Mack’s Morning Report – 5-20-16 – Matt Harvey, Daniel Murphy, John Gant, Phillies Pen, Gary Ron & Keith

Good morning.


Nine runs in less that three innings is a horrible outing for any pitcher. For Matt Harvey, it could be season changing.

My hopes here is that the Mets shut Harvey down for some phantom injury, giving him some time to clear his head and go to the Port St. Lucie complex and work on his delivery. We're going to need him in the second half of the season and, for now, Logan Verrett could fill in.

A staff of Syndergard, deGrom, Matz, Colon, and Verrett is still better than most of the rotations in baseball.

FromTheRedSeats ‏@metsnark  - Right now looks like Mets should have resigned Murphy to play 1B and back up 3B. Then trade Duda. Too late.

Mack – Hindsight is always 20/20… I believe that the ‘qualified offer’ was the way for the Mets togo here, but, frankly, I don’t remember what developed after that. Did the Mets approach Murphy’s people past the QO offer and try and sign him to a longer deal or did Murphy approach the Mets? A thid option here was neither approached the other and all parties went their separate ways. I don’t remember (please bring me up to date…).

Right now, with Murphy’s high batting average, improved field play, Wright’s recurring injuries, and Duda’s continuing disappointment, this looks like a bad dead/decision by the Mets.

The Atlanta Braves have recalled ex-Met pitcher John Gant. Gant has been 3-0, 2.97, in six games, 5-starts this season for the AAA-Gwinnett team. He also was 0-0, 7.04, in four previous games for the parent club in Atlanta.

More on David Wright –

        Wright to ESPN –

"The back thing is just something that I'm going to have to get used to because it's not changing. But I feel like I can play at a much higher level than I'm playing at right now. I think that there are certainly some things I'm having to make adjustments with as far as preparation, as far as playing schedule, that I'm going to have to get used to. But when I go take the field I expect to play much better than I am right now. Today, in particular, I'm fouling off pitches I should be hitting. I'm swinging at some balls. It just seems like those pitches that are kind of borderline out of the strike zone, I chased a few of them today. It seemed like every at-bat I had pitches to hit and just fouled them off instead of putting them in play. The biggest thing I took out of tonight is I don't like hitting 0-1, 0-2. Those pitches I do get to hit early in the count, I'm putting good swings on them, just fouling them off. I need to find a way to put those pitches in play so I don't have to get down 0-1, 0-2."

I bet a lot of us have been wondering what the heck are the Phillies doing duking it out with both the Nats and Mets for first place. Well, check out this  Fangraphs article that features ‘baseball’s best bullpen –

One thing you notice is the Phillies’ record. It’s awfully good. Another thing you might notice is the run differential. Even since those first four games, the Phillies have had a negative run differential. As I write this, they’re between the Padres and the Yankees. They’re easily the team that’s most outplayed its BaseRuns estimated record. I don’t need to tell you what those things can mean, and I’m not real interested in going over that. I don’t think anyone needs to be convinced the Phillies aren’t this good. It’s just — I mean, we know that. But it’s amazing the Phillies have this record in the first place. How have they gotten to this point? How have the Phillies so overachieved? They’ve had the best bullpen in baseball.

Mack – Can they sustain this kind of pitching with a basically ‘no name’ pen?  Time will only tell.

Fangraph’s Top Broadcasters Ranking 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2016-broadcaster-rankings-tv-10-1/ -

                  3. New York Mets - Main Broadcasters: Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez

Ratings (Charisma/Analysis/Overall): 4.7, 4.5, 4.7

Three Reader Comments

• “A subtle but important part of the broadcast is that the three know their limits…. What’s more, [they] seem to genuinely like each other. Letting the others speak isn’t a chore and comes out of a genuine curiousity of what the others have to say.”

• “Their analysis doesn’t get too deep into sabermetrics, but they do provide rational scouting and mechanical explanations for things that happen in the game.”

• “They don’t spout old-school nonsense about complete games, clogging bases, or unwritten rules of conduct, nor do they glorify the ‘back-in-my-day’ approaches to the game.”

Notes - The ratings for the final three broadcast teams were mostly interchangeable when this same exercise was conducted four years ago. They remain that same way now. A number of respondents suggest that one of the defining characteritics of the Mets triuvirate has been their capacity to render the club’s games tolerable even during lean years. Which, that seems like a fair litmus test. Certain telecasts are almost certainly improved by a strong on-field team. It speaks to the skills of the broadcasters, however, when they’re able to remain palatable even under miserable conditions.

          Mack – Kudos to the boys…

Kirk Nieuwenhuis has a .396 OBP over 36 games for the Brewers... Also has a 1.1 WAR which would make him 3rd among Mets position players