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• The Nameless One July 16, 2012 at 9:24 pm

  I’m not sure I’d call his performance dazzling. The aspect of his game the front office wants to see improved the most is control, and he clearly hasn’t mastered that yet considering the four walks and HBP. Not sure his start tonight will be enough to convince them to give him a shot on Sunday.
  • Joe D July 16, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    I didnt call his overall performance dazzling, only his first five innings.
    • The Nameless One July 16, 2012 at 11:49 pm

      But his control wasn’t very good in the first five innings, either.
• Hank July 16, 2012 at 9:34 pm

  I think the Mets were going to call up Harvey unless he got shelled tonight, so tonight’s line should be more than good enough. Batista was a temporary fix, but his recent performance led to different Mets brass increasingly warming up to the idea of Harvey. I’m happy for the kid.

  There’s always improvement to be made. There’s always development that can happen. But at the end of the day, you want the guys who could give you the best chance to win. Right now it’s Harvey over Batista.
• Fonzie13 July 16, 2012 at 9:37 pm

  The 4 walks and HBP were a little disturbing but if it Satin turns a fairly routine DP then he would’ve pitched 7 scoreless so overall it was a solid but not spectacular start. I think he did show some nerves though. He had much better command recently and tonight he seemed to revert back to his old form, probably nerves. I think he did enough to get the call up for Saturday’s start.
• Mr North Jersey July 16, 2012 at 9:38 pm

  My opinion is Mets will probably call Harvey up. Outside of Harvey just imploding on the mound I think once they decided to go watch his outing tonight their minds were probably already made up.

  I am not going to read much into the walks tonight considering that he really hasn’t pitched in game situations for 12 days not counting the AAA All Star game appearance.

  Now to see what the Mets do since they don’t actually have to announce it till most likely a day before he is scheduled to make his next start I guess. That being this Saturday at home vs the Dodgers.
• oleosmirf July 16, 2012 at 9:48 pm

  They really have no choice but to call up Harvey. Even if they don’t think he’s ready, they might even be under .500 by the time Saturday comes around…
• srt July 16, 2012 at 9:51 pm

  Watched Harvey’s performance tonight. His command was a bit erratic. As suspected by many, he didn’t get shelled and he didn’t dominate.

  Some of those fastballs looked very hittable for ML hitters.

  I’m not sure what this outing might have told the FO that they already didn’t know.

  Oh, and still watching. I know one thing for sure: Mejia in the BP is no where near ready for a call up.
  • Fonzie13 July 16, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    I’ve watched a minimum of 8 of Harvey’s starts and tonight was pretty much a typical Harvey perfomance. He had looked sharper with his command recently. Tonight he pitched like he had earlier in the year but he managed to get it together enough to keep them off the board. That’s if Satin turns that DP which he should’ve.
    • srt July 16, 2012 at 10:23 pm

      Well, that’s 7 more Harvey starts than I’ve seen so I’ll take your word for it.
• amazin July 16, 2012 at 9:57 pm

  wait untilord sandra calls his serf jessup then the clown prince of aldersonville will announce th verdict and pretend that its his own!
• Lifelongmetsfan July 16, 2012 at 10:02 pm

  It’s like Mike Pelfrey all over again. Why bring him up? Let him develop this new off-speed grip or whatever he is tinkering with and get his control figured out. I say leave Harvey in Buffalo and let him develop. Harvey is no Dwight Gooden. What’s the rush? We are a .500 team with Harvey or without Harvey.
  I’d rather see Familla then Harvey if we are set on bringing up a prospect up to replace Gee We’re being played again! “Let’s bring up the sexy pitching stud so they {fans} won’t notice as much of the let down as we slowly and painfully drop out f contention.”
  How about getting us a power right handed bat?
  How about getting us a closer? Or at least one solid go-too bullpen arm?
  Matt Harvey needs to be left alone to work out these control issues at Buffalo.
  Fellow Met fans! I beg of you Do NOT be distracted by the shiny object being dangled in front of you by the evil men!
• Kymets July 16, 2012 at 10:08 pm

  Pretty well pitched game not overly dominate
• Seligman July 16, 2012 at 10:39 pm

  His lack of command will not translate well in the majors. No way should he be promoted.
• Even Flow July 16, 2012 at 11:42 pm

  1) Wasn’t in love with his control (4 walks after 5.1 IP was a big drawback). Fell behind a lot of hitters.
  2) Needs to get ahead in the count with hitters.
  3) Needs improvement with location w/ secondary stuff. If he does that in the big leagues, the results won’t be pretty.

  I liked how the kid seemed to bear down with runners on, gave up a ton of groundballs and had a no-hitter going through 5, but ultimately, I think he needs more time in AAA. You can call it nerves all you want, but I saw something else. The Mets may call him up anyway, so if they do, good luck kid. You’ll really need it.
• Joey D. July 16, 2012 at 11:48 pm

  I would be most interested in what the scouts watching him had to say about his stuff, his mechanics and his command. As we can see from just the small sample of responses here, there is a divide despite what appeared to be a very good performance statistical wise.

  It was interesting to note that Harvey went with a new grip tonight and ditched his change up. It might have yielded good results but also shows he is still in the learning stage due to experimenting with something new. If that is the case, it might be best to wait a bit more with his call up so Backman and crew – who know more about his mechanics at this point than anyone else – can continue giving him that specialized type of attention he could not get in the majors from others a bit less familiar with him.

  A few weeks more won’t matter for in the case of Harvey, the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many (as Mr. Spock might say).
• martin July 17, 2012 at 12:08 am

  he is almost certainly coming up very soon, maybe tomorrow, and will be good. in general teams are way too hesitant to call up young players. if young guy is playing well in triple A, he will likely play well in the bigs.
  • Joey D. July 17, 2012 at 1:03 am

    Hi Martin,

    While this might not ever apply to Harvey, we’ve seen too many a young guy playing well in triple A never cut it in the majors. Less than nine percent of all minor league players make it to the big show at all and a lot of those are ones who performed well in triple A.

    This only means that no matter how promising or talented a prospect is, that is not a guarantee of success. Just last season Brad Emaus, with a .289 hitter for his three years at triple-A, was thought highly enough by the front office that they selected him as a rule five draft pick and was handed the job at second base. Prior to the Mets, he was not called up by Toronto despite hitting well at triple-A.
    • Martin July 17, 2012 at 12:13 pm

      Minor league batting statistics will predict major league stats withe almost the same reliability as major league stats.
• Des July 17, 2012 at 8:20 am

  “This was by no means a slam-dunk for Harvey, but still a very solid effort.” — Joe D.

  My thoughts precisely. Also, despite the mostly pros and fewer cons in the game, one game does not make a season. If Matt keeps this up over 3-5 games, it gets closer to a slam dunk.
• jessep July 17, 2012 at 8:38 am

  After watching Harvey last night, I came to the conclusion that if the Mets slip to or under .500 before his next scheduled start that he will be called up.
  • Amazin July 17, 2012 at 11:07 pm

    Tell us one more time JESSUP, about the good bullpen your lord gave us!!!!!! I trhink you are the last one, well second to last, behind Sandra to tell us about pitchers.
• Hoegy July 17, 2012 at 8:56 am

  I am leery of this “try something new” in what could amount to a few days before Citi premier. Other than giving Nitkowski a shot vis a vis Sheets what are the alternatives? Familia is not even indirectly referred to as a possibility. I’m on the fence leaning towards let him experience the next level. I agree this is no Doc Gooden but does such a person really exist. We need to see Harvey and our bats need to be the Wallbangers.

  LGM!
• Morning Mets Links: 7.17.12 » Up Along First | A New York Mets blog July 17, 2012 at 9:01 am

  [...] Matt Harvey Solid In His Audition For Mets Execs- MetsMerized Online [...]
• mitch petanick July 17, 2012 at 5:05 pm

  That was the first time I have seen Harvey pitch and wasn’t overly impressed. One of the things I noticed that will be a cause for concern at the big league level was that his fastball was flat, had zero movement, and he was leaving it up in the zone. While a 95mph fastball will overpower minor league hitters, at the big league level they will tee off on that. If he can keep the fastball down in the zone and change speeds he will be successful, but there were some pitches that he threw last night that would have been rocked had it had been major leaguers in the batters box.
• jdon July 17, 2012 at 8:02 pm

  Anyone else but Batista. How about 9 guys for an inning a piece. It we are tied: forfeit.
  • trs86 July 17, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    I am no Batista fan but do you know his ERA as a starter? 4.00 this year, 2.42 last year. You can do much worse as a fill in guy.
• Metstheory22 July 18, 2012 at 11:45 am

  I read his comments as, Harvey is not starting his career at Citifield. Maybe his next scheduled start away. Wheeler will take someones spot in AAA.(Harvey) when they come up.