Link Roundup: Davis, Prospects, and The 7 Line
It’s time for our second annual “Should The Mets Demote Ike Davis?” discussion. Rumor has it, demotion is once again a possibility for the struggling first baseman, just as it was last year at this time. Davis somehow pulled it together in June of 2012 and kept himself in the majors, finishing the season with 32 home runs. If it’s possible, Ike looks even more lost this year, however. Davis has a microscopic .487 OPS through 40 games this year. After his 40th game last year, he had a .518 OPS (which is only slightly less awful).
Adding insult to injury, Davis made a boneheaded play that cost the Mets at least one run in the first inning of last night’s game.
Also, according to Andy Martino of the Daily News, Ruben Tejada and Jordany Valdespin may be on the same flight to Las Vegas in the near future.
Meanwhile, there’s a new Mets minor league blog in town, created by the good folks over at Mets Merized Online. Check out their story on RHP prospect Noah Syndergaard.
In the good news department, T-Shirt purveyor Darren Meenan has done a great job of organizing large groups of Mets fans to attend games at Citi Field. This past weekend, he got 505 Mets fans from all around the country (and from two other countries) to attend the three-game set at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
When all is said and done, isn’t that what baseball is about? People getting together to watch ballgames. Of course, it would be a lot more fun if the Mets were winning…
Mets Game 42: Loss to Reds
Reds 4 Mets 3
Mets just have a hard time getting more than three runs a game, and a team usually needs more than that to beat the Big Red Machine.
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Valdespin Controversy Arrives Early
Yes, I’m about a week late on this, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts regarding the Terry Collins – Jordany Valdespin – hit by pitch story in St. Louis last Tuesday.
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Mets Game 41: Win Over Cubs
Mets 4 Cubs 3
Mets win the rubber match to pass their sweet sixteen and gain win number seventeen at the quarter point of the season.
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Mets Game 40: Loss to Cubs
Cubs 8 Mets 2
Mets suffer post-Harvey traumatic disorder.
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Mets Game 39: Win Over Cubs
Mets 3 Cubs 2
The Mets won a game yesterday and won a game today, so that’s two in a row. If they win one tomorrow, that’s called a winning streak. It was happened before. So will they jack it up a little? (All apologies to Lou Brown.)
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Mets Game 38: Win Over Cardinals
Mets 5 Cardinals 2
Mets win on getaway day to escape a sweep in St. Louis.
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Searching for Rays of Hope
So, the Mets have lost 6 games in a row, and have fallen to 14-23, 6.5 games behind the NL East leading Atlanta Braves here on May 16th. Besides Matt Harvey, the starting rotation has been horrible, besides Bobby Parnell, the bullpen has been unreliable, and the Mets’ offense, which lit up opponents the first two weeks of the season, has gone colder than Jeffery Loria’s Grinch-like heart.
This has left even the most loyal and upbeat Mets fans in a funk, and has even prompted some to ask for divine intervention. But it can’t be this bad all year, can it?
Instead of another Mets blog post about how bad this team is, let’s try to find some rays of hope in this otherwise gloomy pallor of baseball.
Mets Game 37: Loss to Cardinals
Cardinals 4 Mets 2
Shaun Marcum finally made it beyond the fifth inning. In fact, he pitched into the seventh. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to garner a win.
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Mets Game 36: Loss to Cardinals
Cardinals 10 Mets 4
The end of the Mets’ losing streak will have to wait another day. On the bright side, the Mets offense exploded for 6 hits and 4 runs.
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Mets Game 35: Loss to Cardinals
Cardinals 6 Mets 3
Often, baseball is a game won by the team that doesn’t beat itself. The Mets provided an example of that type of loss.
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Mets Sign Ankiel, Starts Tonight
Rick Ankiel already helped the Mets once – during the 2000 playoffs. Now they’ll hope he can help them again (in a more traditional sense).
The Mets signed recent Astros castoff Rick Ankiel today.
Terry Collins said the lefty-hitting Ankiel and righty-hitting Juan Lagares will platoon in center field. That’s a blow to Jordany Valdespin, who Collins said may play some second base if Daniel Murphy continues to struggle.
Apart from his arm, Ankiel doesn’t provide much of an upgrade in the outfield. His last really good offensive season came in 2008, when he hit 28 home runs. This year, he has a .715 OPS which is less than that of the other left-handed hitting outfielders Mike Baxter and Valdespin.
Looks like Sandy Alderson is trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Or maybe the team was secretly hijacked by Omar Minaya.
Andrew Brown was optioned to Triple-A.
So there’s that.
Ike Davis is the Key to Mets Offense
Ike Davis strikes out on Sunday during a key moment in the game.
OK, you’re probably reading the headline and thinking, “more like ‘Seven Guys Not Slumping at the Same Time is the Key to Mets Offense.’” Yes, the Mets are not exactly the reincarnation of the 1927 Yankees.
They don’t have an ideal leadoff hitter or a steady center fielder or right fielder. Ruben Tejada has been nearly as unspectacular with the bat has he has been with the glove this year, and Daniel Murphy, after a hot start, has slumped mightily. On April 25th, he was batting .346/.388/.538. Since then, he’s hit only .130/.161/.167.
It seems in late April, everyone went into a slump following their hot start. But the Mets need a stabilizing presence in the middle of the lineup to mitigate poor performance from the rest of the team – let’s say…a power-hitting left-handed bat. Someone like Ike Davis.
Mets Pitching Prospect: Steven Matz
Steven Matz has endured one of the most stressful and unexpected journeys of any player in the New York Mets farm system. Selected in the 2nd round in the 2009 MLB Draft, it’s taken Matz four years to pitch in full-season ball. But he’s finally here.
After Tommy John surgery and two years of rehab, Matz debuted with Kingsport in 2012. Matz impressed in 6 starts, striking out 34 in 29 innings of work, while keeping opponents hitting .158. On the bad side, he was prone to giving up the walk, walking 17 in his limited innings. Matz was temporarily shut down with arm troubles and understands that the 2013 season is important for him.
“I just want to play the whole season healthy,” said Matz. “And keep my walks down. Those are my two main goals.”
Walks were a concern while Matz was with Kingsport, but he seems to have fixed the issue at Savannah. Matz and the Mets decided recently that they wanted to scrap the curveball. “The [curveball] wasn’t consistent. I just wanted a breaking ball that I can throw more for a strike.”
Former Cy Young winner and current Savannah Sand Gnats pitching coach Frank Viola went more in-depth about the scraping of the curveball and how the “slurve” benefits Matz.
“The organization, him, and I. Basically what it is is like a slurve, a hard curveball, but we’re calling it a slider. It’s got late break, depth, but it goes according to his arm slot with a fastball and change-up. It’s the absolute perfect pitch to throw at the arm slot he is at,” said Viola. “And he can throw it two ways, as a strike pitch or a put away pitch. The more he throws it, the better he develops it, the more he can put two together and really make that a very advantageous pitch.”
Matz admits his best off-speed pitch is his change-up. In his outing on April 26 against West Virginia, Matz said he threw 17 changeups. “I don’t really have a true strikeout pitch,” said Matz. “I can get a lot of guys to chase on a high fastball.”
In that West Virginia start, Matz struggled to stay in the game. He was yanked after reaching his pitch count in 4.1 IP, allowing two earned runs on four hits, while talking two and striking out three. Frank Viola believes that start was the start of a new side to Matz.
“The other night was the first night I saw any resemblance of anger, feistiness, what have you. He had to leave, came out in the fifth inning, and had the no-decision because he didn’t complete the five innings because of the pitch count,” explained Viola. “And he threw the glove down, said a couple of choice words, but it was the first time I saw a little fire in his belly, which personally, is a great sign in my opinion.”
“I know it’s there and you have to realize, he’s played professional ball for 2 ½ years but he only has 10 professional starts. He’s had some experience but he doesn’t have a lot of experience from the mound itself. So every time on the mound is a learning experience and I think by the all-star break you are going to see a completely different Steven Matz.”
Viola hinted that Matz may not be around when the All-Star game comes around. Matz could be on the fast track to St. Lucie, but it all depends on whether the lefty can stay healthy. “I really believe he’s that close to really putting it together,” said Viola.
“Just to mentally keep it together with all the crap he’s gone through is pretty tough…You’re exactly right, many people wouldn’t be able to do that. He’s maintained it, he’s learned from it, and he’s using it to his advantage now.”
Mets Game 34: Loss to Pirates
Pirates 3 Mets 2
Matt Harvey sh*ts the bed on Mother’s Day as the Mets lose the series and drop into fourth place in the NL East.
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