The Morning Report 5.14.2015 | Bullpen/Offense Fails Again, Injuries Taking their Toll, Syndergaard Impresses Scouts, Tulo Interest Downplayed

David Wright Injury Tracker | Still Not Cleared for Baseball Activities

John Harper | NY Daily News- Matt Harvey was about at his pitch limit after seven innings, holding a 1-0 lead with the Mets badly needing a win. “Would it be hard to take Harvey out at that point?” Collins was asked. “Damn right it’s hard,” the manager said. “But we’ve gotta realize what’s best for the organization. And for Matt.” Collins was true to his word on this night, pulling Harvey with his pitch count at 100. And so the reality of life after Tommy John surgery for Harvey, at least in 2015, caught up with the Mets as the Cubs scored in the eighth and ninth innings to steal a 2-1 victory.

(Chris Soto: Ugh...this is getting painful to watch. The Mets need Victor Black and Bobby Parnell back so badly right now as the team continues to trot medium to low leverage guys into high leverage situations only to watch them inevitably fail. As I said yesterday the lack of offense and poor IF defenese, the team's bullpen after Familia is by far their weakest spot right now and it's starting to cost them winnable games.)


Matt Cerrone | Metsblog- It’s hard to ignore the impact of missing Juan Lagares, Travis d’Arnaud, and David Wright, while facing some really good pitching at the same time. In situations like this, guys will press, try to do too much, get in to bad habits and create massive holes in their swings. The fact is, the only guy in the lineup hitting over .250 is Lucas Duda, and he has become a spray hitter the last week or so. Otherwise, the three guys who get the most at bats each game (Curtis Granderson, Daniel Murphy and Michael Cuddyer, who hit 1-2-3 in the order) are each essentially batting .240. The result is a station-to-station offense waiting for an extra base hit to come from guys that don’t get a lot of hits, let alone do it for extra bases. They had been putting the ball in play the first three weeks of the season, but that was a long time ago. 

(Chris Soto: Matt's right...all the hits that were finding holes earlier in the season are no longer finding those holes. The losing streak comes at a terrible time too as the Nationals are HOT right now and gaining ground quickly. The team needs David Wright and Travis d'Arnaud back so badly right now but both are at least 2 weeks or more away from rejoining the club. The Mets need to start making some moves to try and light a spark into the offense.)


Andy Martino | NY Daily News- Last August, I sat in the scout section at Cashman Field in Las Vegas during one of Noah Syndergaard’s starts. The reviews were not good...Checking in with this same evaluator in the wake of Syndergaard’s promotion this week, I heard a very different take. “He’s really impressed me this year,” the scout said. “Last year I thought they should trade him, but he has taken a huge step forward.” This is consistent with another evaluator who said this year that he was impressed by how Syndergaard responded to the emergence of Steven Matz in the Vegas rotation. Every time Matz threw a gem, Syndergaard seemed to respond, and engage in a friendly competition to make it to the big leagues first.

(Chris Soto: Having Syndergaard up here now as part of the Young Guns rotation is the only excitement the team is generating right now. This goes back to what some were talking about in the comments yesterday. The Mets have a TON of pitching...but...at what point does it become a Law of Diminishing Returns? You can throw shutouts every night....but if you can't score runs, guess what? you still lose! The rotation was 2nd best in the MLB WITHOUT Thor, Matz, or Montero. You can't improve something that's already tops in baseball. That's why the Mets need to find a way to use this massive pitching depth and make a move to acquire some offense to start winning some games again.)


Anthony DiComo | MLB.com- Despite Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores' recent struggles, along with speculation that four-time National League All-Star Troy Tulowitzki may soon ask the Rockies for a trade, the Mets have not altered their stance on making a big-splash deal at the position. A team source said Wednesday that nothing has changed since the offseason, when the Mets harbored only cursory interest in Tulowitzki. The New York Post reported earlier this week that Tulowitzki will meet with his agent on Thursday, and could ask for a trade at that time. But the Mets are not willing to dip into their stash of top-flight starting-pitching depth to acquire him, particularly considering how quickly that depth has dwindled.

(Chris Soto: If Tulowitzki really does end up asking for a trade, there really is only two teams that can A) afford the contract, B) have a need at SS, and C) have the prospects to get it done. It's the Yankees and the Mets. So until I see Tulo going somewhere else, I will continue to believe that the Mets will at least be interested in acquiring him.)