Mack – Weekly Mets Recap

Rafael Montero – Montero hasn’t sold me yet, but he is getting closer. He’s the kind of pitcher that will always lead the team in base on balls given up, but that’s okay if he also leads the team in K/9 ratio. The Mets definitely don’t need another opening day starter, but, as I have outlined in past recaps, the bullpen is far from set. He’ll play 2017 as a 26-year old and we have to remember that he pitched in 34 games last year for the Mets. Las Vegas, and Binghamton. That’s six more than he did in 2014, his last highest total. He continues to avoid injuries and still leads the team in strikeouts this spring. Maybe we finally have something here.

Saturday's five scoreless innings almost has me for earning a bullpen slot out of camp next week. The key stat her is his lack of giving up too many walks here. Base on balls has been his downfall and if he can find accuracy to add to his God given talent, we got ourselves another pitcher folks!

Curtis Granderson - There's not much left to determine in spring training, and the last thing that would happen would be Granderson being cut, but it is his job to prove to the brass that he should start most of the games in Queens. He did a ton of good for himself with his massive home run on Wednesday at Trad... err... what do they call it now? Click Park?  He followed that up with another homer in the sixth to tie it up at 9-9.

Steven Matz - Simply put, Matz had a shit outing on Wednesday. Do I worry? No. Should he? Well, there are seven guys vying for five spots. Spring training is coming to and end so I think Matz is safely a member of the roation, but it would have been nice to see something better than five earned runs given in two innings. Note: He did get his pitching act together after the first two innings. One more outing to go for him this spring.

Zack Wheeler - Wheeler topped out at 95 on Wednesday. Through 26 pitches in his first inning. He got stronger as he pitched... five straight strikes in his third inning pitched, but then everything went to hell with the two home run balls. Normally, I would chalk this up to just a bad outing, but we only have less than two weeks for the start of the season. 

Syndergaard, Lugo, deGrom, and Gsellman seem ready. 

Wheeler, Matz, and Harvey do not. 

I'm just saying...

Michael Conforto - David Rubin's exclusive story that the Mets will start Conforto in Las Vegas clears a lot up and, frankly makes sense to me as an old executive that tried every year to add  profit to the bottom line. Playing Conforto for 55 more days at the AAA level will qualify him for one more year of arbitration eligibility. This could easily save the Mets a seven figure number in one year because of the projected talent of this guy.

More exciting is the exclusive news that Conforto will be converted to a center fielder while he sweats bullets in Vegas Town. This makes even more sense.

I wouldn't be surprised  to see see Conforto in Queens well before September and his conversion to center could create an all-star sell off of Juan Lagares and his back ended contract.

Matt Harvey – I saw nothing from Harvey on Monday that makes me feel he is any closer to being ready for opening day. Sure, his fastball hit 96, but what good is that if you don’t leave the game with the lead? I’m sure you’ve read a bunch of stories written by members of the beat press that they were impressed with what they saw from Harvey. As I said, I’m not.

I will say in his defense that coming back from major surgery and throwing a baseball with pinpoint accuracy at 95+ miles per hour takes time and since Harvey was on a strict off season no-throw dictate, this is the time he is given to get his act together. Is it together? In my opinion, no.

He seems to be trailing deGrom, Matz, and Wheeler in their post-surgery rehab and I currently see no reason for him to be slotted about Lugo and Gsellman either. This being said, leaving him back in St. Lucie to rehab is doing no one any good. The least you have to do is give him 5-6 starts in Queens and see how that turns out. If things go well, you can get on the phone and begin the process of moving the Grey Knight to castles elsewhere. If things go bad, well, I have no idea what to do then…

Seth Lugo - Sure, I know he gave up four runs in the WBC final but this guy would be either an SP2 or SP3... right now... for half the teams in the league. I'm a 'go with what you got' kind of guy and, on my opening day roster, Lugo would be the SP3 behind Syndergaard and deGrom (Gsellman not far behind). As I said earlier in this post, where the fifth slot goes should not be Lugo's concern. That's just the way I see it.

Robert Gsellman - Gsellman sailed through his Thursday (1.56-ERA), and next to last, spring outing which just strengthened my case for a Syndegaard-deGrom-Lugo-Gzz SP1-4 lineup come opening day. These are the four best starters coming out of camp. Period.

Noah Syndergaard - One thing about Syndergaard's Friday outing. The only trouble he had was caused by himself. Houston's Derek Fisher had three stolen bases, the tird of which put him in position to plate himself for their first run in the fifth inning. This doesn't happen if Thor had a faster pitching motion. It wasn't even fast enough on a pitch out to throw Fisher out.

Travis d'Arnaud - TD is 0-12 this spring in throwing out runners.