One Saturday Closer To Baseball

All the leaves are gone and the sky is grey. A look out the window yields brittle grass, bare branches, leaden skies and whipping winds. It’s January and even though winter is officially only four-and-a-half weeks old at this writing, it already feels like forever. On these here interwebs, there are countdowns to spring training [...]

For The Mets, Pitching Is The Name Of The Game

The past two seasons have been dubbed “The Year(s) Of The Pitcher.” This is a retread of the label first trotted out in 1968, in response to record-shattering mound performances by the likes of Bob Gibson, Denny McLain and fine years by several other hurlers, including our own Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. At that [...]

Frank Viola skips two levels to become Triple-A pitching coach

Earlier this week the Mets announced that Frank Viola would be the pitching coach for Wally Backman in Triple-A Las Vegas. Viola, who has won raves for his work in this role, takes over for Randy St. Claire, who was also generally well-regarded as a pitching coach. This will be Viola’s fourth year as a [...]

Mets should consider Daisuke Matsuzaka for rotation depth

Most of the top free agent hitters have inked deals for 2014 and beyond but the same cannot be said for the top free agent pitchers. Seemingly, everyone is waiting to see where Masahiro Tanaka lands – and for how much – before the other top hurlers make their deals. Ervin Santana, Matt Garza, Ubaldo [...]