Notes for a Friday Morning

• Many of us know that the Mets sent out a lineup of nine home-grown players for the first time since 1971. What you might not know is that the average age of those nine players is 25.2. David Wright is the senior of the bunch at 29. Only Wright and Ike Davis were taken in the first round (Ike 18^th, Wright in the supplemental).
• David Wright, Daniel Murphy, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis all rank in the top 15 hitters for average in the National League thus far. If Josh Thole had more at bats, he would be in the top 15 as well.
• Wright is second only to OF Matt Kemp in on-base percentage in the NL.
• According to FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement (WAR) rankings, Ike Davis has been the least valuable player in all of baseball (-0.7 wins) this season. Albert Pujols is only five spots behind him.
• The Mets have the 10^th youngest player in all of baseball (Ruben Tejada) and the 4^th oldest (Miguel Batista).
• Jose Reyes is now hitting .205 with 5 errors and a .263 OBP.
• The Atlanta Braves have lost seven games in 2012. Four of those seven losses have come against the Mets. 
• Phillies RHP Vance Worley is third in the National League in strikeouts (how???)
• Dodgers OF Matt Kemp now has 10 HRs in this young season and is currently leading all triple crown categories.
• The starting pitchers the Mets have faced so far this season are: Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurrjens, Mike Minor, Edwin Jackson, Ross Detwiler, Stephen Strasburg, Cliff Lee, Vance Worley, Cole Hamels, Tommy Hanson (again), Randall Delgado, Jair Jurrjens (again), Barry Zito, Ryan Vogelsong, Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, and Ricky Nolasco. With the exception of Zito, a struggling Jurrjens, and a Worley that I just do not think is that good, all of these pitchers are above average starters. In addition, seven of these games have come against I would consider baseball's elite (Lee, Hamels, Lincecum, Hanson(x2), Strasburg, Johnson). The Mets should be very pleased that they have 11 wins considering the starters they have faced.
• If the season were to end today, the Mets would be in the playoffs. Yes, we are only 11.7% deep into the 2012 season but keep in mind that this was a team that started last season 6-13. Contrast that against the 11-8 through the first 19 games facing good teams and good pitching. This all might mean very little in two weeks but this team is doing much better than I expected.

LGM