Mack - IMO

Good morning.



(Through Thursday's game)

Noah Syndergaad’s first pitch in spring training was 100mph. You are kidding me, right? 92 curve? 91 change? Two 101’s to Altuve? Welcome to ‘Thor Baseball’.

I know that the so-called baseball experts say that the Mets farm system talent level is currently (as the old NYC expression goes) ‘from hunger’, but I have to say that I have been quite impressed with David Thompson,  and Peter Alonso’s defensive game so far this spring. Neither came to camp with a positive rating in that area, but I may have been fallen victim to what others have told me (I had never seen them play until this spring) and what I have read.

Tuesday game brought some mixed feelings about the pitching used. Steven Matz seemed total ka-ka in the second inning that he threw, but two of the runs charged to him came after Corey Taylor doubled them home. I have always hated how this is translated in the basic stats. Balancing off with that were two strong innings by Marcos Molina and Chris Flexen. Flexen also had three strikeouts in his two-innings pitched with no walks.  Lastly, Gerson Bautista continued his impressive spring with another scoreless inning. I’m sure it won’t get him a trip north, but it might upgrade him from a season opening project from New York State to Nevada.

Matt Harvey gave me mixed feelings. His first inning might have been better than Syndergaard’s. He sat 92-94 and hit 96 once. Both his strikeouts froze the batters and that’s what you look for in a spring training game… velocity and control, not the box score. His second was his own fault. The one run he gave off came after a leadoff walk followed by a single. He settled down, created a double play (run scored) and got the last out to fly to center. All in all I give it a B for his first spring outing.

Speaking of velocity and control, Zack Wheeler had one of them. The speed was there (96), but the control cost him the one run he gave up (two wild pitches). In his defense, a flyball to Brandon Nimmo fell short, which would have easily been caught by Juan Lagares.

Both Harvey and Wheeler finished their two innings with a 4.50-ERA, though Harvey’s looked so much better.


Do you notice that no one ever speaks of, or writes about, David Wright anymore? Is he still in camp?  What's his progress (as if I didn't already know)? How sad an ending.

A little something about the ‘hitter of the week’. 22-year old Arnaldo Berrios was a 2014 39^th round pick, out of the Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy, in Puerto Rico. He simply isn’t a hitter. He’s produced a 4-season BA of .216 and has hit only four home runs in 705-ABs. He was a part time player last season (22-G) for St. Lucie (.167) and was an injury replacement for five games with Las Vegas (.154). I hope he enjoyed his two-run, ninth inning bomb on Wednesday.

Well, it was good to see Bartolo Colon back pitching for the Mets, but this time he goes by the name of Jason Vargas. His blistering 84/86-mph heater produced the same 4.50-ERA over two innings as other Mets starters have started out with this spring.

So…

So far this year, I break out the Mets rotation into two categories:

            Rotation “Prime Time”:  deGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey, Matz, Wheeler

            Rotation “Instant Relief”:  Vargas, Gsellman, Lugo, Montero, Oswalt

The results so far this spring, through yesterday’s games, are interesting:

            Rotation #1:               7.0-IP, 7-ER, 9-K, 3-BB               

            Rotation #2:            13.1-IP, 2-ER, 14-K, 0-BB


Overall - 

I'm happy so far.

I'd like te see a little more hitting from our first string, but pitching always comes first in the spring... no wait... I have that backwards!

I'm not concerned with the injury reports. Looks like a bunch of strains here and pulls there. Shit happens in all sports, especially spring training baseball. Now... break a leg, rip a tendon, or dislocate a shoulder and then I'd have something else to say here.

I like where the pitching is right now. Only the Matz inning stands out as a bad one. The Mets are not going to pay Vargas all that money to go to Vegas or come out of the pen. He will be our innings eater this year and someone in the above 'Rotation #1" scenario has to go.

Yeah... I'm happy so far.

B+