June 18: PM Mets Links and Open Thread

New York Times – Tyler Kepner thinks the Mets are starting to resemble the 2005 Yankees.

Wall Street Journal – R.M. Schneiderman has the info on tonight’s OTHER subway series – the Brooklyn Cyclones visit the Staten Island Yankees to kick off the NY-Penn League season.

Wall Street Journal – Kevin Clark reports on Cyclones manager Wally Backman and his long road back to affiliated baseball.

OnTheBlack – Kerel Cooper breaks out the graphs to show how David Wright has cut down on his strikeouts. I imagine Kerel is a whiz when it comes to PowerPoint presentations. Take that as a request, Kerel.

MetsBlog – Matt Cerrone answers the question, “What is an extended spring training game?”

LoHud – Chad Jennings has the pitching matchups for the Mets-Yankees series:

Tonight
RHP Javier Vazquez (6-5, 5.43)
vs.
LHP Hisanori Takahashi (5-2, 3.48)
7:05 p.m., MY9

Saturday
RHP Phil Hughes (9-1, 3.11)
vs.
RHP Mike Pelfrey (9-1, 2.39)
1:05 p.m., YES Network

Sunday
LHP CC Sabathia (7-3, 4.00)
vs.
LHP Johan Santana (5-3, 3.13)
1:05 p.m., YES Network and TBS

TONIGHT’S GAME

The Mets (38-28) take on the Yankees (41-25) tonight at the house that public funds built. Hisanori Takahashi (5-2, 3.48) will be opposed by Javier Vazquez (6-5, 5.43).

Discuss…