The Morning Report 4.28.2015 | Pace of Play, Flores Deserves Better, Syndergaard Dominates, A New Tommy John Procedure

Pace of Play Results | Chris Soto: Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred was on the Mike and Mike in the Morning radio today and referenced that the new pace of play rules have reduced game times by an average of 8 minutes so far. I wonder if last night's Mets @ Marlins was factored into that cause boy were they flying last night. I'm sitting in the bar during my billiards match, it's only 8:15pm and I look up at the TV screen to check on the score. I needed a second set of eyes to confirm what I thought was a SNY blunder when the TV showed Top of the 6th inning already!

Bryan Zarpentine | Rant Sports- With wins in 14 of their first 19 games, it’s difficult to find things that the New York Mets could be doing differently. However, one thing that manager Terry Collins could change is to move shortstop Wilmer Flores out of the bottom of the batting order and into the middle of it. Despite a slow start to the season, Flores has persevered and found his way, catching fire over the past week and a half. At one point, he put together an eight-game hitting streak, improving his line to .276/.323/.448 three weeks into the season. Flores was a run producer throughout his time in the minors, and he is now showing signs of being just that; however, his talents are being wasted batting down in the order, often in front of the pitcher’s spot.

(Chris Soto: I agree with Bryan on both points here. A) With the Mets doing so well...it's hard to change anything that Terry Collins is doing. B) Flores DESERVES to be hitting higher in the line-up and quick frankly is a better fit in the 2 hole than Lagares is. Sure, Juan is hitting .306 so far this season....but that's on a .403 BABIP, a paltry .051 Isolated Power rate, and he's K'ing at a 22% rate. He's not going to be able to sustain that batting average if those trends last much longer. Meanwhile Flores is hitting .274 on a league average BABIP, his ISO is a strong .161 [which is 8th best amongst SS], and his K rate is ~6 points lower than Lagares' [16.4%]. As soon as Lagares begins to struggle, move than man up and drop Lagares to 7th in the order.)


Anthony DiComo | MLB.com- Making up the start he missed last Friday due to illness, Syndergaard delivered the best statistical outing of his Triple-A Las Vegas career on Monday, throwing a two-hitter with nine strikeouts in Game 1 of a doubleheader against Albuquerque. Because Minor League doubleheaders consist of two seven-inning games, Syndergaard's effort was a complete game. Monday's outing lowered his season ERA from 4.70 to 2.45. Syndergaard has struck out 16 batters with six walks in 14 2/3 innings.

(Chris Soto: That's more like Thor! Syndergaard had us worried for a bit with the late start to the season, the rumored forearm pain, Twitter exchanges, and illnesses, but he put that all to bad with his awesome start last night. The club is continuing to stay patient with him though as sadly, but fortunately, there is STILL no spot for Rafael Montero.....let alone Syndergaard. The starting rotation has just been so good from top to bottom so far this season. Just like with the Lagares/Flores argument....if it ain't broke, don't fix it.)


Mike Vorkunov | New Jersey Advance Media- Generally, pitchers who need Tommy John surgery fall into two categories: Those have partial tears of their UCL and those that have full tears. For those with full tears, like Zack Wheeler, surgery is unavoidable. But for those with partial tears, like Matt Harvey and Masahiro Tanaka, who sometimes try rest and rehab before settling for surgery, Dugas believes he has a possibly less invasive option. Dugas' solution is a surgery that uses collagen-dipped super-tape. "Strong enough to tow a car with, basically," he says. The tape is then attached to each end of the ligament and to the bone with an anchor, repairing the UCL back to where it tore off. He believes this surgery can become an alternative to full UCL reconstruction. So far, Dugas has performed this kind of surgery only 30 times over the past 20 months and not each patient has been a pitcher. They have also primarily been high school and college players. But all have returned to their same baseline performance in six months and with full range of motion.

(Chris Soto: If you have a free moment....check this article out. Doctor Dugas addresses a significant problem that is plaguing the MLB right now with the massive amount of UCL injuries. He brings up a good point, if person A has a 40% tear and person B has a 100% tear....Why are they getting the same surgery? Dr. Dugas' new approach would cut recovery times by between 50% - 66% which would have been significant for a guy like Harvey, who had to sit out the entire 2014 season for what was described as a "less than 50% tear of the UCL.")