The Mets will take on the Brew Crew for the second game in their three game set tonight. Niese will be making his debut for the Mets today and he will face sophomore pitcher Parra today. The Mets gained a game on the Phils yesterday, and the Phils still have to deal with the streaking Nationals. All the Mets need to do is to keep winning, and thats what they intend to do today.
I have written about Niese a twice. There was a prospect preview back in January and then that was updated in August. Niese is young, and still is doing a lot of development right now. His ERA has dropped during his time in the minors. From scouting reports, he tends to be a strikeout pitcher, but we will see how that translates in the majors. Here are his stats in the minors from this year:
AA- 6-7, 22 G, 124.1 IP, 44 BB, 112 K, 3.04 ERA
AAA- 5-1, 7 G, 39.2 IP, 14 BB, 32 K, 3.40 ERA
Its hard to remember that Niese is only 21 and putting up these numbers. I am sure there is debate about whether he is too young to be promoted (like should the Mets have waited to next year) but those questions will start to be answered tonight.
Parra is having a pretty good year. He is 10-5 over 148.2 innings pitched. His win totals have changed though drastically through the year. In hist first 16 games, he won 8 and only loss 2 putting up a 3.95 ERA. In his last 11 games, he has been 2-4 with a 4.06 ERA. Last month, he was 1-2 over 5 games with a 4.25 ERA. One of his two losses in the first part of year was from the Mets. When he faced them, they scored 3 runs fast knocking him out after 4 innings of work. Here are some Mets numbers against him:
Reyes 2-6
Delgado 1-5
Wright 1-4, BB
Easley 2-2
So same story that it always is for the Mets, score early, knock out the starting pitcher, get to their bullpen. It's a pretty basic recipe for success, but like many things in baseball, its much easier said than done. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Brew Crew!
