The amazing start of John Curtiss in Grapefruit League action

Kodai Senga was supposed to start for the Mets Saturday night but instead he was sidelined with a sore right index finger. The Mets were forced to scramble and chose reliever John Curtiss to start the game in Senga's place. Curtiss hurled a shutout frame and ran his scoreless streak in Grapefruit League play to [...]

Making the case for Brett Baty

As snow falls on my backyard, spring is here. There are actual baseball games on the TV, cablecast live from points south and west. Think baseball is floundering? ESPN reported the Cardinals/Mets exhibition game two weeks ago garnered their highest ratings ever for a spring training tilt. The World Baseball Classic is in full swing, [...]

State cruises to 20-point win in ACC tourney opener

After ending the season on a down note, losing back-to-back games and dropping four of their final seven contests, there was some concern about North Carolina State maybe blowing its NCAA tournament chances. But hopefully that “sky is falling” concern was put to rest with an emphatic 97-77 dismantling of the Virginia Tech Hokies in [...]

Joining in on Britton and Sammon’s Spring Training takeaways

If you subscribe to The Athletic, you know that the Mets are blessed with two outstanding beat writers – Tim Britton and Will Sammon. Those two combined on a column today where they each contributed their thoughts to various questions. Unlike the late, great 2 Guys Talking Mets Baseball, they did not interact with each [...]

The worst trade in Mets history – That almost wasn’t

Inarguably, the worst trade in New York Mets history grew out of the Amazin’s need for more offense out of their third baseman and their ability to trade from the strength of surplus young starting pitching.  It was the winter of 1971.  Then General Manager Bob Scheffing surveyed the trade market and set his sights [...]

Examining the old and the young for the Mets in Grapefruit League action

After four-plus months without Mets baseball, it’s a welcome sight to see Grapefruit League games. By now we know all of the pratfalls about Spring Training, where all of the players are in the best shape of their life and that everyone is working on a new pitch or a new approach in the box. [...]

Justin Verlander and pitchers who qualified for the leaderboards in their 40s

There’s been a lot of worry about the age of the Mets’ rotation, especially with newly acquired Justin Verlander getting ready to embark on his age-40 season. But while it’s a good idea to avoid hitters this age – and frankly quite a few years earlier than that – there’s no reason to fret about [...]