A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

[royals19]

So after our defeat of the Braves, we head back up to the cool confines of Queens to play the Pittsburgh Pirates. They came into the season with a ton of hype but everything has just fallen apart. At this point, they're featuring the leagues' worst record and it doesn't look like things will be changing any time soon.

None of their key guys are injured so I'm not sure how this could've befallen them but regardless, it's a situation that we need to monitor here in the coming months.



I'll be honest, Pittsburgh had our guys numbers for most of the game... However, that's with the obvious exception of David Wright and the low key exception of 2nd baseman Daniel Murphy. This kid is actually a very, very good second baseman. He hits well out of the 2 hole and could be a valuable trade chip in the coming months because of the thin middle infield market.

He doesn't hit for a lot of power but the dude will hit for a ton of average and that's exactly what any team should be looking for in a good #2 hitter.



However, despite Daniel Murphy providing the heroics, it would be Captain Kirk leading the way with a couple of dingers. You know, he's been a wash all season long... a major disappointment. I was expecting a toolsy player to put up decent numbers at the top of the order but he can't do that... He's barely hitting for average and he's playing average defense this season.

Aside from Newhouser, it amazes me that we were able to win this game despite 4 errors... I'm not even sure if we've played any games where there haven't been 0 errors.

[royals19]

I'll be honest... I envy Chicago. They've got some good players on their roster, they've got one of baseball's best farm systems and they've got a stellar front office. Their future looks promising. Ours on the other hand... looks pretty bleak. We don't have any true impact talent outside of Wheeler and d'Arnuad in the farm.

Chicago's model is one that we're taking a very close look at. We're considering theirs with the Braves and Cardinals. However, we're taking a very close look at everything before we develop our own model.



I'll just cut to the chase. We were shut down; absolutely destroyed... Edwin Jackson was just pouring that fastball right over the plate for us and we either, A. Couldn't catch up to it... or B. Would hit a pop fly... He'd throw us absolute ched and we couldn't lay off of it... he made us look absolutely silly... absolutely silly.

Edwin Jackson is good... damn good. But man, he's not this good...



We haven't done any portion of our rebuild project yet. Outside of a couple callups and roster moves to give some non prospects a look, we haven't done anything. In all actuality, that's probably going to change. We'll likely field this team until the end of the Subway Series with New York because it isn't a very good business move to sell your team off at your biggest revenue point of the year.

After that, we'll begin to tear it down and you'll see players like Wheeler and d'Arnaud getting some Major League PT.

[royals19]

Now, I mentioned the "Subway Series" last post. I hopefully shouldn't have to elaborate on that series in a whole other post...

Anyway, this is the moment I've been looking forward to this whole season, a chance to get at the Yankees... It's a chance to get at Major League Baseball's official "Bad Guy" in its history. They're like the cool kid in the school you know... Everybody wishes they could be them but they play it off and in fact show off that they can outspend everybody else.



First pitch is at 7:10 and let me say that this is the series of all series this season. Our Ace is going against their ace, our #2 against theirs and so on and so forth. There are going to be some awesome pitching performances this series.

We'll play the first two games up here in Queens and for the next two, we'll catch the Subway up to the Bronx to play at the new Yankee Stadium. I'm not a big fan of the new Yankee Stadium... the Yankee Brass really did a poor job trying to build a pimped out version of the classical Yankee Stadium.

Stayed tuned folks, we got Matt Harvey vs. C.C. Sabathia on tap at 7:10... it's bound to be a good 'un.

[CameRoN0407]

Wow, that looks like an equal to KHarmo's Cole vs. Zimmermann! Maybe even better! New York aces squaring off, what could be better for the Subway series?

[royals19]

Quote: Originally Posted by CameRoN0407

Wow, that looks like an equal to KHarmo's Cole vs. Zimmermann! Maybe even better! New York aces squaring off, what could be better for the Subway series?

I've been looking forward to this series for quite some time. It's not too often that your pitchers matchup up like this in a historic series. Despite this being all about the Yankees vs. Mets... it has a symbolic meaning to Matt Harvey's career.

It will probably be his defining moment of the season and probably his career so far. If he can outpitch C.C. then it'll cast him into stardom... if not, Matt Harvey might just be another pitcher until he gets his chance...

A lot is at stake this series.

[royals19]

So for Game 1 at 7:10... Yankees' workhorse C.C. Sabathia squares off against the rising star Matt Harvey.



Let me start off by saying this was easily the greatest game I've ever played in my Franchise thus far.

Matt Harvey and C.C. matched each other pitch for pitch their entire game. Before I knew it, we were int he 7th inning and neither pitcher had allowed a hit. I contemplated going to the pen but I decided that this was Matt Harvey's battle and he was going to finish it. Eventually, C.C. cracked first and was lifted in the 9th for Mariano Rivera. Byrdman would draw a walk and then Ike Davis hit a walk off homerun to win the ball game for us.

This game if anything, represents Matt Harvey's final ascension into stardom. He's proved that he isn't just the Mets' best pitcher but probably one of the top young arms in all of baseball. Ladies and Gents, Matt Harvey has arrived.



As for Game 2, maybe Robinson Cano had seen enough... maybe he had his fill... In the 5th inning of the game, he grabbed his bat and walked into the batter's box and Just. Went. OFF. He took an 85 MPH fastball from Marcum on the inner half of the plate and hit that sonuvagun OVER the seats there in RF... OVER the seats in right field. In his next AB, reliever Scott Atchison came on and threw him a slider outside, out of the zone and he hit that sucker into the seats towards the back of stadium there in left field.

Robbie Cano is quickly making a name for himself here in Queens as Public Enemy number 1. I've never seen a player showcase that type of power to all fields... that's just unheard of... Hopefully we've learned our lesson and we don't let 1 player beat us like this again.

[royals19]

Ahh Yankee Stadium... my least favorite ball park. I'll be honest, I loved the old Yankee stadium but when they tried to make the new one a jazzed up version of the old one, they lost all respect. The old Yankee stadium wasn't valued for it's big video boards or whatever... It was valued because of the history that was made there by all the greats... and that Yankee brass ruined that...

On to the game.

Remember how I said Robinson Cano wasn't going to beat us again; that we learned our lesson?



We didn't learn our lesson... in fact Cano went off again. This time though, he hit 3 dingers and drove in all the Yankees' runs. Our Mets team sucks but we aren't that bad that Robinson Cano can just stick it to us by himself... I'm getting impatient. I might just have to turn the tables and bean him a couple times... the backlash will probably be bad but... I'm not going to let one player beat us by himself.



AGAIN, CANO WENT HAM IN THE FINAL GAME OF THE SERIES.... ****! Dillon Gee hit him twice just to send out the message and then in his last 2 ABs, he hits a pair of 4 run shots... What the heck? I would bet money that the Yankees developed some sort of robot that's a baseball machine... As for the evidence, look no further than his initials... RC. That stands for Robinson Cano... or, Remote Controlled. There's something fishy about him and we're gonna get to the bottom of it. The Yanks are messing with the wrong crew my friends.

But uhh... Conspiracy theories aside, we laid the law down on the Yanks today. If it wasn't for Ike "I hit .160 but with 80 homeruns" Davis then I don't know where we'd be. That's all Ike Davis does... he just hits **** over the fences. He doesn't try for this doubles, base hit nonsense.

A split against the Yankees isn't bad but now that the series is over, we're putting this thing in to full throttle rebuild mode.

[royals19]

Mets Notes: Rebuild, Buck, Draft, Rumors

By Steve Adams [August 2, 2013 at 4:55pm CST]

• The general consensus around baseball is that the Mets are ready to start selling and begin their rebuilding project. "They're shopping everybody but (David) Wright and (Matt) Harvey." With Atlanta and Washington practically running away with the division, the time is right for them to begin rebuilding.
• It was announced today via press release that the Mets traded catcher John Buck to the New York Yankees for outfielder Melky Mesa. In corresponding roster moves, the Mets have also announced that Kirk Nieuwenhuis is being optioned to AAA and #3 prospect Travis d'Arnuad is being called up to take Buck's slot on the roster.
• "There are absolutely 0 talented college players in this years draft" Said one Mets executive. The general consensus around the industry is that the Mets want advanced college players to add to their system. However, they may be pressured into going high school heavy this year.
• "The Mets are calling just about every team trying to find a young impact player to pair with David Wright... but guess what? It ain't happening" Said one AL scout.
• The Mets have been linked to Blue Jays outfielder Colby Rasmus and Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay but at this point, it seems unlikely that they're able pry either away from their respective teams.
• Word around the industry says that the Mets are bound to get at least 1 top 100 prospect from a team this season. "They're bound to screw somebody over..." Said an NL executive.