Kristie Ackert | New York Daily News- Curtis Granderson homered Wednesday for the first time since slugging one at his old power comfort zone — Yankee Stadium — on April 26. It was another sign he may be heating up at the plate in a strong recent stretch. “I was ahead in the count (2-0), and when you do get a chance to be ahead, he’s got to come to you and it was a pitch I was able to handle,” Granderson said. Granderson is hitting .315 with nine runs, five doubles, two homers and eight RBI in his last 16 games. “[I'm not] switching things up...Just trying to put good swings on the ball. You’ve just got to drive the baseball.”
(Chris Soto: Granderson's 2015 batting line now sits at .239/.360/.359 which is actually quite strong for an MLB leadoff hitter considering the average OBP right now is .321. While he says he has not made adjustments to his approach you can clearly see that he is being far more patient early in the count to try and put himself into a favorable hitting situation. Anytime he gets ahead he then becomes aggressive for 1 strike before switching back into OBP mode. It's an approach that has been a godsend for the team as he is giving the guys behind him plenty of opportunities to hit with runners on base.)
Mike Vorkunov | NJ Advance Media- Bryce Harper is not short on confidence. Perhaps your desired piece of evidence came in spring training, when he gloated that the Nationals signing of Max Scherzer elicited one thought in his head. "Where's my ring?'" Wednesday, after he hit three home runs in a Nationals win, Harper exuded confidence about the Nationals' future again.“We’re the team to beat, everybody knows that. And we’re going to get hot. Everybody knows that too."
(Chris Soto: Ya know...for a guy who's on the team that is sitting 5 games behind the 1st place team, Harper sure likes to yap. Good for the Nationals though, they are hot right now and are winning ballgames. However, the Mets are doing a good job matching those wins and maintaining a respectable lead on them. In addition, for all the injuries the Mets have suffered, the Nationals are experiencing some pains too. Werth has not been healthy, their bullpen has taken a few hits, and now Strasburg could be out for some time after leaving yesterday's start due to a shoulder injury.)
Matt Cerrone | Metsblog- Bobby Parnell will soon throw a bullpen session at Citi Field in front of pitching coach Dan Warthen, Terry Collins told reporters before Tuesday’s game. “He thought he needed to make sure he’s mechanically sound,” Collins said. Parnell has been shut down since late April in his return from Tommy John surgery with what he described as “achiness in his forearm.” Parnell recently said he’s optimistic his velocity will soon return after a recent MRI showed no structural damage to his throwing arm. According to Collins, if Warthen likes what he sees at Citi Field, Parnell will quickly return to making rehab appearances with Single-A St. Lucie.
(Chris Soto: It's good to see Parnell back up and running in his rehab. The Mets have been fortunate enough to have stellar starting pitching almost every night. So far this season the back end of the bullpen hasn't really been much of a factor. In fact the Mets bullpen has thrown the fewest innings in baseball while the rotation has clocked the most so far this season. I'm not 100% the club can maintain this level of performance so having a high leverage capable guy like Parnell back could bring some re-assurance in case we do end up needing the bullpen more.)
Andrew Cohen | Amazin Avenue- The Mets will call up Noah Syndergaard for his major league debut the next time the team needs a spot starter according to Newsday's David Lennon. Syndergaard was recently named PCL pitcher of the week and has a 1.66 ERA with 26 strikeouts and eight walks in his four starts for Triple-A Las Vegas this season. Syndergaard struggled at times pitching for the 51s last year but would receive the big league start over fellow prized prospect Steven Matz, presumably because he has spent more time pitching in Triple-A.
(Chris Soto: This is more of a formality announcement at this point. With Rafael Montero on the 15 day DL and Matt Bowman on the minor league DL, the next spot start had to be a decision between Thor and Matz. While Matz certainly has his supporters, Syndergaard has 119 more innings above AA then Matz does and has more room in regards to an annual innings cap. Either guy is would be an improvement over Montero not only in terms of quality, but also "star power" that can drive fans into seats. No date has been announced yet in regards to his spot start but I would speculate May 13th [1 full time through the rotation] or May 18th [2nd time through rotation and 1st game on a homestand].)
16 comments:
Thor? Cool...either him or Matz first, no preference for me.
Get hot, Grandy, and shut Harper up.
Domingo Tapia TJ surgery - maybe he'll come back in 2016 a new man.
Sorry Chris - I hope I didn't turn the faucets off again
Well Grandy has certainly earned chance to remain in leadoff spot ongoing.
And so I also agree with my buddy Scot's idea of leaving grandy lagares 1-2, bat Wright 3rd and move everyone else down a spot when the time comes........
Sure as hell would seem like a horrible idea to push a .300hitting Lagares down to 6th again.
Ernest -
The important thing is to keep Lagares' bat hot (it already is cooling off) during the same time Granderson and Herera look to be beginning to hit decently
They can'r win every game scoring 3 runs but they can win more than .500 of them.
Dilson and DeGrom were really fun to watch last night. Good to see DeGrom figuring it out again and putting together a dominant performance.
Boys- we need Duda to be consistent and strike fear in the other pitchers. Right now it seems he has no protection in the lineup so he is not getting the good looks I guess. Cuddyer is looking soft at the plate. On the other hand to have DeGrom look like that last night - Wow- you guys see him blow away Chris Davis with the bases loaded? Pitch of the game right there.
Would would TC bring in Familia with a 5-1 lead in the ninth. Trust your other pitchers - TC is too worried about one win slipping away that he doesn't trust a 4 run lead to others. Could have rested familia two days with the day off today. That's what bothers me about him. And I could tell Gary Cohen was in my corner and just as surprised. But we are back to winning and we have future all star second baseman named Herrera. Phillies up next. Great day Boys!
Mack
Lagares was just 6-11 against Nats (Much better pitchers) so a little 0-8 in two games is certainly not to be considered cooling off ;)
Now that lagares is consistently going opposite field rather then strikeouts on bad swings too much, he seems like a legit .285+ BA guy ongoing.
We knew (believed) he could do it, but now that he kinda had his coming out party last night, what happens when Wright returns?
Oh and one more questiom. PCL stats always kinda useless, but tevhnically there's two regular outfielders hitting over .300 now, so can either of those (semi-old-ish) prospects can called up instead of campbell getting his frequent flyer miles all year?
Forgot the name Herrera in my David wright return question :)
Sugar -
Duda will probably be this exposed until Wright comes back and bats ahead of him
Ernest -
I keep bringing up the same guy... Alex Castellanos... he can play 3B, 1B, and both corner outfield positions.
.356, 7-HRs, .808 slugging... 1268 OPS
I don't know, maybe I'm too old-school, but somehow a guy earning $16 million batting just .239 doesn't seem like cause for praise or celebration. Woo hoo...he's taking walks. So did Tejada. That doesn't mean I want to extend my Cinco de Mayo festivities. I'd like to see some actual hitting. He's on a pace to log 12 HRs and 48 RBIs for the entire season.
Reese
Kinda true that since Grandy loves walking so much, why don't they just bat em 8th and have at it ;)
I guess the biggest problem with a $16mil man is that we consider every 5-10 game streak his coming out party...... but I guess, as the above post states, a .360ish OBP is nothing to sneeze at from atop a lineup.
Reese, I did not see last night, but I heard Grandy flew to wall first time up last night. An out instead of a homer. Those things add up to make hitters look bad in still-too-spacious Citifield. I counted 3, maybe 4 Mets shots that would have been homers if the fences were 5 feet shorter. One homer, a double, and 2 outs instead. It adds up, and makes hitters look more anemic than they should. Mets have Phils and Cubs coming up, I think both on road, so let's see if the trend of scoring more on the road than at home of recent years continues.
Bad news on Castellanos, Mack, but who knows how bad, because news is scarce...as usual, Mets hide info on minor league injuries...but my guess is he pulled something May 2 while trying to beat out a DP, and hasn't played since.
Is there ANY chance Taijeron (the other hot Vegas OF, at .362/.464/.623) could become Chris Davis for the Mets later this year?
Reese, I think this is a different Grandy, as he tore it up this spring. I think we will be happy when Wright returns watching Grandy out-do 2014.
On the other hand, guys get old and can deteriorate - look at Howard and Utley. Hopefully, Grandy avoids that scenario over the life of his contract.
I missed the Castellano injury info.
You might be asking too much of Taijeron at this point in his growth.
Reese - I would time any future moves around the return of Wright and d'Arnaud. Keeping both Plawecki and Herrera up improves the PH and DH bench but does nothing for the corner outfield situation (nor the utility OFs)
Your June 1st lineup could be:
Granderson, Lagares, Wright, Duda, Cuddyer, d'Arnaud, Herrera, Reynolds, pitcher.
Agree on Taijeron, Mack. He could have found the magic switch. On the other hand, a somewhat similar player, Kirk N, was destroying pitching for his first 40 or so spring appearances, but then has stunk since.
So Travis will have to show us if he is a suddenly relevant talent, or just the same Hi K guy who has been hot lately. I'm hoping for new and improved. Guys who produce 186 extra base hits in 1400 at bats are very rare, so I hope he shows he is the real deal.
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