Streak Preview

      Early in the 2013 baseball campaign, the New York Mets have been a team of streaks. They began the season winning their first two, then promptly losing their next two. Then they won three in a row, then lost two in a row. They're currently riding a two game winning streak as they get set to start a four game series against the Colorado Rockies tonight at Coors Field.
      The Major League baseball season is a long drawn-out journey filled with hills and valleys, highs and lows. If the season was a race, it would more resemble the NYC marathon then the 40 yard dash. So it is with great trepidation that I start trying to make any categorizations 11 games into the season with such a small sample size to work with. With that being said, if you delve a little deeper into how the Mets have won games thus far, particularly who the starting pitcher was, you might find an interesting pattern developing.
      The Mets record stands at a very respectable 7-4. They have now gone through their stating rotation two and a half times now, with two their two best pitchers Jonathan Niese and Matt Harvey both getting 3 starts each. In those games, the Mets record is an astounding 6-0. When getting a start from anyone else in the rotation the Mets record is a dismal 1-4. Their only win coming on a Aaron Laffey start against the putrid Marlins, in which they needed a Marlon Byrd walk-off hit to win the game.
      Coincidence...? Possibly, but my better judgement tells me otherwise. Their mini winning and losing streaks have directly correlated with who's turn it was in the rotation. You can make a case that all teams in MLB have a much higher winning percentage when they have their "top of the rotation" guys on the mound, in which case you would be absolutely correct!.. But unlike other teams the Mets seem to have a massive, almost frightening, drop off in talent the further you go down the rotation. It is also not out of the realm of possibility that the stark difference seems more prevalent and glaring because of the unbelievable success Matt Harvey has had. Again 11 games is such an extremely small sample size, but these 2-3 game win streaks followed by 2-3 game losing streaks could be a sign of things to come for this team.
      This is exactly why Dillon Gee's start tonight looms very large in my eyes. Gee(0-2) has had one really good start (San Diego) and one really bad start (Philadelphia) and in both cases he has taken the loss. His ERA coming into tonight's game is 7.71. Gee has to be that consistent, middle of the rotation, inning eater for the Mets to have a chance. He goes up against RHP Juan Niasion (1-0) of the Rockies who comes into tonight's game with a 4.91 ERA. First pitch at 8:40 pm. Let's go Mets!