213 Miles From Shea

One of the players making a good argument for the bench, especially with all of the injuries, is Angel Pagan. In the 2008 season, he will be 26 years old and will be an important player for the Mets who need depth.
Here are some of his old stats:
Spring Training:
2004: 3 Games, no AB
2005: 5G, 0-5
2006: 24 G, 42 AB, 13 R, 16 H, 10 RBI, .381
2007: 15 G, 27AB, 5 R, 6 H, 0 RBI, .222
MLB Regular Season: 148 G, 318 AB, 49 R, 81 H, 39 RBI, .255

And in this Spring Training:
8 G, 28AB, 3 R, 12 H, 5 RBI, .429
I also wrote about Pagan once before, and that can be found here.

If he continues in April, what he has done in March, then he will be a fine player for the Mets off the bench. I am worried though that we are walking into a David Newhan situation, who had amazing Springs for the Mets, and performed very poorly off of the bench for the Mets in pinch hit situations.
Update:
I just saw his double on ESPN, and it was a really nice swing that he deposited into Left Field. That swing was destined to send that ball into double territory.

First off, over the last 8 official Spring Training games, only Gotay had a homerun. Thats alright though because even though its only Spring Training, winning 5 straight games feels good no matter what.
In yesterday's game (Game 7):
Pagan was an offensive star hitting 3-5, 2 RBI, bringing his total for the season to 5 RBI, .423 BA.
F-Mart went 0-5. A Hern, Tejada and Clark all notched in stolen bases during the game.
Pitching wise, Maine did well allowing 4 Hits over 3.0 IP, with 3 K and ER. Of course the only mistake he made was a homerun, and I phrased it that way is it always seems that his mistake is the long ball. Felciano had a good inning too, besides his 2H and BB, he did strike out two. Sosa did not allow any runs over 2.0 IP despite allowing 3H and 2BB. Stokes and Wise had good days too, you can see their lines here.

In today's game, Fmart rebounded from his 0-5'er yesterday and smacked in two hits, including a double, over thre AB, scored a run and walked. He is now hitting .300 for the spring. Reyes caught the 0-4 bug today, he is hitting .278 this spring. AHern had a great day today as well going 3-5, R, RBI and is batting .296. Pagan had a hit as well.
Santana had game today that matched his ERA last year, 3.33. You have to like this outing as Santana is starting to settle down with the Mets. The rest of the Mets pen had great games as well, that box can be seen here.

The pitching has been keeping up very well with all of the injuries to the offense. We need some bright spots now with all of the dark spots. Pagan has to be looking really good now to due to all three of the starting OF being sidelined with an array of injuries. Lets just keep slugging, pitching, and healing.

Yesterday marked the third win in a row for the Mets and the third win in a row for the Mets where they took the lead in the ninth inning or later (yesterday they won in the bottom of the tenth). This brings their Spring Training record to .500, or 3-3. The biggest story of the day was Mike Pelfrey, who has becoming increasingly more important as El Duque keeps getting hurt. Pelfrey pitched three solid innings, the first pitcher on the Mets staff to throw three innings this Spring and allowed 2 H, keeping his ERA to 0.00.
Wagner allowed his first run of Spring, and besides that the rest of the box score looks good.

In terms of hitting, here are some notes from the box:
Abreu: 0-3, BB, Winning R (.143 BA)
Cancel and Tejada both had 2B
Castro had a 3B
Reyes 1-3, RBI, (.364 BA)
Wright 0-2, BB, (.176 BA)
Pagan 1-4, R, (.381 BA)
Pagan  continues to impress this spring by racking up the hits and nice work for the Catchers Castro and Cancel who both had extra base hits yesterday.

Lets also check in the Mets that were traded to the Twins in the Santana Trade:
Gomez 8 AB, 3R, 2H, 2RBI, 3BB, 2SB
Humber 2.0 IP, 2 H
Mulvey 2.0 IP, 5 H, ER
Guerro 1.0 IP, 2 H
Good luck guys, seems like you are fitting in fine

Murphy has been playing some third base for the Mets this Spring, and he was at Spring Training last year, so he's up for this edition of Get to Know a prospect. Murphy was drafted in the 13th round of the 2006 draft (394 overall) out of Jacksonville University where he put up some very impressive numbers in terms of BA over his three seasons there:
2004: .377 BA
2005: .329 BA
2006: .398 BA
Since then he has played in two seasons from the Minors from levels ranging from Rookie to High A.
2 Seasons in the Minors:
160 G, 582 AB, 74 R, 160 H, 35 2B, 13 HR, 88 RBI, 6 SB, .275 BA
Here are his Spring Training Stats over the last two years:
2007: 5 G, 6 AB, H, .167 BA
2008: 3 G, 3 AB, H, 2B, BB, .333 BA
So, already he has passed TB from his previous year of Spring Training. He is not in contention for a bench spot, but one has to assume that the 3B, who will be 23 by the end of this season should be fighting for a spot on a AA roster and if he keeps this up, there is no reason for him not be there. Lets see how the rest of his spring goes and how it will affect his assignment for the 2008 baseball season.
(stats from thebaseballcube.com and mlb.com)

Joe Smith was a huge surprise coming out of Spring Training 2007. At the start of last year, he had only one partial year in the minors. He really impressed in camp and made the team. He started out really good in the majors but slowly broke down over the season and had to go back to the minors for some time to regain his footing. This year ha has not been as dominant in Spring Training as last year, but his imposing and abnormal throwing style is what the Mets need in their bullpen to give it diversity and depth. So here is a look at some statistics of Joe Smith from Spring Training 2007 to Spring Training 2008.
ST 2007: 1.26 ERA, 12 G, 14.1 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, HR, 3 BB, 17 K
2007 ERA's Each Month:
Thru April: 0.00
Thru May: 1.52
Thru June: 2.90
Thru July: 3.03
July 27th – Sept 15th – Minors
Sept 16 to end of Season: 3.45
ERA season high: 3.56
ST 2008: 13.50 ERA, 2 G, 2.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, K
(stats from thebaseballcube.com and baseballreference.com)

Basically this shows a few things. One, as a 23 year old last season, he got tired, which is expected and would have been really surprising if that didn't happen, as to this Spring, already given up more earned runs than last Spring, all I can say is that hitters have seen him before and are familiar. This won't be a trend though and he will have better outings. I feel that he has a spot in that bullpen, and he just has to buckle down to keep it. It is his spot to lose.

Update:
The Mets just won their third straight game and for the third time, they won in the ninth inning or later, this case in extra innings thanks to Tejada and Abreu (Tejada with the walk off RBI, Abreu with his second run that was the winning run), even though his BA has not been up to par, he has been in the clutch, which is a pretty good talent for the bench.

Our starting pitchers have had their share of ups and downs so far this Spring, but how about our NL East rivals, the Braves (3-1), and the Phillies (2-2).
On the Braves side, three of their big guys have starts under their belts being Glavine, Hampton, and Hudson. Glavine in his first outing pitched 2 innings where he let up one hit, which was a homer, and had 2 K's (4.50 ERA)
Hampton out of the three had the best first outing where he went 2 innings allowing a H and striking out one.
Hudson struggled, but still made it out. 2.0 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, K, (4.50 ERA)

On the Phillies side, two of their three starters went out for 3 innings. Which is surprising for this early in the Spring, and because its the Phillies, its a little scary.
Moyer had the best start going 3 innings, allowing a hit and striking out three.
Kenderik also went 3.0, had 3 hits, ER, HR, K
Hamels struggled, 2.0 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 HR, 2 BB, 2K.
This makes me feel better about Santana's first start. But I have to keep telling myself that not only is it Spring Training, but it is also the first week of Spring Training games, so none of these stats really mean anything yet, and they won't until they get more innings pitched.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday saw a lot of ups and downs, good pitching and bad pitching, and even some offensive notes for the first time this Spring, so lets catch up with the 2-3 Mets.

On Friday, all eyes were on Santana who had a rough first inning but settled down for the second inning where he allowed one hit and that was it. After that , Heilman and Wagner each through perfect innings.
At this point, one has to start wondering if the 2008 Mets will be the same as the 2006 Mets in terms of Heilman in the 7th, Sanchez in the 8th and Wagner in the 9th. My thoughts right now is that will not be the case as Heilman continues his success and Sanchez is recovering. I feel that for at least the start of the season Sanchez will be the 7th inning guy and then later in the season, Sanchez and Heilman will switch off being the set-up man.
Sanchez's line: 1.0 H, ER, BB, K, HR (When you look at a box score, it just has ones across it, which looks pretty cool)
Kunz: 1.0, 2H, ER, K
Gotay also had a Homerun in thsi game and Wright, Reyes, and Alou each had RBI's

Saturday was the first win for the Mets and it was over the Dodgers as the Mets won in the ninth inning by the score of 1-0.
That being said, you know the pitching had to be good.
First to talk about the stars of the game with the bats, Abreu went 1-2 (.250 BA this Spring), and scored the winning run and Clark had the walk-off RBI. Pagan had an SB in the game.
Now for the pitching:
Niese: 2.0, BB, 3 K
Sosa: 1.0, K
Feliciano: 1.0, 2H, K
Collazo: 1.0, BB
Stokes/Wise: 1.0 K
It was great to see a great game from Neise who's name is being tossed around a lot as being an up and coming prospect. He was one of the Get to Know A Prospect for this site in the offseason. With everyone doing well in this game, all of these people still have a spot in the ring to get in that bullpen.

Sunday's Game was importaint because it involved players battling for bench spots and pitchers going for those pen spots. First off, it marked the second day in a row that the Mets beat the Dodgers in ninth inning. This time the damage was mostly done by Pagan who when 3-5, 3 RBI's, SB. He is really doing well in contention for that spot on the bench.
Gotay and A Hern each went 2-5 as well
Castro had an RBI
Perez struggled in this game, going 2.0, 3 ER, 5 H, BB
Heilman followed him with 1.0, H, K
Schoeneweis then showed he can allow runs this spring by going 1.0, 3 H, ER, K
Smith did the dame, 1.0 2 H, ER
Lugo: 1.0, H, BB, 3K
Register: 1.0, K
This game just shows that the people who were in the pen and on the bubble last year, like Scott and Joe, have to start watching their performances at Spring as the contenders are bringing their A-game. Lets build a great bullpen.

Later in the week I will do a look at the Pen battle and a look a the bench battle. Lets beat the Braves today.

Mets: 0 STL: 7
Mets: 0-2
With that out of the way, like any Spring Training Game, there were some bright spots, but there were a lot of dark spots in terms of the pitching today. Because its always easier to complain and criticize first, lets look at some of the dark spots, and the pitchers that it will effect.
Maine, who has a rotation spot that no one is questioning, had a rough opening in his first Spring Training game of the year. He went 1.2 innings where he let 4 H, 3 ER, BB, 2 K. For a positive, he did not let up any homers, which has been one of his weaknesses over his career.
Lugo and Smith, who need to impress in order to be in the pen had identical box lines today of 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, K. Its the first outing for both of them, so I'm trying to take it as a grain of salt.
Padilla and Register both had good outings, which, when compared to Lugo and Smith, is helping to even the playing field for spots in the bullpen. Smith still has an upper hand because of his throwing style, so lets see how the rest of Spring goes.
In terms of how much I talk down about Schoeneweis, he had a good game today. He actually came out in relief, went 1.1 innings and the only blemish he had was a BB. If he keeps this up all spring, I will not be complaining about him beating someone else into the penn.

Yesterday, the Phillies beat the Reds 8-1. How much of that was an effect of their starters continuing what they left off in the regular season in 2007? Well, mlb.com seems to think so thanks to their headline on the page that links to yesterday's box scores: “Day 1 of NL East bragging rights go to Philly.”
That really is not the case though, and I am not just talking about the basic argument that Spring Training games mean nothing. When you look at their starter's batting yesterday, their bats were pretty cold for being that explosive of an offense:
Rollins 0-2
Victorino 0-2, K
Utley 0-2, K
Howard 1-2, R, 2B
Burrel 1-2
Jenkins 1-3
Feliz 2-2, R, RBI
Moyer 3.0 IP, H, 3 K
To be fair, Moyer via box looked pretty good yesterday.

In other news, the Mets take on the Cardinals today and hopefully with more 2008 players playing on the field. Anthony Reyes, who is battling for a SP start for the Red Birds, will be pitching first followed by a slew of minor leaguers, so for the Mets, how they perform during the first few innings will be important.

The first box score from an official Spring Training Game is in, and depending what you were looking for, you either found a lot gems, or a lot of apathy. The Mets B-squad, their B-B-squad, faced off against a general A-squad for the Tigers in the first half of the game. Many of their starters actually stayed in until after the 5th inning. The Mets were beating the A-squad 2-0, and eventually lost 4-2 due to one very bad inning.
Mets 2 , Tigers 4
Mets 0-1

Gems in this game go to the pitching staff. With the exception of the blowup from Collazo (IP, 4 ER, 5 H, BB). Pelfry had a strong start with 2 IP, 1 H, 1 K, and Wise and Stokes each had a perfect inning behind him.
Sosa then came in, threw IP, 2 BB, 2 K.Feliciano was 1 BB short of a perfect inning himself.
Overall, the competition for the bullpen is on, Schowenweis better prepare for a battle to keep his spot.

In terms of hitting, Machado had a triple and Gotay had a double. Besides that, no one had more than 1 hit in the game (6 hits total in the game). Fmart was 1-1, so he has 1.000 BA this Spring, and Abreu was 1-4.

When I was writing this, the Phillies were winning 8-1 over the Reds.