batmagadanleadoff

Wheeler, Mets� Top Pitching Prospect, to Miss Next Start By ANDREW KEH ST. LOUIS � The proper level of concern will become clearer Wednesday, but regardless, it was precisely the type of injury news the Mets and their fans did not want to hear. Those seeking some silver lining from this dispiriting Mets season could always remind themselves that Zack Wheeler, the organization�s top pitching prospect, would be joining the major league team sometime this summer. It was disconcerting to hear, then, that Wheeler was scheduled to visit team doctors in New York on Wednesday after reporting soreness around his right clavicle earlier this week. �I think we�re being a little bit conservative, given who it is,� John Ricco, the team�s assistant general manager, said upon delivering the news Tuesday afternoon. Ricco added, �It�s kind of an odd area, so we just wanted to make sure.� Wheeler, a 22-year-old right-hander, will miss his next start for the Mets� Class AAA team. But, like Ricco, the Mets� coaching staff tried to play down the severity of the issue. It appeared to be a case of a team taking extra care handling a prized asset. �I hate to speculate, but I�ve never heard of anything horrible around that area,� said the pitching coach, Dan Warthen, who noted that the left-hander Jon Niese and third baseman David Wright both complained of soreness around the same area earlier this season, with neither experiencing any significant or lasting problems. �It could be from sleeping on your pillow wrong.� Wheeler has made eight starts for the Las Vegas 51s and has appeared to find a groove of late. During his last start, he allowed only two runs over seven and a third innings. Wheeler�s progress has been closely watched, particularly as the Mets have floundered during this young season. Coincidentally, catcher Travis d�Arnaud, the organization�s top position player prospect, has an appointment to see doctors this week. He sustained a fractured bone in his foot in a minor league game in April and is awaiting clearance to remove a walking boot and begin physical rehabilitation. Referring to Wheeler, Manager Terry Collins said: �From what I�ve heard today, it doesn�t sound serious. We�ll wait to hear the doctor�s report and go from there. But if it�s only one start, that�s something we can handle.� http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/wheeler-mets-top-pitching-prospect-to-miss-next-start/

Northjersey.com : Sports Mets notes: Zack Wheeler injured Wheeler hurts clavicle One day after general manager Sandy Alderson said Zack Wheeler could be in the big leagues before the end of June, the team announced that Wheeler likely will miss his next minor league start. Wheeler has soreness in his right clavicle, assistant general manager John Ricco said. Wheeler will fly to New York to get it examined. Ricco said Wheeler could miss his next start with Class AAA Las Vegas. "It was nothing that happened during his last outing," Ricco said before Tuesday�s 104 loss to the the Cardinals. "It was something he felt a couple of days after." Ricco said the team was erring on the conservative side because of Wheeler�s pedigree. He is considered the organization�s top pitching prospect. "From what I�ve heard today, it doesn�t sound serious," manager Terry Collins said. "But any time you miss a start, it�s for the best interest of the player. Again, we�ll wait to hear the doctor�s report and go from there. But if it�s only one start, that certainly is something we can handle easily." http://www.northjersey.com/sports/207492951_Mets_notes__Zack_Wheeler_injured.html

Finding the pitching-development droughts for all 30 teams By Grant Brisbee on May 15 2013, 9:01am Matt Harvey has a chance to be the first ace developed by the Mets since Dwight Gooden. How do other teams stack up? Matt Harvey is a Sports Illustrated cover star now. Part of me thinks it's a little too soon, and the other part of me is too busy checking in with alt.binaries.pictures.matt-harvey to see if any new GIFs are up. It's hard to complain about Harvey getting too much attention now because he almost didn't get any as a prospect. After years of breathlessly waiting for Fernando Martinez or Alex Ochoa to be the next Darryl Strawberry, the Mets slipped us an under-the-radar prospect. So strange. That's not the strangest thing about him, though. The strangest thing might be that he's a homegrown Mets pitcher who looks like he's approaching stardom. Tom Verducci took a look at the dearth of homegrown Mets pitchers, and found that since Dwight Gooden, there's been a whole lot of nothing. Good pitchers have come and gone (Johan Santana, Al Leiter, R.A. Dickey), but there haven't been any great homegrown pitchers developed by the Mets. Mike Pelfrey had a good season once. There's that. So how does that compare with other droughts around the league? I guess the first thing to do is define what constitutes a good pitcher or "an ace." Baseball Reference has a handy guide on every player's page to what wins above replacement usually hint at: 8+ MVP, 5+ A-S, 2+ Starter, 0-2 Sub, < 0 Repl It's probably a little too unrealistic to look for MVP-level homegrown pitchers, so let's stick with the five-win starters. Every team has developed one in their history, so let's find the last one. Still on the team Giants - Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain (Last season with 5+ WAR: 2009) Mariners - Felix Hernandez (2010) Red Sox - Jon Lester (2010) Angels - Jered Weaver (2011) Phillies - Cole Hamels (2011) Blue Jays - Ricky Romero (2011) White Sox - Chris Sale (2012) Tigers - Justin Verlander (2012) Rays - David Price (2012) Reds - Johnny Cueto (2012) Dodgers - Clayton Kershaw (2012) Romero kind of makes me sad, and if you think the courts should throw it out, note that Roy Halladay did it with the Jays for six straight years. The Giants are known for their homegrown pitching right now, but before Lincecum and Cain, their last All-Star-quality homegrown pitcher was Ed Halicki in 1977. Of course, between Jack Morris and Justin Verlander, there was Justin Thompson and only Justin Thompson. Recent past Cubs - Carlos Zambrano (2006) Padres - Jake Peavy (2007) Orioles - Erik Bedard (2007) Indians - CC Sabathia (2007) Astros - Roy Oswalt (2007) Yankees - Chien-Ming Wang (2007) Diamondbacks - Brandon Webb (2008) Royals - Zack Greinke (2009) Braves - Jair Jurrjens (2009) Marlins - Josh Johnson (2010) Rockies - Ubaldo Jimenez (2010) I was hoping the Rockies wouldn't have one, if only so there would be one freak team. But not only did I forget about Ubaldo, there was also Jason Jennings. More important, the second-best pitching year in Rockies history according to WAR? Pedro Astacio, 1999. His ERA was 5.04. The Yankees featured just one five-win pitcher in the '80s, and he (Ron Guidry) was developed in the '70s, so that sort of explains the kind of lost decade that will waste Rickey Henderson's best years. Not-so-recent past Rangers - Kenny Rogers (2002) Nationals - Javier Vazquez (2003) Pirates - Kris Benson (2004) Brewers - Ben Sheets (2004) Twins - Brad Radke (2004) Athletics - Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson (2003) Ryan Drese wasn't homegrown, and neither is Matt Harrison. C.J. Wilson came close to five wins, but never went over. And Kenny Rogers' 2002 season came on his second tour with the Rangers, so I'm not sure if it counts. Luckily, it was Rogers who did it in the first place. Benson was at five wins exactly, which makes me want to write Baseball-Reference.com and see if there's some sort of auditing process that could bump him down to 4.9 just for symmetry's sake. But before that is Francisco Cordova in 1998, so it's not like the adjustment would make that much of a difference. And for all the young pitching the A's seem to have at any given moment, most of it isn't coming from the draft or the international market. Distant, distant past Mets - Dwight Gooden (1985) So it's not just an interesting factoid to throw into a Matt Harvey feature -- the Mets have really had an unusual time developing their own pitchers. Verducci's column limited the search to drafted players only, but opening the floor to international free agents doesn't help things any. The last 20 Mets pitchers with a three-win season: Rk Player Year WAR 1 Jonathon Niese 2012 3.4 2 R.A. Dickey 2012 5.8 3 R.A. Dickey 2011 3.6 4 R.A. Dickey 2010 3.6 5 Johan Santana 2010 4.6 6 Johan Santana 2009 3.3 7 Johan Santana 2008 7.1 8 Mike Pelfrey 2008 3.2 9 Tom Glavine 2005 4.1 10 Pedro Martinez 2005 6.9 11 Jae Weong Seo 2005 3.1 12 Tom Glavine 2004 4.0 13 Al Leiter 2004 4.8 14 Al Leiter 2003 3.6 15 Jae Weong Seo 2003 3.2 16 Steve Trachsel 2003 4.4 17 Kevin Appier 2001 3.5 18 Al Leiter 2001 3.0 19 Rick Reed 2001 3.0 20 Al Leiter 2000 4.8 I cut the list off at 20 because #21 was Armando Benitez, and no one wants to see that. But the Mets don't have the worst drought when it comes to homegrown starters performing at an All-Star level. That one gets its own category � Wait, what? Cardinals - John Denny (1978) Since Denny's season, the Cardinals have won six N.L. pennants and three World Series. But they've done it with poached players, whether via trades or free agency. They've had good seasons from homegrown starters, don't get me wrong. The last three-win season came from Rick Ankiel, and there was Matt Morris and Alan Benes before that. Or Andy Benes. One of the Beni. But other than those pitchers, the real success has come mostly from other organizations. There you have it: the Cardinals are your beacon of incompetence. If only other teams could fail so magnificently. (Or succeed without rubbing everyone else's noses in it.) It figures. The Cardinals have always known that there's more than one way to skin a Kaat. http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/5/15/4332004/matt-harvey-mets-pitching-development

bump. Notice that none of the Mets pictured are pitchers? That's just the way things turned out. But a pitcher could've, in theory, been a part of that sequence. BTW, we're looking for an everyday player, not a pitcher, as the answer to this quiz.

Jim Hickman.

G-Fafif wrote: The top four were all Blue Jays at one point or another. Fleet birds! And three of the top five seasons occurred within three years of each other, during the you-know-what era. Apparently, HR's weren't the only thing on the rise.

Double your fun with double Blue Jays. The only two Mets to hit 50 or more doubles in one season are Carlos Delgado (57, 2000, Toronto Blue Jays) and John Olerud (54, 1993, Toronto Blue Jays). Honorable Mention: Shawn Green (49, 2003, Los Angeles Dodgers) Jeff Kent (49, 2001, San Francisco Giants) Keith Hernandez (48, 1979, St. Louis Cardinals) The NY Mets record for most doubles in a season is held by Bernard Gilkey (44, 1996). Wright Wrongh

Rey Ordonez punched his ticket out of town when he called Mets fans "stupid". And as much as I loathed Ordonez, the circumstances surrounding his eventual trade annoyed me even more and confirmed, once again, what a moronic franchise the Wilpon Mets were. I mean, that's what finally compelled the Mets to dump that fraud on some other sucker? Not the seven years and 3,000+ PA's worth of utter incompetence and Double A hitting? Jeez.

G-Fafif wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Joe Torre? G-Fafif wrote: No, that was crazy. Why crazy? Because Torre was slow? I thought maybe 1971, all that hitting, not enough speed for triples even in Busch. Crazy slow. Having seen the list, I'd say that Torre was a great guess. Especially after MM set me straight with Minky. Olerud was another one who ran the bases with an invisible piano strapped to his back. After looking at the list of single-season doubles leaders, it seems that, all things being equal, slugging is more important than speed in accumulating two-baggers.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Joe Torre? G-Fafif wrote: No, that was crazy. Why crazy? Because Torre was slow? Wright Wrongh I'll post the answer around first pitch tonight.

G-Fafif wrote: Joe Torre? G-Fafif wrote: No, that was crazy. Why crazy? Because Torre was slow?

Oh, wait! That's not Chef Boyardee. That's the generic chef on a pizza box. Wright Wrong I'll post the answer around first pitch tonight.

Wright Wrong I'll post the answer around first pitch tonight.

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metsmarathon wrote: bah, not mientkiewicz. i was thinking hte other alphabet souper, mark grudzielanek, never a met. I was wondering about your Minky guess, and whether you were just fucking with me.

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Edgy MD wrote: Look at that snotty puss on Garry. I can't believe I wasted a guess on him. "If I ain't doublin', I'm troublin'".

Willie Mays would've been my first guess if I was playing instead of hosting. Wright Wrong

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Two notable pitchers that the Mets drafted post-Gooden but didn't necessarily develop: Scott Kazmir and A.J. Burnett.

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