Edgy MD

One run on a homer (to Matt Tuiasosopo) in two innings. One walk and one strikeout.

What's with that guy? The Mets shed Daniel Murphy, and he still can't crack the squad. The Reds trade Brandon Phillips, still no Dilson.

This spring is wall-to-wall Mazzilli.

Ed Head was probably very proud of his Face that day.

My schedule says the Mets-Braves game is in Kissimmee. The Mets who stay home host the Astros with Matt Harvey pitching.

Here's hoping Nimmo gives Ollie the same treatment a few more times in 2017.

The Mets just didn't sign as many big league veterans to minor league contracts this offseason, and I've got to think they made a conscious choice to unclog some of the pipeline for guys just like this. McLovin is going to open in AAA. It'll take a crisis for him to jump to the big team over Sewald, RoseBOOM!, and Rowen and Smokey, but he'll have a solid AAA season and will eventually serve as Vegas closer when Sewald gets his promotion.

As my name begins with an M, and I've pitched fewer than two innings above AA, and my name appears on no lists of the Mets' top 30 prospects (top 50? maybe?), I really feared I'd be farmed out before youse all examined where I stood. On the edge. Of seventeen. I'm a 2013 draft pick out of that baseball hotbed of Nashua, New Hampshire, and I'm 6'5" or 6'6", depending on your source. Maybe 240. Up there, we work out in dank, poorly lit cinderblock outbuildings. That may not jump out and scream SPORTS SCIENCE at you, but I woke up at the start of last season and pitched 33 ridiculously good innings for St. Lucie. Thirty-three innings to the tune of an Eckerslean 0.82 ERA. I struck out 33 in 33 innings, which is a nice tidy ratio of effectiveness, and I walked four. Wait a minute. Holy crap, that's not a typo. I walked FOUR! That gets a boy elevated to Bingo mid-season, I tell you what. I don't care what round you're drafted in or how short the summer is in New Hampshire. I continued to be successful, if not untouchable for Bingo, posting a 3.26 ERA while losing that ridiculous walk rate and got a brief promotion to Las Vegas. Three levels—what a good year looks like I started mostly until this season, but only started four times this year, so maybe I've trapped myself into relieving. I dunno. But I've pitched myself into a big league camp and I'm still there, where I've, um ... pitched four innings and given up seven runs, six earned. I'm having a little problem with the longball. BUT I'LL ADJUST! IT'S MY DESTINY! But what's my destiny for 2017! You make the call. [fimg=351:380une62]http://www.wassermanstrength.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Kevin-OH-Squat.png[/fimg:380une62] [fimg=369:380une62]http://www.milb.com/assets/images/0/0/0/182352000/cuts/mcgowan_nu715d7k_ktweiwfm.jpg[/fimg:380une62] [fimg=396:380une62]http://www.wassermanstrength.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DSC_0837.jpg[/fimg:380une62] [fimg=324:380une62]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bh_0JerCIAAPG9q.jpg[/fimg:380une62]

Billy Hands would make a good mob nickname.

One big difference is that FIFA gives you one chance to make a commitment to which team you hope to play for. If you are a German kid whose father emigrated from the United States, you might choose to play for the less competitive US at 19, and if you make it to the top of your peers by the time you are 25, you can't decide to suddenly represent Germany. You are an American for life with FIFA. With the World Baseball Classic, Bruce Chen can apparently go shopping for a different team each tournament.

For one month at time, I'm the best guy on this pitching staff, and that's saying something. Seriously, who was better than me in May? Nobody. Well, Clayton Kershaw was, but nobody on the Mets was. I'm that good. But if I'm not pitching 100%, I'm just another pitcher, and even when I'm not really hurting enough to go on the DL, I'm often not 100%. And that means, I'm often just another pitcher. But, then there's that two months out of the year. I can be Koosman on this team. I really can. But I can also be Rick Aguilera, the ace that got lost in the shuffle, the guy that never really turns the corner and puts together that full season of All-Star starting pitching. Which is it? [fimg=329:s046or85]http://fixingpitchers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/steven-matz-follow-through.jpg[/fimg:s046or85] [fimg=391:s046or85]http://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1.10588974.1435531373!/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/landscape_1280/image.JPG[/fimg:s046or85] [fimg=339:s046or85]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/29/sports/29REDSjp1/29REDSjp1-master1050.jpg[/fimg:s046or85] [fimg=381:s046or85]http://images.performgroup.com/di/library/omnisport/29/16/matz-steven-062815-usnews-getty-ftr_k8z1a3olwaon1am5kwaly9f9s.jpg?t=1012380830[/fimg:s046or85]

Nobody roots for a tie! Among other highlights, the game featured Asdrubal Cabrera doing a great job staying in a pickle for three or four throws, and then losing interest, shrugging, and running off the field without actually getting tagged.

Entering the game: [list:25z0skio][*:25z0skio]L.J. Mazzilli (3b, with Guillorme sliding over to third to replace Cabrera)[/*:m:25z0skio] [*:25z0skio]Patrick Biondi (replacing Céspedes)[/*:m:25z0skio] [*:25z0skio]Luis Carpio (replacing Walker)[/*:m:25z0skio][/list:u:25z0skio] Mazz is getting a lot of PT for a guy that wasn't officially invited to camp.

Edgin and Rowen split up a scoreless fifth, and Rafael Montero is on to try and continue his good spring. OE: And a ground single and long double later, the Tiggs are on the board.

Meanwhilst, back to the subject of this thread. Goodman Jacob deGrom has cruised through four innings against the mighty Bengal Cats, allowing no runs on two hits and no walks, striking out four. His Metly teammates have had no such trouble, putting up four runs in the third on a pair of two-run homers by Champ Stuart and Yoenis Céspedes. Four-nuttin'. Both teams have a guy named Dominic at first, but neither is Dominican.

Well, he may have been doing it regularly for decades, but not much at all for the last two seasons. And after the fusion surgery, all baseball activities were banned, and for a good while, most non-baseball activities too. He's going to open in St. Lucie. And the Mets already have a replacement in place for the big club.

In the opening paragraph, I counted Lugo as the eleventh option from last year, at least looking at the pecking order from around opening day: [*:i5o72d7w]Harvey[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]deGrom[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Syndergaard[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Matz[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Colon[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Wheeler, when available[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Verrett[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Gilmartin[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Montero[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Gsellman[/*:m:i5o72d7w] [*:i5o72d7w]Lugo[/*:m:i5o72d7w][/list:o:i5o72d7w] Pretty entertaining how Lugo's presence at the start of the game is emblematic of Sandy's idiocy, and then him getting pulled became emblematic of Terry's idiocy.

Still only two innings so far, but two scoreless ones, with two hits, no walks, and three strikeouts. Maybe he pitches today.

Yeah, I imagine a lot of PT at this point.

Mets send three starters to Lakeland (that's still where the Tigers train, right?), along with the big donkey. [fimg=250]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/dd/29/9c/dd299ca962ae718ba63389312fd8adc1.gif[/fimg][fimg=250]https://img.clipartfest.com/c88e886409b96928f49766b1a6a59a05_1000-images-about-mr-met-on-mr-met-clipart_271-450.gif[/fimg]Andrew Romine, 1bJose Iglesias, ssNicholas Castellanos, 3bJ.D. Martinez, rfTyler Collins, dhJames McCann, cMikie Mahtook, cfDixon Machado, 2bAnthony Gose, lf Anibal Sanchez, spLuis Guillorme, 3bAsdrubal Cabrera, ssYoenis Cespedes, lfNeil Walker, 2bDominic Smith, 1bTravis Taijeron, rfWuilmer Becerra, dhTomas Nido, cChamp Stuart, cf Jacob deGrom, sp Gametime Forecast: 80°F • Partly Cloudy • 0% PoP 1:10 PM ET

Well, one strange event went down and is noted in that article, that's getting a lot of morning ridicule. He came out for his first at-bat and began swinging in the wrong on-deck circle, crossing the field from the third-base dugout to the first base side. Not a lot of the players wearing numbers in the 80s make that mistake. He later explained that he had come to think lefthanded batters that just did their practice swinging on that side of the plate. I realize you forget things in a dozen years away from the game, but what did he do last fall in the AFL? I'll write it off to nerves, possibly mixed with a little lunkheadedness. Still, though, the rush to judgment seems silly. He'll probably fail. Most do. But most do by getting outplayed on the field. Either he will or he won't.

On the other hand ... "The Mets should be embarrassed about Tim Tebow's disastrous debut" — The Daily News Relax, it's spring training.

I care about the outcomes of spring training games. I do! I mean, when they lose, I try to convince myself I don't, but I do!

It'll take more than the absence of Wheeler to get him to break camp, because he's certainly still behind Gsellman, so somebody else would have to go down, or falter. Plenty of camp left, though. Also, I don't agree with the suggestion that the other guys in the Mets rotation are merely hard throwers and not pitchers.

You didn't see me coming, last year, did you? Well, that's the way of things. Named after the third son of Adam and Eve that nobody talks about, I had come to feel my namesake's fate. But then the spot opened, and I seized it as only a third son can. Brace yourself, world, and know the wrath of SETH! Yeah, it doesn't trip off the tongue. But know what does? A 2.67 ERA over 64.0 innings down the stretch when the Mets were staving off other fine teams for a playoff spot. Know what those other teams lacked? A Seth Lugo, that's what. An 11th option at starting pitcher that was able to pick up the standard and carry it forward down the stretch. That was me. I mean, just try and imagine September with Josh Zeid in the rotation. I come to camp this year as the seventh option, having passed Gilmartin and Montero and Verrett, and outlasted Bartolo. Still something to prove? Yeah, I would guess so. Do you see me proving anything? [fimg=349:1l6ebwnb]http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2787054.1473567283!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/ackertweb11s-2-web.jpg[/fimg:1l6ebwnb] [fimg=351:1l6ebwnb]https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DH69PGyRUaeZCueByCyMMivnAV4=/0x300:2000x1633/1310x873/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/49072387/GettyImages-513720122.0.jpg[/fimg:1l6ebwnb] [fimg=373:1l6ebwnb]https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cGuANppJ3VAdjXM_W6CGgcilbeY=/0x0:600x400/1310x873/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/51929507/Seth_Lugo_Washington_Nationals_v_New_York_0qVBB7ZgLxgl.0.jpeg[/fimg:1l6ebwnb] [fimg=327:1l6ebwnb]http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2766294.1472175176!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/minjuryweb26s-web.jpg[/fimg:1l6ebwnb]