213 Miles From Shea

Scott Moviel is a RHP in the Mets farm system. Last year, the Mets drafted Moviel in the second round, pick number 77 and assigned him to the Gulf Coast League (Rookie). In his 19-year old season, he posted an 0-2 record, 3.38 ERA in 12 G over 40.0 IP. He struck out 37 batters and walked 11.
What makes this pitcher stand out, literally, is his height. Over the internet and through Sporting News Baseball 2008, I have seen 3 different measurements, but they are all towering. The consensus from thebaseballcube.com and Sporting News is that he is 6 feet and 11 inches, but I have also seen 6'10 and 6'9, but lets go with 6'11.
His fast ball clocks in 87-93 MPH, but he has to get the height affect as well that makes his fastball seem faster. I would assume from the position of the batter, it probably feels that his arm is halfway to home plate when that ball is released.
Sporting News ranked him at #7 in their Top 10 Mets prospects. Important to not though is that #2 (Guerra), #3 (Humber), and #5 (Mulvey) are on that list as well, and they are now on the Twins. So if the everyone shifts up, then he is #4 on the top 10 list.
There is a scouting report that can be found here. The basic synopsis is that he has a good fastball and curveball, but both can be held back by his mechanics and delivery that can be inconsistent at times. The more inconsistent in his delivery, the less control he has, and then he becomes ineffective. They call him a project, but a workable project.
Should be fun to follow Moviel through the minors and hopefully one day to the majors.

This month's issue of Baseball America included its preview of the 2008 season where they have the Mets not finishing third, not second, but first in the NL East, the first major publication I have seen do so this year. Their notes are short but include the importance of Santana, Reyes not breaking down late in the year, Wright, Pelfry, Kunz (as the top rookie) and FMart as the top prospect.
The rest of the division is Philly, Atlanta, Washington and Florida.
Overall, they see Philly getting the Wild Card, and being being beat by the Cubs in the first round. The Mets will beat D-backs in the first round, and then in the NLCS, beat the Cubs. According to Baseball America, the Mets will be beat by the Tigers in the World Series.
They have Wright finishing #1 in MVP voting and Santana finishing #1 in Cy Young Voting.

They also in this issue look into their glass ball at the 2011 World Series where the Red Sox will beat the Dodgers. They say that the Mets will beat the Braves that year with their additions of Mark Texaria and FMart in the OF.
For what its worth, I wonder about the Mets pursuing Mark this upcoming offseason, there will be a lot teams going after him, it should be pretty interesting.

We are about 10 days from the start of the season and we are starting to see pitchers go into the 6th inning, and having pitchers out of the pen, that are our actual pitchers from the pen in 2008. The story of the past 3 games have been the pitching. The Mets played Cleveland, Baltimore, and Washington, and in those three games, outscored their opponents a combined 18 – 3. Lets break down each of these games.
First off, we have Cleveland from Weds where the Mets won 3-1:
FMart 1-1, 2B, RBI
Easley 1-2, R, 2B, BB
Casanova 2-3, RBI
Pagan 0-3
Maine 5.2 IP, 5H, ER, BB, 7K, HR, 2.33 ERA
Heilman 1.0, 2H, 3K
Wagner 1.0, 3K
The rest of the box can be found here. First off, Schoenweis had a good outing too, and the Mets as a team recorded 15 strikeouts in this game. 6 of those K's came from Heilman and Wagner who both struck out the side, and for Wagner, a perfect perfect inning as the the ball never even made it in play. Maine was awesome, especially when the run came early in the game. Once again though, the problem with Maine continues to be the long ball, however, its easy to forget, and reasonable to forget, that in this outing where he really pitched well.
When it comes to hitting, paying attention to players like Casanova is becoming more important due the injuries to the Mets starting and backup catchers. (That being said, Schnieder had a good day in the minor league game going 2-4 with a double and a homer).

Thursday continued the pitching theme with a 7-0 romp of the Baltimore Orioles:
Santana 1-1, R, BB, 2B
Reyes 2-2, R, RBI, BB
Castillo 2-3
Beltran 1-3, RBI
Santana 6.0 IP, 5 H, BB, 7 K, 3.15 ERA
Heilman .2 IP, K
Sanchez 1.0, H
Wagner 1.0 K
Feliciano 1.0, K
The rest of the box can be found here.
The first thing that I noticed when looking at the box was the pitchers used. Santana pitched 6.0, then Feliciano came in for one batter, struck him out, then Heilman came in and finished the inning. Sanchez followed and passed the ball to Wagner who closed out the game. For Wagner and Heilman, it was back to back days of pitching. So it was a real game situation, except for Santana only throwing about 84 pitches. To see the team perform that well is a good feeling.
Another good feeling is watching Reyes get hits and Castillo doing the same. According to the Baltimore Sun, the pitcher who gave up the double to Santana knocked down a plastic chair in the dugout afterwards due to frustration.

Finally, our tour ends with today's game, where the Nationals got an early 2-0 lead and then the Mets scored 8 unanswered runs to finish the game 8-2:
Reyes 2-4, 2 RBI, 2B
Wright 3-4, 2R, 2 RBI, HR
Beltran 2-3
Pagan 2-2, R
Clark 0-2
Pedro 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4K
Wise 1.0, BB, 0.96 ERA
Schoeneweis 1.0, 1.00 ERA
You know its going to be a great day when Wright, Reyes and Beltran are all getting their hits in, its what you want to see out of the Mets. Chico of the Nats had the Mets stumped at first, but when he went out, the Mets were able to take over on the Nats bullpen (we played their likely bullpen pitchers). Chico has always puzzled the Mets a bit, something that I hope to highlight in a later entry.
Although Pedro gave up 2 runs, he still did well, and got the K's when he needed them. I am starting to like Schoewneweis now, which is startling.

The Phillies and the Braves have had their fair share of bright spots and dark spots in Spring as well. Here are some stat lines of some one their starting players. For the Phillies:
Feliz 48 AB, 10 H, 2 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .208 BA, .208 OBP
Jenkins 48 AB, 8 H, 4 2B, HR, 3 RBI, .167 BA, .200 OBP
Howard 47 AB, 15 H, 4 2B, 4 HR, 9 RBI, .319 BA, .377 OBP
Rollins 43 AB, 9 H, 6 2B, 0 HR, 3 RBI, .209 BA, .292 OBP
Personally, I am surprised at Jenkins percentage of hits that are for extra bases, that is surprising. However, in the lineup that the Phillies have, I would want to see higher OBP's out of Feliz and Jenkins because their job is really to be on base for one of the other big bats to send them home. That being said, Howard is in mid-season form already, although he still has to knock in 6 more jacks to be at where he was in previous Springs, but thats not necessary.
Moyer 13.2 IP, 3.29 ERA, 5 ER, 6 BB, 9 K
Hamels 11.0 IP, 6.55 ERA, 8 ER, 3 HR, 3 BB, 11 K
Flash Gordon 4.2 IP, 9.64 ERA, 5 ER, 2 HR, 2 BB, 4 K
The real concern in this group for Philly fans is Gordon. Between Lidge's recent health problems, they need Gordon to be ready to be more than a setup man, and step into the closer light. He has struggled in the last couple regular seasons, and if he continues to struggle this season, it would be a huge weak point for the Phillies.

For the Braves:
K Johnson 38 AB, 9 H, 1 2B, 0HR, 2 RBI, .237 BA, .310 OBP
Y Escobar 39 AB, 18 H, 3 2B, 2 HR, 12 RBI, .462 BA, .475 OBP
M Kotsay 37 AB, 9 H, 1 2B, 3 RBI, .243 BA, .300 OBP
B McCann 32 AB, 9 H, 1 2B, HR, 5 RBI, .281 BA, .303 OBP
In 94 games last year, Escobar hit above .320, and in Spring he is on a tear knocking in 12 runs, and being on base once almost every 2 plate appearances. I really like looking at Kotsay's stats because I remeber a group of people who made a big deal of this trade online like it would make a difference, I still believe that it won't. Warning, the next set of statistics are not pleasant.
Glavine 13.2 IP, 3.29 ERA, 5 ER, HR, 6 BB, 11 K
Hudson 15.0 IP, 1.20 ERA, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K
Hampton 7.2 IP, 1.17 ERA, ER, 4 BB, 5 K
Smoltz 4.2 IP, 5.79 ERA, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Those stats are scary. Hampton with an ERA around 1, Hudson is pitching strong, and Glavine is pitching sub 4 ERA baseball. The rotation is the Braves strong point and good pitching beats good hitting.
All of this is confirming what we already know, that this will be a long, competitive season.

John Patterson used to be considered the ace of the Nationals' staff. He really emerged in 2005, when the Nationals finished at .500, when he pitched 198.1 innings, posting an ERA of 3.13. Then he had injury plagued years in 2006 and 2007 where he  pitched 40.2 and 31.1 Innings Pitched respectively. The Nationals released him for not performing as well as they hoped. He got 9 innings in and let up 7 runs so far this Spring, and they said they have other pitchers that are performing better this Spring.
That means that Patterson, former Ace, is without a home and I have a good feeling that there are some teams that might be looking at him for either a fifth spot in the rotation or someone in the minors to work his way back up to the majors. In my opinion, Patterson needs some time in the minors to get his reps in, to pitch a lot, and build up his stamina back and then go back to the majors.
He can put up good numbers such as:
    0.94 WHIP vs the Mets last year.
    3.00 ERA vs the Phils over 27 innings in 2005
    1.84 ERA vs the Braves over 14.2 innings in 2005
The problem with looking at his stats is that they are from 2005 because his 06 and 07 campaigns were tainted. It should be very interesting to see what happens with Patterson over the next several days, I am sure someone over the next few days will look at him and possibly by the start of the season offer him a minor league deal.
To sum, his two main issues are his velocity and how his injuries hold up. Over at mlbtraderumors.com, there is a great entry that goes over all of his nerve injuries and normal pitcher injuries. He has had two nerve injuries over the past two seasons. The velocity is also an issue, which could be worked on with some minor league time.

As we get closer and closer to the regular season, the starting pitching stays in longer, the starting players play longer, and the AB for prospects and players trying to get one of the final roster spots start to shrink. With all of this comes roster moves as players get reassigned to the Minor League homes for the start of the season.
The Players that were reassigned were:
    Tony Armas Jr.
    Nate Field
    Joselo Diaz
    Fernando Martinez
The real star here is FMart, especially of late, he seems to be always getting one or two hits, extra-base hits, etc this spring. He had 47 AB over 18 games where he had 16 hits, that included 4 doubles, 5 runs, 4 RBIs, 2 BB and 7 K's. His OBP was .373, his BA was .340, and his SLG was .426. We all got to see his nice even swing this Spring and think about the future.
On top of his offense stats, he had some nice defense plays, including a number one Web Gem announced on Tuesday's Baseball Tonight.
We will see FMart soon, whether its due to injuries to the starters this year, or whether we have to wait to next year.

In other news:
MLB.com has changed the layout of their homepage, and I have not formed an opinion about it yet.
Kerry Wood is injured again.
Joba will start in the bullpen.
Nomar has a microfracture in his right hand.

Sporting News always has several guides for each baseball season. They have a 2008 fantasy guide, a 2008 season preview guide, and then a 2008 baseball preview issue (a regular issue that has the 2008 preview in it). The differences are usually slim between the preview guide and preview issue, but this time around, there are huge differences because the Santana trade happened after the preview guide went to press.
Lets start with the old and then work our way up to the new. The preview guide has the Mets finishing 3rd in the division. They basically harp on three main issues in the write up. The first two are legitimate, one being the Mets age and the other one is a hangover of the collapse (like over compensation swings and such). The last concern they have, is funny because of what happened after the preview went to print. They talk about how Omar didn't pull the trigger on any big trades, and we all know thats not true.
So with that, lets move to the more recent issue. With the Santana trade included, the Mets are predicted to finish second in the East. The issue they harp on now is the depth and age of the Mets overall and how Spring Training has showed weaknesses that the team has.

I know last year is a bad example with the collapse, but 2007, and even parts of 2006, showed the Mets could play well, even great, with major injuries. My favorite example is April 2007, the best month last year by far. Although there were a lot of off days that made a 4 man rotation with the occasional fifth man possible, they worked with a fifth pitcher that was a combination of Sosa and Pelfrey. And then when they got Pedro back, they lost Duque and had to go back to this system. In September 2006, Duque went down right before the playoffs, and the Mets starting pitching held up very well in the playoffs without Pedro, without Duque and with a really shaky Perez.
The point I am making here is that if the Mets play with the same energy they had in 2006, which seems to be there because of the Santana trade, the injuries will have less of an impact because the players will find ways to win.

Baseball Tonight started again yesterday at 4:30 in the afternoon. A personal favorite of mine, Tim Kurkjian, was on dishing out his analysis next to Kruk (the former Philly and thus Philly lover) and no Steve Phillips (which is fine by me). Anyway, they counted down the top 10 web gems for the Spring. (If you are a baseball fan who lives under a rock, web gems are basically the best defensive plays of the day, in this case it was Spring Training until this point).
Coming at #3 was the amazing diving catch by Jose Reyes in Santana's last start.
The number 1 play of the Spring was made by the future, the teenage hitting machine, #67, Fernando Martinez. I missed the date of the catch but it was basically a diving catch in the OF, but it wasn't a dive forward, he dove running backwards towards a wall in foul territory.
Also, this morning, Tim Kurkjian was on good call/ bad call on Sportscenter where 56% of fans said that the Mets were the team to beat in the NL. Tim confirmed it saying that it was a good call. He said you could make that argument for 9 other teams in the NL because they are all packed together. He talked about how Santana takes stress off the rest of the Mets pitching staff.

Have you ever been to a promotional giveaway or tribute day  in a Minor League game? If you have, you probably remeber it because those are some of the most memorable baseball games that a fan can attend. Well the promotions that are about to be mentioned here are not only memorable, they are from major league teams.
Before we dive into the specific promotions, there was a ticket deal offered by the Kansas City Royals that I had to share. This season if you buy two 81-game season ticket packs in the upper deck, you get an additional two seats for the entire season for free. So 4 seats for the season for the price of 2. Thats a team that has attendance issues.
Not leaving Kansas is our first memorable promotion that will take place on April 12 when Minnesota comes to down. That night, the Royals will be bringing back their powder blue jerseys (I still don't know why). To celebrate the return of powder blue, the first 20,000 fans will be receiving Billy Butler Replica Jerseys, that look pretty nice.
On that same day, in Seattle, the Mariners will be celebrating JJ Putz's facial hair. The first 20,000 fans will be receiving a patch to stick on their chin. You might remeber a similar promotion in the 2006 NLCS when the Cards gave their fans the Spezio look. The difference here is that the JJ Putz soul patch as they call it, will be on a picture of his face, which really sends this promotion over the top.
In Detroit on April 15th, the Tigers will be celebrating Justin Verlander's no-hitter by giving out 10,000 copies of his no-hitter performance on DVD. This really impressed me because usually DVD sales are a way for a team to make more money, and they sharing a great moment in Tiger history with the fans, which is really good for baseball.
On the 26th, Tampa Bay will be giving out Cow Bells to the first 10,000 fans wearing Rays gear, meaning they will have bells left over. Anyway, if you have watched a game at TB on TV, you know that sound travels very well in that dome and the prospect of 10,000 cowbells is scary, that could literally bring down the house. The game will be against Boston.
Finally, on April 27th, the Brewers have selected Corey Hart and Richie Weeks to fight chewing tobacco. The two will be featured in a comic book that will be given out to children 16 and under as they and the “rest of the B-squad” (quote from their website) fight the tobacco monster.
When baseball and creativity get together, the result is wonderful.

Out of the four games featured here, only game 18, Saturday's game, was the only blemish. The earned runs on the pitchers do not tell the whole story as the Mets made three key errors, (Delgado, Castillo, A Hern) that lead to unearned runs as well as earned runs. That being said here are some highlights from the box from this game:
Casanova 1-2, R, RBI, HR
Delgado 1-3, R, RBI, HR
Pagan, 1-3, R, SB
Clark 0-1
Santana 5.0, 5H, 4R, 3ER, BB, 5K, 4.50 ERA
Wagner 1.0, BB, 2K
Heilman 1.0, H, K
The rest of the box can be found here. There were some bright spots in this game as well. First off, some power out of Delgado was nice to see. As a team, the Mets also had 12 K's recorded by their pitchers this game. Smith added in two of his own, although he struggled in his inning giving up 2 runs. The amount of strikeouts the Mets had though is fantastic and when you look at their staff, its exciting to see that the Mets have a rotation and a bullpen that strikeout their opponents. The easiest way to prevent another team from scoring is not letting them hit the ball into play.

Game 19 was the B-squad away game for the Mets in their Sunday Split Squad bill. There's not much to talk about from this game so here are some box highlights, the rest of the box can be found here.
A Reyes 1-4, R, RBI, 3B, .481 BA
F Mart 1-3, 2 RBI, .310 BA
Pagan 0-4
Mendez 2-4, 2R, 2RBI, SB
Sosa 3.0 IP, H, 4K, .75 ERA
Those were Mendez's first AB's of the Spring, he was batting all the way down the order, and he delivered. With the Spring winding down, I doubt he will get more AB's, but its always nice to get a glimpse of someone else in the Mets organization. I feel like a broken record when I say this, but Sosa is really impressive. He just knocked in another 3 innings, allowed a hit, had four strikeouts and lowered his ERA to below 1. He is a reliable fall back plan for El Duque and Pelfry.

In the second game, the home game on Sunday, it was the long awaited debut of Pedro, and it was worth the wait. The boxscore can be found here.
Reyes 1-3, R, RBI, 3B
Delgado, 1-2, RBI, 2B
Anderson, 3-4, R
Pedro 4.0 IP, 4H, BB, 4K
Wise, 1.0, 2K
Schoenewies 1.0, H, 2K
Stokes 1.0, 6H, 4ER, BB, K
First off, another great day in the strikeout market for the Mets, with 9 K's as a team. Four key strikeouts came from Pedro, who used his whole arsenal of pitches. He looked good, and helped to show the world that the Mets rotation is more than one pitcher. I've been reading a lot of 2008 preview magazines, who rank the Mets 3rd if printed before the Santana trade, due to lack of depth of reliable starting pitchers. If they were published afterwards, it talks about how the Mets health overall is a question and how they just do not have the tools. An effective Pedro gives the Mets best one-two punch in the National League at the top of the rotation.
Wise and (I cannot believe I am about to say this) and Schoenewies, if they keep playing the way they have been playing, really help this bullpen that ran out of gas at the end of last year. Stokes got shelled in this game. He couldn't get outs.
In terms of offense yesterday, Marlon Anderson came back strong.

Yesterday had the best game out of the four here for offense notes.
Reyes 2-3, R, 2SB
Chavez 1-2, RBI, SB
Wright, 2-3, R, 2RBI, SB
FMart 2-4, 2R, .326 BA
Perez 5.0, 2H, R, 0ER, 0BB, 5K, ERA 4.61
From those lines listed, it might not look like the best offensive day, but Reyes and Wright haven't had many days this Spring when they are both dialed in, especially at the same time. Reyes stole 2 bases like we all expect of him, and the Mets were the normal Mets by stealing a total of four bases. FMart continued his current tear with two additional hits. The good Perez showed up today, and hopefully he will show up next time out.