Good morning, Mets fans! Former Met and future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander is reportedly a couple of weeks behind schedule and his timetable is TBA at the moment, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. Verlander also had a delayed start to his 2023 season due to an upper back/shoulder issue, which seems to be ailing him this year as well. The three-time Cy Young award winner said he was going about...
In “For Love of the Game,” the 1999 sports drama starring Kevin Costner as an aging former ace, a line from Vin Scully (who appears in the film as a broadcaster) sums up what many pitchers often feel on the bump. “He (Billy Chapel) will make the fateful walk to the loneliest spot in the world: the pitching mound.” Standing on the mound can be an isolating feeling,...
In this series leading up to the MLB Draft on July 17, we’ll look back at the backgrounds of some notable Mets picks prior to their arrival in the big leagues. We’ve covered three of the best players in franchise history, including 1980 top pick Darryl Strawberry. The next one featured went first overall to the Mets as well, but didn’t enjoy quite the same success in Queens. ...
The sights and sounds of baseball are back, though what usually happens in March is happening in July. The 2020 baseball season is set to begin on July 23rd, almost four months to the day after it was originally was planned to start. It’s not unprecedented for a baseball season to experience a late opening, though nothing of this magnitude has happened in history. Let’s take a look...
On January 11, 2005, 13 years ago today, the New York Mets signed free agent Carlos Beltran to a seven-year, $119 million dollar contract. I can’t recall a greater Mets player who was as under-appreciated as Beltran was when he was with the Mets, despite always giving it everything he had and delivering countless big hits and big plays. “He had a couple of monster seasons for us, and was a huge...
There was a long 23 year wait between the induction of Tom Seaver and the induction of Mike Piazza to the Hall of Fame. While I’m still overjoyed at Piazza entering the Hall of Fame as a Met, I’m curious if the Mets will have to wait another 23 years for another one of their players to go in as a Met. Looking over the future years’ ballots, there are some former Met players...
I’ve gotta hand it to Bobby Parnell, boy what a job he’s done since coming back from Tommy John surgery. Understanding he was no longer the power pitcher he once was, Parnell has transformed himself into a very crafty reliever for the Mets and has quickly reestablished himself as a very effective arm out of the pen. That knuckle-curve he picked up from Jason Isringhausen has become...
On January 13, 2005, ten years ago today, the Mets signed free agent Carlos Beltran to a seven year, $119 million dollar contract. I can’t recall a greater Mets player who was as under-appreciated as Beltran was when he was with the Mets, despite always giving it everything he had and delivering countless big hits and big plays. “He had a couple of monster seasons for us, and was a...
Here are three names that Mets fans know all too well. Bill Pulsipher, Jason Isringhausen and Paul Wilson. Better known as Generation K, these three pitchers were supposed to usher in a new era of Mets baseball in the mid ’90s. The three pitchers would turn out to be busts of the highest caliber and outside of Isringhausen who developed into a solid closer, none would have a lengthy major...
On January 3, 1920, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth along with mortgage rights on Fenway Park to the New York Yankees. On January 4, 1920, there were no newspaper articles talking about ‘The Curse of the Bambino.’ For a curse to gain traction two things must happen. First, there must be the passage of time. Secondly, a reversal of fortune based around strange and unexplainable events...
With a 2.09 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 56.0 innings of work, it was hard to ignore the excellent season that Jeff Walters delivered for Double-A Binghamton in 2013. His 38 saves in the regular season shattered the all-time career and single-season records for Binghamton and in doing so Walters tossed his name in the mix as a future bullpen arm with the Mets. All things considered, I’ve mentioned...
In major league baseball, injuries are a common, almost expected part of the game. If you are an everyday player, you generally play between 135 and 150 games a season. If you are a starting pitcher you may appear in as many as 30-35 games. A reliever can pitch theoretically at around 100 games max. When we look at all the members of the Mets that have landed on the DL for either parts of the...
