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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Just Call Him Up Already
In case you missed it, Zack Wheeler had another great outing on Saturday night. Wheeler, the New York Mets’ top pitching prospect, threw 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball and struck out seven on Saturday for Triple-A Las Vegas. He gave up six hits and walked one.
According to ESPN, over his last three starts, Wheeler has thrown a combined 20 innings, surrendering just three earned runs . He’s struck out 19 in that span, allowing 14 hits. Most importantly, he has walked only three batters. Something has clicked.
It’s time to bring him up. I have run out of adjectives to describe the team’s play: terms like dismal, boring, depressing can only be used so many times before they lose their impact. This year’s team was given little chance to do anything before the season even began, but I don’t think anyone really realized just how bad things would get so quickly. Wheeler is certainly not the answer to all of the Mets’ woes, but together, perhaps he and Matt Harvey can provide somewhat of a firewall, the way Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman did for the team back in 1968. Zack isn’t doing the Mets any good in Las Vegas.
And yes, I disparaged him somewhat in my last post, but I think Wilmer Flores should get called up also.
In their place, I would send Ike Davis and Jordany Valdespin down. Let Ike hit his next 25 homeruns in the PCL so they can trade him next winter. I say this only as a distant observer, but I wonder if being the son of a major leaguer and now playing in the big leagues himself has gone to Ike’s head. I am nowhere near the clubhouse, but he seems somewhat sullen and I wonder if there isn’t an entitlement mentality at work here. Keith Hernandez did hint at that a few years ago. That was a terrible at bat he had in the eight inning of Sunday’s loss. Remember when the Pirates offered the Mets Sterling Marte for him?
Valdespin was hung out to dry this past weekend. He has a lot of talent and I hope that whoever is running the club next spring can reach him. Those long bus trips in the PCL may give him some time to ponder turning over a new leaf.
Set up a Daniel Murphy/Justin Turner platoon at first and let Flores take some reps at second. Since the Mets aren’t going to hit at all this year, I suggest going with defense in the outfield; that means Juan Lagares in center and Mike Baxter in right. I would put Murphy/Turner in the two hole, David Wright in the three spot, Lucas Duda cleanup. For the remainder, whoever is hot can lead off (imagine if that is John Buck!) with the rest of the lineup balanced right/left as best as possible. I don’t think this translates into winning baseball, but it might be watchable, which I would take at this point.
What do you think? Time to bring up Wheeler? Got any other (reasonable) moves in mind? Sound off below.
Mets Game 33: Loss to Pirates
Pirates 11 Mets 2
Not a great day for Jonathon Niese nor the Mets.
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