213 Miles From Shea

The baseball season is a marathon, and certainly worth it to remind yourself of that after last night. The Mets dropped their second straight game by blowing a lead in the 8th inning. This time the Mets had to work around a surprise injury to Taijuan Walker which knocked him out in the second inning. David Peterson did a great job in long relief but the Mets just hit a wall again late.

Tylor Megill will look to reverse that trend as the Mets take on the Phillies for game two tonight! Megill pitched beautifully on Opening Day holding the Nationals to three hits and nothing else over 5 innings of work. Megill faced the Phillies once last season, allowing four runs from five hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings. His weak point last year was the long ball and he allowed two homers in that outing. The Phillies have the following numbers on Tylor:

• Odubel Herrera 2-3, 2B, HR
• Jean Segura 1-3
• Alec Bohm 1-2, 2B
• Bryce Harper 0-2, K
• J.T. Realmuto 2 K
• Nick Maton 0-1

The Mets will get a look at an old friend tonight in Zack Wheeler who will be making his 2022 debut. Wheeler’s debut tonight will be unusual – it’s a true 2022 debut. Wheeler did not pitch in any spring training games this season. He felt soreness in his shoulder during the winter and that essentially put a giant pause in his off-season ramp up. He threw a bullpen session over the weekend and feels good to go, so here were are!

Wheeler had a tremendous season last year making 32 starts and pitching a league leading 213 1/3 innings with three complete games and two complete game shutouts (both league leading). He posted a 2.78 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 1.008 WHIP and a 150 ERA+ while recording 247 strikeouts. The 247 strikeouts was also league leading and over 50 strikeouts more than his previous career high. In five starts against the Mets last year he pitched 34 1/3 innings allowing 8 runs (2.10 ERA) from 27 hits and 6 walks while striking out 37 batters. The Mets have the following numbers against Wheeler:

• Brandon Nimmo 7-25, 2 2B, 5 K
• Jeff McNeil 3-19, BB, 5 K
• Dominic Smith 8-20, 2B, 5 K
• Pete Alonso 6-17, 2B, 3 K
• James McCann 3-14, 2 K
• J.D. Davis 5-13, 2 2B, HR, 5 K
• Francisco Lindor 4-12, 2B, 2 K
• Eduardo Escobar 2-9, 3 K
• Starling Marte 2-9, 2B, K

Let’s Go Mets!

If I told myself the Mets would win three of the first four games of the season, I would be ecstatic.

However, because of the way the Mets lost yesterday (leaving several runners on base, multiple defensive miscues in the bottom of the 8th, etc.) I feel fairly bummed. That being said, it was a good opening weekend for Mets baseball and there were a lot of positives for the Mets to build on.

Tonight the Mets head into Philly for the second series of the year. Philadelphia had a busy off-season keeping up with the Braves in Mets including signing former Mets Jeurys Familia and Brad Hand. Their lineup is now designed for their ballpark they play in – power over defense. In general, there’s a lot of hype around the Phillies.

Taijuan Walker makes the start for the Mets tonight. Overall last season he pitched in 30 games, 29 starts, totaling 159 innings with a 4.47 ERA, 4.57 FIP, 1.182 WHIP and a 90 ERA+. Last year was a tale of two seasons for Walker. Before the All-Star break, he pitched 94 2/3 innings with a 2.66 ERA and 1.056 WHIP. After the break he pitched 64 1/3 innings with a 7.13 ERA and a 1.368 WHIP. The big change was the home run. Prior to the break he only gave up six but after the break he gave of 20 homers in considerably less innings.

Walker faced the Phillies five times last season, totaling 26.1 innings and posting a 3.76 ERA. He faired worse at Citizens Bank Park where he allowed seven runs over 12 innings. The Phillies have the following numbers against him:

• Didi Gregorius 4-16, 2B, 2 K
• Bryce Harper 3-14, 2B, HR, BB, 2 K
• Alec Bohm 4-10, 2B, HR, 2 BB, K
• Kyle Schwarber 5-10, 5 HR, BB, K
• Jean Segura 3-10, HR, K
• J.T. Realmuto 3-8, HR, 2 K
• Odubel Herrera 0-8, K
• Rhys Hoskins 1-7, 4 K
• Nick Castellanos 2-6, HR, 2 K

The Mets bats will get their first 2022 look at Ranger Suarez. Last season he split time as a reliever and a starter. Overall he pitched in 39 games, starting 12, pitching 106 innings with a 1.36 ERA, 2.72 FIP, 1.000 WHIP and a 308 ERA+. As a starter he pitched 65 2/3 innings with a 1.51 ERA and 1.081 WHIP. He pitched against the Mets three times last season, including a start, totaling to 4 2/3 innings allowing 2 runs, 1 earned from 3 hits and 4 walks while striking out 7. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Brandon Nimmo 2-6, 2 BB, K
• Pete Alonso 0-3, 2 BB, K
• Starling Marte 1-5, BB, K
• Dominic Smith 1-4, K
• Eduardo Escobar 2-3, 2B, HR
• Jeff McNeil 0-2, K
• Francisco Lindor 0-1

Let’s Go Mets!

Two different baseball clichés are converging this afternoon in DC. First, good teams beat bad teams. That’s what the Mets have done all weekend. Second, it’s difficult to sweep a four game set. That’s what the Mets are going to attempt to do this afternoon.

The Mets clinched the series win yesterday thanks to a terrific Mets debut by Chris Bassitt who shut the Nationals offense down for 6 innings and thanks to Pete Alonso‘s first career grand slam. Now the Mets will try the difficult task, even against teams like the Nationals, and complete the four game sweep.

Carlos Carrasco will make his 2022 Mets debut. Last season Carrasco was hampered by a hamstring injury and at the end of the season had surgery to remove a bone fragment in his elbow. It was just a difficult season all around. He started 12 games and tossed 53 2/3 innings with a 6.04 ERA, 5.22 FIP, 1.435 WHIP and a 67 ERA+. Homeruns crushed him last year as he gave them up at a clip of 2.0 per nine innings, 0.9 points worse than his career numbers. He made one start against the Nationals last season where he allowed four runs in one inning. However, the weather was terrible and the game was suspended and completed the next day. The Nationals have the following numbers against Carrasco:

• Alcides Escobar 9-42, 2B, 6 K
• Nelson Cruz 11-30, 3 2B, 4 HR, BB, 9 K
• Ehire Adrianza 2-13, 4 K
• Dee Strange-Gordon 2-11, BB, 2 K
• Josh Bell 2-7, 2B, 3 K
• Maikel Franco 2-6, 2B, K
• Riley Adams 1-1
• Carter Kieboom 0-1
• Victor Robles 1-1
• Juan Soto 1-1, HR

The Mets bats will look to keep grinding against Erick Fedde. Fedde pitched in 29 games, 27 starts, last season totaling 133 1/3 innings. He posted a 5.47 ERA, 4.66 FIP, 1.440 WHIP and a 74 ERA+. Fedde pitched a ton against the Mets last season – five times! Over those five games he pitched 24.1 innings and allowed 29 hits, 18 runs (14 earned – 5.18 ERA) and 9 walks while striking out 21 batters. The Mets have the following numbers against Fedde:

• Brandon Nimmo 5-19, 3 BB, 3 K
• Pete Alonso 6-12, 2 2B, 4 BB, K (1.278 OPS)
• Dominic Smith 2-15, BB, 3 K
• Jeff McNeil 5-12, 2B, 2 BB, K
• Francisco Lindor 2-10, K
• Eduardo Escobar 2-8, K
• J.D. Davis 2-5, 2B, BB, 2 K
• Starling Marte 1-6, 2B, K
• Travis Jankowski 2-5, 2B, HR, K

Let’s Go Mets! Get that four game sweep!

The Mets look to win their third game in a row tonight as they take on the Nationals again in DC.

Nationals pitchers hit Mets batters three times on Opening Day with James McCann getting plunked twice and Pete Alonso having a scary moment getting hit on the batting helmet flap. Last night Steve Cishek lost control of a pitch inside and hit Francisco Lindor in the face. Thankfully Lindor’s X-Ray’s were negative and he cleared concussion protocols. The benches did clear as Showalter made it clear he was going to defend his team no matter what the intent was.

Anyway, on to today’s game! Chris Bassitt makes his Mets debut tonight! Bassitt was acquired in a trade with the Athletics pretty much right after the lockout. He is also the third member of the Athletics to come over to the Mets this off-season, joining his teammates Starling Marte and Eduardo Escobar. Last season Bassitt pitched in 27 games and logged 157 1/3 innings with a 3.15 ERA, 3.34 FIP, 1.055 WHIP and a 130 ERA+. He did not face the Washington Nationals last season however, because of the way the Nationals reconstructed their roster this off-season, there are seven batters who have faced Bassitt previously:

• Nelson Cruz 4-11, 3 2B, 2 BB, 2 K
• Alcides Escobar 4-11, 2B, 2 BB, K
• Dee Strange-Gordon 1-5, 2B, BB
• Josh Bell 2-3, 2 HR, K
• Maikel Franco 1-3, K
• Ehire Adrianza 1-2, 2B, K
• Cesar Hernandez 0-1, K

The Mets bats tonight will face one of the Nationals pitching prospects, Joan Adon, who is ranked as the 8th overall prospect in the Nationals system by the MLB prospect website. His write up notes that he has mid-90’s fastball complemented by a low-80’s slide and high-80’s changeup. Because of everything that has been happening with the Mets getting hit by pitches, it’s notable that he struggles with control. He pitched one game in the majors last year against the Red Sox where he allowed two runs from six hits and three walks over 5 1/3 innings while striking out nine (and hitting one). Over three levels of minor league baseball last season he made 21 starts and pitched 105 innings with a 4.97 ERA and 1.276 WHIP.

One of the batters Joan will have to deal with tonight is Jeff McNeil, who is the only hitter in baseball right now with five hits. Obviously, this is an incredibly small-sample size but I just wanted to highlight it. (Mainly because I was able to draft him in round 23 of a 24 round draft in a league with 4-5 diehard Mets fans).

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets winning on Opening Day is one of the greatest traditions in the sport, and the Mets kept it alive last night with a 5-1 win over the Washington Nationals.

Tonight the Mets will have a chance to guarantee at least a series split as they take on the Nationals for second of four games this weekend. The game tonight is also the first of the season on AppleTV+. MLB, in a move that in my opinion demonstrates at best how out of touch the league is with fans and at worst how greedy the league is, has signed contracts with AppleTV+ and Peacock this year giving them exclusive games. Each service gets one to two games per week exclusively on their platform, even in regional markets. Access to the game tonight will be free though!

Max Scherzer will take on Josiah Gray. Scherzer will make both his long awaited Mets debut and his DC homecoming in the same start. He got a well-deserved standing ovation and tribute video when announced last night. One of the players who came from the Dodgers trade last year for Scherzer was Josiah Gray! So we will also be treated to a head to head matchup of players in the same trade.

Max Scherzer made 30 starts last season and tossed 179 1/3 innings with a 2.46 ERA, 2.97 FIP, 0.846 WHIP (league leading) and a 166 ERA+. He also led the league in H/9 (6.0) and BB/9 (1.8). After being traded he made 11 starts for the Dodgers where he was better in nearly every statistical category. There are very few current Nationals who have seen Scherzer in an official major league game before:

• Cesar Hernandez 11-48, 4 2B, 2 BB, 13 K
• Alcides Escobar 12-41, 2B, 2 HR, 7 K
• Nelson Cruz 8-21, 2B, HR, 6 K
• Josh Bell 3-7, 2 2B, 3 BB, K
• Ehire Adrianza 1-3

Josiah Gray had a 5.48 ERA, 6.00 FIP, 1.358 WHIP and 75 ERA+ over 14 games (13 starts) and 70 2/3 innings of work last season. Gray started once against the Mets back on September 5th where he allowed 6 runs over 3 innings from 7 hits and a walk. He also made three starts this spring, totaling 9 2/3 innings, allowing 11 runs (10 earned) from 13 hits and 5 home runs. Due to a combination of Josiah Gray only pitching in 14 games in his career, most as a National, and the Mets rebuilding their roster this off-season, only five Mets have seen Gray in an official game:

• Pete Alonso 2-2, 2B
• Francisco Lindor 0-1, BB
• Patrick Mazeika 0-2, K
• Jeff McNeil 0-1
• Taijuan Walker 0-1

And out of those five Mets players, only three of them will face Gray tonight.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets start off the 2022 tonight in DC!

The universe had one more delay planned for the 2022 season – weather. The Nationals made the smart move last night and moved the start of the game back 3 hours to 7:05 to allow the rain to clear out of the area.

The Mets come into tonight’s game with sky-high expectations and after a tumultuous week. The Mets greatly improved their roster this winter and had one of the top rotations in baseball until a week ago. Tylor Megill, who at the start of spring training seemed slated for Syracuse, will make his first Opening Day start after a strong start and a wise tactical move by Showalter to not rush any other pitchers in the Mets rotation to pitch Opening Day.

In two games and 6 2/3 innings during spring training, Tylor Megill allowed two unearned runs from five hits and five walks while striking out 7. Over 18 games last season he pitched 89 2/3 innings with a 4.52 ERA, 4.69 FIP, 1.283 WHIP and an 89 ERA+. Homers were his big weakness – he allowed them at a 1.9 HR/9 IP clip last season. In two starts against the Nationals last season he allowed 6 earned runs from 8 hits and 4 walks over 11 innings of work. The Nationals have the following stats against him:

• Alcides Escobar 2-6, HR, K
• Lane Thomas 1-6, HR, 4 K
• Josh Bell 2-5, HR, 2 K
• Carter Kieboom 1-5, 3 K
• Juan Soto 0-2, 3 BB
• Ehire Adrianza 0-3, BB
• Luis Garcia 1-4, 2B

The Nationals tore down their roster at the trade deadline last year and are committed to the rebuilding process for this season. Tonight though the Mets draw the veteran in the rotation, Patrick Corbin. Corbin had his worst season in his career last year posting a 5.82 ERA, 5.41 FIP, 1.468 WHIP and a 70 ERA+ over 31 starts and 171 2/3 innings. This includes a league leading 111 earned runs and 37 homers. Spring training was much nicer to Corbin where he allowed 4 runs, none earned, over 9 innings of work from 6 hits (including a homer).

Corbin made three starts against the Mets last season and allowed 9 runs from 22 (!) hits and 5 walks over 17.0 innings of work. Mets batters have the following numbers against Corbin:

• Pete Alonso 10-30, 2 2B, 4 HR, 4 BB, 11 K
• J.D. Davis 10-29, 3 2B, 4 HR, 3 BB, 8 K
• Starling Marte 7-26, 2 2B, 2 BB, 5 K
• Brandon Nimmo 4-21, BB, 9 K
• Jeff McNeil 4-19, 2B, BB, 3 K
• Francisco Lindor 5-15, 2B, 2 K
• James McCann 3-10, 2B, BB, 3 K
• Eduardo Escobar 2-8, HR
• Tomas Nido 1-5, 2 K

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets play the Nationals in their final spring training game before heading north to play … the Nationals again!?!

The Mets tied with the Astros after 9 innings yesterday. Spring records do not matter, but the tie yesterday guarantees that the worst the Mets can finish spring training at is a .500 record today. Carlos Carrasco worked around a couple of early runs, allowing a total of two runs from four hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings of work. More importantly, he didn’t allow any home runs, which sunk him in his last start. Dominic Smith was the other big star yesterday, hitting a massive 3-run homer to tie the game. His spring training batting average is now at .440 and his OPS is at 1.413.

What We’re Watching For Today:

Taijuan Walker will make his final spring training tune up before the start of the season. In his first two spring starts he has tossed 5 2/3 innings allowing four hits and nothing else. This is the Taijuan Walker the Mets need this week!

The Nationals expected started, Erick Fedde, recently had an injury scare. He was scratched from a start last week due to arm soreness. He got cleared with a clean MRI and today will determine if he’s back on track to join the Nationals rotation during the first week of the season. Fedde pitched in 29 games last year, including 27 starts, with a 5.47 ERA. 4.66 FIP, 1.440 WHIP and a 74 ERA+ over 133 1/3 innings. In spring training this year he has pitched 4 2/3 innings over two games without allowing any runs from three hits and three walks.

Let’s Go Mets!

The last entry in our series this year feels like a time warp – Matt Reynolds returned to the Mets system this year on a minor league and saw a little bit of time in major league camp. Over 5 games he had 7 PA’s. He walked once, scored and had no hits. Currently, Reynolds is on the Syracuse Mets roster.

Matt Reynolds was drafted by the Mets in the 2nd round back in 2012. He made his major league debut in 2016 and saw significant time in 2017. Matt played in 68 games, had 130 PA’s and hit .230/.326/.301. Before the start of the 2018 season his contract was purchased by the Nationals. At this point he bounced around from Washington, to Kansas City, to the White Sox and now he’s finally back home with the Mets. Welcome back Matt!

2017 remains the last time he saw a large stretch of the season in the majors. Matt played 12 games with the Nationals in 2018 and 11 with the Royals in 2020. Unlike other players we looked at this spring, I don’t think his path to the majors this year is too tough, despite not being on the 40-man roster. He profiles as a good fit for a very short term solution if multiple injuries arrive at the same time and the Mets don’t want to burn an option with a younger player. This happened a lot with the Mets last year, hopefully it doesn’t happen again. The National League DH also makes his inclusion in the lineup easier if a short-term infielder is needed.

Welcome back Matt!

It’s the penultimate spring training game!

The Mets will spend the last two days of spring on the same field with an early game against the Astros today and then an early game with the Nationals tomorrow. After that the Mets get a day off and play the Nationals in the season opener in DC.

Do you ever watch a spring training game and wish “I hope they save some of those hits for the regular season”? Yesterday was one of those days as the Mets had 15 hits as a team and scored 8 times against the Marlins. Robinson Canó had a huge day at the plate, going 4-4 with a double raising his spring OPS to .872. Nido collected three hits and raised his spring OPS to 1.114, making a strong case to see more playing time behind the plate. Starling Marte and Pete Alonso also had nice days collecting two hits each. Pete struggled early this spring but now has an OPS of .864 after a few good games this past week – hopefully he keeps this momentum going in DC later this week.

Pitching has been top of mind for the Mets the last several days with the Jacob deGrom news and Max Scherzer possibly missing his first start of the season. This puts even more attention on this afternoon’s starter, Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco was always going to be an x-factor on this team. Any significant steps he could make this year to his career numbers would push the Mets rotation over the edge. Before his last spring training start, we discussed that his weakness last season was the home run ball. All three runs that he was charged with over his four innings of work last week came off of two homers. We’re looking forward to seeing him get ready for the season today!

Let’s Go Cookie! Let’s Go Mets!

As spring winds down, we wind down our Non-Roster Invitation coverage. Today we’ll look at Daniel Palka who the Mets signed as a free agent out of the Nationals organization.

Daniel Palka got a long look this spring and impressed with his size and his bat power. On April 1st he hit a ball with an exit velocity of 114 mph! Overall he got into 13 games this spring and had 24 PA’s where he hit .238/.333/.333.

Palka was drafted by the Phillies in the 19th round back in 2010. He was drafted by the Diamondbacks a few years later in the round of the 2013 draft out of Georgia Institute of Technology. At this point he started to bounce around different systems – first being traded to the Twins, then being claimed by the White Sox (who he later made his major league debut with). He was then signed by the Nationals last year before coming over to the Mets.

Palka saw significant playing time in the majors back in 2018. He played 124 games for the White Sox with 449 PA’s where he slugged 27 homers and put up a .240/.294/.484 line. The following year he played 30 games and had 93 PA’s where he only hit two homers and had a .107/.194/.179 line.

Palka is an intriguing depth signing for the Mets and flashes quite a bit of power. The difficulty for Palka to make it to the roster is finding a spot for him to play. He plays first and outfield, which is a rather common combination on the current Mets roster. That being said, last year the Mets needed to go deep into their farm system so Palka might make sense to call up in a scenario where the Mets want to protect consistent minor league playing time for someone else.