213 Miles From Shea

With no longer having the best record in the National League (that honor going to the Diamondbacks and the Cardinals now), the Brew Crew come into town a half a game out of first place. The Mets, now second place in the NL East (before they played the Phillies, they were last) have a game and a half to get to that first place plateau.
Tonight's match up places Parra vs Figueroa. Parra is an interesting pitcher. Last year, he appeared in 9 games for the Brew Crew, including two games that he started. He pitched 26.1 IP and had a 3.76 ERA. This Spring, he made the starting rotation with these numbers: 2-2, 6.10 ERA, 20.2 IP, 10 BB, 19 K, 8.27 K/9, 9.58 H/9. In other words, this looks to be much like a strike-out and hitting based game. Some current Mets have had some AB against Parra, only Reyes having any real success:
    Castillo 0-3
    Delgado 0-3
    Reyes 2-3
    Wright 0-2, BB
    Easley 1-1
Three current Brewers have had AB against Figueroa:
    Counsell 2-6, 2 RBI
    Hall 1-2, RBI
    Kendall 0-1, BB
In other related notes, Kendall is leading the majors in BA, posting a .538 so far this season. Hall is one of 5 players right now in the majors with 4 homers, Reynolds of the Dbacks leads with 5.
This should be an interesting game, lets see if the Mets can keep the magic going tonight.

Do you remeber the home opener in 2006? It was the first game of the season for the Mets that year as they played the Washington Nationals. I forgot what inning it was, but the Mets got a controversial call at Home Plate where Paul LoDuca tagged a runner out, who might have actually been safe. The level of the Mets intensity after that game was very high. Even though they dropped the next game (due to Jorge Julio), the passion shined thru in that game, and then the Mets won their next 7.
I think what happened last night might cause the same result. Even though Reyes was the second to last batter of the night, something was different when he hit that ball and made it on base. There was a renewed feeling of excitement. Reyes being safe might be questionable (I still think he was safe last night) but its a break like that which can cause a new sense of excitement for the entire team, and we will see if that happens tonight.
(This is based of the same theory that in a slump, a bad defensive play on a ball, or bloop single can help bust that batter out of the slump)

Two nights ago Bergman of the Nationals had finished 4 scoreless innings. He allowed three hits, walked no one, and struck out four during that time. In the Fifth inning, he allowed six hits, a walk and seven runs. After the game, he said the following (taken from the Washington Post):
    “I'm pretty fired up. I'm really [ticked] off, because I'm better than that, and this team didn't need that. I failed these guys tonight,         and I'm pretty [ticked] off about it.”
The Nationals won their first 3 games of the season. Since then, they have dropped their last 7 games. As this streak continues, and as this quote shows, the players are getting impatient and are starting to get angry. The Nats are playing in Atlanta tonight and hopefully they can get beyond this slump and start hitting the Braves (who are on a three game losing streak themselves).

The Mets finally got one from the Phillies last night and hopefully they continue the trend tonight. Winning series is the most important thing a baseball team can do. Maine will be going against Eaton tonight as Maine looks for his first win of the season. Last year, against the Phillies, Maine pitched 3 Games, went 1-0, 19.2 IP, 2.29 ERA, 6 BB and 12 K. That is the Maine that we are hopefully going to get used to and the Maine that hopefully will come to the mound tonight.
Adam Eaton is easily beaten by other teams. Last year, he had a 6.01 ERA and many of his wins came because of the awesome hitting power of the Phillies. However, he is an almost ace against the Mets who generally do not do well against the pitchers they should crush. In 4 games against the Mets last year, Eaton was 2-0, 23.1 IP, 3.86 ERA, 9 BB, and 11 K.
Beltran and Reyes both have good numbers against Eaton. In 11 AB, Beltran has 4 H, 2B, 4 RBI, .364 BA, and a .417 OBP. Reyes in 9 AB, 4 H, RBI, .444 BA and .583 OBP. If those two can consistently get on base tonight, the Mets should be able to win. (Suggesting also that a key to the game is NOT leaving runners in scoring position (two innings ending with bases loaded last night! We can't do that!).
Wright has struggled in 8 AB against Eaton. He has one hit, a double, giving him .125 BA. However, he does have a .417 OBP against him, so if he gets on base, then he can score.

Beat the Phils!

Its game 7 of the season, and I can't believe I am going to say this, but, this is a must win game. The big event tonight will be Pelfrey vs Kendrick. Each of these pitchers have faced their opponents once last year.
Pelfrey in his start vs the Phillies went 5 innings, 3.60 ERA, 2 ER, HR, 3 BB, 3 K.
Kendrick went 6.2 IP, 2.70 ERA, 2 ER, 3 BB, and no strike outs.

In terms of offense, the Mets have two key players from the Nationals who have had success against Kendrick. In 9 PA, Church has 7 AB, 3 H, HR, 2 BB, RBI, .429 BA and .556 OBP. Schneider has 5 AB, 2 H, 2B, BB, 3 RBI, .400 BA, .500 OBP. These guys combined can help fuel the Mets to victory tonight. Delgado also has success with 3 AB, 2 H, 2B, HR, RBI.
From last year to this year, it seems when Delgado does well, the rest of the team does not. I know its just coincidence, but its really weird and I hope it doesn't become one of those strange trends.

Lets Go Mets! We gotta get em tonight!

I recently started a new blog about the International affects of the spread of baseball. On a whole, that blog is a lot more controversial than this blog as it dives and touches some of the darker aspects of baseball and has to balance between the spread for the international love of the game and corporate greed.
The first story over there is about Baseball in Ghana. If you recall, in early 2007, Omar along with Baker and Winfield went over to Ghana to assess baseball and spread it.
There is a video at the head of the post and a link to the complete video, I suggest that you at least watch the three minute clip because it sets up the entry. The entry is basically a ramble of my thoughts and I actually hope that you feel different because people should have their own, individual views of the more controversial topics in baseball.

The Mets have their final home opening day today as they take on the Phillies.
How perfect that for the last opening game, a game that is exciting by nature, we are playing a team that we want to destroy, adding to the excitement and its a game that we really need to win to get back our confidence. It's a perfect storm.
First off, on the offense notes I think today we will see a lot of what my friend calls “Willie Ball.” The Mets stole a lot of bases last year. This year, in 5 games, they have stolen three bases. If Reyes gets on base today, I would not be surprised, I am never surprised , to see him steal. But expect questionable steals today. Slower players stealing bases because that is what the Mets do.
Anyway, back to the pitching, which is generally the focus of these game previews. Ollie is coming off of a great start where he did everything right. (6 IP, 5 H, BB, 8 K, 0 ER). Will it be like Spring Training where a good start was followed by a bad, or will the good Oliver stay? Lets hope for the the latter. Last year he was 0-2 in 3 games against Philly going 13.1 innings with 5.40 ERA, 18 BB and 18 K. Not good numbers. One of his bad starts against them last year was on April 11th, where he lasted only 2.2 innings, giving up 3 runs and walking 7.
Overall last year, Moyer had a 5.01 ERA in nearly 200 innings pitched. However he had some of his best stuff against the Mets. Last year 4 games (1-1), he posted a 3.12 ERA over 26 innings. In his last start, he lasted 3.2 innings, coming off with a ND, allowing 9 hits, 3 runs and a walk and strikeout.

Big game today, lets go Mets.

Not as bad as you thought. The Mets last time on the power rankings were at 6 and now they are 8, so only dropping two spots for a not stellar week that included the loss of a starter is pretty good news to me. Better news is that they rank the Mets above the Braves, the Phillies and everyone else in the NL East.
The quote they say for the Mets: “Not the start Mets fans were hoping for. This team, based on last
September, could’ve used a hot April. Instead, it’s got a major problem
in the rotation with Pedro Martinez going down. Jose Reyes didn’t steal
a base in Week 1. Expect the offense to start showing signs of life
soon.”
The Braves were ranked 9 and the Phillies 16.
The list can be found here.
I think what they said about what was said about the Mets is very true and very fitting. The offense will start as we all know, we are just waiting for it to click. The Mets have never been much of a home team in terms of winning at home, but maybe this year, especially with the possibility of wind being blocked out of left, the Mets can really be a home team.

The 2008 Mets are through their first two series of the regular season and its time to take a look at some of their numbers which, surprisingly, are not as bad as one might suspect.

Mets Runs: 30
Mets Runs Per Game: 6
Opponents Runs: 21
Opponents Runs Per Game: 4.2
Runs Given Up By Mets Starters: 11
Starters Innings Pitched: 27.1
Average Innings Per Game By a Starter: 5.47 or about 1 or 2 batters in the sixth inning.

Its pretty remarkable that the Starters innings pitched per game is that high considering Pedro's performance and Maine's. So it really shows the impact that Santana's 14 innings have had. Also his performance and Ollie's help lower the ERA of the Mets Starters down to 3.62 a game, which is better than what the Mets on average give up per game (this would be thanks to the PH Grand Slam and other late inning blasts).

By the way, the Tigers are 0-6

There is one thing I fear about these past two games, the past two games that are only games 4 and 5 on the season, and that is the media. The media has not had its fill yet with the collapse, which it never will because of the way the media works. Stories are hard to come by some times, I even find myself some days here stretching deep in the stats bag to pull something out and attempting to make a story out of it.
I am pretty confident that outside of reporters in the clubhouse, the Mets do not focus on what the Baseball pundits say about them. That being said, it is up to us as the fans, to continue to bring the emotion and excitement to Shea. We cannot let the media say that this is the hangover of the collapse simply because of label theory. If it is labeled as such, and it is treated as such, then our excitement and positive feelings will go down as such and overall could injure the team.
Teams struggle during the year. A little struggle is not a collapse, its just a bump in the road. Our bats can be alive one day and down the next day.

That being said, if we take the Phillies series 2-1, then we are back at .500 and can jump off from there. So lets go Mets!

The Mets go for the split today as they try to not drop below .500 very early in the season. Today's bill is another excellent pitching match up of John Smoltz vs Johan Santana. The Mets, and possibly the Braves, will try to put yesterday's umpiring behind them and go for a clean game (hopefully dry, I do not know the weather down there) that has no sloppy plays.
Smoltz last year pitched against the Mets 6 times posting a 2-1 record over 38 IP and a 3.55 ERA. Overall last year in 32 games and 205.2 IP, he was 14-8 with a 3.11 ERA.
Santana pitched a game against the Braves last year reaching a no decision. He went 7 innings, allowed 2 runs (2.57 ERA), 3 BB, and struck out nine. Here are some Brave players and their lifetime stats against Santana:
Matt Diaz: 9 AB, 5 H, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, .556 BA
Kotsay: 9 AB, H, 2B, 3K, .111 BA
Teixeria: 17 AB, 4H, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, .235 BA

On another note, right now Beltran has more doubles (6) than games played.