Good
morning.
Let’s
face it…
We’ve
had four basic things to be happy about this season… Steven
Matz, Noah Syndergaard, the league
leading bullpen, and our genuine most valuable player candidate, Yoenes Cespedes.
For
those of you that are stat dead… Yo is tied for first in the National League in
home runs, leads the league in runs batted in, leads the league in slugging
percentage, and leads the league in OPS.
Everybody’s
coming up with their theories regarding what’s wrong with Matt Harvey these
days. Here’s
Eno Sarris/ Fangraphs
with his thoughts –
He is down in velocity, but
maybe not as much as Harper was reporting. Down more than a mile per hour (94.0
from 95.2), and a little bit further down in yesterday’s disasterpiece against
the Nationals (93.5). We’ve got it. High fives all around. Velocity loss! Except.
He’s had four games this year that were within a half mile per hour of last
year’s pace, and his game against the Padres on May 8th featured a 94.9 mph
velocity that was nearly flush with 2015’s numbers. Except. His loss in
velocity is not too far off the normal loss a starter would see from the ages
of 26-27 years old. After yesterday’s game, he’s probably two-tenths or
three-tenths worse than average, and it seems crazy to blame all of this on
that much velocity loss. Except. Mike Fast once
told us how much a tick on the gun is worth! A loss of a mile per hour on the
gun should be worth about 0.26 runs allowed per nine innings.
Mack – There’s much more in the
article… check it out.
On that
Wednesday, July 18, 2007, Colón faced the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, for that was
still their name. And in the fourth inning, Bartolo walked two batters in a
row. First B.J. (now Melvin Jr.) Upton worked a full count before drawing ball four.
Then Carlos Peña walked on four pitches. The
next batter was Delmon Young, who singled on a
3-1 count.
Since that moment, Colón has
thrown over 1,070 innings. He’s vanished from the league and returned again.
Mad Men and Breaking Bad have started and finished. And in all that time, in
literally the entire major-league career of Evan
Longoria, Colón did not issue two walks in a row again until May 18,
2016.
Let that sink in for a moment.
The last time Bartolo Colón had issued
back-to-back walks, current Mets ace was 14 years old.
Mack – This is
also the first year Mack’s Mets existed on this platform. Wow.
About Binghamton’s upcoming name change -
“I
don’t have a problem with the name change, but the names are absurd,” said Dave Scull, 68, a retired software engineer who has
been a season-ticket holder since the team came to town.
Scull said that among the fans
he had talked to, the reaction was “100 percent negative.” Though he does not like
any of the names, Scull said that, if pressed, he would go with Bullheads. But
he complained that the bullhead fish and the turkey that inspired Gobblers are
prevalent throughout the Northeast, not just in the Binghamton region.
“The choices seem really odd,”
said Andy Papaleo, the 34-year-old owner of a
D.J. company who has followed the team since boyhood. “They say they are a part
of Binghamton history; I’ve lived there all my life, and I’ve never heard any
of these terms.”
Mack – The Binghamton Stud
Muffins? Really?
Who gets dropped from the 40 man for Ty Kelly?
ReplyDeleteHow about the Mud Stuffins instead? That makes as much sense.
ReplyDeleteMatt Harvey will come back with a vengeance, like Tudor did in 1985.
I wonder if Duda's back is from too much BP. Protect the back, Jack. If he goes on DL, TJ Rivera (.378) is red hot and deserving of a shot.
Thor is Gooden 1985, speaking of that phenomenal year.
Somewhere, d'Arnaud is rehabbing. Pat Mazelka playing again and can't keep him off base. Maybe he will move fast and be our next catcher by 2018?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteStunning that 12 months ago, Thor was just getting here and Matz was not yet on the scene. Both are GREAT.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDallas, Don't forget TJ Rivera who is smoking the ball in AAA. He def deserves a look. Bet he could hit more consistently than David Wright this year. With all due respect David.
Don't get fooled by sweep friends! We swept the Brewers which was needed. However this is obviously a weak hitting team outside a select few. We don't have the bats we thought we had in mid April. How bout this? Duda, Wright, and Grandy. Duda could be lost for a significant time, Wright cannot mash anymore and is striking out almost 50%, and Grandy has his productive HR's here and there but he has trouble beating that nasty shift they put on him. Grandy currently hitting around 200. Neil Walker is out of place batting 5th in the order "protecting Cespedes" Walker has slipped from his hot start predictably and is not a 5th place hitter. As for Catcher Kevin Plawecki is supposed to hit but.... Upcoming schedule has us facing tough teams next couple of weeks starting with important division matchup tonight. A lot to play out . Pull for Harvey boys. We need him
Besides the obvious the other main concern in Travis D'Arnaud right now is that he's quickly become 27years old already. I mean my goodness hes been in the league since 2013 and a part of my brain still thinks of him as a rookie/prospect because of how little hes played.
ReplyDeleteSo even if he shows up next year 100% healthy he'll be 28 and while being too lazy to back it up with stats I think there's been a string of top offensive catchers of youth who already were declining by age 28-29.
And another part of brain keeps wondering when the no Ks and all doubles college Plawecki will translate to the mlb.
When listing things to be happy about, it's hard to leave off Michael Conforto. He's got a .912 OPS overall and after a tough start to May, he's come back strong, with a .998 OPS in his last 10 games.
ReplyDeleteLeft to a public poll, we get Donald Trump and the UK gets a polar research vessel named "Boaty McBoatface." (Brit Scince Minister had veto power over the poll & named the ship RRS Sir David Attenborough). Hoping the Binghampton powers that be have similar oversight--otherwise there will be future Stud Muffin call-ups.
ReplyDeleteAlways thought "Bingo Knights" had a ring to it, don't you think?
I would be fine with Rivera or Kelly, but Rubin indicates Kelly was kept out of the lineup in AAA and is the likely candidate.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how they can say Harvey is only just over 1 MPH slower than last year! Last year the fun was saying between 97-99. This year between 92-94 with the rare occasional 95. I say he's about 4-5 mph off, not 1
ReplyDeleteMorning Mack and guys! Here is a out of the box suggestion!! Call up Herrera,and move Walker over to 1st
ReplyDeleteI'd rather move 1 player than 2!!! Cause I believe Wright is athletic enough to play 1st and have Walker play 3rd, which he has in the past! But that's moving 2 pieces instead of 1
ReplyDeleteVelocity is just one way in which fatigue can manifest itself in a pitcher.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the amount of spin created, location, opening the body up earlier resulting in the batter getting a better look at the ball, and probably even more....
A determined pitcher like Harvey can focus and "bull-dog" his way to push one of these areas, but most likely, that will result in pulling from another of the areas.
For example: "bull-dogging" to increase the velocity of the fastball can result in a decrease of location control and opening the body more.
Harvey's performance is not really a mystery. There is a reason that the Mets were cautious and worried about over extending him last year. There is a reason that the Mets tried to limit his daily and yearly pitches last year.
Circumstances required Harvey to extend past the recommended innings/pitches plan the Mets preferred (especially after recovering from Tommy John surgery).
His body is recovering. It needs time. His body is not currently capable of operating at 100% efficiency.
The best thing for him to do is to understand what his body is capable of at this time. Learn how to best get outs according to what he is capable of doing at this time.
The more he tries to "bull-dog" his abilities above his current comfort level, the more he will cause the other abilities to diminish.
He will also create a more probable situation in which injury can occur by over exerting the high precision pitching-machine that is his human body.
Yes, currently, and probably through much (if not all of this year) Harvey may have to settle for operating at a less than 100% level. If he handles it correctly, there is no reason his body can not recuperate in order for him to return to previous levels.
In fact, if he uses this time to learn how to pitch with a Colon-like game plan. He can learn how to be an even better, more efficient pitcher by changing his 98 mph fastball into 3 different fastballs that may vary in speed from 90 mph to 95 mph, that each behave differently with different movement.
I wonder if there are any studies on the hangover affect of pitchers that pitched deep into the postseason. Did many of them have a decrease the following year followed by an improvement after that?
ReplyDeleteI think we started seeing the fatigue in DeGrom/Harvey near the end of last year. They both battled but their September ERA's were 4.5 & 5.0 respectively.
I have to think the Ty Kelly move is the one they are making unless then plan on playing a man short today or Herrera/Rivera took a red eye.
I forgot Conforto
ReplyDeleteA failure of Sandy's farm that the Mets don't have even a faintly reasonable option for 1B in the system.
ReplyDeleteOr third, for that matter.
I don't think the Mets shift Walker around unless there's a long-term need. Just don't see him going to 1B if Duda is only on 15 Day DL. Same with moves to 3B. He might do it, maybe, but I suspect only if it's a season-long shift. I doubt he wants to bounce around.
Jimmy P
Tweet from Dicomo
ReplyDeleteAnthony DiComo 7m
NY Post reports INF/OF Ty Kelly has arrived in DC, which hints at a DL stint for Lucas Duda. Kelly was batting .391/.478/.548 at AAA.
Does this mean it's on to the 60-Day for TdA?
ReplyDelete