Monday, April 4, 2011

Mets Preview

Coming up for the Phillies: the 3 most meaningful games against the Mets we will play this season. They are only 1 game behind us! This can only last so long.
Coming up for the Mets: the 3 most meaningful games they will play this season

Although this may sound a bit cocky, it is largely true. The Mets do not really have a prayer of competing in the NL East this season. In the past, they've at least been able to compete even though we all knew they couldn't win it (how adorable). This season...not so much. So here's a breakdown of the pitching matchups and how I think this will all pan out:

Game 1: Chris Young (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Cole Hamels (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Both pitchers will be making their first start of the season, and this is the only game in which we can say that for the series. Cole Hamels seems to love playing the Mets, but the offense doesn't love hitting when he does. He had 2 straight 1-0 losses to the Mets last season, and he compiled an 0-4 record against them in 4 starts with a 2.27 ERA. In those 4 games, our offense scored 3 runs total. Facing Chris Young is scary because he's 6'10". He has had some success in the big leagues but has struggled to stay healthy for a full season. I think we don't have a problem getting to him early and often and Hamels gets an easy win.

Game 2: Mike Pelfrey (0-1, 10.38 ERA) vs. Joe Blanton (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
This game interests me because of the Mets' choice for starting pitcher. Pelfrey is their "ace" right now (hilarious), and he would normally be slated to pitch against Roy Halladay on Thursday. However, they are taking the rest over the rotation here and putting him against our 5th starter. They have 2 options:
1) Put their best against our worst and hope to get one win out of this series, conceding the Halladay start
2) Put their worst against our worst and Pelfrey against Halladay, showing they have any type of confidence in their team against the reigning NL Cy Young winner.
They have chosen to wuss out here by taking the former and giving themselves a "guaranteed" win with this matchup. I hope someone tells Joe Blanton what they are doing here so he can absolutely crush them. And I think that happens. (Plus I am definitely picking the Phils to win until they lose)
Side note: Is this something that teams will do as often as they can against us? Will they just totally give up on their team as often as possible just to get 1 win in a 3-game series? It will be interesting to see how often teams with this same option will do the same thing. Show confidence or try to win. Tough call
Another side note: If you have no idea what I'm talking about, any baseball team would normally (for the most part) have a 5-man rotation even with off-days in between series'. So the Mets should start their 5th starter on Wednesday and have Pelfrey go against Halladay on Thursday. But because of the off-day, they can start him on Wednesday and it will be just as if they never had an off-day - he will get the same amount of rest.

Game 3: Jonathon Niese (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Roy Halladay (0-0, 1.50 ERA)
Halladay's pitching, and we will have played too many games at this point in the season without him getting a win. He'll win for that reason as well as the fact that Jonathon Niese spells his first name like an idiot.

This is a fun series to look forward. We'll get to embarrass Mets fans even more than they already are by just being Mets fans. After this, we can head down to Atlanta with a nice 6-0 record, on our way to the first undefeated record in baseball history.

1 comment:

  1. that first game of the series was brutal! please talk about what was up with cole hamels and that 3rd inning that he couldn't get out of.
    -brianna

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