It's the Shutouts that Wipe the Bluuuuuues Away.

Johan Santana was back to his regular form. The Mets were making big contact with men on base. And the Orioles made some silly decisions. All combined to put together a fine Mets win, as they beat Baltimore 5-0 for the 2nd straight day.

No, this Baltimore lineup isn't the Yankees. In fact, no lineup is like the Yankees. But Baltimore, though they may not walk much, aren't too shabby with the bats. If Johan had the same command against the Yankees as he had last night against the Orange Birds, he probably would have fared better. He was working the corners, setting up inside with his fastball then getting them with the low-outside corner change-up. Everything was down, and it was beautiful. Man, Johan Santana is a lot of fun to watch. We have two of the most fun pitchers in baseball headlining our rotation. If any 3 of the other starters get their act together (Jon Niese I'm talkin' you specifically) we'll have quite the 3 at the top. I believe Jon Niese is a better pitcher than 3.82. It's time for him to fuse with the other 2 to make a crazy, National League East 3-headed Met Monster. 

Daniel Murphy has been slumping badly. His batting average, at it's height, was somewhere in the .330's. Now, it's .271. The thing is, while he took an 0-3 last night, he ripped a ball down the line in the 4th, and if it wasn't for Mark Reynolds' diving stop to the line, it would have been a 2-run (at least) double. Instead, it scored the 1st run of the game, (which is, as well, not too shabby.) Murph was upset, but he helped break through on a pitcher who, for the 1st 3 innings, kept the Mets at bay.

It is always a good sign when The Duda is turning on inside pitches and hitting them for home runs. While the pitch did not trail as inside as Tommy Hunter would have liked, it was still inside, and there it went to hit the net in the Brand New Mo's Zone in the 6th inning. I like that Mo's Zone much, much better than the original Mo's Zone. Remember when that home run used to be in play? That was silly.

What was Wilson Betemit thinking when he didn't go for the sure-fire double play in the 7th? The run you are now chasing down in Omar Quintanilla matters not if you turn 2. I mean...seriously? I appreciate Jordany Valdespin, who hasn't been the tightest out there in the infield, reiterating to him how dumb what he just did was with a single up the middle to plate 2.

Speaking of Jordany, his bad fielding was mainly due to those two errors in that 1 inning in Washington, but other than that, he hasn't been terrible. He tends to make the routine plays, and last night he tried out left field. His speed seems to get him to every ball, making what would be hard plays for other outfielders look routine. I like him in the outfield a lot with Ruben and Ronny, the shortstop duo, on their way back from injury. He's opening some eyes with his bat, finally getting into the .200's after a slow start. Murph should stay at 2nd and Jordany should stay up with the team, playing left field. He'll learn to be humbler quicker up here.

Dillon Gee goes for the sweep tonight against the southpaw Brian Matusz at 7:10PM. Might as well sweep another AL East team before we take on the Yanks.

Can anyone say...Scott Hairston?

LET'S. GO. METS.

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In My Absence, The Mets Still Get It Done

Monday marked the first time in the short 2012 campaign I could not be present at Citi Field. No matter how much I would love to go to every Mets game there is, Overtime must be worked so I can go to as many as possible. The Mets faced yet another division rival, one I believe is going to be a formidable opponent during this campaign. In what is arguably the most entertaining game so far in the infancy of this season, The Mets prevailed over the Nationals by a score of 4-3 to stretch their early record to 4-0.

The Monday night affair was the first I listened to on the radio, and when spoiled with live baseball and the gentlemen on SNY, I forgot how eloquent and visual Howie Rose can be. Baseball is still the most cinematic of sports radio broadcasts, with enough time in-between pitches to paint a vivid picture of what the listener's eyes are missing. Not many do it better than Howie Rose, whose Mets Fandom is also a fantastic treat, with his emotions bleeding through subtly to enhance the listener's experience.

I cannot figure out yet what I think of his new partner, Josh Lewin. The Mets got rid of Wayne Hagin at the end of last year, and while I never minded him,  I didn't shed a tear. In my first time listening to the pairing, I can tell Lewin knows his Mets baseball, and is real energetic on his calls. As the season goes on, I will be able to form a more solid opinion of what I think of the new guy.

Mike Pelfrey started and he was very....Pelfrey. He had trouble, as usual, finding his groove in the first inning, and as he staked the Mets out to their first deficit of the year, every Met fan universally rolled their eyes. He wasn't very efficient throughout the night, throwing around 100 pitches in only 5.2 innings. He was able to settle down, however, after giving up 3 runs in 3 innings, uncharacteristically striking out 8. He also helped his own cause by smacking a double down the left field line in the 3rd, scoring on David Wright's RBI single for the Mets' first run (Wright is now 4 RBIs away from tying Strawberry's all-time franchise mark.) No matter how frustrating the consistent inconsistencies of Mike Pelfrey can be, outings like this are what makes his a serviceable 5th starter, and his role as an innings eater has value in and of itself. The new front office, however, has no attachment to Pelf, and the mediocrity he provides will most likely not be accepted for that much longer, especially if the kids down on the farm develop into what we hope they will.

The first deficit of the year provided the Mets with their first opportunity to battle back, and our new center fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis (or "Nieuwy" as Murph called him during the post-game interview) responded with a 2-run home run off the Mo's Zone to tie the game (which is now a 4-bagger and should have been for 3 years now). This was also Kirk's first major league round tripper, and when I watched the highlights, you could see how pumped he was, and how excited the rest of the team was for him as well.

Not enough can be said about the bullpen's work. They made some key outs with runners on base during this game. It is forming into a real strength for this team. What a sight to behold.

I got home around the 7th inning, turning the TV on as I got ready to go to our basement gym in our building (where I have watched most of the Knicks' fourth quarters on overtime days.) When a commercial came on, I raced downstairs, turned the facility's TV on and finished watching the game while on the treadmill, another first time for me in this young baseball season. I almost lost my feet below me (as Mike Baxter later did) pumping my fist in the air when in the 9th Murph saved a 2-out hit with a diving stop up the middle, tossing the ball to Tejada for the force out. This was Murphy's first defensive 9th inning this year, and the guy came up huge.

As I ramped up my running, Tejada laid the bunt down, the Nationals' Rodriguez threw it away (so many pitchers who throw 100 mph cannot make a simple throw to 1st) and Mike Baxter made everyone in the ballpark cringe as he stumbled between 3rd and home, arriving safely back at 3rd. Murphy solidified his place as MVP of the game by shortening his swing on an inside, waist-high fastball to line the stitches in front of Jayson Werth in shallow right-center field and score Baxter for the winning run.

I am having such a blast watching this mostly young team slowly build their chemistry, their confidence and their swagger. I know it's early, but I like what I see so far. Until they show me otherwise, I will revel in the Awesomeness.

LET'S. GO. METS.

It was announced yestersay that to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Mets first game ever, the team would be selling a limited number of $2.50 seats for Wednesday's afternoon game (which is an unbelievable price for the scheduled match-up of Johan and Stephen Strasburg). Those tickets sold out pretty quickly apparently and they extended it into Tuesday night's ballgame. I couldn't resist, and I had planned on going after Overtime to see if there would still be tickets available. But the best girlfriend ever traveled out to Citi Field around 7:30 and locked down some seats for us and a friend. She. Is. Awesome. I just can't stay away from the ballpark, especially at $2.50 a seat. You can purchase them here, but at the ballpark there is no service fee (I know even the concept of the service fee sucks, but it might be a lot more complicated than we think to remove it from the site for just this one promotion. I don't know. The service charge isn't expensive at all, but if you have time tomorrow, head down to the ticket booth and lock down, say, 4 tickets for $10. Pretty sweet, huh? Call ahead, though, if you're concerned they'll be gone.)
 
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Field 7 and the Extra Feet to Mets Glory

Photo from Metsblog

Once upon a time, there was a man named Charlie Ebbets. Mr. Ebbets desperately wanted to build a steel-and-concrete double-decked ballpark for his beloved Trolley Dodgers because their ballpark in Park Slope, Brooklyn, was too fire prone. So he secretly purchased several adjacent parcels of land until he had an irregularly-shaped city block: 638 feet on the Cedar Place/third base side, 479 feet on the Sullivan Place/first base side, 475 feet on the Bedford Avenue/right field and center field side, and 450 feet on the Montgomery Street/left field side.

Using every available inch of space, the man built his vision for the team and the people of Brooklyn, but without a double-decked grandstand in fair outfield territory. One day, after Charlie Ebbets had passed, the heirs renovated the place to include a double-decked grandstand in the outfield, increasing the seating by some 12,000 and further lessening the distance from home plate to a left, left-center and center field. When it was all said and done, the ballpark dimensions were 348 feet down the left-field line, 393 feet to the left-center field nook, 376 feet to the right-center field nook, and 297 feet down the right field line. This was rare for its day, with most ballparks (such as the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium) involving vast stretches of outfield grass.  Some people compared the way the Ebbets Field dimensions played to baseball's version of a pinball game.

Some of the most memorable baseball games of all time were played in Ebbets Field, witnessed by many passionate Brooklyn Dodger fans. One of those fans was Fred Wilpon.

Fred Wilpon grew up to become a real estate mogul and one day was able to afford to buy a major league baseball club, just like Charlie Ebbets. When it came time to build his own ballpark, dreams of that childhood haven danced around his head. He wanted to incorporate the famous Ebbets Field Façade on the outside and the quirkiness of the outfield dimensions on the inside. So he had the field architect make different angles here and there, different wall heights there and here. He was sure everyone would appreciate the intricacies the same way he did growing up in Brooklyn.


But what Fred Wilpon failed to realize was that the quirkiness of Ebbets Field was out of necessity. They didn't manufacture the pinball feel of the place. It is what happened naturally when built within such an irregular city block. And since they were building Citi Field on the land of a massive parking lot and preaching "pitching and defense", the quirkiness was happening what felt like miles away from the swing of the batters. They had a modest 408' to straight away center but a ridiculous 415' pocket in right-center, taking away the sweet spot of their franchise player's power. They made it a modest 330' down the right field line, but to the left of that created this outlandish sponsored pocket of outfield. They made it a pretty fair 335' down the left field line, but as it traveled to left-center, it quickly went back 25 or so feet and was raised to 16 feet high, in what became known as the "Great Wall of Flushing." Endy Chavez's catch never happens if Citi Field existed in 2006.


Luckily, smarter heads have prevailed.


A lot is being made of the batting practices occurring on Field 7 in St. Lucie (which is designed to duplicate the Citi Field dimensions) and its nice to hear they are already a factor. Clearly, we won't know how they play until Opening Day. When they first released what the new outfield dimensions are going to be, it was everything I had hoped they would do. Yes, more opponent home runs will be hit as well, and you will get people saying, "Well, that wasn't a home run last year."


Yeah. That's true.


But they were absurd to begin with.


Come on.

2011 Photo of the Day: THIS used to be THAT big

I'll save you guys the trouble...."that's what she said."

But seriously, you guys........ THIS is what they originally thought was a good idea.

Another discussion for another day. One More Day.

I can't help it. Let's talk about this quickly.

"Hey, you know what we should do? We should make it a modest 330' down the line, then we should go to the left a little bit and indent the wall 8 feet farther. That's a good idea."

"HEY!!! I know what else we could do which would just knock everyone's socks off!"

"What do you have in mind, random person?"

"After we bring it out another 8 feet we should raise the wall ANOTHER 8 feet!"

"YES!!!! That makes perfect sense! We are trying to recreate the quirkiness old ballparks built in city blocks had. 8 feet out and another 8 feet higher would do great to recreate the quirkiness.....even though we are building in a huge parking lot as opposed to a city block."