Tom Seaver Fan Club

Last week it was the Brewers and this week it was the Cubs.  Chicago rolled into town and left with their tail between their legs the Mets won three of four.  The opener and today’s finale were close but the Mets also ran up the score yesterday.  Of course Tuesday’s game isn’t worth talking about because at the end of the day, the Mets have reclaimed first place with a game and a half cushion.

The big scare was Jose Reyes leaving the series with a hamstring injury.  He missed today’s game and they’re calling it cramping but hamstrings are funny injury, especially for a player who relies so much on his speed.  There’s no doubt losing Reyes is a huge blow, especially with the Yankees rolling into town, but the Mets will just have to make do.

Carlos Delgado may be flirting with the Mendoza line, but he’s made his hits count.  In his last seven games, he’s had just seven hits but he’s also driven in seven runs.  Still, three homers and a .220 batting average isn’t what we’re paying Delgado for and you hope with Reyes possibly missing time, Delgado can pick up the slack a bit.

Jorge Sosa has been very solid since being called up.  He’s 3-0 and his latest outing yesterday was a one run, seven inning start.  His strikeout to walk ratio isn’t all that great (12/8) so you wonder how long he can keep it up but we’ll take it while we can.

And speaking of pitchers, Billy Wagner has been lights out.  He’s given up just one earned run in 17 innings and he’s a perfect nine for nine in save opportunities.  And his batting average against is a microscopic .169.  Against lefties, he’s been totally stingy and he’s given up just one hit in twelve at bats.

The Yankees are next, and we’re catching them this time before Roger Clemens makes his debut.  I like our chances considering the Yankees struggles of late.

Alright, we’ve been having some technical difficulties here at Baseball Historians but I’ve been told everything is now fixed so I apologize for the abscence.  Anyway, the Mets may be in second place, but they’re just a half game back and they did it behind a series win over the team with the best record in baseball right now, the Brewers.  If you look at the rest of the teams in that division, you can see why they might have the best record because things thin out pretty quickly in the NL Central while in the East, the Mets have the Braves and the Phillies to worry about.

Oliver Perez got it done for the Mets today with his fourth win of the season and he bounced back pretty nicely from his rough outing on May 7.  Most important, if you take out that one crazy game where he walked seven, he’s kept the intentional passes under control.  Just from looking at his splits, getting that first pitch over for a strike is huge.  Heading into today’s game, his OPS against when he gets a first pitch strike is .514 while the OPS against when it’s a first pitch ball is .740.  It also looks like Perez runs into a bit of trouble once he gets through the lineup twice.  You wonder if it’s a combination of getting tired or just the batters being able to better see what’s coming, or most likely, both.

David Wright hadn’t stolen a base all season until yesterday.  Today he picked up three.  And while Wright’s 31 strikeouts are somewhat concerning, he’s also on pace to pick up more walks then in any other season in his short career.

Damion Easley homered for the fifth time and he’s done it in only 53 at bats.  Not bad for a guy who hasn’t gone yard more then 20 times in a season since he was with the Detroit Tigers since they played in Tiger Stadium.

The Cubs are on deck and while they haven’t particularly been tearing it up after they finally broke a three game losing streak, they had a nice run prior to that.  Alfonso Soriano has been hot though and he’s a guy who can hurt you by himself.  Still though, just in looking at the pitching matchups in the first three games, the only problem I see is Jorge Sosa against Rich Hill on Wednesday.