213 Miles From Shea

Mota has gone thre some good, and some bad times recently. So lets take a look at the numbers first.

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Those are the stats from Mota’s last 12 games, after the 24^th, he really settled down for a while, with a blip on the 5^th, and didn’t have a blowup until the 11^th, which he follows with a run in the game on the 15^th.

IP (21^st – 9^th): 11

ER (21^st – 9^th): 3

SO (21^st – 9^th): 11

IP (11^th – 15^th): 1.2

ER (11^th – 15^th):4

SO (11^th – 15^th):3

ERA (21^st – 9^th): 2.45

ERA (11^th – 15^th): 21.6

K/9 (21^st – 9^th): 9

K/9 (11^th – 15^th): 16.2

Or, lets look at the stats of just August:

IP:  7

ER:  5

SO:  8

ERA: 6.43

K/9: 10.29

Looking at the just the July stats, the ERA is inflated by the 0.2 IP innings pitched on 8/11. His K/9, is high, but not signifcantly better than his good stretch. Lets see what happens when he settles down.

Also, Tim Kurijan reports that the Mets are the first team in 50 years that scored 5 runs in the first and 5 runs in the ninth, and no runs in between.

Do you remeber Tike? Probably not. Tike was in the Mets system in 2006 (and part of 05 I believe). He was aquired from the Pirates, and he played in about 392 games from 2000 to 2005. He never made it to the majors with the Mets.

Now Redman is with the Orioles and has played in 6 games, has had 12 AB, 5 hits (.417 BA), 3 runs, 1 RBI, and 1 SB.

For the Orioles, the sad thing is that Tike is considered a prospect. Not in the normal sense, but after Nick Markakis, the O's have very little in terms of OF in their farm system. Its just nice to see him having some success right now.

In other news, former Mets Prospect (now Royals), Craig Brazell, leads the minors with 34 homers.

Jon Neise was the pitcher of the week for the Florida State League (he plays with Port St Lucie). He pitched 2 games, 14.0 IP, a 0.64 ERA, and had 15 SO's

Nice

Starting on Saturday August 4th, I have been keeping track of homers in the MLB.

Thru August 6th, the avg amount of homers per game was 1.974, and per team was .987

Thru that three game span, the average was 2.211 HR per game, 1.105 HR per team. (Saturday there was 41 homers hit over 15 games, Sunday there was 22 homers over 14 games, and on monday there was 21 homers in 9 games).

During that time the Mets played two games, and had 2 homers. that would mean they were over the HR per team average for the season, but not for those three games.

The next several days, Tuesday to Saturday, the numbers took a dip. HR per game went to 1.930 and HR per team went .965. Both of these numbers are below the Season average.

During these 5 games, the mets hit 5 homers, keeping at the 1.00 HR per game pace. Putting them above the league average for the team for those five days, and the season.

On Sunday, there was a big boost of power, as in 15 games, the MLB blasted 37 homers, which makes the avg to 2.467 HR per game, and 1.233 HR per team. When that data is applied to the numbers collected from tuesday to saturday, the HR per game at 2.023 and HR per team to 1.012.

The numbers for the entire period were 2.081 homers per game, and 1.040 homers per team.

So overall, there has been more homers in the past few days than the season average. This mostly due to the very calm April that still offsets the Season average. As another note, during these 9 days, the Mets played 8 games, in those 8 games, they hit 11 homers (they were averaging exactly one a game until sunday when they hit 4 homers)

There are so many great things to see at the ballpark, and there is nothing like a Red Sox at Orioles game.

There are great shirts like a license plate t-shirt that says “IMSOXICATED”, or “I've Got Sox Appeal”, The coco crisp shirts that look like coco crispies. There were a ton, at least 8, different types of Dice-K shirts. The shirt I was wearing said “Bronzed because he was Iron” (referring to Ripken).

There was the overwhelming Lets Go Red Sox chants and the “YOUUUUUUUUUUU” for Youkillis.

Normally I see at least 5 Mets fans, this sunday, I only saw 1. (I also saw 5 phillies fans, which kills me in the inside, so hopefully nexttime there will be more mets)

The novelty shops on the upperdeck sell Red Sox stuff at these games (which is really ridiculous).

Next week, I am going to try the all you can eat section at the ballpark, its a $35 ticket for a $25 seat, which is an amazing deal, and I cant wait.

Some former Mets and their current play:

Bannister is 3-0 in last few starts with a sub 2.00 ERA (not including last nights game)
Bradford got his first win of the season with the O's (1-4), he pitched .2 innings and allowed a hit
Trax allowed 3 runs over 6.1 innings on 10 hits, 3 BB, and 1 SO (4.85 ERA)
Keppinger went 1-4 with his first triple of the year today
Heath Bell pitches 1.1 scoreless innings and lowers his ERA to 2.27
Mora had three amazing stops at thirdbase today that really helped Trax and the Orioles.

If you like baseball cards, then you probably know about Topps Allen & Ginter set. (I recently purchased two packs, with 8 cards per pack, and got a LoDuca relic card, Joe Smith rookie, and Reyes sketch card). The Dick Perez sketch cards is the reason why I am writing. Becareful when going on Ebay for them. The insert set is copies of his original sketch, and the 1/1 got copied too, so it looks like every insert is the 1/1, but it does not have the 1/1 sticker on the back. 1/1 sketch cards are in frames like the relics and the autos and will have the 1/1 sticker, so buyer beware on Ebay.

How have the Braves done with their trades so far? Is it paying out? Did they give up too much? Lets use numbers to find out the answers.

Salty vs. Tex

Salty: 40 AB, 7 H, 4 R, 0 HR, 3 RBI, .175 AVG
Tex: 44 AB, 12 H, 8 R, 4 HR, 12 RBI, .273 AVG

So, In roughly the same AB, Tex has nearly twice the amount of hits, exactly twice the amount of runs, 4 more HR, and 4 times the amount of RBI's. This isnt really a surprise though because Tex is a good vet, and Salty is just a rookie.

Dotel vs. Davies

Dotel: 8.31 ERA, 5 G, 4.1 IP, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO
Davies: 4.66 ERA, 2 G, 9.2 IP, 5 ER, 5 BB, 7 SO, (5.76 ERA over 86.0 IP in ATL)

Another footnote here is that Dotel is now on the DL. Davies is pitching better in Texas so far, and Dotel hasnt been too impressive in the ATL yet, and is on the DL. Dotel was supposed to come in and finalize the bullpen in Atlanta, but is not doing it yet (but he still can). A surprise in the penn for them though has been Moylan (who I always liked because he wears glasses when he pitches). He has had a sub 2.00 ERA this year.

Today's entry was going to be a look at league homers, but I wanted another day to collect numbers. There is still a lot more math that has to be done for the second basemen comparison entry.

Fast Notes from today:

Former Met, Jeff Keppinger had a big day at the plate, 2-4, 3 RBI's, for the Reds Victory

Former Pitcher Ankiel, now OF, went deep twice (his story has been followed in SI a lot)

Mets Jump 2 positions in the MLB's top 15 rankings, from 5 to 3

Those are some of todays stories fast. I am working on some of those numbers entries, the numbers I have are outdated so I'm updating them now and should have at least one up by tommorow.

During Induction weekend at Cooperstown, there are more than just hall of famers signing, there are a ton of book signings. Past Players and Sports Writers that write books line the streets with their tables and their books. The first one that I got was Tim Kurkijans Is This A Great Game Or What, which is an excellent read,

The writer of Tales From the Mets Dugout, was there as well. I havent had time to read it yet, but he was signing the updated paperback version of his hardcopy book. This one has Endy's catch on the back cover.

I actually have read tho Tales from the 1962 Mets Dugout, which is hilarious because the team was hilarious. That was a great read and if you ever see it, you should read it. Im pretty sure that I am going to like Tales From the Mets Dugout (actually I'm positive that I will like it) and I'll let you know when I read it.

After going 4-2 on a mini road trip agaisnt the first place Brewerers and Cubs, the Mets have now gon 1-3 on their homestand. It is not a must win game today or tommorow, but it would be very nice. With a loss today, their lead in the division will either be 2 or 2.5, 3 or 3.5 is a lot better.

The goodnews though is the Mets do play the Pirates efterwords, but still, lets try to get the win today.

I was at Target today and noticed that on the retail packs for Topps Chrome 2007, David Wright is the cover boy (he is one of the exclusive players to Topps for auto/memorbila with Bonds, Arod, and Howard). Arod is on the cover for the Hobby Version of this product (last year Arod was on the cover for the retail version of this product and Bonds was on the cover for the hobby version of the product).

There were two pieces from the Saturday edition of the Baltimore Sun that I also wanted to report. They both came from the today in history. (Saturday was 8/4/07 btw).

In 2006 on August 4th, Utley went 0-5 agaisnt the Mets, and eventhough the Mets lost, they broke his 35 game hitting streak.

In 1985, Tom Seaver won his 300th game with a 6 hitter agaisnt the Yankees (as a White Sox)

The Mets in there again in 1982 where Joel Youngblood became the first player to play and get a base hit for different teams in different cities on the same day. He first had the winning RBI for the Mets agaisnt Chicago in the afternoon, and then was traded to the Expos and got a hit agaisnt the Phillies.

My day job is a counselor at a day camp in Baltimore. This morning, one of the parents that knows I am a mets fan (he's a pirates fan himself) asked me if I saw the Mets fan getting the Bonds ball, which of course I replied “yes”.

In an effort to write the most entries about stolen bases ever, I have more stolen base numbers for you all to look at.

First is Jose Reyes with 54 steals. With 54 steals, Reyes still leads 9 teams in Stolen Bases. (Meaning he has more steals than those entire teams). 5 of these teams are in the National League, 4 in the American.

This is the real meat of the entry though. David Wright with 25 steals has a lot. I felt that if he was on another team, he would probably would be leading that team in SB's, so I decided to find out.

He would be leading the Yankees, Tigers, Rangers, Royals, Blue Jays, Twins, Whitesox, Athletics, Braves, Reds, Brewers, Cubs, Cardnials, Astros, Padres, Giants, Pirates, and Nationals in stolen bases.

Thats 8 AL teams, and 10 NL teams, for a total of 18 teams he would be the leader for.

As a fun note, because I really do not like the Astros, they have 0 players that are in double digits for stolen bases.

Over the past 2 days, I have written on paper 4 more of these numbers daily entries. Some of the topics are Homers in baseball (recent power surge), the Mets bullpen home and away, and my favorite, which is not complete yet and over 1 page of math work, a comprehensive anaylsis of offensive production from Second base from 06 to 07.  I also have a few other ideas in the works.