Meet the Mets.

(For the longest time I really thought the second line of the song was "Beat the Mets." which didn't make any sense but what are you gonna do? They're bridge and tunnel folk, they're not the most intelligent creatures to roam the planet.)


It was a good day when Johan Santana left the Twins for the National League. Sadly, the lefty returns to the Fens tonight. His command is impeccable; the man is a strike out machine and rarely gives out walks. He does seem to have contracted a case of Tim Wakefield syndrome this year--his offense has decided that because it's Santana pitching, they don't have to score many runs and so they don't. Jason Varitek has had the most success against Santana (8 for 18, with 1 home run, 1 walk, and six strike outs). Jason Bay and Dustin Pedroia are both 2 for 5 with a double (Bay also has a home run and a walk). No one else has seemed to be able to do much of anything with him. It would be an ideal night for Matsuzaka to be unhittable and not have a similar meltdown to the one he had last year when he came off the disabled list agaisnt St. Louis.


Mike Pelfrey is scheduled to start on Saturday. Pelfrey is a big, young righty who was once called a right-handed Randy Johnson. He is hittable, though. He pitches to contact and gets a good number of groundball outs. He has had command issues, with more walks (17) than strike outs (11) this season. Only Mark Kotsay has faced Pelfrey and he's gone 0 for 6, with a walk.


Sunday's starter is likely to be Tim Redding. Redding has bounced around a little bit, he started with Houston in 2001 and had a decent year in 2003. He was traded to the Padres in 2005 only to be sidelined for a month and a half with shoulder problems; was traded to the Yankees and made one dismal start for them (4 walks, 4 hits, 6 earned runs, 2 strike outs, 11 batters faced in one inning) against the Red Sox. He spent 2006 as a White Sox minor-leaguer; started 2007 in AAA for the Nationals and was a decent pitcher after a July call-up, until an elbow problem knocked him out in September. He played all of 2008 for the Nationals and while not particularly good at least he didn't break something. The Nationals, however, declined to offer him a contract at the end of last year and he latched on with the Mets. Unfortunately, the shoulder proved to be a problem for him again and he only made his first start of the season last week. He was decent in his start but walks were problematic. Historically, lefties have handled him well.

Offensively, the Mets aren't a huge power team (their home run leader is Carlos Beltran with six.) They hit well though, especially doubles and triples. They'll talk a walk and don't strike out too much (David Wright, on the other hand, has 41 strike outs so far this season.) Their best players are Wright, Beltran, and Carlos Delgado (Delgado is currently on the DL.) Another potential problem for the Mets is the loss of Jose Reyes to a leg injury; he's not on the DL but isn't likely to play in Boston. Also, Alex Cora won't be playing in Boston as he has injured his thumb. They will run but they don't seem to be very good at it, they lead the National League in both stolen bases and caught stealings.