MACK - MY Sunday Observations

 

Good morning.

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OF Travis Swaggerty transferred from AAA to Double-A Binghamton

 

Mets News and Links                   @JohnFromAlbany

Happy Birthday to Ronny Mauricio.  Hope to see you soon.  Binghamton Bench Coach Mariano Duncan told me this week that Ronny was doing well and may come back sooner than originally projected one month into the season.

 

nugget chef             @jayhaykid

The Padres have started 7-0 and their odds to win the NL West have gone from 4% to 5%

 

Robert Murray                   @ByRobertMurray

The Mets are signing pitcher Jose Marte to a two-year minor-league contract, source says. Marte, who posted a 2.33 ERA in 14 games with the Angels last season, is recovering from shoulder surgery he underwent last September.

The 6-man rotation seems like it should fit this moment. Why does it never catch on?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6251155/2025/04/03/six-man-rotation-not-used/

By some standards, the six-man rotation should be having its moment. Every team in baseball is desperate to keep its pitchers healthy. Statistical and biomechanical markers tell teams that extra rest can help performance: Arm slots stay a little more consistent. Velocity doesn’t dip quite as much. The outs come just a little bit easier. General managers are stockpiling depth, managers are enforcing pitch limits, and complete games are relics of a bygone era. Everyone, it seems, is trying to find a way to improve the state of starting pitching.

But not one major league team opened this season with a six-man rotation. Plenty were asked about it in spring training, and some said they were considering it, but even those that had more than enough starters either dismissed the idea out of hand or ultimately settled on a five-man rotation out of camp.

Despite the devastating impact of arm injuries, leaguewide concerns about workload, and the aesthetic desire for starting pitchers to work deeper into games, a six-man rotation has been, at best, a short-term fix. Why does it take extenuating circumstances — or a singular talent — for teams to even try it?

 

Mets are fortunate to have Luis Torrens as a backup

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6251622/2025/04/02/new-york-mets-pete-alonso-bullpen/

Toward the end of spring training, a longtime National League scout said of Luis Torrens, “He’s one of the best backups in the game.”

With Francisco Alvarez (hamate fracture) sidelined, Torrens has made quite an impact.

Wednesday was the first game Torrens didn’t start. Didn’t matter. He managed to produce in a big way after replacing Hayden Senger as a pinch hitter in the top of the eighth.

In the bottom of the eighth with a runner on third base, Griffin Conine hit a grounder to second baseman Baty, who threw home. Baty’s throw sailed to the right of home plate, in the opposite direction of the sliding runner. Torrens nonetheless snagged the ball and slapped the tag just in time.

“It’s really tough because you can’t see the runner with the ball coming from the right side,” Mets catching coach Glenn Sherlock said.

Added Mendoza: “Unbelievable play there.”

Then, there was another one. Conine took off early for second base, taking advantage of Edwin Diaz’s inability to control the running game. Torrens caught Conine anyway, with a perfect throw from his knees.

Torrens, who is hitting .313, also went 1-for-2 in the game.

 

Mike Mayer            @mikemayer22

Mets signed first baseman Jon Singleton and infielder Niko Goodrum to Minor League contracts.

Both players will report to Triple-A Syracuse.

Mets have signed José Marte to a minor league deal. He has worked strictly as a reliever in recent seasons. The right-hander had a 2.33 ERA with 14 strikeouts and 10 walks last season in 19 1/3 innings with the Angels. Also had a 2.22 ERA in 28 1/3 Triple-A innings.

 

The birth of a new pitch: Why MLB players are rushing to try the ‘kick-change’

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6201935/2025/04/02/new-baseball-pitch-kick-change-origins/

The “kick-change” is hot, and it’s so new we can actually track its progress through the league. And maybe tracking that progress will tell us a little more about what it means to be a Pitch Type in today’s game.

If pitches are born in the hands of one pitcher, then Shaun Anderson is why we have the kick-change.

Anderson, a veteran who has bounced around from MLB to KBO, is a supinator, meaning he’s more comfortable with the mechanics behind throwing a slider, and isn’t great at pulling down on the ball towards his thumb (pronation). He’d been looking for a changeup for a while, and then in his tinkering, found a way to get the movement he sought.

Clay Holmes, who picked it up at Tread this offseason in preparation for starting with the New York Mets this year, has a nice one.

Holmes has always been fascinated with the minutiae of pitch movement. Assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel talked a little about the mechanics of the kick-change.

“Where the kick comes is when you see it on Edgertronic, and you release it, the fingers come off, and then this middle finger that spiked actually, like, kicks the axis, the spin axis,” Druschel said after Holmes’ first start. “So it changes, it changes how the ball is spinning. And that’s where the idea of kick comes, just altering the axis. It’s the same thing that happens on the sweeper.

“This finger will kick the axis, too, but it’s just, it’s more traditional there. So it’s just describing what’s happening. A regular changeup will roll off and kind of slide off the fingers — or swipe off the fingers, is a better way to describe it — as opposed to this spin axis altering kick.”

            Mack – obviously, the days of the “fastball, curve and change-up” are way over. In today’s game, you can’t have too many pitches, especially if you can throw them at the same release point. Just ask the king pf pitches, Seth Lugo. He has 11… and counting.

 

Jim Koenigsberger            @Jimfrombaseball

"The  only difference between the Mets and the Titanic, is that the Mets have a  better organist. The Mets’ most significant contribution to the  All-Star Game was Jane Jarvis, obtained last year, straight cash, no players, from Milwaukee Braves."

Jim Murray

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/

‘Simplify, simplify’: Tylor Megill listens to Thoreau

The Mets’ directive with Megill is the opposite of Holmes: Whereas they want Holmes to more proactively use his new pitches, they’ve pushed Megill to whittle down a mix that’s expanded from three pitches to eight since his debut in 2021. Manager Carlos Mendoza talked about Megill sticking to two or three pitches versus righties and two or three versus lefties.

On Friday night, Megill did just that: Against Houston’s righty-heavy lineup, Megill went with his fastball, sinker or slider 73 times in 77 pitches. He didn’t throw a single cutter — a pitch he thinks he used too much in 2024.

“The cutter last year was a good in-play pitch, but it was my highest average pitch. They were hitting like .380 or something like that,” Megill said. (It was .310, but the slugging percentage was .578 against the pitch.) The sinker Megill added late last season helps get the ball in play earlier, and it’s less prone to damage than the cutter.

Megill probably won’t have many starts this year where he throws only a handful of curveballs and changeups. Expect to see those more against lineups with more lefties in them.

Megill’s other emphasis is attacking in the zone and working ahead more consistently than he has in the past. Outside of a two-batter skid into trouble in Friday’s fourth inning, he did that. He walked only one batter and faced only two other three-ball counts. Only 18 of his 77 pitches came while behind in the count.