213 Miles From Shea

So we all know that the next 4 days for the Braves will be easy agaisnt the Nationals as they get ready for the their three game showdown with Boston. Anyway back on topic, Shawn Hill, the best pitcher for the nats, who was going to pitch on one of the days that Hudson and Smoltz was not, is now on the DL

The Nats had a legitamit shot at winning the game.

Well tonight will be filled with all sorts of reunions. First, there is Floyd who will be coming back to Shea tonight.

One of the reasons why i am so glad this is a national tv game, He is one of my favorite players for his personality and his sense of humor, and i still proudly wear his Mets Jersey

Marquis will be agaisnt Glavine, (old teamates) but i really dont care so much about. What I do care about is numbers, because i like numbers. This year, Marquis's ERA is 1.70, carear against the Mets is 3.96, however, last year, it was 5.27. One of the biggest abusers on him last year, is now on the Cubs (Floyd). Armas Rameriz is a .500 batter agaisnt Glavine.

Todays game had everything for any baseball fan. Oliver Perez went deep, 8.1, and allowed only one run off two hits. Power? Beltran sent number 8 over the wall while Easily…yeah Easly, sent #5 out as well today. (This one is my favorite) you like speed? Reyes stole #23, Wright stole #5,6, and 7 and Gomez in his debut (2-4) with his first stolen base. This game was just all around good.

To make this day even better, the Braves got pounded 13-2 by the bucs, leaving the mets on .5 games out of first. Of course now comes the really not fair part of the home stand. The Mets have to now go play the Cubs while the Braves go play the Nats.

First, the Mets will deal with Marquis, who has really flipped this year. Last year, he boasted at 6+ ERA, this year, its 1.75 ERA. hopefully the Mets can mess him up. Next the Mets get the ace, Zambrano, who has had an up and down year so far, a lot of downs, but he is bound to get it back toghether soon. Many Mets fans should remeber that last year, Zambrano started off that 11 run inning they had agaisnt the Cubs. Next up is Hill whos 2.51 ERA doesnt tell all of his story. He is one the aces of this team if not the ace. His ERA was inflated in his last start which was 5 earned over 5 innings, so this is not a walk in the park at all. Next is Angel Guzman, who has never had a win in a start, is 0-0 this season, and was also rocked last time he started.

As a team, the Cubs were doing well for a period until the Phils rocked them for a bit, and now they are trying to get back up to how they were doing about a week ago.  They beat the Phils today tho. Their starter, Lilly went 8 innings and allowed 1 run.

The Braves have both of their aces, Smoltz and Hudson, going in their four game set with the Nationals. They will first bout with Bergman, argubly the second best on the National roster right now, with his 3.07 ERA. Hudson faces the 0-4, 6+ ERA Williams. Klye Davies will get the start agaisnt the Nationals best pitcher, Hill, with a 2.70 ERA. Chuck James gets Chicko in the last set, with 5+ ERA

This is unrelated, but earlier this week (like on monday) I checked out one of my fantasy teams, the one that I dont check daily. To my surpsie, I had 5 players on the DL. Mike Piazza, Joe Mauer, Rich Harden, Jason Scmidt, Adam Lowen (forgot that I had him). Luckily, after some moving around, My new starting rotation is Peavy, Hamels, Chris Young.

But thats off topic

Yesterday was another average to below average day to Pelfry. The good news, or the bad news depending on how you see it, is that he has more starts in the majors coming as we wait for El Duque to come back. But we have to start thinking that once the duke is back. sosa will probably stay as Pelfry will probably benefit from some time down in the minors.

And we knew that the day was coming for Feliciano and Smith to no longer be perfect…so its a good thing for them to get that off their chest.

Today should be fun to watch, (even though i techically cant because we dont get the game down here) Perez is starting and lets just hope that the Braves lose one today, even though their strength of scheduel coming up right now is a lot easier than ours.

I also just started reading an amazing book. Its not a “find” cause its already been found by Sports Illustrated, it got the book of the year award, Baseball Between the Numbers, by Baseabll Prospectus. Its really good and surprisingly, for a book about baseball analysis, its really suspensfull

EDIT

Pelfry was called back to Triple A, lets hope no Park, and hope for maybe Vargas

The orioles want pitching, MLBtraderumors.com, says that Chan Ho Park is among three pitchers which the Orioles are having internal talks about (Jason Davis and Odalis Perez are the other two)

One of the reasons that this wont go down between the Mets and the Orioles is a lack of players that the Mets would want. The Mets would want Brian Roberts, but the Orioles will not give him up, it would destroy the Baltimore fanbase. Their prospects that they would trade, Bynum and Knott, are both OF, which is something the Mets do not need. The second basemen in the system are nothing to write home about either.

It would be very nice to see Roberts with the Mets though, he would be a more consistant batter in the bottom of the lineup. Im not sure how much he will like batting towards the bottom, cause here in Bmore he IS the leadoff hitter, but hopefully he wouldnt mind to be on a contending team

Matt Cain will take the call to the mound tonight for the Giants. His ERA is really intersting because on the road, he has a 0.90, but at home he has a 5.50.

This kid is only 22 years old. Early this season, I believe during Spring Training, I talked about how the Giants locking him up for a while was a great deal. He is destined to be a shut down, over powering pitcher in the future. He jsut has to get over a few things first. His home stats are also very inflated by his last start at home, which was 7 runs in 4+ innings, I wouldnt expect that tonight though.

Green hits Cain well. In 10 ABs, he has 4 hits, including a homer.

Well yesterday wasnt such a good game. It was also yesterday, so there isnt much to talk about. My main concern is this new hitless streak Wright is on now.

Its a concern because tonight the Mets will face Barry Zito. By himself, Zito does not scare me. However, for some reason, he is very good agaisnt Beltran and Delgado. In fact, according to MLB.com, Beltran, Delgado, Green, Easily, over 63 AB, hit a .176 agaisnt Zito.

Perez, on the other hand, has not had much luck ever agaisnt the Giants. The Giants do look different this year (Alou leaving was a major shake up to their lineup and line up protection) however there are still some threats. The main one being Barry Bonds. The only reason Bonds is a threat is because, Perez, like Maine, seems to have a weakness to the long ball, and on top of that, Bonds is patient, so dependind on what Perez shows up tonight will dictate the tempo of the game. Another weak point will be Aurialla, who in 25 AB agaisnt Perez, has 3 homers. (His overall batting average against Perez though is a .240)

If you go to MLB.com, they give a pitch by pitch matchup of Bonds vs basically every Mets pitcher, its a bit obnoxious at this point.

In other Zito news, he has really buckled down his last four starts throwing a 1.65 ERA (he had a really bad start to the year).

Something in common with game 28 and 29? There was some good pitching. As Hudson fell to 3-1 last night, Maine, who two nights ago went to 5-0, proved he is the best pitcher right now in the National League.

The Baltimore Sun ran a special artical today called the Shelton Scale. Rating 1-10, 10 being most like Shelton, about players with great Aprils fizzing out. Maine got a 5, Arod got a 1, Sammy Sosa got a 9.

From last nights game, i realized one of the reasons why i like Green, his home run swing is so off balence, but it works. its fun to watch.

Anyway, here is some Injury news, The setup man in Detroit, Zumaya, who throws some serious heat, dislocated his middle finger warming up yesterday. Cody Ross of the Marlins, injured his hammy running around the bases after a homer. Chris Carpenter out for 3 months due to surgery. Orioles pitcher Adam Lowen out at least 8 weaks due to a stress fracture.

Here are some numbers:

JJ Hardy, of the first place Brew Crew, has queitly hit 8 homers this year so far.

Mag Ordonez of the Tigers, has hit 5 homers so far. All five of his homers have tied the game., (Can you say clutch?)

Hunter Pence, highly touted prospect of the Astros, hit his first ML homer last night, it was a grandslam

So in the Baltimore Examiner today, for the first time this season, they removed the Mets from the number 1 spot and moved them to the 4 spot. (The Red Sox, Braves, and Indians are in head of them). They say part of the problem is DWright has to wake up.

Well hopefully (knock on wood) this has happened. In the last 3 days, he has had 2 homers, which before that he had that same amount in 49 (regular season) games.

Easily has some pop, for that lack of average, and has had 2 clutch homers so far this season.

Awesome

Feliciano, who hasnt pitched in a few days, came in for a strong inning as well.

As you have probably have heard by now, the police have released more information about the untimely death of Hancock. He was under the influence, and there was marijuana found in his vehical

The only reason why I am reporting this is that I really hope people do not start saying “Oh he had pot or Oh he was drinking, so he deserved what was coming to him” I really dont feel thats right and I hope people dont start saying that. Dont get me wrong, I think driving under any influence is one of the worst things that anyone can do, but i also think saying that someone deserves to die is another thing on that “worst thing” list.

I am looking foward to tonight. Maine vs Johnson. A chance to bat randy around! A chance for the mets bats to light up! A chance go 10-0 for the past few years in Arizona. A chance for Maine to hurl more pitches.

SO PUMPED

Tonight the Mets travel to Arizona

One of the stadiums that I really want to visit. They have a pool! And an amazin entry.

Owings, the starter for the DBacks, is 1-1, 2.93 ERA. What that line does not say is that tonight will be his first start after coming of the DL

So I guess we can expect a tight pitch count for him. So we will get to test this bullpen tonight.

Furthermore, Byrnes is the only starter on the team who has a hit agaisnt Glavine. This is mainly due to the age of the team. The Mets will be playing a young, tough team that plays a lot like the Marlins did down the stretch last year, just trying to squeeze out runs everywhere.

Saturday is shaping up to be an interesting game, Chan Ho Park vs Webb.

I really hope that its not park. If it is Park, I really hope I will be eating my words.

As everyone knows, DWright hit a homer. Do you know what other slugger from last year hit his first homerun last night? The answer is, Alfonso Soriano. He also hit another shot today. Cliff Floyd also had a big knock in last nights/todays game (was susspended due to rain).

Last night was good for Pelfry. He got roughed up at the start of the game, but he really locked things down afterward. Especially with the current pitching situation, he gets another start.

With today's game, Perez stepped up with 10 big K's, which is important because the Mets need pitchers to step up to the plate now (Perez literally did that today as well). Dwright also collected 2 hits and an RBI, so he has two good games back to back. Gotay also had a nice start today, collecting a hit with an RBI.

This game was another game where I also remeber why I like Chavez. You just cannot not like him. Gotay was really important, I would like to see him get more starts and develop as a secondbasemen for the Mets now.