You’ve probably read by now that David Peterson was the first Mets starting pitcher to win his debut since Steven Matz back in 2015. What you probably haven’t seen is the list of pitchers who’ve made their first start in the interim. Here’s the list:
Logan Verrett
Sean Gilmartin
Seth Lugo
Robert Gsellman
Gabriel Ynoa
Chris Flexen
Tyler Pill
Corey Oswalt
P.J. Conlon
Jerry Blevins
Drew Gagnon
Lugo made nine relief appearances in 2016 before his first start. In that initial starting assignment, he went 6.2 IP, gave up 3 ER and took the loss. Gsellman made just one relief appearance before getting his first start. He allowed 4 ER in 6 IP and also got hung with the loss. Blevins was used as an opener in 2018 against the Dodgers and gave up 2 ER in 2 IP but got a no-decision.
That list just goes to show how fortunate the Mets were to bring up Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Matz in a four-year span from 2012-2015. Maybe in a few years they can start another run like that with Matthew Allan, Josh Wolf, J.T. Ginn and some of their international signings
So far, it looks like the outbreak is limited to the Marlins. It seems like a punch to the chin that had baseball reeling but still upright. Hopefully that’s the worst thing that happens. But it would be nice to know how it came to be.
“Angels manager Joe Maddon echoed a common sentiment within the sport. He reserved judgment about baseball’s long-term viability during the pandemic until determining the origins of the Marlins’ outbreak. “It’s really important to trace how it occurred,” he said. “That’s the one thing we need to know first before we jump to any conclusions. If there was a breach of protocol from one of those players then it becomes more explainable. If not then it becomes more problematic.”
Just never know who will step up. Degrom was never the next big thing and i recall remembering a rotation of gooden and archie corbin 1 and 2 will blow up the east.
Who is Archie Corbin ?
A mets pitching prospect from late 80s who i got to pitch a few times and looked like a sure thing but washed out.
I looked up Archie’s minor league stats. 16th round draft pick. Had a good year in rookie ball but never got above A ball. It’s fun to have those old memories.
I went to high school with Jeff Bittiger who was a good Mets pitching prospect in the early 80s. I will never forget, he spoiled my last game in little league. I whiffed 4 times against him in the last game.
Rob, that’s a great point. Maybe Peterson turns out to be better than expected. After trading away Dunn and Kay, we could really use someone to step up.
From Keith Law:
“Another former first-rounder, Mets lefty David Peterson, also debuted this past week, although his stuff was a bit less impressive than Pearson’s. Peterson is a command lefty who didn’t have great command in his outing, leaving a lot of fastballs and changeups in the middle third of the plate (up, down, or middle-middle). Peterson was 91-94 mph with some late movement, but not sink, surprising for a supposed sinkerballer, with a solid-average changeup at 83-86 mph that worked when he got it up or kept it below the zone, but not when he left it over the middle. He also showed a fringe-average slider at 82-84 mph and below-average curveball at 73-75 mph, neither of which showed good spin. This formula, of a quartet of average or average-ish pitches, works if the pitcher has above-average command and control, and has some deception. Peterson didn’t have that on Tuesday, and generated just five swings-and-misses on the night, so he’s got work to do to be more than a fifth/sixth starter.”
One of the tenets of the era of modern batting metrics is to value outs, or rather, not making outs because you are only afforded 27 per game. Thus, sacrifice bunts are viewed negatively, vis-a-vis when expected runs are calculated. However, how is this affected by the newly implemented extra inning rules? That is, do sacrifices make sense when you are given a free runner on second base?
According to Fangraphs the run expectancy with a runner on second and no outs is 1.068 and the run expectancy with a man on third and one out is .0865. Based on that it would seem that a sacrifice bunt would not be the best move. I would imagine though that it also depends on who is batting and who is behind that batter.
So the Mets turned to Jake Marisnick to solve the backup CF issue. Then for depth purposes they re-signed old pal Juan Lagares. And now they do what I advocated for back in October – they got Billy Hamilton.
They traded the recently DFAd Jordan Humphreys for him.