The Mets find themselves in a familiar position again as they try to avoid the sweep, this time with Bobby Parnell leading the charge. Before his last start, Parnell was drawing a lot of criticism due to his recent pitching performances (and the criticism was in no way unwarranted). Well he pulled a good game out of his bag his last time out giving Mets fans the delightful problem of "Oh, maybe he isn't as bad as we thought." To really show that he is moving on and could be a contender for the rotation in the future, he will need a good start again. On the season he is 3-7 with a 5.25 ERA over 73.2 innings pitched and in his last three games he is 0-2 over 16.2 innings pitched and has a 7.02 ERA. His last start was fantastic as he went 7.0 innings allowed 5 hits, no runs of any kind, walked three and struck out 7. Here are some Marlin numbers against him:
     Cantu 1-4
     Johnson 1-3
     Ramierez 3-4
     Uggla 0-2
Last time, due to a lack of intial run support, and then the bullpen, he didn't get the win, so lets see if the bats can prevent that.

The Mets draw on the final game West with a 6-5 record this season a 4.61 ERA over 84.0 innings pitched. In his last three games he is 2-0 over 15 innings pitched with a 4.20 ERA. He has faced the Mets twice this year pitching 13 innings and getting a win where his ERA has been 1.38. Here are some Mets numbers against him:
     Castillo 1-3
     Pagan 0-6
     Santos 2-3, HR
     Francoeur 2-3, 2 2B
     Murphy 0-3
     Wright 0-3
Lets Go Mets! Fry the Fish!

The Mets and the Marlins play game two tonight as the Mets will try again to play spoiler. Last night they were not able to as the Marlins were able to get by the Mets 4-2 and keep their playoff hopes alive by remaining 5.5 games out. Tonight they send Nolasco to the mound to battle Misch.

Misch has been great for the Mets in his past few starts and he is really starting to cause people to wonder about what will next season bring in the spring. On the year Misch is 1-1 with a 2.48 ERA over 32.2 innings of work and in his last three starts he is 1-0 over 18.0 innings pitched and has an ERA over 1.50. The last time he played the Marlins though, the results were not good as he allowed 7 ER over 4.1 innings (this occured in 2008). Here are some Marlins stats against him:
     Cantu 3-4, 2B, HR
     Helms 0-3
     Ramierez 1-2
     Uggla 1-2, HR
     Ross 0-2
If he pitches tonight like he has been, then all the Mets will need to do is to score some runs for him.

The Marlins send out Nolasco tonight who has a 10-8 record on the season over 152.0 innings and a 5.27 ERA. In his last three games he is 1-0 over 15.2 innings pitched with a 5.74 ERA. He has an 0-1 record against the Mets this season over two games and 10.0 innings pitched with a 7.20 ERA. Here are some Mets numbers against him:
     Beltran 9-28, HR
     Wright 13-31, 3 2B, 3 HR
     Francoeur 6-18, 3 2B, HR
     Murphy 4-11
     Castillo 6-9
These numbers look good an hopefully the Mets will be able to take this one tonight. Last night's loss ended a streak of four games straight where the Mets had a homerun in each game (although Beltran was really close to a grandslam last night). Lets Go Mets! Fry the Fish!

Fresh off of winning their first series in forever, the Mets will take on the Marlins tonight in a reversal of roles from previous years. In the last two seasons, the Marlins have dealt some devastating blows to the Mets playoffs hopes, and now the Mets have the opportunity to return the favor. The Marlins are 5.5 games out of the wild card, which is a bit of a long shot at this point but is very doable. The Mets play them six times this month, if they win a few, then they help make the Marlins playoff hopes disapear.

To do this, the Mets will need another good pitching performance from Tim Redding who is 2-4 on the season with 90.0 innings pitched and a 5.70 ERA. In his last three games he is 1-0 over 18.1 innings of work with a fantastic 2.45 ERA. Against the fish this year he is 1-1 over 10.2 innings and a 8.44 ERA. Here are some Marlins stats against him:
     Ramirez 9-19, 3 2B, 3 HR
     Helms 6-23, 2 HR
     Hermida 11-20, 5 2B, HR
     Uggla 2-15, HR
     Ross 2-14
So the Marlins have some good numbers on Redding but at that time he faced them, Redding was terrible. However, as of late, he has started to really improve. He could benefit from some offense though.

To get that, the Mets will have to beat up on VandenHurk who is 2-2 on the season with a 4.91 ERA over 36.2 innings. In his last game he pitched 5.0 innings allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, walked 3 and struck out 3. He faced the Mets once in 2008 and allowed 3 ER in 3.0 innings of work. Here are some Mets numbers against him:
     Francoeur 1-8
     Wright 0-4, 2 BB
     Schnieder 2-3, 2B
     Castillo 1-1
     Pagan 1-1
The Mets have won 3 of their last 4 (amazin!) and now have four straight games with one homerun (thank you Sullivan and Murphy). Lets Go Mets! Beat the Marlins!

Due to a lack of time this morning, I have to make a really light game preview so here it goes.

The Cubs and the Mets will finish their series today with a rubber game as the Mets try to take a series for the first time in a while and to do that, they will need to back the struggling Mike Pelfrey.

Apparently, Cora has been giving him words of encouragement recently, so lets see if that helps him today.

The Mets recently have also done something that they have not done in a really long time which is in each of their last three games they have hit a homer (two of them coming from Sullivan for his first two of the season). If they could extend that streak to four, it would be a nice little subplot for today’s game.

So, to win today, they should hit around Wells a bit, but drag it out because they have not been terribly effective against the Cubs bullpen.

Pelfrey just needs to be effective (and if Cora isn’t enough inspiration, he can look over to Parnell who was able to do it in his last start).

Lets Go Mets! Beat the Cubs! Take the Series!

The Mets and Cubs will play the second game this afternoon. In the last two games the Mets have done a few things that they have not done for a while.First, they won the opening game of a series. Second, they won back to back games, Third, they had back to back quality starts by a starting pitcher. And finally, they had back to back games with someone hitting a homer. Anyway the Mets try to win another one again today and really start to put a clamp down on any hopes of the Cubs making the playoffs as they send Figueroa to do battle with Harden.

Figueroa is 2-3 on the seaosn with a 4.50 ERA over 32.0 innings. In his last three games he is 1-1 over 14.1 innings and has a 2.51 ERA. His last start was against the Cubs where he got the victory over 7.0 innings of work, 6 hits, an earned run and two walks. Here are some Cubs stats against him:
     Ramierez 5-12, 2B, HR
     Fukudome 2-5
     Soto 0-4
     Theriot 1-4
Figueroa was really impressive in his last outing and he really hopes to have a similar outing today. Last time he was also able to get some run support (unlike Parnell last night) so he is hoping that in that respect he is like Stokes today and the Mets can hit up Harden for some runs.

Which would be tough to do. Harden is 8-8 on the season with a 4.19 ERA over 129.0 innings pitched and in his last three games he has pitched 18.0 innings to the tune of a 1.1 record and a 3.50 ERA. He faced the Mets in 2008 and went 6.0 innings, allowed 2 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned runs, 5 walks and 4 strikouts. Here are the Mets numbers against him and now you will see why he might be hard to hit today:
     Reed 3-9
     Francoeur 0-5
     Murphy 0-3
     Wright 0-0, 2BB
     Valdez 1-2
If you look at the Mets stats against Harden as a team, only Reed, Valdez and Sheff have any hits against Harden, everyone else is not with the team right now so the Mets are going to need everyone else to step up. Also, as of now (I can't check later, I'm writing this at 9 AM) it looks like Thole is starting today, so thats a plus because we still all want to see what he can do. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Cubs!

The Mets take on the Cubs tonight in what should be a very interesting matchup. For the Cubs, they send out their "ace" who has really struggled since being injured earlier this month. For the Mets, they send up Parnell who looks great at times but his lack of an effective off speed pitched has really shown in his last three starts. Both teams are hoping for much better games out of their pitchers tonight and batters for both teams are looking to make sure that doesn't happen.

For Parnell, he is 3-7 on the season with a 5.80 ERA over 66.2 innings. In his last three games he is 0-3 while giving up 22 ER over 12.2 innings of work. In his last start against Chicago, he allowed 8 ER over 4.2 innings. Its becoming clear that although he can bring the heat, and he has a slider, he needs something else to really help him develop from bullpen to rotation, and the Mets hope they can see that something else tonight. Here are some numbers that the Cubs have on Parnell:
     Lee 0-5
     Ramierez 2-4
     Fukudome 1-3
     Theriot 2-4
For Parnell to get the win tonight, he will need some help from this Mets offense, who usually fall silent in the first two games of a series, but tonight they get to go against Zambrano, and they hope to repeat what they did in his last start.

Zambrano is 7-6 this year with a 3.91 ERA over 131.1 innings pitched and he has struggled in his last two games where he is 0-2 over 7.2 innings and he has allowed 11 ER on 18 hits. Last time he faced the Mets he only lasted 3.1 innings allowed 11 hits, 3 ER and 4 R. He is very lucky that the reliever in the forth inning did a good job behind him, because he left the game with the bases loaded after allowing 5 consecutive base hits. Here are some numbers the Mets have on him:
     Castillo 8-15
     Francoeur 5-19. 2B, 2 HR
     Wright 3-15
     Pagan 2-3
     Murphy 1-4
Lets Go Mets! Beat the Cubs!

Here's a familiar story: The Mets will try to avoid the sweep today as they finish their set with the Rockies. They have been able to do this in the last two series, and here's hoping that it happens again this afternoon. Here's an unfamiliar story: The Mets will be trying out a prospect who has been turning heads this season at catcher. His name is Josh Thole. Today's pitching matchup will feature Misch vs Marquis.

Misch had a great outing last time out, but it was taken away from him by the Mets bullpen. On the season he is 0-1 over 29.0 innings with a 3.41 ERA and with the Mets this year he is 0-1 over 25.2 innings with a 2.45 ERA. In his last three games he is 0-1 over 11.1 innings and has a 2.38 ERA. Last year against the Rockies he was 0-1 over 11.2 innings and had a 5.56 ERA. Here are some Rockie stats against him:
    Atkins 4-7
    Helton 1-7
    Hawpe 2-5
    Barmes 1-3, HR
Looking for hope, the Mets are looking for Misch to have a good day and to share with the catcher Thole. The Mets would also be very happy if the offense kicks in today, and numbers suggest that might occur.

Marquis is 14-9 this season with a 3.60 ERA over 177.1 innings pitched and over his last three games he is 1-1 over 20.0 innings and has a 4.05 ERA. This season against the Mets he is 0-1 after throwing 6 innings, allowed 2 earned runs (three overall), a walk and three strikeouts. Here are some Mets stats against him:
     Castillo 10-27, 2B
     Wright 10-27, 2B, 2 HR
     Francoeur 2-10
     Murphy2-6, 2 2B
For the most part, the attention today will be on Thole just because its his first game and people want to see what he can do. Hopefully he and the Mets will get the win today and avoid the sweep. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Rockies play another game tonight as the Mets try to reverse their play from last night. Last night's game featured the return of David Wright, and his gigantic helmet, as he went 1-3 with a walk which is great. The Mets will try to revive their offense without Wright tonight who is supposed to get the night off, and to kick start their offense they will need to beat Jimenez who 12-10 this year with a 3.33 ERA over 181.1 innings. He has also been on a roll as of late with 2-1 record over his last three games with 23.0 innings pitched and a 2.35 ERA. Here are some Mets numbers against him:
     Francoeur 1-13, HR
     Castillo 2-5
     Pagan 0-4
     Murphy 1-3
Even if the Mets offense can string some runs together, it going to need some help from the mound to give them a chance to win, and the Mets will look to Tim Redding to help them with that.

Tim Redding is 2-4 this season with a 5.94 ERA over 83.1 innings. In his last three games he has a 1-0 record over 14.2 innings and a 3.68 ERA. Against the Rockies last year he pitched two games with a 1-1 record over 11.0 innings and allowed 8 ER (6.55 ERA). Here are some stats the Rox have on him:
     Atkins 3-15, 2B
     Hawpe 7-14, 2B, 2 HR
     Fogg 1-8
     Helton 1-7
     Barmes 3-8
Lets Go Mets!

After avoiding the sweep in Chicago, the Mets go out west to start a series with the Rockies tonight. The Rockies, although recently cooling off slightly, are in pursuit of the Dodgers in the NL West and would love to use the Mets as a stepping stone to get there. As much as I want to see the Rockies overtake teh Dodgers to get there, I would prefer to see the Mets win a few games right now starting with tonight's matchup of Pelfrey vs De La Rosa.

Remember a little over a week ago when Pelfrey's stats looked nearly identical to his opponent, Hamels? Well tonight is another similar night. Pelfrey is 9-9 on the season and De La Rosa is 12-9. Pelfrey has a 4.80 ERA this season and De La Rosa has a 4.72. Pelfrey has thrown 146.1 innings this year and De La Rosa has thrown 148.2. In Pelfrey's last three games he is 1-1 over 19.0 innings with a 4.26 ERA. De La Rosa in his last three games is 2-1 over 18.2 innings with a 4.34 ERA. Each pitcher picked up the win last time faced the other team going 6.1 innings (the difference being that Pelfrey allowed no runs against the Rockies as De La Rosa allowed 2 runs over that time). They both walked three in those outings and struck out 5. (I love when numbers are very similar).

Here are some Mets offense stats against De La Rosa:
     Castillo 2-7
     Sheff 1-9
     Francoeur 1-3
     Murphy 0-1
     Pagan 1-3
Here are some Rockies stats against Pelfrey:
      Hawpe 1-8
      Barmes 0-8
      Helton 4-5
      Tulowitzki 2-3
      Atkins 0-6

And finally, tonight's game features the return of David Wright to the Mets team after a much missed absense. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets will try to avoid the sweep this afternoon as they play their third straight day game at Wrigley (4th straight day game overall). They started this four game stretch trying to avoid the sweep from the Marlins which they were able to do, and now they will try to do it again today. Trying to lead the sweep will be Carlos Zambrano and he will duel with the Mets' Nelson Figueroa.

Figuroa is 1-3 on the season with a 5.40 ERA over 25.0 innings. In his last three games he is 0-3 over 8.1 innings with a 3.24 ERA. He played against the Cubs twice last season and pitched 6.0 innings, allowed 4 ER, walked 5 and struck out 4. He gets another chance to impress the Mets coaching staff today. Here are the Cubs stats against him:
    Lee 1-12, HR
    Ramirez 4-9, HR
    Fukudome 2-2
    Zambrano 1-4, 2B
Not a lot of Cubs have seen him (which has been a common trend for Mets starters vs the Cubs this week) and hopefully Figueroa will take advantage of that by mixing his pitches (more mixing later in the game) and keeping the Cubs off the bases. He will of course need and welcome any run support the Mets can give him.

The Mets draw Zambrano for the season finale. In his first start back this month he lasted 4.1 innings while allowing 7 hits, 8 ER, 3 BB and 4 K. (Hopefully the Mets will also be able to take advantage of this). On the season he is 7-5 with a 3.80 ERA over 128.0 innings pitched. Last season he pitched two games against the Mets where he was 1-0 over 11.2 innings of work and had a 4.63 ERA. Here are some Mets stats against him:
    Castillo 6-12, 7 BB
    Francoeur 4-17, 2B, 2 HR
    Sheff 3-8, 2B
    Sullivan 2-3
    Murphy 0-2
The Mets offense was clicking early in yesterday's game but as the Cubs piled on the runs the Mets started to shut off, hopefully the Mets offense will be on cylinders again today as they try to avoid the sweep, get the win, and score some runs. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Cubs!

The Mets play the second game of set against the Cubs this afternoon as they try to bounce back from their tough loss yesterday afternoon. In today's game, the Mets will be sending Parnell to the mound who is 3-6 on the year with a 5.08 ERA over 62.0 innings pitched. In his last three games he is 1-2 over 14 IP where he has given up 14 ER (which is mostly due to his last two starts). He faced the Cubs in 2008 for 3.0 innings where he allowed 1 ER, BB, and struck out 2. Here are some Cub stats against him:
     Lee 0-2
     Ramierez 0-1
     Soriano 0-1
     Theriot 1-1
Parnell has struggled in his last two starts but he has had a good season so far (and sadly the last two starts blew up his ERA) so hopefully he can rebound a bit today. He is a big reason why to watch the game today because with the mystery surrounding the roster next year he really could fit into any part of this pitching staff.

The Mets will face a player they have beat up on in the past today in the form of Dempster who 7-7 this season with a 4.07 ERA over 143.2 innings. In his last three games he is 1-2 over 21.0 innings and has a 4.29 ERA. In 2007 against the Mets he allowed 10 ER in only 2.1 innings giving him an 0-2 record that year. Here are the Mets stats against him:
     Sheff 6-18, 2B, 3B
     Tatis 2-13
     Francoeur 3-9, 2 2B
As you can see, the players that have beat up on him in the past are not with the team currently so lets hope that Dempster has a mental block against any player in a Mets uniform. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Cubs!

The Mets look to build off of the offense show yesterday by taking the first game from the Cubs today. For the Mets, Misch will get his first start of the season and first ever as a New York Met. So far this season he is 0-1 with a 4.09 ERA over 22.0 innings pitched and since he has joined the Mets he is 0-1 over 18.2 innings pitched and has a 2.89 ERA. In his last three games he has allowed 3 earned runs over 5.2 innings of work. Not many Cubs have seen him, and the one's he has faced have limited appearances against him:
     Baker 0-3
     Theriot 0-2
     Soriano 0-1
He looked ineffective two games ago against the Phils, but in his last game he was much more effective against the Phils, so hopefully he will be able to handle this Cubs lineup today. 

The Mets batters will be facing Ted Lilly today who is 9-8 on hte season with a 3.40 ERA over 135.0 innings pitched. In his last two games since returning, he has pitched 12.0 innings to the tune of an 0-2 record with a 1.50 ERA (tough luck right there, but worse luck can be found on the Mets). His last start against the Mets was in 2008 where he pitched 6.0 innings, got the win an allowed one earned run on 4 walks and 4 strikeouts. Here are some Mets stats against him:
     Castillo 4-12, 2B
     Francoeur 3-12
     Reed 2-4, 3B
     Pagan 1-3, 2B
     Sullivan 2-3
Hopefully the Mets can carry over their ability to hit from yesterday's 17 hit extravaganza and bring some hurtin into Chicago. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Cubs!

In a week that has already seen Santana go down on injury, Putz go down on injury, Wagner be traded, Perez go down on injury and the Yankees blocking the portion of the Wagner trade that helps the Mets, something else arises from depths and this time it links all the way back to Madoff. According to an author on the Madoff scandal, and also seen on Metsblog, there are rumors starting to surface that Wilpon will be forced to sell some high percentage of the share of the Mets in order to recoop his losses. Now this entire situation is very unsure but now other rumors are starting to pop up that Wilpon has quietly been shoping a 40% stake, so that he is still in control of the Mets franchise.

On the fan side of this, this could be bad or could be good. Wilpon bought the Mets in 1980 and was a big reason why they won in 1986 as he put together a good front office. We thought that he did this again in 2005 when he put together the Mets new front office and they were successful, but now they might not be and now the Mets from top to bottom have deleveloped this mental problem where they hold on to their gusy for too long. Whether that "guy" is a player or a manager, they just don't let them go and this could develop into a serious problem.

So when I first heard this story today my first thought was "great, another day, another problem with the Mets" but as I sat down and thought about it, I am not sure right now. Maybe this is a blessing in desguise. Maybe the Mets need a shake up from top down to just start over anew. Or maybe, we just need a distraction while everyone rehabs.

The Mets try to avoid the three game sweep this afternoon as they take on the Marlins in a 1:10 game down in Florida. The Mets will be sending Tim Redding to mound to make his second start since rejoining the rotation. He is 1-4 on the season with a 6.10 ERA over 76.2 innings and in his last three outings he is 0-0 over 9.0 innings and 6 ER. However in his last outing he went 5.0 innings and only allowed 1 hit, no runs, walked three and struck out 4, only to have the bullpen take away all of his work in the sixth. He has one game against the Marlins this year where he pitched 4.0 innings and allowed 7 ER (picking up the loss in that process). Here are some Marlin stats against Redding:
     Helms 6-23, 2 HR
     Ramierez 8-16, 3 2B, 3 HR
     Hermida 10-17, 4 2B, HR
     Uggla 1-13
     Ross 2-11
It would be great to see if Redding can build off of that last start and continue to have success out on the mound. Look for him to have a higher pitch count this game as he rebuilds his arm strength for long outings. And of course, it would be nice if the Mets could score some runs for Mr. Redding.

To do that they will need to tee off of Sanchez who is 2-4 on the season with a 4.97 ERA over 41.2 innings. His last start was his first game apparence since June and he got the win in 6.0 innings of work allowing one ER, 2 BB and striking out 7. He has pitched twice against the Mets this year with a 0-1 record over 11 IP and a 4.91 ERA. Here are some Mets stats against him:
    Schneider 2-17
    Francoeur 3-15
    Murphy 2-4, 3B
    Santos 1-3
Murphy had a nice night at the plate last night going 2-4  while picking up his 26th double of the season. Lets go Mets! Avoid the sweep! Fry the Fish!

The Mets try to get past last night's poor showing of offense against the Marlins by going up against a pitcher who really knows how to handle the Mets. That's right folks, tonight the Mets draw Josh Johnson. This season Josh is 12-3 with a 2.99 ERA over 165.2 innings pitched and in his last three games he is 2-1 with 17.2 innings pitched and a 3.06 ERA. Against the Mets this season he is 2-0 over 22.0 innings and has a 2.45 ERA. Here are what the remaining Mets have been able to do against him:
     Francoeur 7-19
     Murphy 2-11, 2B
     Schneider 3-12
     Tatis 5-9
     Castillo 2-6
Francoeur hit a couple of screaming doubles last night and he has success agianst Johnson meaning that the Mets will be pinning a lot of their offense hopes on Jeff tonight. If the Mets hit like they did last night (and I am talking about with runners in scoring position) then they are going to need Pelfrey to pick up a lot of the slack.

Pelfrey is 9-8 on the seaosn with a 140.2 innings pitched and has a 4.67 ERA. In his last three starts he is 1-1 over 19.1 innings and has a 4.19 ERA. He has made one start against the Marlins this year where he has pitched 7.2 innings, allowed one earned run, walked one and struck out 6. Here are some Marlins stats against Pelfrey:
     Ramierez 4-23, HR
     Uggla 7-21, 4 2B
     Hermida 4-14, 3B
     Cantu 6-16, 3 2B
     Ross 5-14
In past seasons the fish have really giving Mike some trouble. The Mets could use him tonight to repeat his last start against them and keep the runners at bay so the Mets can finally get into the win column again. Lets Go Mets! Fry the Fish!

First off, I have no idea how many parts this article will run, probably a zillion because the Mets will make a bunch of small moves that go with this plan and against this plan but anyway here we go. Somehow over the season the Mets raised their payroll up to 150 million and the first step for next year is at least bringing it down a little (and to free up money for future contracts). This is going to be easier thanks to the trading of Wagner who already knocks off about 7 million. Then there is Delgado, who we shouldn't bring back, and this year (the last year on his contract) he was getting 12. Finally there is Putz who next year he would get 8.6 million (on this payroll he is getting 5). All in all that means the Mets are getting about 27.6 million back.

What do we do on the field though. Lets start with Delgado. The Mets have a few solutions here. The first is to keep Murphy there and make him a first basemen. The other is to use Carter, who they just got in the trade with the Red Sox, and see how he does, moving Murphy back to left field (which takes care of another position mystery). Of course this gets a little tighter when the Mets want to use Fmart, who would fit in left while Murphy plays first.

When it comes to the pen, which is hit hardest in this scenario the Mets are going to probably hope that their starters are healthy and working again so they can put Parnell to a set up role. They might also be hoping for someone else to emerge from Spring Training like Parnell did this year. Look to see a lot of attention on players like Holt and Mejia because their success as possible starters will help keep the guys in the bullpen out of the rotation making both situations solid.

Now this is only one way though that the future could unfold, it really depends on which the Mets decide to do build. 

The Mets start a three game set with the Marlins tonight and they will try to play with their new uniforms made entirely from bubble wrap. They have also been blessed by leaders of just about every religion on Earth. On a serious note; Figueroa gets the start tonight for Santana who will have surgery to clean out the bone chips in his elbow in order to be ready to pitch by next spring. Anyway Figueroa is 1-2 on the season with a 6.30 ERA over 20 innings pitched. In his last three games he has pitched 5.1 innings, has a 6.75 ERA, has walked three and struck out two. In two games agaisnt the Marlins last season he pitched 2 scoreless, hitless innings with two strikeouts. Here are some Marlins stats against Nelson:
     Johsnon 2-5
     Helms 0-2
     Ross 0-2
     Cantu 0-1
Between Santana being out and the health of Perez in question, Figueroa looks to have a few chances not to prove what he's got. This is a great opportunity for hima nd hopefully he takes advantage of it.

On the other side of the rubber, West looks to face the Mets for the second time this season. He is 4-5 this year with a 4.70 ERA over 69.0 innings pitched. In his last three games he is 1-1 over 14.0 innings and has a 3.86 ERA. His last time agianst the Mets he pitched 7 innings and allowed one run, one walk and one strikeout. Here are the Mets stats against him:
     Castillo 1-2
     Pagan 0-3
     Santos 1-3, HR
     Sheff 0-3
     Tatis 0-3
Hopefully the Mets offense will able to put some runs together like they were able to do a few times in the last several games (for example scoring in a bunch of bunches on Sunday). Like Figueroa, this is a great time for players like Murphy, Hernandez and Pagan to show their stuff.  Lets Go Mets!

The Mets traded Wagner today to the Red Sox for two players to be named later and as part of the trade, the Red Sox agreed to not activate Wagner's option for next season but retain the right to offer arbitration for two first round picks.

Before we even can get to how this impacts the Mets next season and for future seasons, lets first reflect on how wild the last two days have been. The Red Sox and Mets have wanted to make the deal and all they were waiting for was Wagner to waive his no trade clause which he didn't want for a variety of reasons including (first) a contemplation of retirement due to the stress that baseball puts on his family and (then) because he wanted to be healthy next season and didn't want to pitch in high stress situations.

All of a sudden, he waives his no trade clause going back to his original statement days ago that it would be nice to pitch for a winner.

This is surprising because out of all of the players on the Mets roster, I never expected Wagner to be the flip flopper because he always seemed to be a voice of reason and consistency.

Anyway the reason I'm worried is I want to make sure we at least got prospects that are decent for Wagner. Chances are that Wagner would not have taken arbritation from the Mets next year meaning the Mets would get two additional first round picks which would be ncie considering we had none in this last draft. Therefore we could have just basically done a salary dump. If these guys are decent though, then this is a good move. However, what will really determine how effective this move is is what the Mets do with the rest of the offseason. This salary dump is worthless unless the Mets do another one (or two). This is mainly directed at Delgado. I'm pretty sure the Mets have an option for next season and they should not activate it. Let him walk and keep Murphy at first to really free up some money. (Now offering arb is tricky because its very possible Delgado will take it but this is a topic of coversation for another post).

The Mets and the Phillies finish their four game set this afternoon as the Mets try to win one and split the set. To do that though, they will have do something that no National League team has been able to do yet this season which is to get the best of Cliff Lee. Cliff Lee was well above average before he came to the Phils but since he has arrived he has elevated his game to a new level. Cliff Lee will also have to do something today that he has never done in his life which is face the New York Mets. This season Lee is 11-9 with a 2.72 ERA over 185.0 Innings pitched. However in the four games he has pitched for Philly he is 4-0 over 33.0 innings and has a 0.82 ERA. Here are the stats for the only three Mets to ever face Lee:
     Sheff 4-16
     Castillo 4-14, 2 2B
     Reed 1-5, 2B
For the most part yesterday, the Mets really fought as they tried to score runs in small bunches. They are going to have to be pesky again today to beat Lee. They need to get runners on and move them over then move them in. It would also help if the Mets can get some reliable starting pitching.

Parnell did not have a good start his last time out, however it was still one of his first starts and it was against a very good offensive club.Well he gets another chance against a good offensive club today as he battles the Phillies. There shouldn't be any pressure as Perez yesterday was just terrible. Anyway Parnell is 3-5 on the year with a 4.74 ERA over 57.0 innings pitched and in his last three games he is 1-2 with 11.1 innings and 11 ER (mostly due to the 8 ER from his last start). Against the Phils this year he is 0-2 over 6 games and 5.1 innings with 2 ER, 2 BB and 3K. Here are some Phillies stats against him:
     Feliz 2-4
     Rollins 0-2
     Werth 1-2
     Dobbs 0-2
     Victorino 1-2
Lets hold them with pitching! Lets fight back with hitting! Lets Go Mets!

The Mets will take on the Phillies tonight in a great game at Citi Field. The game will be started off with an on field ceremony honoring the 40th anniversary of the miracle Mets that brought a World Series championship back to the National League Fans of New York. When the actual game starts it will feature Happ of the Phils, who has been wonderful this year and he will be going against Redding who has just recently returned to the rotation for Livan Hernandez.

Happ on the year is 9-2 with a 2.66 ERA over 128.2 innings pitched. In his last three games he has a 2-0 record over 22.2 innings pitched and a 1.19 ERA including a complete game shutout. He has pitched against the Mets three times this season with one start with totals to 11.0 innings pitched and a 3.27 ERA. Here are some stats the Mets have against Happ:
     Francoeur 2-9
     Castillo 0-5
     Tatis 1-3, 2B
     Santos 0-3
     Murphy 0-1
The Mets got a quick 4 runs yesterday and that was all they needed to win. If the Mets can score early (and often) again then they should be able to get enough run support to help out Redding.

In order for that plan to work though, Redding has to be effective. On the season he is 1-4 with a 6.53 ERA over 71.2 innings. In his last three games he has pitched 6 innings and has allowed 6 runs (yes folks thats a 9.00 ERA). He made one start against the Phils this year he pitched 7 innings and allowed 3 runs. Here are some stats the Phils have against Redding:
     Rollins 6-35
     Howard 3-24
     Utley 9-21, 2 HR
     Victorino 6-19
     Feliz 7-19, HR
If Redding can be effective and the Mets can hit tonight then well the Mets should win. If the Mets of 69 can rub off some magic on the Mets tonight! Lets go Mets! Take the series!


And now for tomorrow's game. I will be traveling to NJ/NY tonight so I will not be around a computer to write up tomorrow's preview and the resaon is because I will be attending tomorrow's game (my first trip to Citi, and I am very excited!). Anyway the big thing you need to know about the game tomorrow is Pedro will be returning to New York and so far with the Phillies he has been effective as a starter. Now the last time he returned to a former team was when he started in Fenway as a Met and we all know how badly that went for the Mets, so here is hoping that happens tomorrow. Lets not give him a rude homecoming, but we should bust the party!.