NY Mets vs Arizona Diamonbacks, In the fiery crucible of competition

In a classic case of East Coast entitlement vs West Coast image insecurity, we have a quartet of throw-downs with those striving Metropolitans.  What's special about this?  The Mets are bolstered by a new group of young arms that could be the making of a very talented staff.  They're going with a 6 man rotation (when it's convenient) because of reasons.  They're playing Lucas Duda... just imagine, you get to say Lucas Duda for four days straight and if you decide to break out into a rendition of Old MacDonald's Farm, no one should look askance....  They have Matt Harvey, the guy who makes the MLB talking heads swoon.  Jacob DeGrom, last year's NL Rookie of the Year, also toes the rubber for them, as well as,Noah Snydergaard.  Snydergaard looks like the next great young Met arm to join their rotation and he appears to hit well too.   On offense, they have an eclectic mix of veteran bats, none of whom scares you per se, yet they've been effective enough to keep the Mets in contention in the NL East. and four games above .500

All of this AND you get to see Bartolo Colon at bat  and potentially run the bases with all of the grace of Dr. Zin's Robot Spy, thankfully sans the submission antennae option(and with our staff, that is a definite possibility) .

Duda, Duda indeed......

WHO'S NEW?

Well the Mets now have former DBack destroyer Michael Cuddyer haunting their clubhouse, expect to see him in their lineup a few times.  Also, old Padres reliever Alex Torres (of the padded hat) now occupies a spot in their bullpen.  Quite a few rookies will be seen for the first time, the aforementioned Snydergaard, their starting catcher Kevin Plawecki and a few assorted relievers as the Mets are looking for the right combination to tread water, as they do without the services of catching phenom Travis D'Arnaud (man, if that isn't a super-villian handle, I'm not sure what is) and the possibly cursed by Anubis,  David Wright.

MOMENTUM

The Mets are 5-5 in their last 10 and 3-12 over their last 15 road games as they dropped 2 of three to the Padres

PITCHING MATCHUPS

There are no marquee matchups because Jason Marquis is playing for the Reds, but regarding hurlers of these two teams, I think we'd be hard-pressed to cite anyone on the Az starting rotation that merits that designation.  Nevertheless.... here's how they'll matchup:

Harvey (5-3) Vs. Hellickson (3.3)

Niese (3-5) vs Anderson (1-1)

Colon (8-3) vs. Bradley (2-3)

DeGrom (6-4)  vs Collmenter (3-5)

I would happily admit that the Mets staff looks more accomplished, but Hellickson hasn't sucked quite so hard as of late, and Anderson and Collmenter show that while they aren't dominating, they are competitive.  Bradley... well who knows, perhaps he has been replaced by a Korchek-like substitute and we need to find our own Jade to get to the bottom of the mystery

TACO FACTOR

Considering the ERA of both Colon and Niese, I would put this as a 2 of 4, but no guarantee of wins, just runs... besides, this team appears to hit against the aces and the back of rotation guys can give us fits, you just never know with our bunch.

MADE UP FACT

Darrell Ciciliani does not have any ties to organized crime, because what self respecting mafioso would name their kid Darrell?