Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler headline a handful of budding young pitchers who hope to one day bring the New York Mets organization back to relevance again. Harvey,  in his first full season, is doing his best to do just that–as exemplified by his near-perfect, nine shutout frames in Tuesday night’s walk-off victory by the Whitestone kid, Mike Baxter–and Wheeler is knocking on the door to crack the big-league rotation soon enough. As both develop, [...]

I don’t know what’s up with Keith Hernandez lately. I mean he’s always been kind of funny, provides great insights, is definitely entertaining and amusing, and he keeps each Mets broadcast light-hearted and serious all at the same time (when he’s there). The truth is that love him. I was crazy about him as a player, and I’ve felt as though we became buddies, through the magic of TV, when he joined Gary and Ron [...]

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the Mets had a top ten prospect named Zack Wheeler who was deemed the heir apparent to their oft-maligned rotation.  It had to be Wheeler, who would assume the role of staff ace.  Especially with the controversial trade of surprising knuckleballer, RA Dickey.  It seemed unanimous that Wheeler, his high nineties fastball, and array of formidable secondary pitches were just months away from changing everything.  That was [...]

Last month, I had the chance to conduct an email interview with John Sickels of the well-known minor league blog, Minor League Ball. Sickels worked for ESPN many years ago, where he had his own column about minor league baseball. Here is some of what we talked about: Q: Were the Mets too conservative with the Gavin Cecchini selection? A: I thought Cecchini was a slight overdraft but I didn’t really think that about Nimmo. By slight, [...]

This one comes from Jay via email: When do you think Wheeler will get the major league call up and how large of an impact do you see him having on this season? If Zack Wheeler continues to mix his pitches and keep hitters guessing, which made him so devastating last year, he will be with the Mets sooner rather than later. According to all accounts, he failed to mix up his pitches over his [...]

Starting Lineups Game Notes The Mets held the White Sox to one hit over 10 innings last night. It was the second 10-inning one-hitter in team history. Terry Leach hurled a 10-inning one hitter on October 1, 1982 at Philadelphia in a game the Mets won, 1-0. Luis Aguayo had a fifth-inning triple in that game. The last 10-inning one-hitter in the majors was May 28, 2011 when the Twins won 1-0, holding Anaheim to one hit. Last night [...]

Starting Lineup Ruben Tejada – SS Daniel Murphy – 2B David Wright – 3B John Buck – C Lucas Duda – LF Andrew Brown – RF Ike Davis – 1B Juan Lagares – CF Matt Harvey – RHP Game Notes The Mets went 2-3 on their recent road trip. The club begins a six-game homestand tonight. New York is 7-8 at home this season. Saturday’s rain out in Atlanta is now scheduled for Tuesday, June [...]

One of the players I most enjoyed covering was Robin Ventura for those two years he played for the Yankees. In that clubhouse full of stars and egos, Ventura was a voice of calm, reason and humorous relief. I enjoyed stopping by his locker to shoot the breeze for a minute or two, talking about things other than baseball. Very smart, clever and possessing an insight on numerous issues. When there was the inevitable blow [...]

Come on, admit it… At one time or another you made a joke about Daniel Murphy at second base since the day he took over the position once Jose Reyes was not re-signed and Ruben Tejada slid over to shortstop. Was the criticism harsh and often times deserved? Maybe… Maybe not… Ok, yes it was… But seeing is believing and when I mentioned how much better Murphy has been defensively a couple of weeks ago on Twitter, you all [...]