SOTO….
Got hurt April 3. Hadn’t even started running as of April 13. Uh-oh.
But tonight, SNY noted he did in fact run on Tuesday, April 14, and hopes to be back in a week. SO needed.
METS LOSE AGAIN LAST NIGHT
Well, last night started well with Lindor’s lead off solo HR against the great Yamamoto. Nolan McLean was equally great for 7 frames, but Raley and the Mets LOST 2-1, as the dizzying downward spiral continues. The Mets had their chances in the 7th and 8th, but left two on in each inning “late and close”. Benge had a hit, but “0 for his last 23” Mark Vientos did not.
Season’s over? You decide. “Beware the ides of April”.
Make sure to file your taxes.
Remember, no tax on Social Security, so try to smile.
MORABITO MIGHT
Lots of folks “expertly assess” Nick Morabito and think, “yeah, he’s super quick, but there’s no pop there”.
Well, on Sunday, trailing 2-0 in the 8th, Morabito (.295) hit one out of the park at 109 MPH and 442 feet to tie the game. NO POWER?
He’s got power, clearly, and is finally playing in a league where the ball flies out. Unlike in the SAL and Eastern Leagues. Let’s see he does this season in Syracuse, unless, of course he gets called up.
BTW, I saw a video montage of the 10 longest MLB HRs of 2026 so far. Morabito’s shot would be # 10. Two more feet, and he would have been tied for 6th longest.
WHY IS DYLAN ROSS NOT PITCHING?
I noted this recently:
“Syracuse placed Dylan Ross on the 7-day injured list March 27 due to arm fatigue, Sam Dykstra of MLB Pipeline reports.”
Me? I’m just fatigued, period. Hopefully both of our fatigue challenges skedaddle along soon. We need Ross to be THE BOSS.
TUESDAY MINOR LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS
Jonah Tong pitched well for 4 innings, then gave up 5 runs in the 5th. He fanned 10 in 4.2 IP.
Hayden Senger is getting his Cal Raleigh thing going. 2 HRs last night, 5 already on the short season, with 11 RBIs in 32 ABs, leading me to wonder, besides catching, can he play SS?
Brooklyn - Mitch Voit smacked a 3 run, come-from-behind homer. 9-8 winners.
Santucci was solid over 4 innings for Binghamton, but Orellana in relief was not. Ewing went 3 for 5, and is up to .419. I like .419 hitters.
St Lucie got 2 more hits out of the impressive Elian Pena, Salgado smacked a HR, ans the Lucites won, 2-0, with great pitching from Chirinos, Chris Rodriguez, and Ryan Dollar.
WHERE ARE THEY TODAY?
Alex Ramirez? He is a former Mets prospect that fizzled, and is now a AA outfielder for the Chicago Cubs, and is off to a slow start. We wish him well.
MUSHY MINORS TEAM HITTING AND PITCHING STATS
We will see what changes in the quality of Mets Minors team stats, but so far, through Sunday, quite unimpressive in pitching, not a lot of hitting:
Syracuse: 7-8, 4.98 ERA
Hitters .236, 54 runs in 15 games.
Binghamton: 5-3, 4.38 ERA
Hitters .222, 6.4 runs/game. Low average, lots of runs. 6 BBs per game.
Brooklyn: 2-6, 4.60 ERA
Hitters .142, 19 runs in 8 games, 108 Ks. Brutal hitting start.
- But they have had Yonaton H., J Rod, and Trey Snyder out with injuries.
St Lucie: 4-5, 6.08 ERA
Hitters .255 and 44 runs in 9 games - nice.
But, as they say, it is early, Shirley.
WHO WAS THE HITTING SHOHEI OF THE WINDY CITY?
Remember…
Gary Peters?
Twice the AL's ERA leader, and rookie of the year pitcher at age 26 in the early 1960s for the White Sox. He was the Jake deGrom of his day.
How so?
By him once having a 1.98 ERA, but going only 12-10 that year in 1966.
Like Jake, he too could hit better than your average pitcher. In Peters' case, much better than your average pitcher. He often was used as a pinch hitter, and in his career, hit .222/.253/.348, with 31 doubles, 7 triples, 19 HRs and 102 RBIs in 807 career at bats, a similar slash line to Tyrone Taylor's in 2025. He was a .235 career pinch hitter, too.
GARY PETERS MAKING HEADLINES BACK IN THE DAY
Even with his Relatively thundering bat, he was just 124-103, despite a 3.25 career ERA.
His ERA in his last 4 years showed age-related decline: 4.35.
Age-related decline, I am afraid, is almost inevitable. I say it more and more as I age myself.
The White Sox were decent at that time, but were a lousy hitting team.
To illustrate that, in 3 years, 1966-68, they averaged just 523 runs.
Very much like the Mets of that era. Impotent.
Imagine how CWS would have done without Gary’s potent bat?
The entire White Sox teams in those 3 years hit just .228/.291/.320, very similar to Peters' career slash line.
For all his success, he earned under $500,000 in his career in baseball.
Born too soon. In this day and age, Peters might just have made $500 million instead.
OTHER PITCHERS COULD HIT, TOO…
Mets fans only had that fine hitter Mike Hampton for a season. But that dude could RAKE!
Other Mets’ pitchers over time have hit well enough - for pitchers.
Guys like Seaver, deGrom, Syndergaard, Wheeler...but are not even close to decent compared to everyday hitters.
Seaver did have 12 HRs and 86 RBIs - YAY - but hit .154, not so YAY.
Back to Mike Hampton, though; he got off to a slow start as a hitter when he was young. A lot of young hitters don't hit great when first called up either.
But from 1998 to 2009, he was impressive: .270, with 40 extra base hits in 561 at bats. Clearly, he could have played, perhaps excelled, as an everyday hitter. He had killer numbers in his years playing for Colorado.
But Hampton has had fine company - baseball has had a lot of fine hitting pitchers over time.
Babe Ruth, of course. No need for explanation.
Shohei Ohtani, of course. No need for explanation. Japanese Babe Ruth.
But there are many pitchers-only guys besides Ruth and Shohei who compiled real deal numbers. Like these:
Wes Ferrell - .280, 38 HRs, 208 RBIs. They even stuck him in the outfield for a few dozen games. Dude could flat-out rake.
Warren Spahn - despite having 490 declining-years at bats at age 39-44, when most hitters have long since retired, he overall hit .194 with 35 HRs and 189 RBIs in 1,894 at bats. Heck of an RBI rate.
Earl Wilson - a big power guy, he had 740 at bats, and a whopping 35 HRs, 111 RBIs, .195/.265/.369.
Ken Brett, George's bro, once homered in 4 straight starts, and hit .262 with 10 HRs and 44 RBIs.
Don Larsen, Mr Perfect, hit .242 with 14 HRs and 72 RBIs.
Don Drysdale, .186 with 29 HRs and 113 RBIs. Had one season where he hit over .300, with 7 HRs and 21 RBIs.
At age 21, he also hit 7 long balls.
Don Robinson - hit .231, 13 HRs, 69 RBIs.
Rick Rhoden, .238, 9 dingers, 79 RBIs. Robinson and Rhoden actually played together with the Pirates for several seasons.
Let’s not forget relatively recent guys like:
Dontrelle Willis: .244, 9, 39. Tough competitor at the plate. Donnie boy hit .320/.370/.580 against the Mets in 50 at bats.
Bob Forsch: .212/12/84 in 891 ABs for the Cardinals, His overall #s dipped a tad by going 5 for 31 in his last two seasons at age 38-39.
Micah Owings: .283/.310/.502, with 9 HRs and 35 RBIs. I always wondered why he didn't continue as a hitter after his pitching career ended at age 29.
Carlos Bam Bam Zambrano: .238/24/71. A guy who loved to hit.
A pattern? Four guys named Don. That must be it.
You have to wonder how many of these guys could have been everyday players instead, had they not been good pitchers, which almost all were.
Tony Cloninger was almost on a par with these guys, hitting-wise, but none ever had the game he did one day: two grand slams, an RBI double, and nine RBIs. Insane.
And of course Rick Ankiel, who had one early very good pitching year, developed an incurable wild streak, and went back to the drawing board and became an every day player and hit .240 with 76 HRs and 251 career RBIs. Of course, in his end of career Mets cameo, he hit, well, like a pitcher: .182, with 25 Ks in 66 ABs.
Lastly…Dwight Gooden hit .196 in his career, truly impressive considering that nearly half of his plate appearances occurred before he turned 23. Doc amazingly hit .214 in 190 plate appearances at age 19 and 20.
By comparison, Carson Benge right now is 23 years old. Major league plate appearances through age 22? Zero.
How would he have hit against major league pitching at ages 19 thru 22?
And Doc? He wasn’t dumb, being an MD and all…he was hitting-aggressive!
He swung at first pitches in 52% of his career plate appearances.
No doubt it helped Doc to attack!
Somebody ought to tell that to laid-back Mark Vientos.
Light tower power we will likely never see? Nolan McLean.
He had 9 HRs in 146 minor league at bats. He likely would have needed 4-5 minor league hitting years to right-size his strikeout rate and become a competent MLB power hitter.
Anyway… What are your great hitting pitcher memories?
Wyatt Young throwing a mop up inning after a 6 RBI night does not count.
1 comment:
There used to be pitchers that could really hit. Now we have Mets hitters that can’t really hit. The sorry state of affairs in Metsville.
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