Matt Harvey has been compared to some of the biggest names of the game both past and present. Whether it’s because of his lethal arsenal, his no-nonsense demeanor on the mound, or just his determination to keep getting better. In 14 starts he is breaking down long-standing records with such ease. While expectations and pressure like that would crush most young players, Matt Harvey thrives on it. I was especially taken by his reaction on Friday [...]

When the Blue Jays forced Sandy Alderson to take John Buck‘s $6 million dollar contract as a condition of making the deal for Travis d’Arnaud, many people including me groaned. I loved the fact that Buck could actually catch (unlike Josh Thole) and would be an asset overall, but six million samoans for Buck was simply too much for me to swallow. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, and Alderson sure lucked out [...]

Noah Syndergaard, the Mets No. 3 prospect, made his season debut Sunday, tossing four scoreless innings against the Jupiter Hammerheads. St. Lucie won the game 1-0 and are now 4-0 on the season. Syndergaard surrendered just three hits while walking one and striking out five. He departed after four innings as he continues to get stretched out from a lat injury during the spring. Syndergaard was part of the Travis d’Arnaud package in the trade with [...]

The Mets concluded the weekend series against the stripped down Miami Marlins with a big walk-off win on Sunday afternoon. The opening homestand ends with the Mets going 4-2 winning both series! Here are this weekend’s 3 Ups and 3 Downs. Byrd’s Big Hit: Marlon Byrd was the hero Sunday afternoon with a walk-off base hit scoring Ruben Tejada and Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Tejeda was hit by a pitch, Nieuwenhuis then laced a single. Good aggressive [...]

Do you think Sandy Alderson was willfully blind when he traded R.A. Dickey and counted on Johan Santana to be his Rock of Gibraltar and retake the reins as the ace of the Mets rotation? Yesterday, I faulted Santana for not keeping the Mets in the loop this Winter about his questionable shoulder and how he was progressing, but shouldn’t there be some accountability on the Mets’ part as well? Wasn’t there an obligation to track Santana down and [...]

If there’s one thing I can say about Mets fans if I were to use Twitter as the barometer, you could slice the entire fan base down the middle and the divisions are quite clear. In the past 12 months, when anyone asked me to describe the state of the Mets fan base, my reply would always be this: So color me surprised when I came across some of the comments made by general manager Sandy Alderson [...]

A few years from now, or perhaps in July, this battery could be a big deal. Matt Harvey and Travis d’Arnaud represent the Mets’ future, and today they provided a glimpse. Harvey, already in the rotation, gave up two runs in 5.1 innings and was backed by two hits and two runs scored by d’Arnaud in a 3-2 victory today over St. Louis. In an 80-pitch effort, of which 54 were strikes, Harvey struck out six and [...]

Andy Martino of the Daily News, asks a thought-provoking question in his column this morning: Would you have rather traded Jonathon Niese, instead of R.A. Dickey, to Toronto for Travis d’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard? Turns out that the Mets had that choice according to  Martino. While Niese faced Team Venezuela Wednesday in Port St. Lucie, two people with direct knowledge of last December’s deal told me that the Blue Jays were willing to send the [...]

Prospect maven John Sickels really loves righthander Noah Syndergaard, who he ranked #12 on his Top 50 Pitching Prospects list inside his 2013 Baseball Prospect Book.  He shared what he wrote about Syndergaard on his site Minor League Ball this morning: Noah Syndergaard is one of my very favorite prospects. A supplemental first round pick in 2010 from high school in Texas, he’s thrived thus far in pro ball, generating very enthusiastic scouting reports to go along [...]

Baseball Prospectus released its Top 101 Prospects this morning and four Mets prospects made the cut. Three of them won’t surprise you as they’ve already appeared on more than a few top prospect lists this year. But what a nice surprise it was to see RHP Michael Fulmer ranked 98th and finally get some much deserved recognition. Topping the list for the Mets of course was RHP Zack Wheeler (5th), C Travis d’Arnaud (15th), and RHP Noah Syndergaard (28th). [...]