Mack’s Morning Report – 4-29-16 – Matt Harvey, Jeurys Familia, Addison Reed, Cory Mazzoni, Vinnie Siena, Brandon Nimmo

Good morning.

You all know how and when I write my morning report. Most of the work is done in the daytime well before the night game of the same day. Example: Today is Thursday and, right now, I’m writing this Matt Harvey piece at around 10:30am.

In a perfect world, I should have written this is yesterday’s post which posted up the morning after he pitched his last game, but this just doesn’t fit my time clock anymore. So, I have to keep a check on the results of each game, just in case something I wrote doesn’t make sense when it posted up.

A good example of that would have been what I said last post about Jeurys Familia. It was written before ‘’last night’s’ (Wednesday) game. What if he pitched and game up six runs? You see what I mean.

So today… Thursday… I’m writing about Harvey’s last game on Wednesday… which will post up on Friday.

Sorry about that.

Everybody, including Harvey, has been concerned with his slow start, inconsistent mechanics, and decreased velocity this year. No one thought he was hurt; they just (frankly) considered this more mental than anything else. Harvey is a very emotional person and demands perfection when he reaches the mound. His game always seems to fall apart when he begins to not achieve that perfection.

The return of The Dark Knight seemed to begin on April 22^nd when Harvey won his first game of the season, struck out five in five innings, and gave up only two runs. He followed that up on Wednesday with his second win of the season, increasing his innings pitched to six, and striking out seven which giving up only two runs. That’s now 4 runs and 12 strikeouts in 13 innings…

Even more impressive was his last and 102^nd pitch… a 97 mile per hour strikeout to Jordan Pacheco.

There’s a way to go here, but I still truly feel that the secret to this guy’s game is in his head and don’t be surprised his next start doesn’t get even better.

From Brice Toth -

Hey Mack, I've been watching a lot of the games so far this season or at least have them on in the background while doing other things. One thing I've noticed so far about Familia recently is he's giving up hits but most of them are little dribblers or dinks that if we had infielders with more range they would be outs. Long way of saying, I think he has better than his numbers, at least recently. I feel like he has had a few close pitches not go his way either. Just my two cents.

Mack – Interesting observation. I live in South Carolina so I don’t get many Mets games so I don’t see him pitch player to player.

 Rotographs on Addison Reed –

Addison Reed is back in the SV column. However, don’t go running out to pick up the righty just yet, as he was merely vulturing a save from Jeurys Familia after the Mets closer had pitched the last three (and four of the last five) days. The former White Sox farmhand was solid, tossing a clean ninth with a lone punchout of Adam Duvall. While Reed’s 2015 was the worst (peripherally) of his big league career, there have been some positive signs through a few weeks of 2016. His SwStr% is well up, although there isn’t a significant change in pitch mix or velocity. Reed is also attacking the strike zone and getting ahead of hitters — his 70% F-Strike% would easily be the best mark of his career. It’s somewhat tenuous whether these small gains will persist as the calendar pages turn, but a hot start and his usage patterns show that Reed is (for now) the handcuff to own in Queens.

Mack – The Mets bullpen seems to be clicking on all their cylinders right now. I especially like what’s going on with Jim Henderson (1.17), Hansel Robles (1.80), and Logan Verrett (0.55). I’m not exactly sure what kind of move will be made when Josh Edgin is named healthy and ready to return.

From Reese Kaplan –

Last year the Mets made a rather unsuccessful trade when they sent Cory Mazzoni and a PTBNL to the San Diego Padres for Alex Torres (and his cap).  The Mets in August of 2015 DFA'd Torres and he finished up the year in the minors for Las Vegas.

This week what goes around comes around as Cory Mazzoni was DFA'd by the El Paso Chihuahuas (AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres).  Sometimes you hear people talk about the trades that work out for both sides.  Here's a case of one that worked for neither.

Mack – Look… the Mets have traded an awful lot of young pitchers away lately, but, so far, none have come back to bite the team in the ass while, at the same time, the team is one-for-one in becoming the NL Champs by benefiting from players received in those trades.

I have no problems with what the Mets have done here.

Lexington 6 – Columbia 5  -  The Fireflies never trailed in their three-game series with the Lexington Legends until the eighth inning on Thursday night - that's when the visitors used a three-run frame to take a 6-5 lead and down Columbia at Spirit Communications Park.

The Fireflies led, 5-3, to start the eight. Samir Duenez launched his second home run of the night off of Seth Davis (L, 1-1) to begin the frame. Ben Johnson and Cody Jones then followed with run-scoring hits to give the Legends the one-run edge.

Columbia (12-9) then went scoreless the final two innings. Manager Jose Leger's team has won six of its last eight heading into its four-game weekend series with the Kannapolis Intimidators.

The home team struck first, scoring runs in the first two innings. In the bottom of the first, Vinny Siena tripled - for the second straight night - and David Thompson drove him in after grounding out to the shortstop Marten Gasparini. Then in the second, J.C. Rodriguez doubled off of Legends starter Scott Blewett. Tyler Moore stepped to the plate three batters later and knocked home his teammate.

The Columbia lead expanded to three runs in the third inning. With two runners aboard, Joe Tuschak tripled for the second time this season. The Fireflies led 4-1 after three frames. Press release.

Lexington (9-12) responded with scores in the fourth and sixth innings to cut their opponent's lead to one run. In the bottom of the seventh, though, Thompson tattooed a fastball from reliever Kyle Kubat (W, 1-1) over the left-centerfield wall for his second dinger of the season.

Not to be forgotten, Columbia starter Thomas McIlraith pitched in effective six innings. He allowed just two earned runs and struck out a career-high nine batters. Team press release.

Las Vegas 8  -  Tacoma 1  (4.5 innings)  -  Las Vegas pounded out ten hits in four innings and beat Tacoma in a rain/wet ground shortened game.

CF Brandon Nimmo .242) broke out, going 3-3, 2-R, 1-double, and 3-RBIs… 3B Matt Reynolds was the only other player to produce multiple hits (.304, 1-R, 1-RBI).

Sean Gilmartin pitched the ‘complete’ five innings: 2-H, 1-ER, 5-K, 4-BB (?), 1.66.