Good morning, Mets fans!

According to Jon Morosi of MLB Network, St. Louis Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright will start the first game for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The 41-year-old veteran will take the mound at 10 p.m. EST on Saturday against Great Britain.

Team USA and Great Britain are in Pool C together along with teams like Mexico, Colombia and Canada. Wainwright is one of seven starters in the Team USA rotation along with fellow Cards teammate Miles Mikolas.

Great Britain has yet to name a starter for their “revolutionary” rivalry with the U.S., but the pitcher with the most MLB experience is Vance Worley. A notable Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, Worley pitched for eight years with five different clubs during his major league tenure and will most likely get the matchup against the Cardinals veteran.

WBC Scores

Netherlands 4, Cuba 2

Former Met Yoenis Céspedes went 0-for-2 with a pair of walks for Cuba.

You can follow the Panama vs Taiwan game on MMO here.

Latest Mets News

The Mets played a spring training game that resulted in a 5-5 tie against the Houston Astros. Ronny Mauricio was the Mets’ player of the game, driving in two RBI with a single to give the Mets a 4-1 lead. MMO‘s Chris Bello recapped the game.

Latest MLB News

Two writers from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Barbara Laker and Davis Gambacorta, wrote an investigative piece regarding the Phillies and their former ballpark, Veterans Stadium, or more specifically their famous AstroTurf. In the past, six former Phillies have died of brain cancer and the pair of writers had two labs test the turf from their ballpark to see if there was any connection with the deaths. Interestingly, the lab results found numerous “forever chemicals were found in the makings of the turf which the Environmental Protection Agency says can ‘devastate families.'”

A new Statcast metric relating to catchers has recently been released, according to Mike Petriello of MLB.com. The stat itself, called blocks above average, or BAA,  is “designed to express the demonstrated skill of catchers at preventing wild pitches or passed balls.”

In 2022, Baltimore Orioles rookie catcher Adley Rutschman topped all of MLB in this stat with a BAA of 18, which was three above New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino. Mets catcher Tomás Nido also cracked the top 10, tying for third with a BAA of 12 along with the Toronto Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk and newly-acquired Atlanta Braves catcher Sean Murphy.

According to Petriello, the stat accounts for pitch location, pitch movement and other factors involving the baseball and the catcher himself. Baseball Savant also gives an in-depth visual you can toggle to see where each MLB catcher had an easier time blocking pitches and the exact opposite.

Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic wrote a story following Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Kevin Plawecki and his collection of autographed items from top players from around MLB. Ironically, Plawecki now plays with the player who started his autograph collection, outfielder Andrew McCutchen.

Latest on MMO

ranks the 2023 WBC teams.

On This Date in Mets History

1966: Casey Stengel was unanimously voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Birthdays: Willard Hunter (88)