4/9/15

The Morning Report 4.9.2015 | Harvey Day Returns!, Kluber signs extension, Sandy has some fun


  • At least we don't have to worry about trying for a perfect season anymore. Jordan Zimmerman was excellent last night and was the beneficiary of a few "less than ideal" calls as well as some excellent defense from 3B Yunel Escobar and 1B Ryan Zimmerman. deGrom was just as good as J. Zim and made only 1 mistake in the entire. Honestly...it wasn't even a mistake, I can't believe Ryan Zim was able to turn on that inside fastball. As a side note, boy was Montero solid out of the pen last night.
  • The Cleveland Indians announced that they signed AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber to a 5 year $38.5M extension as they begin locking up a long term core for the future. The significance for the Mets is that it's builds a decent base should the club engage their own CY Young candidate Matt Harvey in extension talks. Both guys in their 1st seasons posted 3.30 FIP, both guys in their second seasons posted CY Young caliber numbers and K rates near 10 per 9 innings, and both guys entire 2015 with 2 years and 70ish days of service time under their belts. Kluber's deal covers all 3 arbitration years as well as 1 free agent years and contains 2 club options that can be worth up to $35.5M.  If Harvey comes out and dominates, he will probably get a little more money that Kluber but the 5 yr/$38.5M is an excellent starting point.



Associated Press | CBS New YorkTerry Collins was meeting with reporters, preparing for questions about lineup decisions, when GM Sandy Alderson spoke up from the back of the room.
“Hey, Terry. Here’s your lineup for tomorrow,” Alderson said, then reached over and handed a blue card to Collins. Finishing the bit, Collins put the prop in a pocket and joked, “I was waiting for that all day.” Before their team even played its second game of the season, Collins and Alderson were drawn into a debate over whether the skipper or the front office is figuring out who bats where.

(Chris Soto: Gotta admit....that was quite funny. Alderson listens, he hears what fans are saying and sometimes he likes to have fun with the crazy conspiracy theories that are thrown around. According to TC, Bench Coach Bob Geren is actually the creator of the new line-up but that didn't stop Sandy from having a little fun with it. In my opinion, we honestly cannot draw any conclusions from only 3 games of data, especially considering we are facing Strasburg, Zimmerman, and Scherzer. I'll give this line-up until the end of the opening home stand before I draw a conclusion on it's results.)


Matt Vaccaro | New York Post- 
Harvey’s better! Harvey’s better! Harvey’s better! “It makes that matchup going forward even more special,” Harvey said. So that will make everything about Thursday — save for the weather, which is supposed to be even colder and rawer than it was on April 19, 2013 — perfect, when Harvey returns to a major league mound in a regular-season game for the first time in 593 days. Harvey versus Strasburg is precisely the kind of marquee pitching matchup designed to bring the best out of both pupils of Boras U.

(Chris Soto: It's here, the day we've all been waiting for. The Dark Knight of Flushing returns to the mound tonight in a role that he is meant to be in. The series is tied 1-1 against the Nationals...winning today means a leg up in the NL East heading into an opportunity to build that lead against weaker divisional opponents. The team needs a spark of any kind to fire up the offense and there is no bigger piece of flint then the return of arguably the best young SP in Mets history since Dwight Gooden. There's going to be electricity in the air today folks....and Harvey is going feed off of it, blow 98 mph fastballs by hitters, and prove once again why he's better.
)

LETS GO METS!

13 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Morning.
Sandy's having fun and yes, tonite is Harvey's chance to have fun too. Let's head to Hot-lanta 2-1.

Can't win 'em all is right. 1986 Mets that won 108 started out 2-3.

I'll take our duo of Harvey and deG over any other team's duo.

Christopher Soto said...

@Tom

Agreed.

FYI....today's a 1:10pm start time.

Reese Kaplan said...

Off topic, but I see Puello listed as injured with stress reaction (elbow) when I thought it was in his back...?

Tom Brennan said...

@ Reese: We could write a Puello jingle: "The back bone's connected to the elbow bone". He seems to be a low ebb topic for now.

@ Chris: So with 1 1:10 start, I'll be happy or sad by the time its quittin' time at work. I'm hoping for a "happy recap" commute.

Then on to the Braves, who will be due to lose this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the lineup and the grassy knoll, yes, now they say that Geren came up with the lineup on 2/18.

And so many people are like, "Oh, okay, it's not Sandy."

But what about Juan Lagares, who hit like crazy all Spring . . . after 2/18?

Oh, nevermind. It doesn't mean anything.

Forget I even mentioned it.

James Preller

Mack Ade said...

James -

You'll never hear them say it, but it means A LOT to the players

TP said...

Gents,
Never happy with a loss, be DeGrom threw very well as did Zimmerman. Most of all, Montero was very impressive, and there is no reason to think he won't continue to impress as he settles into the bigs. How well his secondary stuff develops is still open for debate, but his command with the FB is elite...he is a young artist. That alone should keep him in the bigs for a long time as long as that arm stays healthy...very glad he wasn't dealt.

eraff said...

If a Player bats 9th behind a Pitcher, I belieev he needs to serve as a "2nd lead off Hitter"--- I don't see a profile Match for Flores to do that. That would feel more like a Lagares assignment.

BTW--- it's two terrific Pitchers, and Scherzer can make you look bad and probably feel bad for days...BUT---Flores AB's just look realy, Really Bad---forget the Production or No...He looks terrible.

Mack Ade said...

Teams don't like to make player changes in the starting lineup in the first week of the season. Can send all the wrong signs.

That being said, Flores looks lost and looks like he has lost whatever confidence he had in the beginning of spring training (mostly played against minor league pitchers).

It might not be a bad time to rest him for one of the Braves game and play Tejada.

Steve from Norfolk said...

Flores might be in the very early stages of d'Arnaud syndrome - he's pressing. It's not his first trip to the bigs, but it's the first time he's had this much pressure on him.Might be a good time for Travis and Wilmer had dinner and let Travis share his experience last year. I know two games is nothing, but it wouldn't hurt to nip things in the bud. Doesn't hurt anyone.

eraff said...

I would keep rolling Flores Out There--- but the AB's are absolutely attrocious.... he's a strange looking hitter---I'm hoping he gets to Strange and Good

Tom Brennan said...

@ Steve - have to remember that his at bats so far have been vs. Scherzer and Zimmerman. Both clearly above average. I'm sure he'll settle in.

Steve from Norfolk said...

TB,

Could be I'm the one who's pressing. I really want to see our guys come out of the box hot. I'm past wanting meaningful games in October - I want to see a parade in early November!