Blue chip pitching prospects are professional sports’ most delicate flower. Except, unlike a flower, no scientifically proven method has been established regarding proper cultivation. There’s no “right” way to bring a teenager up through an organization’s system while still absolutely maximizing his production at the major league level. And in the back of everyone’s mind lingers the possibility to a debilitating injury that is always one pitch away. For every David Price or Matt Moore [...]

By the end of last season, I was pretty excited about Ike Davis. He got off to a horrible start in 2012, but seemed to finish strong with 32 dingers. His average still sucked, but it seemed like things were finally starting to click for him. Now it’s a month into the season and he can’t get above the Mendoza line. Over in left field, Lucas Duda is getting on base and hitting with some [...]

It’s now been over seven years since that promising Opening Day in 2006, which was only day one of a season that took the Mets just a big swing away from the National League Championship trophy, and a visit to the World Series. With the exception of a few R.A. Dickey masterpieces, and a special no-hitter, there hasn’t been much cheering in Flushing since that magical run in 2006. The Metropolitans are a team that has always been [...]

The following comes to us from the folks at the GrandstandGazette.com and penned by Christian Fazzini. At the start of the season, the Mets were desperate for starting pitching. R.A. Dickey was traded, which turned out good for the Mets since he is getting rocked in the American League. Johan Santana is out for the season with another injury. What else is new? So what would the Mets do now? Would the ace of their staff really [...]

Portland 1, Binghamton 0 I attended the game and charted Jacob DeGrom’s pitching stats on the hunch that tonight could be special. The kid was stellar; polished, poised, a smooth and effortless delivery, and he simply pounded the strike zone. I don’t think I’ve seen a B-Met pitcher pitch a game like this since Scott Kazmir many years back. Here’s DeGrom’s pitching line: 8.0 IP – 1 ER – 3 H – 1  XBH – [...]

If you are like me, you look forward to a time when the major rebuilding is done and the Mets can (hopefully) embark on an extended period of high level competitiveness and play meaningful games (to borrow a phrase) each fall. Assuming that time is near (2014? 2015?), what will the team’s roster look like? I offer a speculative peek from one fan’s perspective that will focus on internal options: FIRST BASE: This should be [...]

Isn’t it amazing what kind of a player David Wright can be when he’s actually surrounded by some legitimate major league talent? Currently, Wright is enjoying some of the most spectacular baseball he’s ever played in his career, and why not? We’ve all seen what the Mets All Star third baseman could do before when he had great protection in the lineup. It was no coincidence that Wright had his best two seasons as a [...]

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, righthander Chien-Ming Wang tossed six shutout innings to lead Chinese Taipei to a 4-1 victory over Australia. The 2013 World Baseball Classic is officially underway. As the tournament kicks off, the sentiment from most fans I run into is that they view the WBC as a “big pain in the ass”. Some fans resent the fact that their team’s top players have bolted their Spring Training camps in Arizona and Florida [...]

By Mike Stainkamp LI natives stay loyal to roots preparing for Spring Training Baseball players have always been considered the “Boys of Summer.” But what happens when the final out of the World Series is recorded and the offseason begins? For two Mets prospects and Long Island natives, Camden Maron and Steven Matz, the offseason means coming back to Long Island and making the most out of their offseason training program with some of the best [...]

In Part One of my story, we left off with a discouraged Collin McHugh coming off a mediocre junior year at Berry College in Georgia. McHugh found himself at home watching the 2008 MLB Draft, more out of habit than because of any expectation that he would be selected.  But then the phone rang… It was the New York Mets. By Elliot Chester McHugh was floored. Beasley had known it was coming. “I knew Collin [...]

By Elliot Chester I. Collin McHugh’s third pitch as a major league baseball player was not a bad one, a four-seam 91-mile-per-hour fastball that tailed away from Charlie Blackmon, a slap-hitting nobody who had just two hits all season entering the late August game. But Blackmon, recently installed as the Colorado Rockies’ starting right fielder due to a rash of injuries, stayed with the pitch and sliced the ball past the jutting field-level seats of [...]