First up is Jake Arietta who is better than his ERA (5.89) makes him look. He has an xFIP of 3.57 and some pretty good component stats. His k/9 sits just above 8 and his bb/9 is 2.67. He is having his best year yet but his career stats and projections suggest he won't keep it up. The wildcard being that he is young enough that his career stats and projections could not matter at all and he could just keep getting better.
Next up is Tommy Hunter, son of famous A's pitcher Catfish Hunter (no he's not, I made that up). The good and not made up news for Mets fans is that Tommy Hunter is a terrible pitcher. He currently has an ERA/xFIP of 5.58/4.82 and is striking out only 4.82 batters per 9 innings. His fWAR currently sits at negative .2. The Mets should have no problem beating this guy up.
On Wednesday we should see Brian Matusz. Brian, in addition to need another vowel in his name is also in need of some good starts. His ERA,FIP and xFIP are all floating dangerously close to 5. He throws an average amount of strike outs at 7.23/9 but is an absolute walk machine with a bb/9 of 4.18. Again this is the kind of guy the Mets need to beat.
On the offensive side the star of the team has been Adam Jones. He is leading the AL in WAR with a 3.7 and behind only Votto and Wright on the all MLB list. His numbers thus far have been absolutely amazing, he is currently hitting .311/.360/.583 with 18 homers and 9 stolen bases. I am looking forward to watching Dickey shut him down tonight. Former Met alert, look out for Endy Chavez and Ronny Paulino both now in the O's lineup.
As a team the Orioles are 39-27. They have scored 299 runs and given up 284 runs.
Met's June record
ReplyDeleteWhen Mets score first:7-2
When opposition scores first:0-7
Clearly the Mets need to score first right now because unlike earlier in the year where the offense would come alive in the later innings, the mets can't seem to come behind right now.
ERA in Innings1-3
Dickey(1.85) vs Arrieta(5.36)
Santana(4.82) vs Hunter(3.25)
Gee(4.15) vs Matusz(4.03)
The reason that Mets are really good in Dickey's starts and decent in Santana are that they usually good in the first couple innings, which allow the mets to score first. Santana's ERA is skewed by 2 really bad outings vs Braves and Yanks.
The mets are also lucky that they get the Orioles lesser 3 pitchers and miss the red-hot Hammel and Chen.
A sweep isn't out the question but if i had to bet id say they only take 2 out of 3 this series.