A hitter digging into the batter’s box sixty feet, six inches away from Greg Maddux might not initially be intimidated. After all, Maddux was listed at six-feet tall and one-hundred seventy pounds, never relying on blazing fastball velocity to put hitters away. “The Professor” often wore glasses off the mound, which almost emphasized his unassuming persona. However, what...
Good Morning Mets Fans! Jeff McNeil’s MLB The Show Player’s League continued with another successful night. Squirrel went 3-1, defeating Jon Duplantier of the D-backs 4-0, Amir Garrett of the Reds 4-1 , and Lance McCullers Jr. of the Astros 2-1. For a recap, check out MMO’s new twitter account, where I live-tweeted McNeil’s four games. Latest Mets News Jacob deGrom talks...
The entire list of pitchers in Major League history who have won a Rookie of the Year award and two Cy Young Awards are Tom Seaver, Jacob deGrom, and Justin Verlander. That’s the entire list, and of the three deGrom is the only pitcher in Major League history to win a Rookie of the Year and consecutive Cy Young Awards. On the topic of consecutive Cy Young Awards, that is a feat which has...
Last year, the Braves were the surprise team in baseball winning the NL East by an eight game margin over the Nationals. This is a young talented group who has the talent to not only win the division again next year but also go on a run like the Greg Maddux-Tom Glavine-John Smoltz Braves teams. Freddie Freeman has become an MVP caliber player. Josh Donaldson has won an MVP and has the sixth...
Jacob deGrom wanted his 1,000th career strikeout to happen this year. He did not want to wait until opening day 2019 to get it. So he took the mound in the eighth inning of his final start of the 2018 season against the NL East champion Atlanta Braves with 998 career strikeouts. It didn’t matter that his pitch count was at about 100, 100 wasn’t the key number. 1,000 was. So after...
Speaking with ESPN’s Andrew Marchand, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred addressed the possibility of having balls and strikes called by computers when the technology is made available. “As a technological matter, I believe we will get to the point that balls and strikes can be called in real time by a machine,” Manfred said. “I think you have to make that bet, if you have...
When you select someone in the second round of the MLB Draft, you are looking at someone who is one of the best young players in all of baseball. If that player is a starting pitcher, you expect them to have the stuff to dominate the lower levels of the minor leagues. In reality, you’re looking at that player to perform well throughout each level of the minor leagues en route to a...
In an interview with Daniel Popper of the NY Daily News, John Smoltz says the Mets rotation is “way better” than the Braves starters during the 90’s. “They’re way better,” Smoltz told Popper. “They’ve got more talent than we could ever have.” Smoltz was a member of the Braves excellent rotation during the 90’s, which included Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. However, Smoltz...
I’m always amazed recently at why so many Mets fans, bloggers, and even media members, are so so obsessed with trying to decide which of the Mets great young pitchers is the true ace of the team. Why is that such a thing? Isn’t just comforting to know that we have three or maybe four or possibly even five aces on this team in 2016? Why can’t we just revel in that? I don’t...
The election of Tom Glavine into the Hall of Fame makes me wonder how voters will reflect on Roy Halladay’s career. The two careers are by no means similar, but that’s what makes it a fascinating comparison. Glavine is well deserving of his induction. Over his twenty-year career from 198-2007 (excluding his very first and last seasons in which he combined to throw only 113.2 innings), which...
A week from today, on Wednesday, January 8, the 2014 inductees to the National Baseball Hall of Fame will be announced. As of this morning, Mike Piazza is losing ground and now has 71.9% which is outside the the 75% threshold for induction. Here is the full tally of the 96 ballots counted by Baseball Think Factory. Updated: Jan.1 – 10:00 AM ~ 96 Full Ballots (16.9% of vote ~ based on last...
I just returned from the post office where I dropped off my Hall of Fame ballot. It’s a ritual for me that on Dec. 31 every year I’ll fill out my ballot. I like holding on to it, read all I can about the players on the ballot, talk to those in the game and also to other voters. Like most kids I grew up with, and I imagine like most of you, I grew up a baseball junkie. I even logged on to check...
