Meet the Mets
We did it you guys, the Mets are Champtions of the World! What? It's only been three games? Whatever. All I know is a million times this.
Yes, the Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves, as newly-extended Jon Niese flirted with a no-hitter, but since he's a Met, somehow ended up getting charged with four runs in six innings of work instead of sealing the deal. Looks like he needs to brush up on his Pablo Neruda and stop taking advice from Mystery. Ruben Tejada had four hits from the leadoff spot which might make Terry Collins rethink this declaration.
The Nationals come to town starting tonight with Edwin Jackson taking on Mike Pelfrey in the opener. However Big Pelf pitches, good or bad, I am sure it will all be one big troll. Wednesday is the fiftieth anniversary of the Mets' first game and you can snag tickets for $2.50. Not a bad price to catch a Strasburg/Santana match-up.
One thing to keep an eye on this week is if Ike Davis can get going. He's started the season 0-11, which isn't a big deal, but has looked completely overmatched by offspeed stuff, which might be.
But today is not a day for bad news. Let's keep the positivity flowing!
To wrap up the Mets news with some light arithmetic, MGL checks the math on the new dimensions of Citi Field.
Around the NL East
The Braves should have Chipper Jones back in the line-up by the time they get back to Atlanta. I'm just sad Larry couldn't be here to witness this weekend.
The Nationals fell to the Cubs, finally answering this dude's polite request. Jeff Samardzija looked pretty good in the win, so I guess I may have to learn how to spell his name after all.
More bad news for the Nats, as 2011 first round pick Anthony Rendon was carted off the field in Lynchburg Saturday night after suffering an ankle injury. Good news is it isn't the same ankle he previously broke, and it ended up being just a sprain, though it sounds bad enough that he might miss a couple of weeks at least.
The MarLOLins LOLpen led by Heath BeLOL blew a ninth inning lead against the Reds thanks to a game-tying blast from Jay Bruce and a walkoff single from Scott Rolen. LULZ!
Speaking of walkoffs that couldn't happen to nicer teams, the Pirates took the rubber game of their three game series with the Phillies on a walkoff hit from Andrew McCutchen. He got that hit off something called a "David Herndon," probably cause Charlie Manuel wanted to save Jonathan Papelbon for a save situation that never came. More like CharLOLie ManueLOL, amirite?
Around MLB
But all the other LOLpens from Sunday must give deference to the Red Sox's LOLpen. It's all good, though. I am sure the Boston media won't overreact to an opening weekend sweep. There's still 159 games to go. I look forward to Dan Shaughnessy's reasoned plea for reasonableness.
As long as we are piling on the schadenfreude, some winless team from the Bronx is still winless. But I doubt anybody will be overreacting to that either. Oh, and here's a gif of Carlos Pena doing Carlos Pena things. Yowzers!
Al Yellon thinks Jamie Moyer will be pitching well into his AARP years. Part of me hopes that Moyer makes it to 300 wins just so everyone's head explodes from the Hall of Fame arguments. Of course, the fact that Jamie Moyer is still pitching even right now is probably a sign that the Mayans were right and it'll all be a moot point.
Diamondbacks fans were already clamoring to see Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs even before Josh Collementer stunk up the joint yesterday against the Giants. I imagine those will get louder now. Now, I have a soft spot for guys with funky deliveries, but when you have more deception than stuff, eventually the league tends to catch up to you.
Finally, MGL takes on some conventional baseball wisdom over at The Book blog. I think he and an animated version of Tom Tango (gotta predict his identity) should start their own baseball-centric Mythbusters show. Though I don't know if SQL queries and Monte Carlo simulations make for very exciting television.