213 Miles From Shea

Living in Baltimore, (and now near DC) I always get asked why the Mets. Besides the reasons are have been true for ages (family, place of birth, etc) I have a few other things to say at them, especially someone who is a Phillies fan.

Our players (from this season and the few previous ones) do not brag about themselves. They rarely talk trash, and for the most part are very classy and respect the game.

Heres my slight at Jimmy Rollins, He is not. He is a great player, but sometimes I do question his ethics.

We sometimes boo our own team, but that is because we love. I know Philly fans would love to insert here that they do the same…but when you are knonw for throwing batteries, that “boo because we love” just doesnt seem so real. I will never forget one of my first times at shea. It was a pretty bad season, it was almost over. The Mets lost 10-2. The fans were booing a few players…..and then there was a line outside of the giftshop that just went on forever.

What I am really saying here is that I love this team, especially this 2007 team, beceause although they dropped the ball at the end, they carried themselves well, they do teach good values…and Mets fans are not idiots like other fans in the league.

I woke up today to my floormates hanging newspaper clippings of the Phillies celebrating. I did not apprieciate this one as much as the picture of me as a Washington National Player.

April 1st you started, September 30th you ended.

As ugly as the end of the season was, and it was very ugly. There bright parts to this season…none that I feel like I can recant right now I feel so dejected.

I woke up to a picture today of ryan howard hitting a homer against the Mets. I also woke up to a pictue of my head superimposed on a National Batter…roomates…

I have a lot of stuff plnned for this off season. None that I feel like talking about it.

The Mets attempt to mirror their last series with Washington with going agaisnt Mike Bacsik tonight. Mike has not started a game since September 11, when he went 2.2 innings agaisnt Flordia, allowing 5 runs and 8 hits.

Meaning the Mets will make him look like Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlington, Bob Feller etc.

His season ERA is 4.76, but his September ERA is 5.00.

He started a game agasint the Mets on July 27th, where he won after going 7 innings and allowing only 2 runs. On two seperate occasions he has pitched relief agaisnt the Mets totaling to 3.1 innings with no runs. So in total this season, he has pitched 10.1 innings agaisnt the Mets and has allowed 2 runs.

Lets just hope that ninth inning yesterday sparks the Mets to strike hard. Mike, if knocked around, will genreally last 5-6 innings giving up 3-4 runs, but he does have spots of greatness, usually agaisnt the Mets.

For the sake of the season, like every game the past week and for next week, it is imperative that the Mets figure out the starting pitcher for the opposing team.

Bergman has had one start agaisnt the Mets, April 29th, where he went 7 innings, allowed 1 run, and took the loss. Bergman in his last start allowed 2 runs over 6.0 innings, and in the start before that, he allowed 4 runs in 6.2 innings. His September ERA is 3.51. Other stats to note is that in 25.2 innings pitiched in September, he has walked 8, which is matched with a Strikeout total of 25. The only other month he has more innings pitched is April, where he had 29 innings pitched, and after tonight, unless he gets knocked out early, he should surpass that.

Going back to that start agaisnt the Mets earlier this season, The Mets had 2 hits agaisnt Bergman. When looking at 2006 stats agianst Bergamn, There are no real standouts agaisnt him. Beltran over his last 6 AB agaisnt him does have 3 hits, a single, triple and a homer.

Earlier today, I looked at Saul Rivera Vs the Mets this year. Lets take a look at Mota and Feliciano vs the Nationals this year:

Mota:
July 28, 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO
Aug 18, 0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO
Sep 18, 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO

In total, 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO
An ERA of 4.50 and no conclusion can really be drawn on these stats due to a lack of data

Feliciano:
Apr 13, 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO
Apr 28, 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO
July 27, 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 SO
July 28, 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO
Aug 17, 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO
Aug 19, 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
Sep 18, 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO

Tot: 7.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 10 BB, 4 SO
There is enough data to start drawing conclusions here. His era agaisnt the Nats is above 4.50. The alarming factor, but its the alarming factor whenever you are dealing with Feliciano is the lack of 3 up, 3 down innings. There is a psychological factor for both sides during a three up three down inning. Now I want to define that here, I am not referring to a 3 up 3down inning with a double play, which is psychologicall boosting. I am reffereing to a pitcher getting 3 batters and not allowing any of them to get on base. His real trobles statistcially with the Nats was in July, but in the state of the penn, I am not saying in any way that he is trouble free right now, because he is not, and we all know that.

 Tonight the Mets will try their luck agaisnt Matt Chico again. They did well last time making him go 5.1 innings with 5 runs and a walk. The Walk is significant because that made four games for chico where he allowed only one walk. Before that he was walking eveybody all over the place.

The Mets for the most part this season have enjoyed success over Saul Rivera. After 1.2 scoreless innings agaisnt the Mets, the mets then scored 3 runs in 1 inning. 2 runs in one inning, and a run in an inning agaisnt him. Then last week, the Mets seemed to forget how to hit off of him. The Mets had back to back days where Saul went 0.2 innings, and over those 1.2 innings, he allowed 1 hit and that was it. We gotta remeber how to hit up on bullpens, especially when ours is so unstable.

Heilman has gone through some ups and downs this year. Alrhough, especially after moments in 05 and 06, I had problems liking him, I really respect some of his recent numbers that he has been putting up.

the numbers in the ( ) are ERA, G, IP, SO

April (3.00, 10, 9.0, 5)
May (3.77, 14, 14.1, 9)
June (4.40, 13, 14.1, 12)
July (2.84, 15, 19.0, 15)
Aug (2.31, 12, 11.2, 8)
Sept(2.08, 9, 8.2, 7)*

*Does not include last nights game

So far in September he has allowed only 2 runs. The numbers say that he found his grove late June early July, and as the team flopped around for a while in July, late August, and recently in September, for the exception of a few moments, has not been that bad. (Granted his 2 runs this month came in a game that the Mets had some chance of winning, but  nobody is perfect.)

It seems like Green and LoDuca, have been on a tear recently. How good is this tear? Lets look at the numbers:

Green in his last 10 games has a batting average of .423. He has 11 hits in 26 AB, including 2 homers. The downside to this tear is that in his last 10 games, he has only had 3 RBI's and scored 4 times.

LoDuca has also been on a tear. His average during his last ten games is not like Green's, LoDuca only hitting .286 (which is above his season mark anyway) be he also has 7 RBI's. (2 Runs).

The Stat to really look at is his September stats. He is hitting .302 this month with 16 RBI's.

Really interesting stats, really interesting stats.

The Mets will square off tonight with the National's Matt Chico. In his last 10 appearences, he has gone 54.0 innings, and has an ERA of 5.00 (30 ER, 60 H, 29 BB, 30 K) In those 10 games, he is 1-3.

In one of those ten games, he played the Mets (August 17th). He pitched 4.1 innings, allowed 4 runs, 5 BB, and 2 K's.

His only other appearance agaisnt the Mets came on April 27th, where he was the winning pitcher, 5.2 innings and only 2 ER.

He is having his best month of the season right now, so far 3 starts in September, 18 innings and a 2.00 ERA.

Im trying to keep myself sane right now after seeing that game last night with a bunch of national fans. Anyway, lets look at the Wild Card and scheduels with that.

San Diego is 1.5 up on the Phils and 3.0 up on the Dodgers.

The Padres have 3 more games with Pit, 3 with Colorado, 3 with San Fran, and 4 with Millawaki
The Phils have 2 more with STL, 7 with Washington, and 3 with the Braves
The dodgers have 6 vs Col, 3 vs ARI, and 3 vs San Fran

Its very obvious that the Dodgers have the hardest remaining scheduel out of the three. The Padres main problem will be the Rockies and for the Phils, their main problem will be the Braves.

If we were talking about 3 weeks ago, I would say that the Phils would have a lot of problems with the rising Cardnals, But the red birds right now are in a tailspin worse than the Mets. (Eventhough they almost came back to win it last night.)

Back to the dodgers, they Play arizona at arizona, which is even worse for LA, because the Dbacks are 38-37 on the Road, and a lot better at home.