Mets Lineup

Leading off for the Mets is Jose Reyes. The best lead-off man in baseball. He’s stolen 64 bases, being caught 17 times.

Jose is a switch-hitter that is measurably better against lefties, with higher BA, OBP, and better power numbers when he’s hitting right-handed.

Lifetime against Weaver: 2 of 11, 0 K’s
Lifetime against Suppan: 2 of 6, 1 HR.

Notable: Feasts on two Cardinal pitchers. Mulder and Marquis. 1-3 against Carp.

Conclusion: Don’t pitch Mulder or Marquis. The Cards pitchers have had success against Jose. We must keep him off base. The Molina/Reyes battle should be fun. As an aside, that was a nice Harold Reynolds face (think Bo Jackson throw in Seattle) that Dave Roberts made after being nailed by Yadier. I watched that ball track from home to second. Gravity appeared suspended. Yadier has a gun. Word is the ball took 1.68 seconds from Yadier's glove to second. Sounds like a record, or something.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Willie Randolph gives Reyes the stop sign, or does a lot of hit and run plays with Reyes on. Why run into an out with all that firepower coming up?

Paul LoDuca. Very consistent, with numbers similar against lefties, righties, at home, and on the road.

Lifetime against Weaver: 3 of 9, all singles.
Lifetime against Suppan: 6 of 16 with two doubles.

Notable: 4 of 8 against Marquis. 2-6 against Carp.

Conclusion: LoDuca is a disciplined hitter that is a tough out. He struck out only 38 times this season, so he’s a definite hit and run candidate. He doesn’t hit for much power, with only 5 HR this year.

Carlos Beltran: Surprisingly bad at home, with a .224 ave and a slugging pct under .500. He’s a monster on the road. Far, far better against righties, hitting only .247 against southpaws. Expect all his late inning ab’s to be against Tyler Johnson, and perhaps even fifth or sixth inning at-bats to be against Flores.

Lifetime against Weaver: 42 at bats. 11 hits, 2 2B’s, 2 3B, and 3 HR, .267 BA. 4 K’s
Lifetime against Suppan: 2 of 11. 4 K’s

Notable: 4 of 19 against Carp, with 4 K’s.

Conclusion: Beltran hit 41 HR this year. Weaver gave up a lot of homers to lefties. This would be the biggest matchup of the game…but for…

Carlos Delgado. Like Beltran, he’s far better on the road then at home with a .226 BA at home and a BA of .304 on road. He’s also better against righthanding pitching, hitting only .226 against lefties. But the real story for game 1 is this, and sit down before reading:

Lifetime against Weaver: 19 of 38, 4 HR. 4 2B’s, 8 BB’s and 2 K’s.
Lifetime against Suppan: 6 of 29 w/1 HR and 4 K’s.

Notable: .600 BA against Marquis. 2 of 3 lifetime against Carp.

Conclusion: Weaver needs to bean Delgado. Simple as that. Someone tell Bob Gibson to have a talk with Weaver.

David Wright: Consistent splits between home and road. Actually a little better against righties than lefties. Had a lousy August, but really came on in September; hitting .360 for the final month. He’s locked in. However, his power numbers have really dropped. He’s hit only four HR since August 1.

Lifetime against Weaver: 3 of 7 with 3 2B’s.
Lifetime against Suppan: 1 for 4.

Notable: To be fair to Marqius, Wright is 3 of 14 lifetime against Marquis, 0-3 against Carp with 3 K’s.

Conclusion: We need to keep him from busting out of his power slump. He can definitely hurt us when he’s hot.

Shawn Green: A lefty, but that’s about the best you can say about him anymore. He hit under .250 as a Met, though he did hit .301 at Shea this year. His power isn’t what it was, as he hit just 15 HR this year.

Lifetime against Weaver: 5 of 16 with 2 HR against Weaver
Lifetime against Suppan: 3 of 24 with 5 K’s

Notable: 0-8 against Carp. 4K’s

Conclusion: He’s been moderately dangerous against Weaver, with the two homers. He’s not who he once was, and no one should confuse him with the Blue Jay that hit over 40 homers six years ago.

Jose Valentin: Decent hitter with good pop, far better against righties. Switch hitter. Will turn 37 on October 12.

Lifetime against Weaver: 7 of 26 (.269) w/ 1 KR and 5 K’s
Lifetime against Suppan: 12 of 48 (.250) w/4 HR and 9 K’s

Notable: 1 for 15 against Carp with 5 K’s

Conclusion: Again, not great carreer numbers against Weaver. He’s an all or nothing hitter, with 19 homers this season in somewhat limited playing time. He’ll hit 7th, and we need to keep him in the park.

Endy Chavez: Slap hitter that will bat about .300, but hit for extremely little power.

Lifetime against Weaver: 0-4
Lifetime against Suppan: 5 for 12 with 2 2B’s and 1 K

Notable: 0-11 against Carp.

Conclusion: Endy is playing because Floyd is out with an achilles injury (the third one to affect the Mets this postseason….is it the stairs at Shea?) Endy can be part of a rally, but isn’t going to create one by himself.

I'll do a game by game analysis on the respective gamedays. However, to save you the math, the Mets are hitting a collective .147 against Carpenter. That sounds nice. I included a lot of Marquis stats just to show he sucks against the Mets. We honestly don't need stats to tell us Marquis will suck if he pitches in game 4.