A number of writers, including this one, pegged Matt Harvey to be a Cy Young candidate this season. He's a year removed from Tommy John surgery, looked excellent at the end of last season and through most of the playoffs, and seemed to rediscover the earlier life on his fastball and bite on his slider. [...]
We all love a good recovery story, don’t we? A week ago, the Mets were a pitiable giant lumbering about the 2016 season, large but powerless. They lost two-of-three to both the Phillies and Marlins, neither of whom would be considered challengers for the NL East crown. The Mets weren’t hitting, getting mowed down by [...]
The Mets had a lead late but could not hold it and complete the sweep, as the Phillies rallied for a 5-4 win in extra innings Wednesday night in a game that passed the four-hour mark. The bottom of the 11th will never make the "How to play better baseball" video. A wild pitch but [...]
Let’s put this right at the top. The Mets will not be making a change in the third base coaching box this year. It is not in their nature. Any team that would allow Curtis Granderson to play regularly against left handed pitching despite his career numbers (.224 BA and .296 OBP vs. lefties) and [...]
Behind terrific pitching and a barrage of long balls, the Mets clobbered the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Logan Verrett pitched six beautiful, scoreless innings, artfully mixing sliders and changeups to keep hitters off balance and off base. Had the game not been a blowout, Verrett easily could have gone another inning, if not two. [...]
One of the feel-good stories of the early 2016 season has been the performance of Phillies starting pitcher Vincent Velasquez, who has come on to pitch two great games here in the early going for a Philadelphia team that is a few years away from competing for the playoffs. After two starts, Velasquez' line reads: [...]
Although the Mets offense ranks in the bottom half of the National League, the Mets have been scoring more efficiently throughout the past couple of games. Over the past four games, the Mets have scored 5 or more runs, and have gone 3-1 during those games. Terry Collins decided to move Michael Conforto to the [...]
This one was just like Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins drew it up: power hitting and power arms. The Mets stroked four home runs -- two of them by David Wright, his first home runs and RBIs of the year -- in support of another masterful start by Noah Syndergaard. The one they call "Thor" [...]
The first real note on David Thompson is that back in 2012 the Yankees aimed to snatch him in the 38th round of the amateur draft. As all scouts predicted, Thompson went to college instead. Part of the issue with his draftability was the fact that he was a two sport player. He wound up [...]