Frayed Knot

Of those, only Koosman's 1968 season was around the same age as Harvey and with the same approximate ML experience. All others had some sort of established rep at the time of their hot starts. Koos: 25 + 4 months at opening day. 9 games pitched/3 starts (22.1 IP) the previous season Harvey: 24 + 2 weeks at opening day. 10 games/10 starts (59.1 IP) the previous season And Koos had the advantage of coming out during the most pitching-friendly era since the dead ball days.

Most of Buck's HRs this year would have been out of any park, including Yellowstone.

Or, with the Mets sked to face three LH starters while the Dodgers are in town (and maybe then Hamels on Sunday when Philly comes by although it looks like we'll miss Lee), maybe Nieuwenhuis gets sent down instead. If nothing else it'll let him see some steady action as opposed to what he's doing now.

5 scoreless innings and 52 pitches for Marcum in an extended Spring game, an outing which most likely puts him in line for the start vs Philly on Saturday, probably with a 90-pitch or so limit.

How Ya Like some of these 'Front of Rotation' pitchers who are all four starts into their seasons while sporting north-of-5.00 ERAs?: Yovanni Gallardo = 5.24 Ian Kennedy = 5.47 Gio Gonzalez - 5.85 Roy Halladay = 6.04 David Price = 6.26 Cole Hamels = 6.46 Josh Johnson = 6.86 Matt Cain = 7.15 Edison Volquez = 8.84

Stats to Date: .424/.513/.576 over 17 games, 80 PAs, 66 ABs The most consistent thing about his career so far is keeping that OBA number in the range of 100 points above his BA And in answer to the question asked earlier about the offensive nature of the league or Savannah, Baseball America sez: Mets CF Brandon Nimmo has shown impressive bat-to-ball skills early on for Low-A Savannah, going 12-for-27 on the week. I would note only that of the 12 hits, 11 were singles. Given how tough Savannah plays for lefty hitters, that could be par for the course during Sand Gnats home games, though Savannah played about half its games in either Greensboro and Lakewood this week.

metsmarathon wrote: so the play log for the john buck throwing out of denard span is curious to me. it was a pitch in the dirt by gee. span takes off for second. buck throws him out by a wide margin. but it doesn't really make the box score. it wasn't credited as a caught stealing. the pitch in the dirt wasn't called a wild pitch or a passed ball. it's just, all of a sudden, there's one less baserunner. i assume buck at least got an assist out of the deal...? Yeah that's kind of weird. I never really thought of it before but I guess the fact that Span didn't take off until after the pitch was made means it doesn't get tagged as a steal attempt but rather as an "out trying to advance" as if he was trying to stretch a single or some other type of daring base-running.

Harvey - 4.7 Rice - 0.5 Davis - 2.2 Duda - 2.2 Buck - 0.2 Wright - 0.2

Niese - 1.0 Valdespin - 1.5 Wright - 1.5 Murphy - 1.5 Byrd - 0.3 Davis - 0.3

Atchison - 1.0 Cowgill - 1.3 Byrd - 1.8 Murphy - 1.0 Turner - 1.5 Tejada - 0.4 Valdespin - 0.3

Hawkins - 0.2 Wright - 3.8 Buck - 1.1 Tejada - 0.9

And feel free to add your own facts or quirks as you come across them. For instance, How Ya Like the fact that the 9-8 Brewers have already had a five game losing streak and now a seven game winning streak in this still young season.

A quick trip through various goings on in MLB during the past week. - How�d Ya Like the Pirates taking 3 of 4 from the Braves this weekend Braves going through a recent run shortage, scoring 0, 6, 0, 1 & 2 over their last five games vs the mighty Royals & Pirates The only real offensive threats for the Braves so far aren't the guys they thought going in to the season: Chris Johnson, filling in for the injured Freddie Freeman, is hitting .400; the younger half of their Upton bookends; and then there's that Gettis guy they found on the side of the road somewhere who's filling in for McCann behind the plate while smacking XBHs all over the place. Meanwhile, Simmons, Heyward, Uggla and the other Upton aren't hitting their weights and yet they're 13-5 even after this past series in Pittsburgh. - And How'd Ya Like the Tigers & Mariners K-ing 40 times in a single (14 inning) game on Wednesday Starters Felix Hernandez & Max Scherzer K�d 12 each over 8 innings. - or the Phils not only getting swept by the Reds (Mon thru Wed) but doing so without drawing a single walk over the entire 3 games. They K�d 24 times in that series and scored just 4 runs total. Talk about a team having trouble scoring. - and How�d Ya Like Philip Humber�s start in Houston on Saturday FO 1B 1B RBI-2B 2 RBI-2B BB 3R HR 2B 1B 2 RBI-2B That�s 8 runs in 1/3 of an inning, and it only stayed that low because the reliever didn�t allow the runner he left out there to score. Said reliever (Dallas Keuchel - yeah, I never heard of him either) then gave up six runs in his first full inning giving the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" a 14-0 lead by the top of the 2nd. They won 19-6 Humber is now 0-4 on the season and 16-19 for his career (0-0 as a NYM). Gotta be the oddest pitcher to have ever thrown a perfect game His mound opponent, btw, was Scott Kazmir in a battle of former NYM 1st round draft picks. Kazmir, making his 1st appearance of the year, lasted only part way through the 4th inning and couldn�t get the win despite being staked to a 8-run lead before even taking the mound. - And how�d ya like the fact that Humber�s half-inning was NOT the worst of the day. Detroit�s Rick Procello got tagged with 9 in the 1st inning in Anaheim - although at least he got two outs (a GiDP when it was still �only� 4-0) instead of just one before being yanked so his ERA for the day is less than Humber�s. In Porcello�s defense, three of the NINE hits he gave up were infield singles so with a little luck he gets out of that inning before he served up that Grand Slam to Mike Trout with his final pitch of the day.

I agree that we got a couple of calls for us today* (both pitching and batting - he seemed to have missed one or two of Zimmermannnn's curves) and, yeah, in a tight game, little things like that can make a difference. But I'm still not going to spit on a shut-out of a good hitting team or Gee's first good game since last July. The shitty spring and bad start to this year coming off the surgery shouldn't make us toss out the fact that he was on a pretty good roll prior to the 2012 ASB. And while one decent game doesn't mean he's BACK!!!, him being merely decent means having 2.5 good starters instead of 2 plus three days of praying. Add in the hopeful swap of Marcum for Laffey and things get at least a bit less dire than they were. * HP ump wasn't perfect the other way either

Gwreck wrote: Nice series win. Yup! Only won four all season against these chumps last year so we're already half way there. Also considering that the pitching match-ups seemed against us in all three games (even if only by prior reputation in Game 1) lots o' folks would have considered one win a moral victory. Gee not shitting the bed bodes well for this rotation going forward (assuming it's not just a one-time thing).

Shaun Marcum is scheduled to throw up to 75 pitches on Monday and, assuming all goes well, will be on track to make his ML season debut on Saturday vs the Phillies at Citifield http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130421&content_id=45390234&notebook_id=45390450&vkey=notebook_nym&c_id=nym

Get your first ML hit elsewhere kid. Not here, not today.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ... and only the following Mets, have in common? Well, that eliminates my planned 'Have never been in my kitchen' answer.

Rice is either had a real good inning or is the luckiest sumbitch in baseball. I'm opting for the latter.

OMG Thank you Jayson Werth Still not out of it yet.

Frayed Knot wrote: Zvon wrote: I don't feel that Laffey should have been put (or left) in a situation where this could happen. This can't help his confidence. If he had any. Problem is that he doesn't seem to have the stuff to get LHBs out, and he certainly doesn't have the confidence to come inside on any of them. He worked Harper & LaRoche away with everything and Harper simply went with the pitch and LaRoche then hammered one that wasn't quite outside enough. But the fact that neither one had to even think about a pitch on the inner-half meant both results were kind of predictable. And if Laffey can't be counted upon to get LHBs out then ... umm, get well soon Perdo Feliciano. btw, I also noticed today that Laffey is one of those baby-faced guys who thinks a colorful, flame tattoo all over his upper arm makes him look tougher and more menacing. Yeah Aaron, it doesn't. He should be sent down just for that reason alone.

I think Ryan Matheus just got hit with some BUCKSHOT!!!

I have no memory of a Kirk Nieuwenhuis AB this season that did NOT end in a strike-out.

Lefty Specialist wrote: A painful inning being forced to listen to a fighter shill for legalizing UFC in New York on the network that has the rights to, and heavily promotes, UFC fighting. That was highly annoying.. Watched that entire half-inning with the sound off for just that reason. Between the UFC promotion (hey, it just happens to be on FOX tonight!!!!) and the constant crawl filled with English Premier League scores (conveniently available on the FOX Soccer Channel and NASCAR (on FOX tomorrow afternoon) it's nice that they're able to squeeze a little baseball in (and as I'm typing comes the Pat Summerall tribute). Gee, Summerall became good friends with Mantle!?! Couldn't have happened in a bar or two could it? PS might have been the one guy who could out-drink MM

Zvon wrote: I don't feel that Laffey should have been put (or left) in a situation where this could happen. This can't help his confidence. If he had any. Problem is that he doesn't seem to have the stuff to get LHBs out, and he certainly doesn't have the confidence to come inside on any of them. He worked Harper & LaRoche away with everything and Harper simply went with the pitch and LaRoche then hammered one that wasn't quite outside enough. But the fact that neither one had to even think about a pitch on the inner-half meant both results were kind of predictable. And if Laffey can't be counted upon to get LHBs out then ... umm, get well soon Perdo Feliciano.