Matt Harvey Delivers His Most Dominating Performance Of The Season!

Mets top pitching prospect Matt Harvey was lights-out today in the Bisons 12-1 drubbing of the Iron Pigs today at Coca Cola Park in Lehigh Valley.

We were there and we’ll have some great shots of Harvey in action later today, but let’s discuss his incredible outing for now.

Harvey was as composed today as he’s been all season. He pitched like he belonged at this level and today we saw some of that pinpoint control that he displayed last season when he dominated the Florida State League before his promotion to Binghamton.

The big right hander tossed seven very economical innings in what was his longest outing of the season. He allowed four hits while walking none and striking out four and lowered his ERA to 4.85. What was most exciting was how he started the game by retiring the first 12 batters to face him – it was electric. Harvey even helped out his own cause by belting a two-run homer in the fifth inning to ice the game for the Herd.

Pete’s on his way back from the park and will have more on Harvey later today including his won thoughts and insights from Wally and the team, so check back later this evening.

Quick Hits

St. Lucie reliever Jeff Kaplan was promoted to Binghamton this morning. The right-hander has appeared in six games for Lucie and in ten innings pitched has a 4.50 ERA allowing 12 hits and walking two while striking out three. Kaplan is 26 and was the oldest player on the roster. That might be a contributing factor to his promotion, that and the fact Binghamton had yet to replace Josh Edgin who was promoted to Buffalo two days earlier.

Whenever Zack Wheeler takes the mound you can almost hear the faint sound of the Troggs playing “Wild Thing” in the background… Do you hear it too? This kid has some electric stuff, but still has bouts with wildness as his career high six walks last night would attest. It was very cold at game time, but that didn’t seem to hinder the opposing pitcher one bit. That said, Wheeler has improved drastically with his command over last season so this could have simply been a blip on the radar.

What was widely speculated yesterday has now been officially confirmed, Robert Carson will go back to Triple-A Buffalo after Thursday’s finale against the Miami Marlins so that Chris Schwinden can be activated in time for his start on Friday. We spoke to Schwinny yesterday and he is looking forward to the challenge and believes he is a better and smarter pitcher today than he was last season. Good luck Schwinny…

After seeing his buddies Hefner and Schwinny get the call to the big club, left-handed reliever Josh Edgin is excited and hoping he’ll get his big break soon. At least that’s what he told MMO this morning before the Bisons took the field for an early 10:30 AN start against the Iron Pigs. Pete reassured him that it’s going to happen and to keep blowing hitters away.

It totally sucked watching Chase Huchingson’s 17.1 inning scoreless streak come to an end last last night against Fort Myers.  Of course it was gonna end sometime, but it still sucked big-time. I still see Huchingson getting promoted to Bingo at some point before the second half. Oh and one more thing, can the beat writer for the the St. Lucie Mets please stop spelling his name Hutchinson?! It’s been three weeks now dude!

After spending the first three weeks of the season attending over a dozen Mets minor league games and getting a better feel and a good visual on all of our prospects, expect a comprehensive update to our 2012 Top 50 Mets Prospects List from our crack MMO Minor League Team. It’s amazing what a difference it makes when you can see the players, talk to them, and get some feedback from their managers and coaches when you put together a list like this. Oh and if you really want to know the lowdown on a pitcher, just ask his catcher.  We have some player stocks rising sharply and others rapidly falling, and you’re going to be surprised with who will take the first ten spots in our MMO Top 50 – I can assure you of that.

We had over 1,500 comments in our shoutbox yesterday… Nothing can bring a fanbase back to life like a dominant pitching performance from our ace Johan Santana. Eleven strikeouts baby!  :-)

Have a great day, more on the Mets minors later including a very special announcement… LGM