213 Miles From Shea

On Sunday I journied from Owings Mills Maryland to Coney Island New York to see the Brooklyn Cyclones take on the Aberdeen Ironbirds.

This is the forth year that I have taken this bus trip, and I love it each year.

First off, hats tip to the writer of Tornadic Activity, your line “say no to crack, say yes to crackerjacks” made my night.

When we arrived, we recieved bobbleheads of Marty Markowitz, of course being from Baltimore, none of us knew who he is, and it was a pleaseant surprise. Once at a Hagerstown game, the Governor of Maryland (Erhlich at the time) threw the first pitch to a lot of boos, not at the pitch but to him. so to see support of the Pres of Borough was nice.

I try to go to a few minor league games a year (so far this summer, this was my first last year I was at 4), and I have never seen merchindising like in Brooklyn, it is incredible.

The blast by Duda in the game was incredible, it was a line drive homer that went off the top row of the bleachers in the outfield.

If you havnt seen the promotion scheduel for the Cyclones for the rest of the year, take a look

I have been looking through Green's carear stats, and there is one stat that this year is higher than it usually is, and that is Stolen Bases. So far this year, Green has stolen 9 bases through 89 games. He hasnt stolen 9 or more bases since 2001, when he stole 21 bases.

So what should be his expected stolen base amount thru these 89 games?

Well in 1910 games played, he has stolen 160 bases, or apx .0838 stolen bases a game. That rate, thru 89 games, puts him at 7.456 stolen bases on the season. Right now he has 9, so he is slightly above his expected amount.

So its not really significant (although there is another test that could be done to determine that, I might at a later point), but its slightly better, so thats a positive.

This got me thinking, what about Jose Reyes?

Reyes in 545 games, has stolen 208 bases, for a rate of .3817 a game.

This year he has played in 109 games, so when that is applied to the rate, his expected total should be around 41.6, and he has 52, so he is stealing ahead of his expected pace. (But we already knew that).

Also, Wagner is only 9 strikeouts away from 1000.

2 more hours, and I leave to brooklyn

Since the majority of my posts refer to interesting numbers in baseball, I am going to start a (hopefully) daily post that include these statisticals finds.

I thought I heard something on ESPN this morning about the Mets leading the Cubs all time 333-332 (and after today, it is 333-333), that is in fact correct. After a lot of searching online, the alltime record of the Mets Vs the Cubs is at .500 right now.

Which means that the winner tommorow gurantees a winning record for their team at least until next year. Not that this matters anyway.

What about homers today?

So far, Bonds has tied Aaron at 755, A-Rod hits 500, The Big Hurt sends two out, and Alou has two jacks

Alou's homers now tie him this season with Cliff Floyd.

The Mets are now 0-1 when Castillo has 2 or more hits (Ok, so this stat isnt really serious)

Salty has had back to back to back 0-4 days, and Tex went 0-4 today.

On another note, I will be in Brooklyn tommorow, (sunday), to see the Ironbirds play the Cyclones. I will be sitting with all of the Orioles fans. As always, cause this is the 4th time I have been on this trip, I will be harrassed on the bus ride up and down, no matter who wins, because I will be one of about 3 Mets/Cyclones fans on the bus

Every since the Braves sent Salty over to Texas for Texiara, (for purposes of butchering the spelling of his name, I'll just call him Tex, for same reasons why Im calling Salty, Salty)

Salty has had 1 hit in 9 AB, .111 avg, and 2 RBI (overall this year, he has been a .273 hitter)

That .273 is significant because that has been Tex's average with the barves so far in 11 AB (3 hits) including 6 RBI.

It would be ridiculous to think at this point in Salty's carear that his numbers would be better than Tex's but it is something to keep an eye out for right now, as the value of this trade is to be accessed.

Sporting News, in their coloum Dream Week, the best mateches for Baseball in the week, has the Mets and Braves listed on the 7th saying “This key NL East Game gives Julio Franco a chance to exact some revenge on the Mets who recently released him. Also on Franco's grudge list: Thomas Jefferson and Socrates”. Its funny, but now outdated. I would, and anyone would, much rather face Franco than Tex.

A quick note on Reyes's speed, he has stolen 4 bases, in his last five games, including today, which brings his season total to 52.

In Wright's last 10 games, he has hit .406, has 13 hits, 11 walks, and 10 runs. In the last 30 days, he has hit .330. On the season he is around .303 or .304.

With many techincal problems, I am back for a post for now, I know its been a long break, and hopefully in a few weeks I will be back to posting reguarly.

This past weekend, I was in Cooperstown to see Ripken and Gywnn (and also a surprise speech by Tom Seaver for the introduction of the Ford Frick winner). Of course there a lot of mets fans, as I also got a chance to listen to the golden voice of keith on SNY. (including seeing the clip from when he broke his reading glasses by accidently flicking them out of the announcing box).

So naturally I have a lot to say about that and of course the Mets.

First off, Jose Reyes is now in the #305 position on all time stolen bases. On the active player only list, he is number 28. He recently passed Frank Robinson and Jeff Bagwell, amoung the standout names.

Before the allstar break, I think the number was something like 1.98 homers per game, well in 15 games last night, there were 32 homers, so last night it was 2.13 (it seemed like there were more homers across the league last night)

One of the funnier moments in cooperstown was when I was walking down the street, behind a father and son, and they passed a building were Pete Rose was signing, so the child. who had to be areound 7, asked his dad if they could get his autograph, to which the dad said “NO, he is a bad man, a very bad man.”

That day was the day of the day night double header with the nats, and the day game was on and the person i was standing next to said this, regarding gotay's running in the seventh inning “he is running like shawn green”

How about the Mets today winning back to back games where their opponents have scored more than 3 runs, Its been a while since that one (granted the fourth run today came in the ninth inning)

Oliver Perez is now 8 strike outs away from 800 in his carear. On another note, in 2005 he had 97 strikeouts, in 2006 he had 102, and this year he has 119, I dont think he will get to his 2004 mark this year, but to quote phillips from last night, his short carear does feel like a long one due to these ups and downs.

I am a camp counselor during this time of the year…I noticed today that I really did turn a lot of kids to the Mets, good for us, bad for their parents. All of my kids from last year have a huge Phillies Fan as their counselor, and they driver her nuts with the Mets…gotta love kids

Note: This article was originially written last monday, so, a few of the numbers might be outdated, I am trying to update this as I type

We all know about Glavine's 300th win coming up, but the Mets have a few other minor milestones and achievements coming up as well.

One of the milestones that was originally on this list was Jose Reyes stealing his 200 SB. He already did that last night. Once he gets to 203 SB, he will be the sole holder of 2nd in Mets History (passing Howard Johnson). Mookie is the all-time Mets leader at 281.

Billy Wagner is also approaching a few milestones on the all time save list. As of right now, he is 3rd on the list for all-time saves for lefty's with 341 saves. When he gets to 348 he will pass Randy Myers for second all-time on this list. That will also make Wagner 7th all time for saves for all pitchers. Wagner is one save away right now from being 7th on the Mets all time save board (that will be 58 saves with the Mets). Right now he is tied 57 with Braden Looper (not exactly great company).

David Wright is close to a personal achievement. He has 83 Homers and he is approaching 100. He is also 32 Doubles away for tieing for the 10th spot on the list more Mets all-time

Pedro is 2 SO away from 3000 carear.

Green is at 1947 Hits, or 53 hits away from joining the 2000 club.

John Maine is 11 strike outs away from 200.

If anything else catches my eye, I'll post it here

With delay due to technical difficulties, every day I have been writing down posts for the site on sticky notes, and now am pulling them together as a list of thoughts and comments.

During the monday night nationally televised game, they quoted Reyes as saying that Gomez is faster than he is on a foot race (which I'm sure was on one of the metsblog sites ages ago).

Shawn Green and Carlos Gomez both had long long foul balls that were nearly homers, the pitch right before they each homers.

Steve Trax had another bad night this past week, and actually is on the DL right now. There is still a lot of speculation in Baltimore that he, Mora and Payton will all be moved before the deadline.

There was one Mets game earlier this week were LoDuca punched his glove on the inside of the plate as a trick, and the pitched ended up on the outside corner…..nice.

Also found this quote on a calander this week:

Hank Aaron: “I never thought home runs were all that exciting. I still think that the triple is the most exciting thing in baseball. To me, a triple is like a guy taking the ball on his 1-yard line and tunning 99 yards for a touchdown.”

That is a real thought provoking quote.

Baseball Digest went on shelves this week, and in the Stat Corner this month, its all about cycles. There were some real interesting facts in there such as the Marlins, Padres, and Devil Rays each have no players that hit for the cycle. Jim Hickman on the Mets in 1963 is one of 14 players to ever hit a natural cycle. (That is going in order). Tony Lazzeri is the only player (yankees, 1932) to hit the natural cycle ending with a grand slam. Jon Olrued is one of two players to hit for the cycle in both leagues (national league with the Mets).

Also, there have been 235 cycles hit from 1900 to 2007, and there are 53 Hall of Famers who have done so (Ripkin will make 54)

This is of course to go along with Huff hitting for the cycle. I might post later some other new stats I have written down some where.

I also heard on Basbeall Tonight that people are thinking that the Mets have interest in Contrears from the White Sox.

Thats cool as long as we dont give up Humber. For two reasons. One, is his that he is a good prospect. Two, is that after 14 tries, I have secured an auto of his from Ebay.

Between the opening play of the game (Reyes scoring on the double error) and Gomez's SB and 3-4 day at the plate, I really started to think about how fun the future will be as soon as Gomez really matures. He has the speed potential of Reyes, and with Willie at the head of the ship, The Mets will just be running all over rest of the league.

I know this is not a bold prediction, or one that has never been made before. But, it is really an awesome thought to think about the possible future with this much speed on the feild.

On another note, things we are sure to hear tommorow because its a nationally televised game:

1) How “electrfieing” Reyes is, and how he is the most exciting player in the league
2) How old Franco is, and how amazing it is that he keeps playing
3) The Job that Omar has done, putting together this team
4) Probably the recent problems of the Mets this month
5) Since its the Cards at Shea, Game 7, over and over again
6) The Beltran Debate
7) Delgado's BA

Thats just to name a few of the nationally televised cliches for the mets

Sorry for the infrequencies of posts…I have been having a lot of intenet problems recently and many times I cant login.

On that note:

With the Baltimore Orioles, the most recent news is that they are going to hold off on the manager search for a little bit, and should resume later in the week. The usual suspects are rumored to be involved. Dusty Baker removed himself. The Orioles are now hoping to look at Davey Johnson, Don Baylor, possibly Trembly and a few others. The majority of the beat writers in Baltimore think that the Orioles should go through with the fire sale.

Yesterday on ESPNEWS, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal made a surprise interview where they shared their insight with baseball. Williams said he would call Bonds to the plate like this “BRACE YOURSELFS…FOR THE BIG ONE!” He also did an impersonation of Sosa.

As with last night, I really do like when people get ejected. Good for you LoDuca for sticking up with your fight. I got made fun of today by a Cardinal fan who said that Paul would get suspended now, which to that I said “so what, it was worth it”.

Mets are on ESPN2 tommorow night! Bad commentary, but at least its a game televised here.

Until next time, Elliot

As you may have figured, the big news in Baltimroe today is the firing of the manager Sam Perlazzo, who has been replaced with the Bullpen coach, Dave Tremebly. Rumors suggest that the Orioles will try to go for a more pernament replacement like Joe Girardi.

This comes one day after Kevin Millar told reporters that none of this was Sam's fault. That he wasnt the blame of any of it. Meanwhile, on the topic of the bullpen, they have been 0-5 with an ERA of around 8 in the 8 game losing streak for the Orioles.

This suggests that the Orioles may start a firesale, which has been suggested in the Baltimore Sun and on mlbtraderumors.com. In this case, Williams (who has been cut since that article was published), Williamson, Trachsel, Tejada, Mora, and Payton, are all rumored to be on the list to be traded. The Angels have already inquried about Tejada, no NL East teams have inquired about any of them rececntly.