Tom Brennan: Baseball A Non-Contact Sport? Grote RIP. JDM MIA

Name: Jonah Tong

Yesterday, our fine reader/commentator Bill Metsiac alerted me to something phenomenal:

Mets minors pitchers Jonah Tong and Calvin Ziegler threw 8.1 innings on Sunday and between them allowed 2 hits and 2 walks yesterday, and no runs.

Impressive to be sure, but that is not phenomenal.

WHAT HERE, THEN, IS PHENOMENAL?

The two fireballers combined to fan 20 batters. That’s…

TWENTY OF 25 OUTS!  “HIGH SCHOOL PITCHER DOMINANCE” NUMBERS.

Ziegler a perfect 4 innings, 9 Ks. 

And Tong fanned 11 in 4.1 innings.

Calvin Ziegler, pre-draft

Ziegler (age 21) threw just one inning last year and fanned the side. He’s already quadrupled his workload in 2024. 

The Ziegler sky is the limit.

Tong fans 11 in 4.1 innings. The 20 year old 7th round righty has now fanned 49 in 25 pro innings.

His fastball as a teenager at draft time reached the mid-90s and he has a high-spin curveball and a progressing changeup. Walks last year were high for Jonah, but his age was low…this guy could certainly be a diamond in the rough.

The Tong sky is the limit.

Keep it up, fellas. 

See if you can “totally eclipse” some records.

 Meanwhile, Francisco Lindor made lots of contact yesterday (sighs of relief).

It is a contact sport, after all, like I said.

JERRY GROTE PASSES AT AGE 81

Grote dead at 81: a message to fans from his wife:

“It’s with great sorrow that I make this post to all of Jerry’s fans. Today, April 7, 2024 at 4:29 p.m., I lost our beloved catcher”. He gave a hard fight to the very end as we all expected he would. He is now home with Jesus. Thank you for all the memories and support.”

Tough catcher who got 100.00% out of his abilities.

What a fighter in his career. If he was, say, 35 now, and just signed a free agent contract, my guess is he would have been playing with the Mets for a week already. Tough Texan.

JD MARTINEZ NOT READY FOR BRAVES SERIES?  

Two weeks after he signed his contract and he’s still not ready? Consider me very puzzled.  Grote would be, too.  Not ready for…the big, crucial 4 game Braves series? Puzzled. Very.

JULIO TEHERAN TO START FOR THE METS TODAY

With the likely long-term disappearance of a stellar fireballer named Spencer Strider, I wonder if Atlanta (and Julio himself) wishes he’d have waited a few days before signing with the Mets, as Julio was for a long time a member of the Braves and they are an offensive juggernaut, averaging 7 runs per game, compared to the Mets’ 2.8 per game. Who wouldn’t want to pitch FOR an offensive juggernaut, rather than against them?

Julio gets the Mets start today against the 6-2 Braves. Just give us 5 perfect innings, Julio, please, not asking for much. 

He will face Charlie Morton. Ancient Charles (40) has a 0.00 ERA.

To all you Megill and Peterson despisers, in his first 3 MLB seasons, Chuckie Morton had ERAs of 6.15, 4.55, and 7.57, and was 11-29. 

120-84 since then. Guys can get better. Just ask Chuckie. He’ll tell you.

77 degrees at game time in Atlanta. And 70s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Rain on Thursday. Pretty good weather, after games in the 30s and 40s, and a bit of 50s, so far in this frigid season. Bats should thaw.

Even with recent sprouts of hitting life, the core four of Lindor, Nimmo, McNeil and Alonso are just 16 for 126 (.126). You expect those 4 to collectively hit 150 points higher. The rest of the .193 hitting Mets are 42/174 = .241.