MACK - My Thursday Observations

 

Good morning.

I purposely didn't write about anything on my Tuesday post. I just let what I found on the net lead the way.

You see, the only spin I could have come up with was a negative one. The season sure seemed like last year, doesn't it?

It seemed like the only person that can hit is the guy that cost $700,000,000.00+. Is this how you need to build a team? Spend three billion dollars a year on prime beef and screw the kids? It's not like they're doing anything productive, and, like Pete said, it's not the arrow, it's the Indian.

And... then came Monday night. Guess you say Starlin Marte or Luisangel Acuna hit a home run between being plunked all night, but this was tempered by David Peterson's first home run pitch. But then the  🐻‍❄️ crawled out his cave and the par-tee was on.

Return to normal, you say? Nah. Tuesday just brought back some more of those ghost bats standing behind the ghost pitcher.

Thankfully, the pitching is holding up through this rollercoaster ride, and It sure doesn’t hurt what little the Braves are churning out, but the Mets need to get their bats together and make sure Philly doesn’t spring out of the gate with too big of a lead.

Transactions –

AAA-Syracuse OF Omar De Los Santos sent to AA-Binghamton

Bartolo Colon         @BColon40

I wonder how many home runs I would’ve hit with a torpedo bat

 

Daniel Wexler                    @WexlerRules

***Wexclusive***

Drew Gilbert to be in the lineup Friday for St. Lucie (rehab). Also scheduled to play  J.T. Schwartz (rehab) as well as LHP Eli Ankeney.

Dylan Tebrake (who missed all of 2024) is expected to make his return to the mound at some point next week. Tebrake was Mets 8th round pick in 2022 and posted a sparkling 2.61 era/2.08 FIP over 31 innings in 2023 while striking out nearly 14/9

 

Mike Mayer (@mikemayer22) posted at 7:05 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:

Pete Alonso today:

114.5 mph —double

113.4 mph —home run

113.1 mph —double

107.1 mph —lineout

                                                    

Mets News and Links                   @JohnFromAlbany

Rotation this weekend for Rumble Ponies - Jack Wenninger Friday, Nolan McLean Saturday and Joander Suarez Sunday. Jonah Tong is still in Florida. Joining team this weekend.

Jeff Kallman            @KallmanJeff

FYI: Tony Clark is in the middle of a five-year, $17.95 million contract as MLBPA executive director. But the union still won't reconsider 500+ pre-1980, short-career MLB players frozen out of full MLB pensions

 

Mets Prospect Group                  @bkfan09

NYM 2026 IFA CLASS

                       Mets' injured list

Francisco Alvarez              Left hamate fracture

Jeff McNeil                          Right oblique strain

Ronny Mauricio                 Right ACL rehab

Paul Blackburn                   Right knee inflammation

Sean Manaea                      Right oblique strain

Frankie Montas                 Right lat strain

Christian Scott                   Tommy John surgery (ETA 5/26)

Drew Smith                         Tommy John surgery (ETA 5/26)

Nick Madrigal                     Left shoulder fracture (ETA 5/26)

 

MLB Power Rankings

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6239320/2025/04/01/mlb-power-rankings-rangers-yankees/

9. New York Mets (8.1)

Record: 2-2

Preseason Power Ranking: 5

Most encouraging sign: The rotation has a chance

It’s a tradition for teams to throw their best starter on Opening Day, followed by their second best and third best, etc. The Mets, foremost keepers of that custom as evidenced by their ridiculous record on Opening Day, decided this year to zag: In their opening series with Houston, they started pitchers who ranked fifth, sixth and seventh in the hierarchy at the start of spring training.

Sure, injuries drove that decision. But New York went with Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning against the Astros, and they actually pitched pretty well. Megill and Canning, in particular, cruised for stretches by shifting their pitch mixes and ditching those that didn’t work for them in 2024. The Mets earned some benefit of the doubt by maximizing Sean Manaea and Luis Severino last year, and they might be at it again.

 

Why ‘torpedo bats’ have players across MLB intrigued after Yankees’ power surge

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6243085/2025/03/31/mlb-torpedo-bats-players-intrigued/

The torpedo bats have been the talk of baseball since Saturday, when the Yankees bashed a franchise-record nine home runs against the Brewers, and YES Network announcer Michael Kay clued in viewers during the second inning of the broadcast. The Yankees front office had analyzed Anthony Volpe’s at-bats, Kay said, and found he was making more contact on the label, slightly below the barrel.

“So they had bats made up, where they moved a lot of the wood into the label,” Kay said, with New York leading Milwaukee early. “So the harder part of the bat is actually going to strike the ball.”

The Yankees went on to a 20-9 win, and for an encore on Sunday, New York tacked on four more homers in a 12-3 triumph to complete a three-game sweep. Whether the power surge was the result of new equipment or hot hitters, the weekend served as a live infomercial. Their 15 home runs in their first three games tied an MLB record.

 

This Week in Mets: Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill and rotation takeaways from opening series

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6241421/2025/03/31/mets-rotation-takeaways-clay-holmes/

The learning curve is ever-present for Clay Holmes

Most everything is a teachable moment for Holmes as a starter.

“You can’t replicate everything in spring,” Holmes said. “There will definitely be a lot of learning early on, and I’ll try to soak in as much as possible. I’ve just got to be aware of the things I’m going through and how to handle them better as the season goes.”

Take a small example from Thursday’s opener: After Holmes’ 22-pitch second inning, the Mets were retired by Framber Valdez in eight minutes. Late-game relievers aren’t used to going back to the mound for another inning, let alone after a relatively short break. Holmes ran back out and issued a leadoff, four-pitch walk to Isaac Paredes that sparked Houston’s two-run third inning.

Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner suggested that, rather than sprinting back to the mound like usual for his eight warm-up pitches, Holmes could take an extra 30 to 45 seconds resting in the dugout at the expense of a couple warm-up tosses.

“That’s going to be his hardest start of the year,” Hefner said. “As much as you go through spring training and prepare and go through all those things, you really don’t know until you get in the season.”

The bigger adjustments Holmes will consider over his first several starts involve his pitch mix. The Astros started eight right-handed hitters, and so Holmes threw only a few changeups, cutters and four-seam fastballs — the three new pitches he’d worked on in the winter and spring. They were almost all to the only lefty in Houston’s lineup, Yordan Alvarez.

As he moves through lineups a second and third time, he will likely need to be more diverse in his repertoire.

“In spring, I did a pretty good job of using my whole arsenal. I’d throw things just because I needed to throw them,” Holmes said. “You have a tendency when you get into games to revert back to what’s comfortable and what you know. For me, just as far as pitch mix the second and third time through, it’s trusting the arsenal. I’ve had success using it, so use it.”

Does Holmes also want to use those new pitches, specifically the changeup, against right-handed hitters?

“It definitely plays, and there are spots to use it, especially the more they see my sinker,” he said. “It’s just finding good spots to throw it. It can definitely be a weapon against righties, too.”

 

Mike Puma:

Francisco Lindor is the only member of the Mets using the Torpedo bat.

Said Pete Alonso: "I will probably order some and try them out, but I think it's the Indian and not the arrow."

 

The Athletic            @TheAthletic

A quartet of Dodgers decorate the top 10 of MLB jersey sales since the World Series ended

 

Daniel Wexler                    @WexlerRules

**Wexclusive** Source Mets minor league 1b/DH Corey Collins is dealing with a torn labrum in his shoulder. My understanding is he will try rehab before considering a surgical procedure

Seven New York Mets minor league arms to watch in 2025

https://www.si.com/mlb/mets/news/seven-new-york-mets-minor-league-arms-to-watch-in-2025

7. Will Watson, RHP [Unranked prospect]

Will Watson is another name you probably haven't heard of just quite yet. The 2024 seventh-round draft pick is a wiry, quick twitch athlete who started his college career as a shortstop. His four-seam fastball sits in the mid 90s with quality ride that plays well with a relatively low release height. He can also hold his stuff well deep in games.

Watson has a quality changeup that is his most consistent secondary pitch. As for the slider, it shows potential but is inconsistent, however, he has shown big improvement with it this spring going to more of a sweeper. Watson has average command but fields his position extremely well.

Watson, 22, spent his 2024 season with University of Southern California, where he logged 50.1 innings and a 3.93 ERA in nine starts and 16 appearances. After getting drafted by the Mets last summer, the righty threw 2.2 innings for Single-A St. Lucie as well.