213 Miles From Shea

For the second straight day the Mets will take on a World Baseball Classic team getting ready for this weekend’s opening games. This time the Mets will take on a much stronger Venezuelan squad.

The good news for the Mets yesterday is the pitching looked strong. Max Scherzer looked good outside of a homer he gave up. Besides that he struck out nine batters in three innings. Nine batters. Three innings. Pretty great. After him Orze, Coonrod, Brigham, McFarland, Yacabonis and Walker all tossed scoreless innings. The problem for the Mets yesterday was their hitting – Mauricio recorded the only hit for the Mets.

Venezuela had a much more exciting game yesterday, beating the Astros 9-8. Escobar pinch hit and played third yesterday earning two walks in both trips to the plate. Omar Narváez recorded a hit and a walk in his two trips to the plate.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. José Butto: Butto will be pitching in his third game this spring. In his first outing he allowed one run from two walks, no hits over 1 2/3 innings. In his second outing he allowed one run from two hits in two innings. Overall he struck out seven batters over 3 2/3 innings. The Mets already have had their starting pitching depth tested early with an injury to Quintana – that makes every start Butto make so much more important as he rises up the depth chart.
2. You Look Familiar: Eduardo Escobar and Omar Narváez, are both on the roster for Venezuela. They are joined by former Mets Robinson Chirinos and Andrés Giménez. Since being traded from the Mets, Giménez has blossomed into a star. That trade may go down in history as an example with both teams coming out as winners.
3. What are the Rules? I love the World Baseball Classic. One valid criticism is the roll out of the rules for major league baseball and the WBC. The WBC is not using the pitch clock and the new bases. This means players in major league camp are going from new rules, to old rules back to new rules This applies to the exhibition games as well. Luckily for everyone in Mets camp, this issue will pass after today.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets play another evening game – this time against Nicaragua!

The World Baseball Classic started last night in Taiwan and the state side pools are gearing up for official play this weekend. In order to get ready, a bunch of World Baseball Classic teams are playing in exhibition games today and tomorrow and the Mets are playing hosts both days.

Today the Mets will play against Nicaragua. Mark Vientos was originally going to play for Nicaragua before bowing out of the tournament in early February. The goal for Nicaragua in the World Baseball Classic is to not finish last. Nicaragua is in a tough group with the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Israel. The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela are three of the better squads in the tournament. Israel made a surprising run in the last tournament. The last place team has to go back to the qualifying tournament, which is how Nicaragua earned their spot in this year’s tournament.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Just Another Day in the Office for Max: Today’s WBC exhibition matchup is just another day in the office for Max Scherzer. He’s made two starts totaling 4 2/3 innings this spring with a 1.93 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP. A lot happened his last time out though. He got called for a balk. Then he tried to play games with the pitch clock again, and flew a little too close to the Sun. Rather than getting a double play, he got called for a pitch clock violation and then the inning just unraveled. We’re going to talk about the intensity match up a bit later but it’s safe to say no matter how anyone else on the Mets approaches this game, Max will be his normal, super intense self.
2. Old Friends: No current Mets are playing for Nicaragua, but several former Mets are. Erasmo Ramírez, Cheslor Cuthbert, and Kevin Gadea are all on the roster. Ramírez pitched for the Mets in 2020 and had a 0.63 ERA, 3.68 FIP over six games and 14 1/3 innings. Since then he has played for the Tigers and the Nationals.
3. Will The Game Be Intense? Hold Max Scherzer aside because he’s his own entity – how intense will today’s game be? For the Mets this is still a spring training game with guys trying to get their reps in. For Nicaragua this is a key tune up game as they play meaningful games in a couple of days. Energy is contagious and its possible the younger Mets will feed off of and replicate that energy.

Let’s Go Mets!

Hello! It’s been a while! Between the day off on Monday and the Mets playing the late game tonight, the Mets haven’t played baseball for some time.

Since the Mets last played we got news that José Quintana suffered a stress fracture in his rib cage earlier in the week. These types of injuries potentially take a long time (possibly months) to heal from. It’s a great thing the Mets didn’t trade Carlos Carrasco as his role just got even more important for this upcoming season. This also means the health David Peterson just got a lot more important.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Where Did Everyone Go? The Mets have nine major leaguers and five minor leaguers in the the WBC. With all countries playing in the first round of the tournament Mets camp just got a lot lighter. We should see a string of prospects getting an extended look for the rest of the week.
2. Cookie Keeps It In The Park: In his first start of the spring Carlos Carrasco allowed two runs from two hits including a homer while walking one and striking out a batter. Obviously this is a very small sample size. The major difference Carrasco had in 2021 vs 2022 was his HR/9. He went from a 2.0 to 1.0 between the two seasons, and it was the reason he was way more successful last season. So we are hoping to see no homers today.
3. The Return of Darin Ruf: The Mets traded four players, including J.D. Davis and Thomas Szapucki for Darin Ruf last season at the deadline. The plan was that Ruf and Vogelbach would become a DH super platoon. That did not happen. Ruf went from hitting .216/328/.373 with the Giants to hitting .152/.216/.197 with the Mets. The young kids this spring have been tearing the cover off of the ball – could Ruf be in a position battle?

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets have the opportunity to improve to .500 this afternoon against the Cardinals! The Mets are coming off of a huge game against the Marlins yesterday where they racked up 16 hits and 15 runs thanks to five homers. Mark Vientos was the big start of the day going 3-4 at the plate with two homers and five RBI. With the World Baseball Classic coming up this week, we are only going to see more of Vientos, which is great!

Today the Mets will go back to Jupiter to take on their other home team – the Cardinals. Today is also the second day in a row that a big starting pitcher free agent signing will be making his Mets debut. Yesterday Justin Verlander had a great first game allowing one run from two hits and no walks while striking out three over three innings. Today we finally get to see Kodai Senga and his ghost forkball take on major league hitters in a real(ish) game!

Three Things To Watch For:

1. The Ghost Forkball: It’s worth noting that Senga does not call his signature pitch a ghost forkball. He says its probably a splitter because he doesn’t hold the ball the same way most forkball pitchers do. DiComo notes that the pitch grip is similar to the split-changeup that Carrasco throws. Due to how far back in his hand Senga throws the ball, and his motion, when done right, it takes on a different trajectory. The nickname comes from its ability to just disappear to hitters. All season we’ll be talking about the adjustment major league hitters will make to the pitch and the readjustments Senga will need to take.
2. Francisco Lindor: Over the first six games he’s played in Lindor has collected five hits and four walks in 19 plate appearances. He already has a .400/.526/.667 slash line in spring. First, a hot at the plate Lindor is great news for the World Baseball Classic next week. Second, if Lindor keeps this up in April the Mets are going to be unstoppable at the plate. Eventually this batting line is going to come back down to Earth, I just want to look at it a bit longer.
3. Have Fun Guys! Today is the last day that the World Baseball Classic players are in camp. So in addition to aforementioned Lindor, we’ll be watching Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, Eduardo Escobar, and Omar Narváez for the last time in a Mets starting lineup for a bit.

Let’s Go Mets!

Today is the day!

Justin Verlander makes his Mets debut today, starting the game against the Marlins in Jupiter. The Mets lost Jacob deGrom in free agency this off season and replaced him with the best possible option – the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner.

Verlander and the Mets look to bounce back from yesterday’s bizarre loss where Max Scherzer had a third inning for the trivia books. He committed a balk (controversial call) and then had a pitch clock violation for the ages. He tossed the ball as time expired, resulting in an inning ending double play, but with the violation it turned into a ball – and then all hell broke lose. Ultimately the whole point of spring training is to try things out. In years past, that might have meant throwing a curveball over and over and over again to get a feel for the pitch. This year it means learning gamesmanship. The games do not matter so let’s learn away!

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Justin Verlander: Verlander had a 1.75 ERA over 28 starts and 175 innings with a 2.49 FIP, 0.829 WHIP and 220 ERA+. He led the league last year in wins, winning percentage, ERA, WHIP, H/9, and ERA+. It was the type of Cy Young resume that would make old school and new school baseball heads swoon.
2. Francisco Lindor: Over the first five games he’s played in Lindor has collected five hits and four walks in 15 plate appearances. He already has a .455/.600/.727 slash line in spring. First, a hot at the plate Lindor is great news for the World Baseball Classic next week. Second, if Lindor keeps this up in April the Mets are going to be unstoppable at the plate. Eventually this batting line is going to come back down to Earth, I just want to look at it a bit longer.
3. Eric Orze: Orze is scheduled to pitch in his third spring game today. He’s a non-roster invitee in camp and we are getting closer to when some pitchers are going to get moved to minor league camp as starters get stretched to go deeper into games. In his first outing he allowed two hits and no runs while walking one and striking out two. Then in his second outing he allowed one hit and two walks while striking out one. Will today be the day he breaks his 3.000 WHIP?

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets look to get back in the win column this afternoon as they take on the Nationals at Clover Park! There were two positive take always from yesterday’s game. First, Drew Smith allowed a hit and a walk with no runs in his spring debut – he could very well be the x-factor in the bullpen this year. Second, the third base battle continued to heat up on the Mets. Eduardo Escobar went 1-3 at the plate. Brett Baty had to take it one step farther going 2-3.

Today the Mets welcome back a familiar face to Clover Park as Trevor Williams looks to build on his last scoreless outing. Williams will square off against Max Scherzer who is making his second start of the spring. Last season Scherzer pitched four innings in his spring debut. This year he went two innings, but if he didn’t throw so many pitches in his second inning it’s conceivable that he could have gone three.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Max Scherzer: In Scherzer’s first spring training start he struck out a batter in 27 seconds. He also held onto the ball for 14 seconds waiting until the last possible moment to pitch it to mess with the batter. He’s gone on the record discussing how the pitch clock gives the pitchers an additional advantage. We are excited to see what new games he creates on the pitching mound today!
2. Francisco Álvarez: After yesterday’s game Showalter said the plan for today was to give Álvarez time behind the plate for the first time this spring. This is a significant step for Álvarez’s preparation this spring. I am curious to see which pitchers he will catch this afternoon.
3. Daniel Vogelbach: So far in spring Vogelbach has been the main beneficiary of the new shift rules in baseball. There was some talk over the weekend during the SNY broadcast that while Vogelbach is going to benefit from the shift, teams may not be showing their hand on they will play Vogelbach during the season. We are so early in spring that I doubt that right now, but it is something to look for as while the Mets play teams that they are both seeing a lot in the spring and the regular season.  

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets look to win two games in a row as they take on the Atlanta Braves this afternoon!

You can call the Mets PSE&G, Con-Ed, etc. because yesterday’s win was all thanks to power. Francisco Lindor hit his first homer of the spring. Pete Alonso smacked his second. Ronny Mauricio hit an MLB leading third homer of the spring. This is further evidence that Lindor and Alonso are ready to go to the World Baseball Classic next week. For Mauricio, this hot streak, coupled with the World Baseball Classic, means more time against higher talent opponents.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Carlos Carrasco: As of today Carlos Carrasco projects to be the Mets fifth starter and what a blessing that is to have that much depth. Carrasco had a rocky 2021 coming back from injury and was able to make 12 starts pitching a total of 53 2/3 innings with a 6.04 ERA, 5.22 FIP, 1.435 WHIP and a 67 ERA+. Home runs crushed him in 2021, he gave them up at a rate of two per nine innings, almost double his career mark of 1.1. Last season he was a different story. Carrasco made 29 starts and pitched 152 innings with a 3.97 ERA, 3.53 FIP, 1.329 WHIP and 97 ERA+. He also cut his home run per nine inning total in half compared to 2021.
2. Jeff McNeil: McNeil has been off to a slow start this spring with a hit and a walk in ten trips to the plate. This puts him an absurdly low, and small sample size .200 OBP. Very unlike Jeff McNeil. It’s still early and Jeff is going to get time playing higher-leverage spring baseball in the World Baseball Classic next week. That being said, a little positive momentum can keep the overreactions away.
3. Drew Smith: Smith makes his Grapefruit League debut today also! Drew Smith pitched in 44 games, 46 innings, last season with a 3.33 ERA, 4.33 FIP, 1.152 WHIP and a 117 ERA+. Good numbers for any reliever, but also a step backwards from his phenomenal 31 game, 41 1/3 inning 2021 campaign where he finished with a 2.40 ERA and 168 ERA+. The Mets brought in reinforcements to flank Edwin Díaz with this off-season. Drew Smith finishing anywhere between his 2021 and 2022 performances will be a huge boon to the Mets. 

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets make another trip to Jupiter this afternoon, this time to take on the Marlins. The ESPN booth on Monday was discussing the playing field at Jupiter after Pete Alonso fielded a ball that took a bad hop. Since two teams are playing on the field, it’s a lot tougher for the field to be resilient. I’ve personally never considered this before and it could be something to look at throughout March to see if there is any truth to this.

Anyway the Mets are looking to bounce back from yesterday’s loss against the Astros. Most of the damage was damage was done against the Mets in the first inning, with Quintana getting tagged for five runs after allowing three doubles to start of the game. Not a great start for the Mets new starting pitcher. T.J. McFarland also had a rough inning towards the end of the game allowing three earned runs. He’s currently in a battle for a roster spot and his major league experience is giving him an edge. Hopefully he can shrug this off.

Enough about the negatives though – there was a lot to be positive about! Edwin Díaz had a great first outing the spring, striking out two batters while striking out one. Adam Ottavino worked himself into trouble, and then got out of it without allowing a run. Mauricio got on base again. Baty got a hit again. Francisco Lindor got two hits and stole a base. Hopefully these are the vibes the Mets try to keep going today.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Tylor Megill: Megill makes his spring debut today! In 15 games last year, including nine starts, he pitched 47 1/3 innings with a 5.13 ERA, 3.77 FIP, 1.246 WHIP and a 76 ERA+. Megill started the season strong last year, filling in for an injured deGrom at the start of the season throwing 10 1/3 scoreless innings over two starts but then hit some bumps in the road. He ended the season in the Mets bullpen pitching five innings over five games with a 3.60 ERA and 3.11 FIP. Most likely he will start the year in Syracuse unless the Mets need a starter due to injury at the beginning of the season.
2. Jonathan Araúz: The Mets brought a handful of infielders to camp this year on non-roster invites including Araúz. Signed by the Phillies, he has been traded to the Astros, claimed by the Red Sox and played for the Orioles all before the age of 24. His time to play with the Mets this spring is quickly evaporating as he gets ready to go to Taiwan for Panama in the World Baseball Classic.
3. Stephen Nogosek: Nogosek is out of options this year, which is giving him an inside track to breaking camp with the team. His first outing was great – no hits and no walks while recording a strikeout. Let’s see what his second game brings!

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets look to get back in the (mostly meaningless) win column today as they take on the Astros to close out the month of February. Yesterday the Mets lost to the Cardinals 12-7 thanks to a big inning the Cardinals were able to put up against Jose Chacin.

But it’s spring and the results don’t exactly matter. David Peterson had a tremendous start to the game where he held the Cardinals to no hits and a walk while striking out three over two innings of work. Ronny Mauricio continued his hot start to spring, homering in a second straight game. Brett Baty went 1-2 at the plate with an opposite field single and William Lugo hit his first homer of the spring. A big day for the young guys trying to make noise.

Mets Lineup:

1. Tommy Pham – LF
2. Jeff McNeil – 2B
3. Francisco Lindor – SS
4. Pete Alonso – 1B
5. Daniel Vogelbach – DH
6. Mark Canha – CF
7. Eduardo Escobar – 3B
8. Omar Narváez – C
9. DJ Stewart – RF

SP – José Quintana

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Eduardo Escobar: Escobar needs reps in left field in order to get ready for the World Baseball Classic. With the way Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio have been playing this spring, the Mets could be interested in a more versatile Eduardo Escobar. Remember this for the next time someone says something negative about the WBC. Right now Escobar is slated to start at third – we’ll see if Showalter shifts him to left at some point today.
2. José Quintana: Quintana quietly had a strong year in 2022. Between the Pirates and the Cardinals he had a 2.93 ERA over 32 starts and 165 2/3 innings. This was because he led the league in HR/9 at a paltry 0.4 (career 0.9). This is pretty much the polar opposite of his 2021 campaign where he pitched in 29 games making 10 starts with a 6.43 ERA and a 1.7 HR/9 innings.
3. Look To The Backfields! It was announced last week that Kodai Senga was scheduled to throw in the backfields today. With today’s broadcast on ESPN, we aren’t sure how much coverage this will get if it happens today.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets head to Jupiter today to take the Cardinals for their fourth spring training game of the year. After dropping Saturday’s afternoon game against the Astros the Mets have won their past two games and look to extend that streak to three today.

One of the challenges the Mets have in 2023 is finding positions for Ronny Mauricio and Mark Ventos. Ronny Mauricio, who was on fire in the Dominican League this past winter, destroyed a baseball yesterday hitting it 450 feet with an exit velocity of 110 mph – that’s Pete Alonso territory!

Mets Lineup:

1. Tim Locastro – LF
2. Luis Guillorme – SS
3. Pete Alonso – 1B
4. Abraham Almonte – RF
5. Mark Vientos – 3B
6. Tomás Nido – C
7. Francisco Álvarez – DH
8. José Peraza – S
9. Lorenzo Cedrola – CF

SP – David Peterson

Three Things To Watch For:

1. David Peterson: David Peterson and Tylor Megill are the two key pitchers for the Mets pitching depth this season. As of right now it looks like the Mets will be going into the season with one lefty in the pen and Peterson in Syracuse to prepare for deep spot starts if needed. Last season he pitched in 28 games for the Mets, making 19 starts with a 3.83 ERA, 1.334 WHIP, 3.64 FIP and a 101 ERA+. He wasn’t too different as a starter vs a reliever. As a starter he had a 3.86 ERA over 91 innings with a 1.341 WHIP and a 10.9 K/9. As a reliever he pitched 14 2/3 innings with a 3.68 ERA, 1.296 WHIP and a 9.8 K/9. If there is an injury in spring training to the rotation, Peterson will be on the short list to replace them.
2. Francisco Álvarez: The Mets number one prospect gets his first start of the spring. Álvarez has the potential to be one of the most exciting players on the Mets this season when he gets called up. The question is – when? With the Mets signing Narváez, there is a little less pressure to rush Álvarez at the start of the season.
3. Abraham Almonte: Almonte has played 10 major league seasons across seven different organizations. He turned heads in his first spring training game this weekend recording two hits. Let’s see what he does with a start this afternoon!

Let’s Go Mets!