Friday night's game. The Mets after winning this game are now 3 games above .500. First off, now they have a cushion. Second, if they decided to drop the next two games to the Phillies, which I really hope they don't, they still will be above .500 (their record would fall to 9-8), but with Monday's game in Chicago, its important to put the clamp down the on the Phils this weekend to get some momentum, continue this now 4 game streak, and get space in the division.
Another important thing about this game, and what will play a factor in the next two games in Billy Wagner. Last year, he was horrible in Philly, he had an ERA above 8.00. Tonight, he didn't look twice as he threw a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the ninth. (Plus, did you see his velocity? He hit 99 tonight!). Wagner also showed that even though at the start of the season he was very rarely used, he can pitch consecutive days as he has now thrown three consecutive games, getting 2 saves along the way (raising his season total now to 3 saves),
Anyway, Saturday's afternoon game will be the second time this season that Oliver Perez and Jamie Moyer square off. In the first battle, Oliver was the better pitcher, but the bullpen could not help him out as the Mets watched their lead in the game disappear to the Phillies, as they wrecked the Mets home opener. In that game:
    Perez 5.2 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 2 K, 0 ER
    Moyer 6 IP, W, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, K, HR
In was in that game that Delgado showed some life for the Mets as he knocked one in.
The preview for the first time these two pitchers faced off this year can be found here.
Lets Go Mets!

For the second time this season the Mets will be trying to extend a three game series tonight, and this time it will be against the Phillies. The Last time the Mets played the Phillies, they dropped the first game, which sent Mets fans everywhere into a “panic mode” (as much as one can have at the start of the baseball season), and sent Baseball analysts drawing references to the collapse. The Mets then woke and took the next two games. The first game they one thanks to a poorly played inning by the Phillies that led to several defensive errors and 6 runs for the Mets. The following night the Mets won in extra innings.
Those two games, plus a win in the opener against the Brewers put the Mets on their first three game winning streak. So far this season, the mets have gone 1-0 on Fridays, but struggle to get wins over the weekend.
On top of all of this, Santana enters another Ace battle tonight as he goes toe to toe against Hamels. Last year, Hamels pitched three games against the Mets to the tune of a 0-1 record over 18 IP, a 4.00 ERA, 9 walks and 17 K's. Hamels is the ace of the Phillies and has the potential to do a lot of strikeout damage to the Mets, who struck-out an awful lot last night.
The following players have put these numbers up against Hamels over their careers:
    Delgado 4-9, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, BB
    Wright 1-11, HR
    Beltran 4-12, 2 HR
    Pagan 1-8, HR
Overall the Mets do not hit Hamels all that well, but as you can see, even those that struggle against him, when they do hit him, they hit him hard and take him out of the park. The rest of the numbers can be found here.
Lets Go Mets!