David Wright
Since David Wright has put on a uniform, he has been a great player. He has become the face of the franchise, if not all of baseball. We’ve seen him overcome all obstacles. He overcame the original inane Citi Field outfield configuration. He overcame a broken back. He’s overcome bad players and managers. Through all of it Wright has become a borderline Hall of Famer.
Wright has been facing his toughest test with his battle with spinal stenosis. So far, he’s handled that the same way he’s always faced adversity.
When Wright first came off the DL, he homered in his first at bat. He would hit .277/.381/.437 with four homers and 13 RBI in 30 games. He would then hit the first ever World Series homerun in Citi Field history:
Despite all of what Wright has overcome, and despite what he has done while playing with the spinal stenosis, he still has his doubters. After an admittedly rough Opening Day, writers like Buster Olney were beginning to write the postmortem for Wright’s career. Articles like these were as premature as they were wrong.
So far this year, Wright has reached base in each and every game he has played. He’s shown a good eye at the plate drawing a walk in all but two games. By the way, in the two games he didn’t draw a walk, he had multiple hit games. So far this year, he’s hitting .289/.426/.526. His career line is .298/.377/.493. Last night, we also got to see him hitting the ball to the opposite field with authority, which has always been a David Wright staple:
Everything was all Wright in Philadelphia last night. #DavidWright #Metshttps://t.co/irfWSwJMBv
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 19, 2016
As Terry Collins would tell you, he’s not in the least surprised. Furthermore, he believes that no one should be surprised at what David Wright is doing. As Collins said in the postgame press conference, “Star players should never surprise you with what they can do.”
Yes, David Wright is still a star, and no, no one should be surprised at what we’re seeing. Wright has been doing this his entire career, and he will continue to do so.
Editor’s Note: this article first ran on metsmerizedonline.com
In a do-or-die Game Five, Terry Collins went to Noah Syndergaard in the seventh to go in there and shut down the Dodgers and preserve the Mets 3-2 lead.
Without the need to keep his stamina for eight move innings, Syndergaard let it fly. He averaged 100 MPH with his fastball and his sinker. Both pitches were 2-3 MPH faster than what he threw in the regular season. He would only throw 17 pitches with one slider and three curveballs. Syndergaard came in with heat and struck out two in a scoreless inning.
Watching that inning allowed you to continue the dream of winning the World Series. You wondered what it would be like to see Syndergaard in the bullpen fulltime. You wanted to see how much better he could be.
If you polled each and every Mets fan, they would tell you that Syndergaard would win at least Cy Young. They would tell you he would win at least one World Series with the Mets. They would tell you he had the drive to get better and better. For once, it wouldn’t be the fans’ fervor, it was a widely held belief in baseball circles.
But this? I don’t think anyone could’ve expected to see what we’ve seen out of Syndergaard so far this year.
Last year, Syndergaard threw 17 pitches over 100 MPH. He averaged 98 MPH on his fastball and sinker. He averaged 89 MPH on his change, 88 MPH on his slider, and 81 MPH on his curve. This year Syndergaard is just in another stratosphere.
He’s already thrown 12 pitches over 100 MPH including hitting 102 on the radar gun. He’s actually throwing all of his pitches harder. His fastball and sinker are up to 99 MPH. His change up is 90 MPH, which is about the same speed as Bartolo Colon‘s fastball. His improved and more often thrown slider averages 93 MPH, and his curveball is at 83 MPH. His improved pitching has definitely left an impression:
How hard does Syndergaard throw? Plawecki blocked a pitch w/ his chest. Theres now an imprint where his necklace was pic.twitter.com/Sd52ije5PZ
— Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) April 19, 2016
Think about it this way. Syndergaard got one inning to throw it as hard as he possibly could for one inning when the Mets season was on the line. So far this year, Syndergaard has been throwing harder than that, and he has been doing that for approximately seven innings this year. How do you describe all of this?
David Wright calls him “a maxed out video game player.” Fans have given him the Thor moniker.
At this point, there are no words. There are no apt comparisons. Syndergaard truly is doing something we have never seen before. The scary part is he is continuing to improve. There’s no telling where Syndergaard goes from here. All we can do is sit back and enjoy the ride.
So far this season, two of the positive story lines, even when the team was really struggling was David Wright playing like the David Wright of old, and the continued development of Noah Syndergaard. Both were on display tonight.
Just like when Wright first came off the DL last year, he homered tonight in his first at bat in Citizen’s Bank Ballpark:
#DavidWright delivered an oppo ? in the first inning. #Metshttps://t.co/HIgn4DcI9E
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 18, 2016
He also made a nice bare-handed play in the field:
A little variation on vintage David Wright: https://t.co/Y2uGh85KEZhttps://t.co/Nx1yXyAIdS
— MLB (@MLB) April 19, 2016
The Mets needed Wright because once again runs were hard to come by against a Phillies starter. The Phillies young starters are very underrated. Tonight, it was Jerad Eickhoff. Once again, he showed a filthy 12-6 curveball. He would pitch seven innings allowing five hits, two earned, three walks, and nine strikeouts. He lowered his ERA to 1.89.
In the sixth, the Mets broke a 1-1 tie with a two out rally. Yoenis Cespedes would hit a triple, and he would score on a Lucas Duda RBI single. With Duda is struggling this year, he is hitting 4-10 with RISP. It was not the last time we would hear from Duda. For his part, Cespedes showed no ill effects from the bruised leg in the field on the basepaths.
The real mystery from tonight was how in the world the Phillies scored the one run. Syndergaard was throwing fastballs that appeared to be 101.9 MPH. His fastball was hovering around 100 MPH all night. His slider was hovering around 95 MPH all night. His change was around 90, and his curveball, or Thor’s hammer, was around 85 MPH. His stuff was once again practically unhittable.
Overall, Syndergaard pitched seven innings allowing five hits, one earned, two walks, and eight strikeouts. This actually raised his ERA to 0.90.
Once Eickhoff left the game, the Mets began to tee off against a terrible Phillies bullpen. In the eighth, Duda hit a laser to right field for his first homerun of the season.
Neil Walker would go back-to-back with an opposite field homerun to left. It was his fourth of the year. In the ninth, Wright would hit his second homerun of the game. Both were opposite field shots. They turned a tight 2-1 pitcher’s duel into a comfortable 5-1 win.
Antonio Bastardo pitched a scoreless eighth. Jeurys Familia came into a non-save situation. On the one hand, it could’ve been your typical closer struggling in a non-save situation. It also could’ve part of what has been, at least for him, a tough start to the season. Familia let up a single and double before settling down. He got the next three out, but not before allowing a run to score on a fielder’s choice. Fortunately, Familia finally shut the door before allowing a run preserving the 5-2 win.
The Mets are back to .500, and with a soft part of their schedule this week, the Mets look to be ready to take off.
Game Notes: The Mets hitters continue to strike out a lot. Tonight, they struck out 11 times. Mets have hit 23 homeruns in their last 11 games at Citizen’s Bank. Travis d’Arnaud missed the game with the bruised elbow. In the eighth, Juan Lagares was double switched into the game forcing Michael Conforto to the bench. The Mets allowed three stolen bases including two when Syndergaard was on the mound. It’s the one thing he doesn’t do well. In the fourth, when Duda popped out, a whale appeared on the screen:
I guess the parakeet’s and the raccoon’s days are numbered.
After the Mets bullpen had to pitch 7.1 innings on Monday with Steven Matz‘s terrible start, and Logan Verrett having to come out of the bullpen to start in place of Jacob deGrom, the Mets were forced to make a move to add a pitcher to the roster.
There were plenty of good options available to them.
The Mets could’ve utilized deGrom’s paternity leave and called up Rafael Montero. However, the Mets didn’t want to do that because they then couldn’t backdate a potential deGrom DL stint to last Saturday. The Mets could’ve just placed deGrom on the DL, but for some reason they do not appear ready to do that. Apparently, that April 19th game against the Phillies is a must win, and you need deGrom to pitch in that game if at all possible.
No, the Mets decided to demote a player. Looking over the roster, the only pitcher who realistically could be demoted is Hansel Robles. He seems like a natural choice as he pitched 2.2 innings on Monday, and he could use an extra day or two. If Montero falters, the Mets could recall Erik Goeddel or Sean Gilmartin to take his place on the roster.
In this scenario, Robles would have to stay in the minors for 10 days unless the Mets put deGrom (or someone else) on the DL. Given Robles’ current role, losing him for 10 days would be palatable. Montero, Goeddel, or Gilmartin could easily be the long man and/or last man in the bullpen.
Instead of the Mets following the reasonable course of action, they determined it was in their best interests to demote Eric Campbell. In essence, the Mets decided to go with the worst possible choice.
Now,there is nothing wrong per se with demoting Campbell. He’s a career .230/.315/.325 hitter. He has good attributes as a player, but nothing that Campbell has done in his career would ever prevent him from being demoted. However, if he’s being demoted, it should be because the Mets are calling up another position player like Matt Reynolds, not because they are adding a pitcher to the roster.
The Mets demoting Campbell for Montero shortens the Mets bench. In a world where you have David Wright on your team, you should never shorten your bench. On any given day, Wright can wake up sore and not be ready to play. If that happens, not only are you down another player, but you also have no infielders on your bench.
By the way, the Mets are playing a day game after a night game. Terry Collins has said there’s no hard-and-fast rule stating Wright must sit a day game after a night game. However, it’s also true that the Mets have so far refrained from playing Wright in a day game after a night game. No one knows how his back will respond to it. No one knows if he will be able to get loose in time to play a full nine innings.
Instead of taking this into account, the Mets thought it would be best to potentially have no infielders on the bench. The Mets thought it would be best to realistically only have two options on the bench for Wednesday’s game (Collins is loathe to pinch hit with his catcher). Also, apparently, the Mets do not foresee the need to have more than two pinch hitters available in a game where the starting pitcher hasn’t pitched in almost a month and wasn’t stretched out in Spring Training. No, the Mets are setting forth a gameplan where they will have Verrett go deep in the game, and they will be alright with just two bench players. What could go wrong?
The Mets are in the midst of a four game losing streak and would rather potentially sacrifice the the last game of the homestand to give themselves the best possible shot of winning a game against a terrible Phillies team in Philadelphia. The Mets apparently didn’t learn their lesson on Monday about the perils of having a shortened roster.
Overall, the Mets put themselves in a tough position all because they’ve deemed an April game in Philadelphia a must win. Why else wouldn’t you put an injured pitcher who is already missing a start and bullpen sessions on the DL?
The Mets sent out Steven Matz, who is the proverbial fourth member of what had been touted as the Big Four. Mets fans all hope each of these pitchers will be future Hall of Famers. Tonight, Matz did a pretty good impersonation of Tom Glavine.
Like Glavine, Matz allowed seven runs to the Marlins. At least Matz lasted a little longer. Matz’s final line was 1.2 innings, six hits, seven earned, two walks, and one strikeout. Before the game, Matz was 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA. This year, he’s 0-1 with a 37.80 ERA.
In the fateful second inning, seemingly every Marlin got a hit including Barry Bonds and Don Mattingly got hits. Of course, Giancarlo Stanton provided the exclamation point:
.@Giancarlo818 puts an exclamation point on the 2nd inning!#StantonSmash | #LetsGoFish pic.twitter.com/rTwMWtl5HI
— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) April 12, 2016
It needs to be constantly reiterated, but Bonds seems to be having a very real impact on this Marlins team. Six of their eight regulars are hitting over .300. They had no problem hitting Matz. This is a young Marlins club with a lot of offensive talent. If they realize that potential, it’s a definitive blow to the Mets chances to return to the postseason . . . especially with how this club plays the Marlins.
As for the Mets, their bullpen did a yeoman’s job. Hansel Robles pitched 2.1 innings allowing four hits, one earned, one walk, and three strikeouts. Antonio Bastardo pitched 1.1 innings allowing four hits, two runs, one walk, and two strikeouts. Addison Reed pitched 1.2 innings with no hits, no runs, and four strikeouts. Jeurys Familia was pressed into action even though he has the flu. Jerry Blevins pitched the ninth. The night was such a disaster that Blevins finally allowed a hit in his Mets career. It was an infield single to Dee Gordon with two outs in the ninth.
The Mets might’ve avoided burning through their entire bullpen like that if they would’ve just put Jacob deGrom on the DL. Sean Gilmartin, who was very effective as the long man last year, could’ve soaked up some of those innings. It would’ve been all the more imperative with Logan Verrett going on Wednesday.
Offensively? Well the Mets had seven hits and three runs. All of the runs came after the game was over. Two of those hits were from David Wright, who despite his career being declared over, has been the Mets best offensive player so far this year. He’s hitting .333 with a .478 OBP. Perhaps that’s the reason why the man with the bad back played all nine innings in a 10-3 blowout.
All kidding aside, the Mets decision making in this young season has been perplexing. Terry Collins bats three lefties bunched up together every day (with his splits, Neil Walker is effectively a left handed hitter). Jim Henderson leads the Mets in appearances despite not having pitched in two years and coming off a second shoulder surgery. Remember that next time Collins gets emotional over Johan Santana. At least Collins isn’t to blame for the team’s mismanagement of the deGrom/bullpen situation.
With all that said, this is a game the Mets should just forget about. It’s another game to forget in what has been a mostly forgettable start to the season. Fortunately, momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher, and Noah Syndergaard is scheduled to pitch tomorrow. So, in that sense, the Mets have some momentum going.
It was a cold windy night at Citi Field. If you’ve been to one of those games, especially in the Promenade, you’re freezing. About the only thing colder than those fans tonight were the bats.
While the Phillies are going to be terrible this year, perhaps ’62 Mets terrible, we did get a glimpse of the hope for the Phillies future. Vincent Velasquez started for the Phillies, and he absolutely dominated the Mets. He allowed only three hits, three walks, and he struck out nine in six innings.
It’s not fluke for Velasquez. He’s a prospect with a high ceiling. Tonight, he featured a filthy curveball and a fastball with life. More importantly, he was locating those pitches. While facing the Phillies 19 years will be fun, facing Velasquez both this year and the years to come will be unpleasant.
As for Velasquez’s counterpart, Bartolo Colon, Mets fans were treated to the full Colon experience. He dominated a bad ballclub. He pounded the strike zone while fastballs in the high 80’s. Shockingly, he did get one up to 92 MPH. He didn’t allow a walk while striking out seven. He also lost his batting helmet while swinging and missing at a pitch. Furthermore, Colon made a terrific play in the field:
They don’t call him #BigSexy for nothing! pic.twitter.com/WP9FLaqvuT
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) April 10, 2016
The only mistake he made was a pitch to Ryan Howard that was deposited in the left field stands for the Phillies only run of the game.
Now, this run should not have held up. The Phillies have an abominable bullpen. In the eighth inning, David Hernandez was erratic. Asdrubal Cabrera, Yoenis Cespedes, and Lucas Duda got to three balls in the count. None of them reached base.
The Mets are allowed to lose a game. They’re allowed to not hit when a pitcher like Velasquez is just dealing. However, this Phillies bullpen is dreadful. They were wild and gave the Mets very hittable pitches. If the Mets want to win the division, they need to take advantage of these opportunities. You cannot be shut out by this Phillies team. It’s inexcusable.
Some important notes on the Mets. The team was smart in sitting David Wright on a cold windy day. Travis d’Arnaud threw out another would be basestealer. Teams seem to be adjusting to Michael Conforto by pounding him inside. Conforto would go 0-3 with a strikeout against Velasquez. Hansel Robles pitched to Cameron Rupp without any incident. Cespedes continues to struggle starting the year 2-16 with seven strikeouts. He received some boos.
Last season, Noah Syndergaard basically dominated with a fastball/sinker, curveball, and a changeup. He tinkered with a slider, but he only threw it 3.15% of the time. After a full offseason to work on the pitch, Syndergaard announced in a big way that the pitch will be a big part of his repertoire this season.
GIF: Did we just witness @Noahsyndergaard throw a 95 MPH SLIDER?! pic.twitter.com/v5BGdNGKLp
— Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) April 5, 2016
A 95 MPH SLIDER! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?
You don’t throw 95 MPH sliders with all the cheat codes on when you’re playing a video game. It’s not seemingly impossible. It is impossible. Somehow, someway Syndergaard was able to do it. Syndergaard took that pitch and took it to another level. Everyone noticed it, including Syndergaard himself as Adam Rubin reported:
“I realized in the beginning of the game I had a pretty good feel for it,” Syndergaard said. “I really took it to the next level, because I’ve never thrown a 95 MPH slider before . . . . I kind of shocked myself with how good my slider was. It felt good in spring training, but I amped it up to another level today.”
That’s an understatement. Seven of Syndergaard’s nine strikeouts came with the slider. He only had 11 strikeouts from his slider all last season. None of the Royals could hit the pitch, not even Hall of Famer George Brett – he of 3,154 hits and a career .307 batting average. As reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post:
“There is no man alive who could’ve hit those three sliders [Syndergaard] threw to Morales,” Yost said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 95-mph slider. George Brett was in here [his office] and I asked him if he could hit that, and he said no way.
After watching Syndergaard last year, we should no longer be surprised that Syndergaard has unmatched and unhittable stuff. And yet, he continues to amaze because he has a strong work ethic and a willingness to be coached. He gets better and better. He even amazed his teammates; the same people who watch him day in and day out. As David Wright said in Adam Rubin’s article:
“He had electric stuff,” captain David Wright said. “I looked up at the scoreboard and saw 94, 95. I go ask [catcher] Travis [d’Arnaud] what those pitches were, and he’s talking about sliders. That’s unheard of. That’s about as good as I’ve seen. Stuff-wise, composure-wise, for a young guy to come into this environment and throw that type of game, he’s got the ability to be a special one.
By the way, for all the talk about his new unhittable slider, Syndergaard still had his original unhittable pitches working:
Syndergaard is averaging 99.7 mph on his sinker. Not approaching. Not maxing out at. Averaging.
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) April 5, 2016
As Joel Sherman reported, Alex Gordon said, “He was throwing me fastballs right down the middle, and I couldn’t catch up.” No one was catching up to the fastball. No one was making contact with the slider. Travis d’Arnaud, an exceptional receiver, even had trouble catching the pitch at times. Syndergaard now has two unhittable pitches.
We all joke that Syndergaard is really Thor, the Norse god of thunder. It’s a moniker Syndergaard fully embraces. With his other worldly stuff, at what point does this seek being a joke and start being accepted as reality?
Editor’s Note: this article was first published on metsmerizedonline.com
Major League Baseball can just drive you crazy at times. Despite there being three games yesterday, they’re declaring today Opening Day. Furthermore, despite the fact that everyone was off today, they want all the fans to wear their team hats around today.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wear a hat in my office.
In any event, it’s not a bad idea. I can’t wear one, but I was thinking this past weekend that I should get a new Mets hat for my son. He grew out of his first one right as the playoffs started, and I figured I’d hold off on getting him a new one until after the Winter. Overall, my search was a complete failure.
We first stopped at Babies R Us. They Yankee hats, t-shirts, and jerseys. For the Mets? They only had bibs, onesies, a $40 sweatshirt, and a David Wright toddler shirsey in clearance. No hat, but I did get the shirsey.
Similarly, Dicks and Modells (two of them) did not have toddler Mets caps. Lids had Mets children’s fitted caps, but they were $26.00. First, you never buy a toddler a fitted anything because that’s when they hit their growth spurt and grow out of it within a week. Second, why only fitted? What happened to snap backs and stretch fit hats? Finally, $26.00? Are you kidding me? Keep in mind that for those of you who don’t have toddlers, they’re not always fans of wearing hats. I’m not spending $26.00 for my son to only wear it 5 times. Great, now I should like my father. Thanks MLB!
What’s frustrating about this is I want to get my son a cap, but I can’t. I still can’t get my son a Mets cap even after they went to the World Series. However, I can still buy my son a Yankees cap. Everywhere you go now, you see more and more Mets caps and less and less Yankees caps. Except for toddlers, you do not see toddlers wearing Mets caps.
Now, I could go online and buy one, but with kids you really need to see it to know if it’s the right size or not. For example, my son can wear anything from 3T – 5T depending on who makes it. So in reality, that option is out.
Logistically, that means either my son will go without a Mets cap until we go to Citi Field, or he will continue to wear one of Daddy’s caps.
For now, we’ll stick with this option.
Last night I came away with the same impression of David Wright as everyone else did. He looked done. He couldn’t catch up to the fastball. He couldn’t get anything on his throws. It’s just really hard to play baseball when you have a fork sticking out of your back – it’s worse when you have spinal stenosis.
With all that said, there are some reasons to have some patience here. Other than Curtis Granderson‘s fly ball out to start the game, no Met was able to hit the ball into the outfield against Edison Volquez. In fact, Volquez only allowed two hits over six innings. He was making all the Mets hitters not named Michael Conforto look bad. Keep in mind, Wright did show a good eye, and he was able to work out a walk. As for not hitting Wade Davis, who does? As a reliever, the man has a career 1.32 ERA in 287.0 innings. No, we should not have expected Wright to get hits off of these two pitchers last night.
As for Wright in the field, it was a mixed bag. What everyone is pointing to is his poor throws. His inability to get anything on those throws led to two base hits. However, what we are ignoring was Wright’s range. He got to Eric Hosmer‘s bunt when the shift was on. He got to ball Omar Infante hit down the third base line. Yes, a good throw (or even a slightly below average throw) would’ve gotten those runners. However, Wright got to two balls that required some range. That is a good sign.
Even with these facts brought to light, yes, Wright’s arm looked weak, and his bat looked slow. Fact is he may still need some more time to get ready.
Remember, Wright started preparing for the season later than he usually does. He didn’t play in a Spring Training game until March 18th, which is less than a month ago. He didn’t play in a full game until last Tuesday. He didn’t play multiple games in a row until last week. Couple that with his taking less batting practice and infield practice, and you have a player that may still need more time to get ready for the 2016 season.
And if you look back at the 2015 season, there is room for hope. Before Wright went on the disabled list, he was hitting .333/.371/.424. This was before he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and learned how to address it. Keep in mind, he didn’t suddenly acquire spinal stenosis with one awkward slide. When Wright was diagnosed, and he returned from the disabled list, he hit .277/.381/.437. So no, Wright didn’t forget how to play baseball.
Furthermore, Wright has learned he has to listen to his body. He’s not going to push it. He’s going to play when he’s healthy enough to play. This should result in him being a better player on the days he does play.
Overall, he just needs to play more than one game before we begin to judge him. He may need a week or a month before he returns to the David Wright of old, or at least the David Wright of last year, who was a good ball player.
Wright’s earned the right for the fans to have a little patience with him before we say that he’s done, especially since no one can honestly say that after one game.