Collin Cowgill approach says Juan Lagares has 19 PA before demotion

Juan Lagares made an outstanding catch a few nights ago, saving at least an extra-base hit and perhaps a home run in a game that the Mets went on to win. He deserves all the credit in the world for making that play. However, that one play does not mean that every single thing he [...]

David Wright’s super start, Bobby Parnell’s good week, Mike Baxter’s heroics

While Ike Davis grabs all of the attention for duplicating his rough start from a season ago, almost no attention is being given to David Wright once again getting off to a terrific start. Unlike last year at this time, the Mets are under .500 and all of the buzz centers around Matt Harvey and [...]

On Starting The Zack Wheeler Clock Early

Earlier, my friend Dan Stack made some great points regarding the promotion of pitching phenom Zack Wheeler sooner, rather than later. Your intrepid columnist can’t help but agree. Of course there’s no guarantee that Wheeler will match the near-perfect Matt Harvey in either technique or temperament – the way Harvey’s been dealing, it’s barely possible [...]

Marcum, Gee and Hefner need to start pulling their weight

 You almost have to feel bad for the Mets’ pitchers who have to follow Matt Harvey these days. With the legend of Harvey nearly growing to ‘perfect’ proportions, the rest of the staff (sans Jonathon Niese) have to be suffering from an inferiority complex. So far on the season, Shaun Marcum, Dillon Gee and Jeremy [...]

Jeremy Hefner’s Jekyl and Hyde performance linked to HR allowed

Jeremy Hefner’s overall numbers look poor this year (0-3, 4.34 ERA) but he’s pitched much better than his record indicates. He’s made five starts – and one horrid relief appearance – and three of them he’s pitched well enough to win. All three of those outings were Quality Starts and in them he threw 21 [...]

What Surprise Does May Hold For The 2013 Mets?

I’m not a huge proponent of invoking precedent because every situation is different… but Mets teams that wander through [May] gaining no traction have been known to Do Something. • When attendance fell through the floor in May 1983, the Mets called up Darryl Strawberry to sweeten a dour 6-15 proposition. • When masses failed [...]

Despite Scott Rice’s good fortune, Mets lefty relievers still stink

We all know how the current Mets regime loves the lefty relievers. Five weeks into the season, four different lefties have come out of the pen for the Mets and the club still has Tim Byrdak and Pedro Feliciano as candidates for later in the season. The top brass has also talked glowingly about Jack [...]

Lucas Duda leading off and Terry Collins

Last Wednesday, Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting piece, suggesting that Lucas Duda be the Mets leadoff hitter.  That, combined with Friday night’s decision to bat Justin Turner in the 5th slot in the lineup got me thinking. What would a sabermetrically optimized lineup look like on the 2013 Mets? So, [...]