The Mets and the Phillies have a recent rivalry. The rivalry, really, is verging on its second or third year of existence and the only reason that many fans care is because of the collapse last year. That being said, the behavior of the Philly fans recently is really unwarranted. Yes, in the beginning of last year, the Mets jeered Rollins, but to go as far as to cheering for someone to get hurt? Thats just not right.
In the world of fans there are a few things that are taboo. Until recently, I really thought that cheering for players to be injured was one of those areas. When you want to beat a team, you want to beat them with their full staff on, so there are no reservations and fewer what-ifs. Cheering for injuries is just plain mean and its really inhumane.
The next time the Phillies come to Shea, I really hope that the Mets fans show the Phillies fans how to be fans. Yes I know our own behavior as of late has become questionable, especially because of the booing of our team, but we have not crossed that line into inhumane behavior yet.
I hope a group of Phillies fans step and realize what they, and their fellow fans, are doing to their team. They are about to give their team a reputation that no one wants, especially in a city that is known for Brotherly love. The fans have to realize there is more to be a fan to love hatting the other team and start to see when they act like the way they do they are creating a dark spot on their team, their city, the sport of Baseball and most of all themselves.

So if you are a Phillies fan reading this, next time you are about to cheer for a player to be injured, please thing about what you are doing. (This article is in reference for the headfirst slide Reyes had the other game where he was nearly knocked out and the fans started to jeer with a Jose-Jose-Jose then boo when he took some time to check if he was ok)

I know I have had a lot of these in a row, so expect some different stuff coming down the pipe soon (hopefully another get to know a prospect, they seem pretty popular according to some recent site data, especially Scott Moviel and Dan Murphy, so maybe something about one of them, especially Murphy who has been terrific so far this year). Anyway heres looking at tomorrow's or today's (depending on when you read this) game against the Phillies.
Before we get into details about the game, I want to briefly discuss the importance of tonight's, Friday night's game. The Mets after winning this game are now 3 games above .500. First off, now they have a cushion. Second, if they decided to drop the next two games to the Phillies, which I really hope they don't, they still will be above .500 (their record would fall to 9-8), but with Monday's game in Chicago, its important to put the clamp down the on the Phils this weekend to get some momentum, continue this now 4 game streak, and get space in the division.
Another important thing about this game, and what will play a factor in the next two games in Billy Wagner. Last year, he was horrible in Philly, he had an ERA above 8.00. Tonight, he didn't look twice as he threw a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the ninth. (Plus, did you see his velocity? He hit 99 tonight!). Wagner also showed that even though at the start of the season he was very rarely used, he can pitch consecutive days as he has now thrown three consecutive games, getting 2 saves along the way (raising his season total now to 3 saves),
Anyway, Saturday's afternoon game will be the second time this season that Oliver Perez and Jamie Moyer square off. In the first battle, Oliver was the better pitcher, but the bullpen could not help him out as the Mets watched their lead in the game disappear to the Phillies, as they wrecked the Mets home opener. In that game:
    Perez 5.2 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 2 K, 0 ER
    Moyer 6 IP, W, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, K, HR
In was in that game that Delgado showed some life for the Mets as he knocked one in.
The preview for the first time these two pitchers faced off this year can be found here.
Lets Go Mets!

For the second time this season the Mets will be trying to extend a three game series tonight, and this time it will be against the Phillies. The Last time the Mets played the Phillies, they dropped the first game, which sent Mets fans everywhere into a "panic mode" (as much as one can have at the start of the baseball season), and sent Baseball analysts drawing references to the collapse. The Mets then woke and took the next two games. The first game they one thanks to a poorly played inning by the Phillies that led to several defensive errors and 6 runs for the Mets. The following night the Mets won in extra innings.
Those two games, plus a win in the opener against the Brewers put the Mets on their first three game winning streak. So far this season, the mets have gone 1-0 on Fridays, but struggle to get wins over the weekend.
On top of all of this, Santana enters another Ace battle tonight as he goes toe to toe against Hamels. Last year, Hamels pitched three games against the Mets to the tune of a 0-1 record over 18 IP, a 4.00 ERA, 9 walks and 17 K's. Hamels is the ace of the Phillies and has the potential to do a lot of strikeout damage to the Mets, who struck-out an awful lot last night.
The following players have put these numbers up against Hamels over their careers:
    Delgado 4-9, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, BB
    Wright 1-11, HR
    Beltran 4-12, 2 HR
    Pagan 1-8, HR
Overall the Mets do not hit Hamels all that well, but as you can see, even those that struggle against him, when they do hit him, they hit him hard and take him out of the park. The rest of the numbers can be found here.
Lets Go Mets!

Today the Mets try to do something they did very little of last year, which is step on the necks of their opposing team, as said a lot on Metsblog. Although sweeping is not necessary to make the playoffs, consider this. Tomorrow the Mets will take their bats to Philly, who after today's win in Houston just got back to .500. If the Mets lose today, they too will be back at .500. However, with a win today, the Mets will be two games above .500 thus, unless the Phils sweep them, will come out of that series .500 or better.
Sweeping is really important though in streaking. If the Mets win tonight, they really have a winning streak. Long winning streaks build cushions. Cushions lead to far separations which leads to the Boo's going away.
That being said the Mets will bat against Lannan tonight. So far this year, Lannan is 0-2, in 2 Games with 10.2 innings, a 6.75 ERA, 7 BB, and 6 K. The damage was done by Francor in his Lannan's last start. Frank had 5 RBI"s that night, so when the Wright did that too the Nationals two nights ago, the National announcers were drawing all sorts comparisons between the two players.
Last season Lannan had one start vs the Mets which he lost. He pitched 5.2 innings, had a 7.94 ERA, 5 ER, BB, 3 K. Hopefully the Mets will rough him up again tonight. Last season was Lannan's first in the majors, and made six starts. The big players in that game last year were:
    Castillo 2-3, HR, 2 RBI
    Reyes 2-3, 2B
    Wright 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI
Lets hope from some repeat stats tonight! Crack out the brooms and lets go for it!

Game two of the three game set vs the Nationals features Maine vs Chico. I like Chico a lot. I feel that he has the capability of being the ace of the Nationals stats, but as some of the stats in this post will show, he is a future ace of the Nationals that hits a wall against the Mets. I couldn't find inning by inning stats of Chico but I seem to remeber last year it felt like when we played him, he would be very good, and then have a horrible inning and have to go. (August 17th I believe he was strong against the Mets and then hit a wall, allowed 4 runs over 5, and then the Nats pen ended up giving up another 4). Anyway here are some Chico stats.
So far this year, he has had one very good game, that came after a pretty bad game (0-2 record). (3.72 ERA)
First start: 6.0 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Second start: 8.0 IP, 5H, ER, HR, BB, 3K
In his last start, the Nationals lost 1-0 and Chico made one mistake, which was a homerun to Escobar of the Braves. In 2007, Chico put these stats up on the Mets:
4 G, 2-2, 20.1 IP, 6.20 ERA, 9 BB, 8 K.
The following Mets have put these numbers up on Chico:
    Reyes 3-9, 2 2B, 3 BB (.500 OBP)
    Wright 4-9, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 BB (.500 OBP)
    Beltran 1-9, 2 BB
After last night, Wright became tied for second in the majors with 15 RBI, tied for first in the National League.

Tonight the Nationals come to town after just ending their 9 game losing streak. The Nationals started off hot on a 3 game losing streak and just lost complete control from there. Anyway, the Nationals "ace" will be pitching against the Mets tonight (I personally feel that Chico is their best pitcher) and his name is Odalis Perez.
So far this year, Perez has pitched in 3 games for the Nats to the tune of a 0-2 record. He has pitched 14.2 IP, 4.91 ERA, 5 BB, and 10 K. He has some history with current Mets and these are their stats against him:
    Castillo 22 AB, 9 H, 3B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, .409 BA, .458 OBP
    Chavez 13 AB, 4 H, .308 BA
    Clark 11 AB, 3 H, 2 2b
    Beltran 3-6
    Delgado 0-5
    Wright 2-5
I find it interesting that tonight Castillo is being moved to the eighth spot of the line up because of his history with Perez. Right now, Church makes more sense to be batting 2nd with his stats, but you would think the move would happen tomorrow night because Castillo can see the ball well from Perez.
That being said I wonder how much this move in the line up tonight is being influenced by Mets fans and media pressure. I assume very little, but it is still something to think about.
Lets Go Mets.

As I said earlier this weekend, today I would start pulling apart other statistics through the first four series of the 2008 Baseball season. The difference between this series of posts, and the other Numbers Daily posts that look at the numbers from each series, including the series before them, working like bench marks for the season. These posts look at scoring tendencies from each two, three, or four game sets.
This time we are gong to travel back a bit look at the first series with the Marlins again:
Game 1: Mets 7, Marlins 2
Game 2: Mets 4, Marlins 5, F/10
Game 3: Mets 13, Marlins 0
 
In the first game the Mets had 10 hits, gave up 5.
Second game, Mets had 9 hits, and the Marlins matched that.
In the third game, the Mets had 17 hits! The Marlins had 6.

So the Mets averaged 8 runs for each of those games this year, and 12 hits per game.
The Mets allowed 2.3 runs per game, and allowed on average 6.67 hits per game.

Now for the scoring tendencies. I find patterns interesting for scores per inning because over a period of time, they can spell out the thinking properties for the Mets. For example, if they do not score for an extended period of time in the first 3 innings, they are either unsettled and need to relax before the game, or they can't figure out the pitcher the first time through. A lack of scoring late can signify that the other team is starting clamp down and try to take control of the game. Can we deduce anything from innings scores of the first three games?
Game 1: 6 runs in the 4th, 1 run in the 9th
Game 2: 3 runs in the 4th, 1 run in the 5th
Game 3: 3 runs in the 2nd, 1 run in the 3rd, 1 run in the 5th, 5 runs in the 6th, 1 run in the 7th, 2 runs in the 9th
Totals By inning: (first numbers total by inning, second numbers avg per game)
1st- 0, 0
2nd- 3, 1
3rd- 1, .333
4th- 9, 3
5th- 2, .667
6th- 5, 1.67
7th- 1, .333
8th- 0,0
9th-3,1
10-0,0
The only thing thats slightly noticeable about the trends is that for two games straight, the mets had big middle innings, (4th, then 4th and 5th and then 5th and 6th). From recent memory, ie this past weekend, the Mets did not have this. I have always been a proponent for scoring in the middle innings because it separates one team from the other in the long stretch of the marathon. This also says a lot about the Marlins starting pitching, that they could the Mets for the first few innings, and then they started unravellings.
I find these numbers interesting, but I find all numbers interesting.

There were some new power rankings at MLB.com today, and as anyone could predict, a 5-6 record had the Mets drop a bit in the rankings. Last week they were at 5 and they dropped to 9 this week saying " Sure, you knew that the Amazin's RBI co-leader in mid-April would be Angel Pagan"
What a pleasant surprise he has been.
Other surprising notes were last week, the Orioles were not ranked, and this week they are at 11.
Philadelphia and Atlanta both have not been ranked for at least two weeks now.
Arizona, hands down is the league's best right now.
The Tigers have been dropped from 7 to 14 on the rankings.
The rankings can be found here.

The Mets have now played through four series with a record of 5-6. For what its worth, I believe the Mets had a lot of problems last year winning on the weekends, especially day games on the weekends, and the past two weekends, the Mets have not won on Saturday and Sunday. Anyway, a few quick comments on today's game. The double plays is what killed the Mets. They hit into 4 today, which killed rallies left and right.
Another quick note, before getting to the point of this post, have you ever "watched" a game using MLB Gameday? Give it a try next time you watch a game. Set it by your TV set and follow along. Not only do you get stat updates, but you can see pitching tendencies against pitchers. For example, in Schnieder's third hit today, they threw him 6 fastballs, and the 7th he hit as a single. Its interesting to watch and you learn indirectly about scouting.
Anyway here are some Mets numbers through the first four series this seasons:
The Mets scored 58 runs.
The Mets have allowed 47 runs.
The Mets on average score 5.27 runs.
The Mets on average allow 4.27 runs.
The Mets have struck out 79 batters so far. Thats an average of 7.18 a game.
The Mets, before this series, had 3 SB. In the last three games, they stole 4. Now they have 7 on the season, .63 a game.

The Mets and Brewers square off in the rubber match today. The last two times the Mets were put in a rubber match situation (Phillies and Marlins) they won the rubber game. Winning the rubber game, and winning series all year is the key to making the playoffs. It should be another good pitching match-up at Shea today when Oliver Perez will take on Jeff Suppan, who has a history with many of the current Mets from 2006 playoffs.
Suppan is off to a strong start with the Brewers. In his first two games (1-0), he has pitched 13.1 innings allowing 12 hits, 3 earned runs (2.03 ERA), walked 4 and striking out 3. In 2007 against the Mets, he pitched two games, posting a 0-1 records, 12.1 innings, 4.38 ERA, 3 BB and a K. In 2007, the Mets posted these stats against him:
    Reyes 6 AB, 2 H, 2B, BB, .333 BA, .429 OBP
    Castillo 5 AB, 0 H
    Delgado 6 AB, 2 H, HR, 2 RBI, .333 BA, .33 OBP
    Wright 5 AB, 3 H, HR, 2 RBI, BB, .600 BA, .667 OBP
The following Mets have these stats over their careers against Suppan:
    Delgado 35 AB, 8 H, 2 HR, 5 RBI
    Clark 31 AB, 10 H, 2B, HR, 6 RBI
    Wright 9 AB, 4 H, HR, 2 RBI
    Schneider 16 AB, 7 H, 2 2B, 4 RBI
What these stats show is that last year, Delgado hit Suppan slightly better than he has over his career and that Wright has been pretty consistent against Suppan. Clark's stats suggest that if they want to give Church a day off in the field, tomorrow will be a good day to do it, also if they decide to take Perez out early, and Suppan is still pitching, then Clark should go in to pinch hit against Suppan.

Perez so far this season is 1-0, 2 G, 11.2 IP, 8 H, 4 BB, 10 K, 0.00 ERA. The good Perez has showed up twice this season and tomorrow, the good Perez will try to show up for the third time this season. In 2007, 2 G, he was 2-0 vs the Brewers pitching 14.1 innings pitched, 3.14 ERA, 5 BB, and 17 K's. No one has hit him particularly well (if they have had over 10 AB against him). For example, Bill Hall has had 15 AB, 2 H, 3 RBI, 3 BB and 8 K. (He has struck out over half the times he has faced Perez!)

Since this post is two days late, it will be shorter than its last version and the one after the tomorrow's game will be longer. Basically the goal of these entries is to see how the Mets have been progressing through the season, thus on Monday, that entry will be more comparative than this entry. There are not many stats to highlight in this one, but here it goes:
Through the Mets first 8 games, the Mets have scored 44 runs.
Mets opponents have scored 31 runs.
First off, this shows the impact of that 13-0 game the Mets played, because now thats the difference in the stats. While its hard to infer stats with such an influencer like that game, it indicates that overall, the Mets offense has been barely matching their opponents, on average. This can been seen mainly through the 3 homers the Mets have had in their first 8 games (2 of them actually coming in that 13-0 romp, further showing the slowing of the Mets offense recently).
On average, the Mets have scored 5.5 runs a game, and their opponents have scored on average 3.87 runs a game.

The other slightly strange stat from the first 8 games the Mets have only stolen 3 bases. This was changed in the first game of the Brewer series where the Mets stole 3 bases in that game. Anyway, thru the first 8 games, the Mets have averaged .375 stolen bases a game, which is way down from last year. A no-brainer prediction says that this starts to get closer to last year as the season goes on.

The Second Place Mets take on the Second Place Brewers today in another key pitching match-up. Last time Santana pitched, he was against Smoltz, now he is going against Sheets. (It is really great to say Santana's name vs these great pitchers, it really evens things out and possibly tips the scale more in the Mets favor.
The Mets are currently on their best winning streak of the season, riding it out to three games. The Brewers on the other hand are currently on their longest losing streak of the season, which was dragged out to three games last night. The Mets want to push it to four, the Brewers want to stop the slide, it will be a battle of the Aces today to see which team gets there way.
Sheets, 1-0, has pitched in 2 games this year, 15.1 IP, 7 H, 0.00 ERA with 2 BB and 15 K. Last year in one game against the Mets, he picked up the win pitching 6 innings, allowing 3 runs, 4 hits, 2 walks and 5 K. Here are some current Mets vs. Sheets:
    Castillo: 16 AB, 7H, 3B, RBI, 3BB, .438 BA, .526 OBP
    Anderson: 13 AB 7 H, 2B, RBI, BB, .538 BA, .600 OBP
    Wright: 4 AB, 3H, 2B, BB, .750 BA, .800 OBP
    Reyes: 9 AB, H, .111 BA, .111 OBP
In other words, good day for Castillo to come back, good day for Reyes to sit out.
Santana so far this season is 1-1 in 2 G, 14.0 IP, 10 H, 1.93 ERA, 2 BB, 11 K. Here are some of the the current Brewers stats against Santana.
    Kendall: 14 AB, H, BB, .071 BA, .133 OBP
    Hall: 12 AB, 2 H, 2B, .167 BA, .167 OBP
    Weeks: 2 AB, 2 H, 3B, HR, RBI, BB, 1.000 BA, 1.000 OBP
As you can see, Weeks has success against Santana and hopefully he will not continue that today. (I mean we are basing it off of 2 AB).

With no longer having the best record in the National League (that honor going to the Diamondbacks and the Cardinals now), the Brew Crew come into town a half a game out of first place. The Mets, now second place in the NL East (before they played the Phillies, they were last) have a game and a half to get to that first place plateau.
Tonight's match up places Parra vs Figueroa. Parra is an interesting pitcher. Last year, he appeared in 9 games for the Brew Crew, including two games that he started. He pitched 26.1 IP and had a 3.76 ERA. This Spring, he made the starting rotation with these numbers: 2-2, 6.10 ERA, 20.2 IP, 10 BB, 19 K, 8.27 K/9, 9.58 H/9. In other words, this looks to be much like a strike-out and hitting based game. Some current Mets have had some AB against Parra, only Reyes having any real success:
    Castillo 0-3
    Delgado 0-3
    Reyes 2-3
    Wright 0-2, BB
    Easley 1-1
Three current Brewers have had AB against Figueroa:
    Counsell 2-6, 2 RBI
    Hall 1-2, RBI
    Kendall 0-1, BB
In other related notes, Kendall is leading the majors in BA, posting a .538 so far this season. Hall is one of 5 players right now in the majors with 4 homers, Reynolds of the Dbacks leads with 5.
This should be an interesting game, lets see if the Mets can keep the magic going tonight.

Do you remeber the home opener in 2006? It was the first game of the season for the Mets that year as they played the Washington Nationals. I forgot what inning it was, but the Mets got a controversial call at Home Plate where Paul LoDuca tagged a runner out, who might have actually been safe. The level of the Mets intensity after that game was very high. Even though they dropped the next game (due to Jorge Julio), the passion shined thru in that game, and then the Mets won their next 7.
I think what happened last night might cause the same result. Even though Reyes was the second to last batter of the night, something was different when he hit that ball and made it on base. There was a renewed feeling of excitement. Reyes being safe might be questionable (I still think he was safe last night) but its a break like that which can cause a new sense of excitement for the entire team, and we will see if that happens tonight.
(This is based of the same theory that in a slump, a bad defensive play on a ball, or bloop single can help bust that batter out of the slump)

Two nights ago Bergman of the Nationals had finished 4 scoreless innings. He allowed three hits, walked no one, and struck out four during that time. In the Fifth inning, he allowed six hits, a walk and seven runs. After the game, he said the following (taken from the Washington Post):
    "I'm pretty fired up. I'm really [ticked] off, because I'm better than that, and this team didn't need that. I failed these guys tonight,         and I'm pretty [ticked] off about it."
The Nationals won their first 3 games of the season. Since then, they have dropped their last 7 games. As this streak continues, and as this quote shows, the players are getting impatient and are starting to get angry. The Nats are playing in Atlanta tonight and hopefully they can get beyond this slump and start hitting the Braves (who are on a three game losing streak themselves).

The Mets finally got one from the Phillies last night and hopefully they continue the trend tonight. Winning series is the most important thing a baseball team can do. Maine will be going against Eaton tonight as Maine looks for his first win of the season. Last year, against the Phillies, Maine pitched 3 Games, went 1-0, 19.2 IP, 2.29 ERA, 6 BB and 12 K. That is the Maine that we are hopefully going to get used to and the Maine that hopefully will come to the mound tonight.
Adam Eaton is easily beaten by other teams. Last year, he had a 6.01 ERA and many of his wins came because of the awesome hitting power of the Phillies. However, he is an almost ace against the Mets who generally do not do well against the pitchers they should crush. In 4 games against the Mets last year, Eaton was 2-0, 23.1 IP, 3.86 ERA, 9 BB, and 11 K.
Beltran and Reyes both have good numbers against Eaton. In 11 AB, Beltran has 4 H, 2B, 4 RBI, .364 BA, and a .417 OBP. Reyes in 9 AB, 4 H, RBI, .444 BA and .583 OBP. If those two can consistently get on base tonight, the Mets should be able to win. (Suggesting also that a key to the game is NOT leaving runners in scoring position (two innings ending with bases loaded last night! We can't do that!).
Wright has struggled in 8 AB against Eaton. He has one hit, a double, giving him .125 BA. However, he does have a .417 OBP against him, so if he gets on base, then he can score.

Beat the Phils!

Its game 7 of the season, and I can't believe I am going to say this, but, this is a must win game. The big event tonight will be Pelfrey vs Kendrick. Each of these pitchers have faced their opponents once last year.
Pelfrey in his start vs the Phillies went 5 innings, 3.60 ERA, 2 ER, HR, 3 BB, 3 K.
Kendrick went 6.2 IP, 2.70 ERA, 2 ER, 3 BB, and no strike outs.

In terms of offense, the Mets have two key players from the Nationals who have had success against Kendrick. In 9 PA, Church has 7 AB, 3 H, HR, 2 BB, RBI, .429 BA and .556 OBP. Schneider has 5 AB, 2 H, 2B, BB, 3 RBI, .400 BA, .500 OBP. These guys combined can help fuel the Mets to victory tonight. Delgado also has success with 3 AB, 2 H, 2B, HR, RBI.
From last year to this year, it seems when Delgado does well, the rest of the team does not. I know its just coincidence, but its really weird and I hope it doesn't become one of those strange trends.

Lets Go Mets! We gotta get em tonight!

I recently started a new blog about the International affects of the spread of baseball. On a whole, that blog is a lot more controversial than this blog as it dives and touches some of the darker aspects of baseball and has to balance between the spread for the international love of the game and corporate greed.
The first story over there is about Baseball in Ghana. If you recall, in early 2007, Omar along with Baker and Winfield went over to Ghana to assess baseball and spread it.
There is a video at the head of the post and a link to the complete video, I suggest that you at least watch the three minute clip because it sets up the entry. The entry is basically a ramble of my thoughts and I actually hope that you feel different because people should have their own, individual views of the more controversial topics in baseball.

The Mets have their final home opening day today as they take on the Phillies.
How perfect that for the last opening game, a game that is exciting by nature, we are playing a team that we want to destroy, adding to the excitement and its a game that we really need to win to get back our confidence. It's a perfect storm.
First off, on the offense notes I think today we will see a lot of what my friend calls "Willie Ball." The Mets stole a lot of bases last year. This year, in 5 games, they have stolen three bases. If Reyes gets on base today, I would not be surprised, I am never surprised , to see him steal. But expect questionable steals today. Slower players stealing bases because that is what the Mets do.
Anyway, back to the pitching, which is generally the focus of these game previews. Ollie is coming off of a great start where he did everything right. (6 IP, 5 H, BB, 8 K, 0 ER). Will it be like Spring Training where a good start was followed by a bad, or will the good Oliver stay? Lets hope for the the latter. Last year he was 0-2 in 3 games against Philly going 13.1 innings with 5.40 ERA, 18 BB and 18 K. Not good numbers. One of his bad starts against them last year was on April 11th, where he lasted only 2.2 innings, giving up 3 runs and walking 7.
Overall last year, Moyer had a 5.01 ERA in nearly 200 innings pitched. However he had some of his best stuff against the Mets. Last year 4 games (1-1), he posted a 3.12 ERA over 26 innings. In his last start, he lasted 3.2 innings, coming off with a ND, allowing 9 hits, 3 runs and a walk and strikeout.

Big game today, lets go Mets.

Not as bad as you thought. The Mets last time on the power rankings were at 6 and now they are 8, so only dropping two spots for a not stellar week that included the loss of a starter is pretty good news to me. Better news is that they rank the Mets above the Braves, the Phillies and everyone else in the NL East.
The quote they say for the Mets: "Not the start Mets fans were hoping for. This team, based on last September, could’ve used a hot April. Instead, it’s got a major problem in the rotation with Pedro Martinez going down. Jose Reyes didn’t steal a base in Week 1. Expect the offense to start showing signs of life soon."
The Braves were ranked 9 and the Phillies 16.
The list can be found here.
I think what they said about what was said about the Mets is very true and very fitting. The offense will start as we all know, we are just waiting for it to click. The Mets have never been much of a home team in terms of winning at home, but maybe this year, especially with the possibility of wind being blocked out of left, the Mets can really be a home team.

The 2008 Mets are through their first two series of the regular season and its time to take a look at some of their numbers which, surprisingly, are not as bad as one might suspect.

Mets Runs: 30
Mets Runs Per Game: 6
Opponents Runs: 21
Opponents Runs Per Game: 4.2
Runs Given Up By Mets Starters: 11
Starters Innings Pitched: 27.1
Average Innings Per Game By a Starter: 5.47 or about 1 or 2 batters in the sixth inning.

Its pretty remarkable that the Starters innings pitched per game is that high considering Pedro's performance and Maine's. So it really shows the impact that Santana's 14 innings have had. Also his performance and Ollie's help lower the ERA of the Mets Starters down to 3.62 a game, which is better than what the Mets on average give up per game (this would be thanks to the PH Grand Slam and other late inning blasts).

By the way, the Tigers are 0-6