Jacob deGrom and looking beyond fastball velocity

Everyone focuses on the velocity that the Mets young pitchers have and no doubt that’s a wonderful thing. But what gets lost sometimes in that radar gun lust is how all four of their hurlers come with diversified repertoires. All four throw four pitches on a regular basis. According to PITCHf/x, Jacob deGrom complements his [...]

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Gut Reaction: Mets 6, Marlins 4 – 6/4/2016

The Mets escaped one of the ugliest games of the season with a 6-4 victory over the Marlins. This bizarre game included two new injuries, a costly error, a dazzling defensive play, a pinch-hitting pitcher, and a maddening number of runners stranded on base. First, the bad news. Yoenis Cespedes was scratched from the game [...]

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Michael Conforto needs to adjust to breaking pitches

The Mets offense has, despite a six-run outburst yesterday against the Marlins, obviously been struggling to score over the last month or so. In fact, their 87 total runs in the month of May was better than only the back-to-earth Phillies and the awful Braves. Their 14-15 record for the month, as unimpressive as it [...]

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Gut Reaction: Mets 6 Marlins 2 (6/3/16)

On they day they learned their Captain, David Wright, will be on the disabled list for the foreseeable future, Noah Syndergaard and the much-maligned lower third of the batting order gave the Mets just what they needed. After the ridiculous nature of their circus loss to the White Sox on Wednesday, they played a crisp [...]

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Who should the Mets retain when they make a trade?

With David Wright joining Lucas Duda as players out for an undetermined amount of time, it seems more and more likely that the Mets will have to make a trade to add a piece more substantial than James Loney. Of course, to get something you have to give up something. It makes sense that the [...]

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Ty Kelly and a troubling trend

That was the week that was. It stunk. The Mets headed into Memorial Day weekend feeling pretty good about themselves. They had just taken two-of-three from Washington, climbing back to within a half-game of the division leaders. They knew they’d face a daunting task over the weekend, welcoming the Dodgers to Citi Field and knowing [...]

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Gut Reaction: White Sox 2, Mets 1 (13 INN) 6/1/16

It may have been Dinosaur Education Day at Citi Field but it was the Mets' offense that was extinct, as they fell to the White Sox in the rubber match in the series, 2-1, in 13 innings. As if the lack of offense wasn't infuriating enough, the White Sox took the lead in extra innings [...]

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Moving David Wright to first base will not end well for Mets

Bill James in his early Baseball Abstracts first discussed what he called the “defensive spectrum”. Basically it runs from the easiest position to play to the most difficult. It looks like this: DH-->1B-->LF-->RF-->3B-->CF-->2B-->SS-->C* The asterisk after the C for catcher refers to the unique skill set necessary to play that position. While you would expect [...]

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