The July 2012 promotion of the Mets’ second best pitching prospect was met with much fan fair.  Harvey promptly rose to the occasion in the eleven strike out win that was his debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  For an encore, he went on to post an ERA well under three in ten starts comprised of almost sixty innings pitched.  For certain it looked as though the Mets had another quality starter on their hands, but no one could have anticipated what Matt Harvey had in store for the Mets and their fans in 2013.

Entering last night, Harvey’s 2013 campaign featured a 4-0 start which saw him yield more than one earned run on only one occasion over six starts, in route to the National League Pitcher of the Month award for the month of April.  Coming off a full seven day’s rest, Harvey spent Monday night victimizing the White Sox lineup in route to nine scoreless innings of one hit ball with twelve strike outs and exactly zero walks.  This saw Matt drop his ERA to an impressively low 1.27 while assuming the league lead in strike outs with 58.

The stats are impressive enough, but they are easily trumped by the undeniable presence that Harvey brings with him to the bump every night.  Each start celebrated as “Happy Harvey Day” on various social media forums, the fans have fully accepted Matt as the absolute ace of this staff, no questions asked.

Harvey’s rise to what will soon be, if it isn’t already, super-stardom, will make it that much harder for those that come behind him, namely Wheeler.  Having been billed as possessing the best repertoire in the system, its hard to believe that Wheeler can match the ridiculous change-up and slicing slider that Harvey has used to carved through opponents thus far this season.  While the Mets will need Wheeler to be a productive member of the rotation in short order if they hope to stay in the hunt this summer, Matt Harvey has made most, if not all fans forget that someone other than he may be the savoir for the Mets pitching woes.

Recent history has seen pitchers as unproven as Mike Pelfrey toe the rubber as the team’s ace.  Those days, at least for the time being seem to be behind us.  Having been drafted by Omar Minaya in 2010, Harvey will be ineligible for free agency until the 2019 season at the earliest and now represents the youth movement envisioned by Mets general manager, Sandy Alderson.  The franchise will need others to rise through the ranks in order to realize Alderson’s vision, but regardless of whether those who will soon follow his path are able to do their part, Matt Harvey is here and the Mets have their ace.

Follow me on Twitter at @RobPatterson83.

How would Upton look as a Met?

In the wake of Tuesday’s blockbuster deal between the Miami Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays, I think it is only fair that the Mets make a blockbuster trade of their own. Justin Upton is still available, and despite the lack of rumors linking the Mets and D’backs in trade discussions, my hope is that GM Sandy Alderson has at least inquired about the young right fielder. A talent like Upton NEVER becomes available at such a young age, 25. Making him even more attractive is that he’s under team control through the 2015 season. Upton will make just a shade under $10 million in 2013, and just under $15 million in both 2014 and 2015.

D’Backs GM Kevin Towers is in search of an infielder for the left side. I know this has been debated and discussed at nauseam, but do the Mets have what it takes?

Why couldn’t we give them a call and offer a package that started with Ruben Tejada and Jon Niese? Some people feel as though offering Niese and Tejada might be too much. Tejada is on his way to becoming and good Major League player, same for Niese. But Upton is a star on the verge of becoming a superstar. There is a big difference.

I would also consider offering Wilmer Flores and Daniel Murphy. They have both played third and second base, and could help out on the left side of the infield, as well as give Arizona some added offensive productivity. The Mets are not yet able to offer Gavin Cecchini, but he might be able to be added as a player to be named later.

Murphy can play first, second and third. Flores has played second and third, and Niese would give them a very young and solid middle of the rotation starter, and a lefty at that. Tejada seems to be the one guy fans don’t really want to part with. It’s hard to find a quality shortstop, but it’s even harder to find a supreme talent who is available at such a young age. Sandy should not let Tejada be the reason why we miss out on a potential superstar like Upton.

Signing Dickey to an extension should not be the the number two priority this offseason, behind locking up David Wright. The number two priority should be finding a way to have Justin Upton starting in right field on Opening Day in 2013.

It’s been half a century since National League baseball returned to New York and it got me thinking. At the time, the Mets along with the Houston Colt 45’s, brought the total number of teams in existence to 24. Baseball has expanded several times since then and I wondered how we matched up against the more recent additions to our National Pastime. The results were a bit disheartening.

Granted, the Baseball landscape was far different in 1962 than it was in 93 when the Rockies and Marlins came into existence. Same can be said for the (Devil) Rays and D-backs in 98. Nowadays it’s much easier to build a winner than it was back in 62. Arizona proved that by winning 100 games in just their second season.

However, the Mets had a 30+ year head start on these 4 other clubs. Colorado, Florida, Tampa Bay and Arizona started with NOTHING! However, they have achieved more success in their short existence than our Mets have over that same time.

Interesting facts: Of these 5 franchises, the Mets have the 2^nd best record.  Only Arizona at 499 has a higher winning percentage. Through Friday’s loss to Houston, the Mets have compiled a record of 1555-1581  since Opening Day 1993, (.496.) The list is rounded out with the Marlins (.476), the Rockies (474) and the Rays (453.)

One may expect that the Mets should far surpass these other teams in total wins. After all, they started with nada. However, I will admit I was surprised that we even matched up this well in the win-loss column.

Here’s the disturbing part. Although the other 4 teams started with zilch and had to build from the bottom up and rely on discarded scraps, they have all surpassed the Mets in post-season success. Downright frustrating.

Now sure, first glance at this matrix shows we are holding our own. Respectable. Not great, not terrible. However, keep in mind that we’re an existing team whereas these other clubs had to build a winner from the ground up. Yes, we’ve had an adequate showing since 1993. But these other organizations have shown what it takes to BUILD a winner.

One must also keep in mind that while we stack up moderately against these other newcomers, we are the only ‘Big market Club.’ Our payroll has far exceeded that of the organizations listed. The only team with fewer trips to the post-season is the Marlins with 2. However, at least they have 2 championships to show for it. The same numbers of World Series’ we’ve won in half a century, the Marlins matched in 11 years.

And what will this chart look like in 5 years? The Rays and D-backs are young, hungry and will only get better. The Marlins are underachieving. And the Mets? Well, yea, we’re rebuilding.

Sadly I think our post-season appearance total of 3 will not change in the next few years. David Wright will be gone, Dickey most likely will also. Johan has broken down more than a 1972 Ford Pinto.

What can we do? Nothing really. We can vent, complain, throw things at the TV and go through the motions of a 162-game season. We’ll sit back while the Mets brain trust (and I use the word ‘brain’ lightly) keeps selling us the same ol’ line. And we can watch teams like Arizona and Tampa remain competitive while we….ahem…”rebuild.”

Through the use of the scorecard, let’s take a look at how Andres Torres did this week:

I honestly don’t think I’d ever expect to say Andres Torres would win the Player Of The Week award, but he did well this week and produced for the Mets. While I still don’t feel he should replace Kirk Nieuwenhuis, he did quite well this week. I will also note he had a stolen base.

Honorable Mentions

These players, although not winning the Player of the Week award, had a very strong showing this week and deserve to be recognized. We will also show how strong a showing they had through the use of the scorecard.

Daniel Murphy

David Wright

Ruben Tejada

Frank Francisco

Bobby Parnell

Ramon Ramirez

Not So Hot

The Not So Hot area mentions a few players who did not have a good week this week.

Jon Niese

Chris Schwinden (now demoted)

Manny Acosta

Jon Rauch

Josh Thole

Ike Davis

Player Of The Week Scoreboard

This area shows the scoreboard of the Players of the Week, and who has won already this season and how many times.

David Wright – 1

Kirk Nieuwenhuis – 1

Johan Santana – 1

Andres Torres – 1

Trivia

To finish off the Player of the Week announcement each week, I’ll be asking you a trivia question. The answer will be announced during the next Player of the Week announcement, as well as the first person who answered correctly. Another question will then be asked. Last Week’s Answer is: Harry Chiti. Alex68 was the first person to correctly answer the question. So here is this week’s question:

When the Mets won Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, what Met pitcher was warming up in the bullpen to pitch the next inning if Mookie Wilson had made out?

Heading into the Rockie series, and this home stand, I felt that for the Mets, the playoffs had begun. While its way to early to write off the division title, its more than likely the Mets will have to settle for the wild card if they want to make the playoffs. To win the wild card, the Mets still have some heavy lifting to do. They have a bunch of teams to climb over, and of course they need to continue to play the way they played these last six games. For now, for the Mets its all about winning series. Splitting the four games with the wild card leader Rockies would not have been acceptable. The Mets need to gain ground, not tread water.

Looking at the upcoming schedule, the Arizona Diamondbacks are in for four games this weekend and Monday. The Mets need to take three of these games. The Cardinals are in for two midweek, before the Mets head out west to see San Diego and Arizona. Again we’ll take what we can against the Redbirds, but the Mets need to dominate the Padres and D’Backs next week.

We’ve seen just how good this team can play in recent days. Whether it was the embarrassment in Washington, or whether its the fresh energy Jeff Francoeur has injected into the clubhouse, the Mets are once again playing good baseball. But lets not fool ourselves. Last week at this time the Mets looked to be in bad shape. If the Mets have another bad week, it may too late to recover.

One final upbeat note. By the time the Mets return from the west coast trip, we should have a real idea of when Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Delgado are expected to be back. Wouldn’t it be great to have those three guys back when the Mets return to play their NL East rivals?

The Mets look good. They look re-energized. LETS GO METS!!