213 Miles From Shea

Two in a row! Two in a row!

Whats really impressive is the Mets are playing fundelmental baseball. Small ball, not much power, and just collecting hits. Its very nice to see the Mets do this, its sound, fundalmental baseball, and its how the Mets will win this year.

Also, collecting unearned runs is also important. The fact that the Mets are captalizing on opponents mistakes is crucial, its being a clutch performer.

Tonight, Maine vs Looper

I dont like Looper, or his grin

He says he has no ill feelings, and I believe that (doesnt change my opinion) anyway he says he is going to do the best he can and that is it.

For Maine, tonight is a challenge. Pujols has 3 ABs against him, two resulting in homeruns. (regular season). Pujols has had limited damage in the first two games, so he is hungry tonight. Part of the problem is that Maine pitches fast balls up in the zone, so if he can avoid that with Pujols he should do a lil better.

Tommorow is the start of AAA, AA, A advanced and A. Just thought you might want to know.

Nationals finally won today. However their win, 7-6, still resulted in a lot of runs for the Marlins. So far, thats 24 runs they have allowed. Not so good.

btw, the line in tonights game is -105 in favor of the cards

So this is a bit late, but I have a little bit I wanted to say.

That DEFENSE was amazing. The Mets had a ton of errors in Spring Training, a TON, but man, that was incredible.

If this keeps up (knock on wood) I dont disagree so much with the Mets and Todd Williams. However, as a side note, the Orioles have moved Williams to Norfolk.

I guess what that says is that they are open to trade Williams. At Oriole fanfest, the front office would not say much more about Williams except that he is AAA.

I know Williams is a groundball pitcher…but he gives up a lot of homers. I also feel that Heilman is a groundball pitcher and Smith and Feliciano im pretty sure are as well.

Tonight, we get to see Wells. Last year, Kip split time between Pit and Texas. His ERA last year was 6.5 and 7.5, with 0-1 record agaisnt the Mets.

His Spring ERA in 6 games was 1.16.

Some intangebles to look for is that he is hungry to prove himself, and prove him self to a new team.

On our side, we got Duque going, who, according to Mets.com, is looking to make up for lost postseason time.

The line is in favor for the Cards tonight, -115

Today was Oriole Fanfest. So, got to see three former New York Mets today, Melvin Mora, Chad Bradford and , the “friend” Steve Tracshel.

The people i was sitting with, (we were in a long long long line during the team practice for autographs of tejada) must have thought i was nuts when i yelled  “WOOO CHAD BRADFORD IS THROWING”… I really like sub style pitchers, they are interesting

My dad had a talk with Trachsel, he was on a line for his auto and roberts.

2.5 hours till baseball season

I cant wait. Im ready.

Here it is, my 2007 season preview:

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In the AL West:

1. Angels
2. <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Oakland
3. Rangers
4. Mariners

When it comes down to it, the Angels are the best team in the division due to a balance of hitting and pitching. Oakland lost too much from Zito going away to Kotsay not being in play for a while. The Mariners and the Rangers could flip flop a lot this year, but ultimately, the Rangers made more improvements. Overall, this is a weak Division.

In the AL Central:

1. Twins
2. White Sox
3. Tigers
4. Indians
5. Royals

Waiting for today made this division a lot easier to call. With Rogers out for half the year, at least, pitching on the Tigers will be a bit weaker, and in a year with what looks to be a tough AL Wild Card Race, they will fall short. (Even with Sheff belting homers out of the DH spot). I still believe the Twins will be the best in 2008. They still have enough tools to win it this year. A lot of that is due to their young pitching that is good and that they can win offensively on small ball just as easy as they can long ball.

In the AL East:

1. Red Sox
2. Yankees
3. Toronto
4. Orioles
5. Tampa Bay

In 2007, no team has a 1-5 rotation that can beat you every night. However, the Red Sox are the closest team to having that. Furthermore, they can pound the ball out of the park from many different batters. The Yankees can do that too, but their pitching is no where close to the Red Sox. Watch out for the Orioles this year upsetting the 3 spot. They could easily develop into a 500 club, however, there are a lot if’s on the team and easily could fall to the five spot if the rookies on Tampa Bay have an amazing season.

In the NL West:

1. Dodgers
2. Diamondbacks
3. Padres
4. Giants
5. Rockies

No surprise here that the Dodgers are on top. The Diamondbacks have three key players that all can have break out seasons this year. This means trouble for the rest of the division. Stephen Drew and Carlos Quetin will break out offensively this year as Chris Young becomes a pitching break out. Jorge Julio leaving will also help.

In the NL Central:

1. Pirates
2. Cubs
3. Cards
4. Astros
5. Brewers
6. Reds

So probably a lot of you stopped reading after the Pirates were listed first. They will have a break out year this year. Pitching in this division is horrible. The only team that is proven is the Brewers if Sheets is healthy, and their hitting is horrible. The Pirates could get a lot of wins out of Duke, Snell and Mahom. Its their hitting that is highly over looked. They have a lot of guys that can hit for power. Bay is the one that we all know. With LaRoche behind him, and Nady behind him, they all will get more pitches to hit. It is a possible 35-35-20 HR combination.

In the NL East:

1. Mets
2. Phillies
3. Braves
4. Marlins
5. Nationals

You probably already predicted that. The thing that can push the Braves in front of the Phillies will be the bullpen. Gordon is getting weak. Bob Wickman, Braves, is also weak. Mike Gonzales will take over the closing role, which can change the outlook of the Braves this season. Mets have an AL lineup tho, and an average rotation with above average bullpen

So the Playoffs:

ALDS:

Red Sox over Angels

Twins over Yankees

NLDS:

Mets over Pirates

Dodgers over Phillies

ALCS:

Sox over Yanks

NLCS:

Mets over Dodgers

WS:

Mets over Sox

Ok, that might be a bit biased

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The Sporting News Baseball Preview Issue came out today. There are a few interesting Points. First off, the Mets are number one in the national League in the power polls, 5 overall and the Phillies are 6.

Then they go and say that the Mets will lose in the NLCS to the phillies.

I cant imagine anything that could hurt worse than that. I used to dislike the Braves the most in the NL, but now I feel after the Rollins comments, the Phillies have taken over that spot.

Now for Mets review:

Top Prospect to watch this year is Mike Pelfry.

No Surprise there.

Player on the decline this year due to age, Paul Lo Duca

Not earth shattering new

And on the funny side, they asked John Maine how much he spent on his Spring Training Wordrobe, and he stated three dollars

And now for Keith Law. Keith Law today was talking about the NL on ESPNEWS. He stated that problem that the Mets will have is last year they had an excellent strong rotation, and this year they dont

Im not sure where I was last year, but I do not remeber having an excellent rotation at all Last year. In April, Pedro and Glavine were great, and then Traschel was average, Zambrano was a disaster and then disappeared due to injury. Furthermore, the replacements of Soler, and Lima, were horrible , well Soler wasnt horrible, but Lima was nothing short of horrible…So I dont get his point.

So i read today on mlbtraderumors.com, that the Mets have a mild interest in Todd Williams, who is on the Orioles

NOOOOO. NO NO NO. NO WAY. ITS NOT WORTH IT. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

So I guess I should give an explanation. Hes a good reliever for his price, 715 K about, however he has a tendancy to perform badly a lot. My favorite story of him last year is that he was trying to intentionally walk a guy on the Marlins and gave up the go ahead run because his intentional walk pitch was hittable, and no one on the field was prepared to make the play.

Besides that, he has always had promise, but he is just too big of a project to conquer, maybe usefull in AAA.

Despite my intial reaction. I still like the guy as a person

Theres a nice pie chart in SI about teams that win and lead in Spring Training and where they end up in their diviion. (Since 94)

15.4% end up in first place

23.1% are a wildcard second

7.7% are a non wild card second

30.8 end up in third

19.2% end up in fourth

3.8% end up in fifth

Slightly encouraging

Well i finally get to see the Mets on TV tonight, as they play the Nationals and the game is televised here

Meaning I just saw Green and Alou save Perez and only allowing one run on what easily could have been three runs..ugh

Anyway, There was a crazy game that the Padres and Rangers took part in tonight. The end score was 24-7. Even if the game has no meaning, it just is a ridiculous score that is fun to look at.

So everyone has an opinion about Wright batting second, here is mine.

I dont like it. I know they are looking for someone to get on base a lot in the two spot, but i think it should happen, if at all, late in the season.

LoDuca will have a drop in onbase percentage this year, however, him batting sixth makes no sense. He does not strikeout a lot at all, Reyes has a lot of speed, the whole point is to get Reyes in scoring position for Beltran/Delgado. Wright in the two spot also decreses the power in the back. the 5-6-7 of Wright, Green, Alou has power potential. Also, Wright with Alou and Green inbetween, just has a lot of protection

And Julio Franco hits a homer…wow I love Spring

Has anyone noticed that the Mets tend to win more this spring at night? I dont know the actual numbers but I feel they do better for some reason at night.

I dont think Glavine's line, 6 innings and 3 earned runs, does him justice. In his six innings, he only had one bad inning where all the runs came from. He also had 7 strikeouts, which is unusually high for him, but thats a good thing.

Smith and Burgos  both had good outings of one-hit scorless innings. They both also had a strikeout.

Burgos has started to settle down. He goes in waves of good and bad. I wish there was a pattern.

If you want to know if the Mets have patience at the plate, they displayed last night. They had nine walks in the game.

Also, how about Jose Valetine, who had two more RBI, bringing his Spring Total to 11, which is pretty good.

As reported on mlbtraderumors.com and other places, there has been a lot of recent A-Rod news

The Good news is that none of it involves the Mets

The first piece deals with the Yankees. The Yanks announced that they would not renegotiate another contract at the end of this season. In other words, if Arod steps out, he's out.

Now there are two teams that apparently have intersest in Arod that are known so far. The first would be the Angels. The second would be the Giants.

Arod said a while ago that there were five to six teams that were involved.

For the Giants, having Arod would mean that they would have 2 possible home run champs.

In all seriousness though, it would be an interesting situation to have Arod in SanFran

Well….today was interesting. The Mets lost 11-3

Mike Pelfry had 4 ER over 5 innings

This was his first really bad start of the spring, Its not going to affect his roster position and he will be the number 5 guy mid to end April.

Sosa was just bad today, .2, not even a full inning, and he allowed 6 runs

For good pitching news, look at Heilman and Wagner who in a 8-9 formation each pitched one hit innings.

Hitting wise, Jose Valetine has continued to get into rythem today by having a 2 RBI game

He is still going to be important this year, lets just hope in October he gets on a hot streak

Chad Bradford threw a scoreless inning for the Orioles today, reducing his ERA by a point of two so now it is below 11.

In enemy news, Utley hit two homers today

This kid is scary, and unlike Howard, pitchers will not be able to get around him because he can slap the ball to all areas of the field.