Centerfield

Time to give Lugo a start. And hey look. Two lefties for the pen

Ceetar wrote: you don't need his intention, you can just look at scatter plots, movement, etc. It's all in the graphs and the data. There doesn't seem to be any indication he's throwing to different spots, or being more erratic, than in 2013 or 2015. I'm far from an expert though, so if you're seeing something i'm not, that's what I'm asking for. The best I could find was maybe he's leaving his changeup up in the zone more. Show me where he's missing spots he's was hitting in 2015. Show me something that suggests it wasn't just the velocity. This is such a maddening method of argument. You come in with the statement that Matt Harvey never spotted his pitches. Arguably the best pitcher on the planet in 2013, and still elite in 2015 never spotted his pitches. Then you demand to be proven wrong. This is not how argument works. This is not how burden of proof works. I'll demonstrate. of course, ceetar has never been toilet trained. Can he learn? I hope so. But it might just be one of those skills that he just doesn't have.

To clarify, I'm not implying that the ability to hit spots or to get movement on pitches is by any means easy, but we are talking about Matt Harvey, who once demonstrated the ability to do both. So if the surgeries have robbed him of 98 MPH, I would want him to focus on control and movement, since he can still be awesome without the 98. I don't know for sure that he's not doing this, but all the talk has been that he's concerned with getting back arm strength and hasn't really bought into "learning to pitch". If he already is focusing on control and movement and this is the best he can do, well then I guess he's fucked.

Edgy MD wrote: Nice work, Familia. Let's win by seven tomorrow. And yeah, I mean it sounds greedy, but we so badly need a comfortable win where everyone can relax. I can't even remember the last time we won comfortably. The last few wins were in extras. We were behind in the Washington win until the 8th inning blowup. Both Brewers wins were 1 run games, and even the wins in Miami were tighter than you'd like. The last comfortable win was the Jay Bruce grand slam in Washington. Before that, it was just the two St. Louis wins to open the season.

Edgy MD wrote: In 2013 and 2015, his command was dazzling. Yes. Exactly. So stop trying to hit 98 and start trying to hit your spots. And if you don't have the arm to throw 98 anymore, I imagine if you try to hit it you do so at the cost of location. I mean, I imagine if I tried to throw [crossout]98[/crossout] 78, I would have no idea where it was going.

Frayed Knot wrote: Grandy even threw out a potential go-ahead BoSox run at the plate to end the top of the 9th. No, really, he did, and without even needing a relay! What the hell. Up until that last part I was happy for him. Now I feel like he's just rubbing it in.

Dozed in an out the last few innings, I think I would have tried to stay awake if I thought they would win. When Harvey gave back the lead I thought we were done. A few random thoughts *Everyone will remember the HR, but that single by Bruce that gave us 1st and 3rd was huge. Great night for Jay Bruce. He still seems to be limping though. I think that the heel thing is still bothering him. *Wheeler starts are tough to watch. I mean, I like Zach. Seems like a good guy, very laid back, he has none of the issues some other guys have. And he has a terrific delivery. It's very fluid and fun to watch. But his starts are just torture. Deep counts to everyone. Tons of baserunners, and lots of hard outs. I think his stuff is just so straight he can't put anyone away, and eventually they hit it hard someplace. I don't know what you do with someone like that. I don't think he's a good candidate for the bullpen. Maybe he can learn to throw a sinker or something. *Adrian Gonzalez hit the ball hard a few times and has nothing to show for it. Not sure why this keeps happening to him. *Nimmo looked like poo during his AB. I fear that all the sitting has gotten him out of rhythm.

Edgy MD wrote: I agree he looked a little better. Don't want to make too much of cahnfidence, but shit, if he can lose that sulky act and get his focus back, he can get by on spotting his pitches. He's gonna get dinged from time to time, whereas early in his career, he almost never gave up homers. If he can channel Bartolo and detach himself from that, he can be alright. That's it exactly. Heck, forget Bartolo. If he can channel Paul Sewald he'd be ok. Look at how Paul hits his spots and gets movement on his pitches. Even with a 90-91 mph fastball. I think I read that Clayton Kershaw averages 93 for his fastball. That guy seems to be doing ok.

This game went to shit as soon as Yo hit into the DP.

Such a Wheeler start. Walks. Deep counts. Tons of base runners. Falls behind then eventually is out after 5.

Fucking Wheeler. I’m ready to bring back Harvey.

Wheeler walking people and giving up some loud outs.

Struggle and finish out the year.

That may be the case. But one team that won't be in first place on Friday is the Nationals, having fallen 7 games back in the loss column. One thing that hasn't been mentioned so far is strength of schedule. The Mets have played a lot of good teams early on. They've faced the top two teams in the Central, the top two teams in the East (other than themselves) and the Nats. Only the three games against Miami were against a bad team. Of their 20 games, 11 have been against teams with winning records. Another 6 were against the Nationals. That's 17 out of 20 games against quality opponents. On the other hand, the Phillies have played nine games against Miami, Tampa and the Reds. All crap teams. They also won 4 games against Pittsburgh, who, despite the hot start, is not expected to be a very good team. Starting today, they play the Diamondbacks. So the road gets tougher for them. What does all of this mean? Not much. LGM!

I'm guessing if Matt Harvey gets into this game, the score will not be in our favor and won't be close.

Holy crap. Play some fucking baseball already.

G-Fafif wrote: I have to question why the Mets felt compelled to place Zerg and X7 on the cover in 2114. Sure, they proved popular, but at the time Zerg's circuits were loose and X7 hadn't yet hit a single phleg in Mets armor. And made absolutely no mention of Bobby Bonilla finally coming off the payroll.

13 out of 24. I stink at the pre-80's era Mets. There is one in my timeframe that I never would have gotten if you gave me 100 guesses.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: During his peak, Harvey's command was super. And he was throwing 99, I00 MPH to boot. With a nasty bite on his slider.

Centerfield wrote: There's gotta be some scrap heap washed up lefty starter with a decent slider that we could try as a short man. And by the way, I don't mean Jonathon Niese.

I think the need for a lefty reliever is even more pressing than that of a catcher. Ramos has 9 walks, but at least he's pitched 9 innings. Blevins has 4 walks in 3.2. And Blevins is giving up hits on top of it. I know, small sample size, etc., but he might continue to suck and/or get hurt. Not sure Purke is our answer. 8.64 ERA and 1.92 WHIP in LV. There's gotta be some scrap heap washed up lefty starter with a decent slider that we could try as a short man.

I have this sinking feeling that Harvey is going to be terrible in the pen. I thought Gsellman had the stuff and the personality to thrive in the pen, but I think Harvey is going to be terrible. Mainly because I feel like his heart is not going to be into it.

I feel like it's been a week since the Mets lost that shit game and still another week before they play again.

Just saw this. I thought it was very good, and definitely a story that needed to be told. Without reading through this thread, I thought that the Glenn moment was a bit much too, and found myself googling immediately to fact check. Turns out the conversation was spot on, and the "Have the girl check it" was nearly word for word. Most accounts say though, that it wasn't moments before liftoff as the film would have you believe. I agree that the racism/sexism they faced in the movie was cartoonishly overt. I would guess the actual racism/sexism they faced in segregated Virginia was also cartoonishly overt. And in some cases, probably much worse than depicted in the film. Minorities/women/gays often chuckle when whites/males/straight people are shocked by prejudice. "Does this type of thing really happen?" All the time folks. All the time. But that's the challenge to a filmmaker. Make the racism subtle and you do minorities a disservice. Make it more blatant and risk scores of people writing it off as unrealistic.

bmfc1 wrote: Here's an idea: maybe you don't use Familia in the 9th after using him in the 8th and try Sewald in the 9th. Frazier is having a dreadful game. Remember that he came up with 0 out, runners on 2d and 3d, and K'd. And here’s another. Maybe you don’t use Ramos at all. And don’t use Blevins to face a guy who has murdered him.