N.Y. Mets: No Baseball For You

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

WE INTERRUPT SPRING TRAINING AND THE

2020 REGULAR SEASON DUE TO THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK 

No baseball for you  - at least not yet, or the foreseeable future.  With coronavirus running wild, Take Me Out to the Ballgame certainly takes on a different tune.

However, the Trolley rolls on ... 

I - Starting Pitching

• Starting Rotation Weaker Without Wheeler 
• Stop Matzing Around With Starting Rotation

Noah Syndergaard will turn 28-years old this season.  It's time for him to step it up.  My most serious criticism against Noah through the years has been his lack of craftsmanship.  Last season he exceeded 30 starts for the first time in three years, fanning 202 batters and walking only 50 through 197.2 innings pitched.  However he surrendered a career high 24 home runs which contributed greatly to his career high 4.28 ERA.  That must change.  With health presumably back on his side there will be little excuse should he fail to elevate his game.  We Mets fans wish and hope for him to become an elite pitcher.  But he is not there yet.

Rick Porcello has to date yielded 15 hits and just one walk with eight strikeouts through 10.2 innings pitched.  I was in complete agreement with this acquisition.  However, the signing of Michael Wacha, not so much.  Wacha has surrendered eight hits and four walks in just 7.2 Grapefruit League innings pitched.  In 2019, Wacha's first full season back from injury, he yielded 143 hits and 55 walks for a 1.563 WHiP through 126.2 innings.

II - Bullpen

Looks like Dellin Betances will have all the time he'll need for amping up that velocity.  He says he's a slow starter.  Time is now on his side.  Meanwhile a slimmed down Jeurys Familia is performing well, but the troubled Edwin Diaz is not - four hits allowed and just one strikeout in three innings pitched.

As we know the Mets staff is short on left-hand pitching.  In fact, Justin Wilson is the only bullpen southpaw whom I would qualify as reliable.  That's why I've been rooting for Chasen Shreve to win a seat on the bus back to Flushing.  A potential power arm, Shreve to date has yielded five hits (two home runs) and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings pitched.  Not exactly what I had in mind.

Seth Lugo wants to start, but his performance betrays him.  Compare 2017, his last season as a full time starter, versus his last two seasons as a full time reliever.  As a starter he yielded 114 hits in 101.1 innings.  As a reliever these last two seasons, he has allowed just 137 hits over 181.1 innings pitched.  As a starter he posted a 10.1 H/9, 2.2 W/9, and 7.5 K/9.  Last year he posted a career low 6.3 H/9 and 1.8 W/9, and a career high 11.7 K/9.  The Mets need to utilize him to the best of his ability.  If that means putting their foot down, so be it.

#washyourhands