Cancel those lunch plans!

The Mets have a noon doubleheader, thanks to last night's rain

Good Morning,

Last night’s game against the Rockies was postponed due to rain, and will be rescheduled as part of a doubleheader today, starting at 12:10 p.m. This rain-out was good for three reasons:

1) The odds of a Mets player getting hurt go down when they don’t actually play.

2) The Mets were in the middle of a 17 game stretch with no scheduled day-offs, while fielding an injury-ravaged, overtaxed squad.

3) New York fans were able to watch the Knicks win their first playoff game in eight years.

In today’s email, we’ll catch you up on the latest Mets news, and go deep on one of the team’s surprise heroes so far (Jeurys Familia). But first, let’s preview today’s action.

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⏩ NEXT UP: The Mets play two against the Rockies today, to make up for last night’s postponement:

❶ GAME 1: This one should be exciting, as Marcus Stroman (the team’s most steady, constant presence in the rotation) matches up against German Márquez, Colorado’s ace. Marquez’s overall numbers aren’t intimidating (3-4, 4.82 ERA), but he’s been sharp over his last three starts. Stroman (3-4, 2.75 ERA) is coming off a solid outing against Miami last week.

❷ GAME 2: The “nightcap” (scheduled to take place 30 minutes after the first game ends) will likely feature Joey Lucchesi (1-3, 7.32 ERA) for the Mets taking on Antonio Senzatela (1-4, 5.01 ERA). Lucchesi has struggled this season but had his best outing against Miami on Saturday, pitching four scoreless innings and needing just 43 pitches to do it.

• REMEMBER: Both games will be 7-inning affairs (barring extra innings).

💤 RESTED: Good news for the Mets is their entire bullpen is rested. The added day off gave the trio of Edwin Díaz, Trevor May, and Miguel Castro a day to recoup after pitching on Tuesday. And everyone else has multiple days’ rest (see the chart below).

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😄 FIRST PLACE: With the Mets not playing last night, they obviously remain 22-20, and amazingly still sit alone atop the NL East. Last night, the Braves lost 9-5 and the Marlins beat the Phillies 4-2, leaving the Mets 1.5 games ahead of both Atlanta and Miami, and two up on Philly.

🗓️  MAY SURPRISE YOU: Believe it or not, despite all the injuries and frankly unrecognizable new players, the Mets are somehow 13-9 in the month of May. Their .591 winning percentage for the month is tied for 4th in the National League, and they have already won more games than in April. The last time they won 14 games in May was 2016.

⛑️ INJURY LIST: Speaking of new players, Johneshwy Fargas was officially placed on the 10-Day IL, retroactive to May 25, with a left AC joint sprain. In his place, the Mets activated newly acquired outfielder Billy McKinney (he will wear #60).

• MEANWHILE: Luis Rojas said on WFAN that Pete Alonso will require a rehab assignment to face live pitching before rejoining the team. Taijuan Walker will throw a side session today, and could return later this week. And Luis Guillorme is getting close to starting a rehab assignment.

🥁BANGED UP: We couldn’t possibly go an entire day without more injury news, could we? Rojas said Dom Smith “banged up his knee” sliding into home on Tomás Nido’s home run that was originally ruled a double on Tuesday. Smith would have been available off the bench last night.

🎩  THE NEW GUY: Billy McKinney was slated to bat cleanup last night. In 40 games for the Brewers this season, he hit .207/.260/.359 with 3 HR, 6 RBI and a steal. He played 20 games in the outfield and 9 at first.

🐐 JAKE: After Tuesday’s performance, Jacob deGrom has allowed 0 or 1 earned runs — and five hits or fewer — in all seven of his starts this season, the longest streak in the modern era.

🖊 SHUT-DOWN PEN: The Mets’ bullpen has not allowed a run over its last 11 innings of work, scattering just one hit and seven walks (while striking out 12) over that span.

• K CORNER: Miguel Castro now owns a 13.97 K/9 ratio, good for 8th in the NL. His ERA at home is a microscopic 1.04.

• BACK ON TRACK: After nearly pitching himself off the roster in recent seasons, Robert Gsellman has emerged as a reliable option in the pen this season, pitching to a 2.50 ERA, with a 12-6 K/BB ratio over 18 innings.

👑  KINGS OF QUEENS: The Mets are now 12-5 at home, and their team ERA at home (1.85) is the best in the majors. (They’re 10-15 with a 4.25 ERA on the road.)

👕 SEAVER: The club announced that players will wear a “41” Tom Seaver tribute patch on the right sleeve of their home and road uniforms throughout this season.

📚 ON THIS DATE IN 1987: Davey Johnson passes Gil Hodges as the winningest manager in Mets history with win number 340, a 4-3 win over the Giants at Candlestick Park. Johnson still holds the franchise record for wins (585) and winning percentage (.588).

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Jenga Man

🧓 by Jeffrey Bellone

It’s time to talk about Jeurys Familia. I’ll admit that I started this piece a few weeks ago, but I’ve hesitated to finish it because I’m still not sure what the final conclusion should be. 

I know he is pitching better this season. But every time the veteran right-hander takes the mound, it feels like he’s playing a game of Jenga and one wrong move could send everything tumbling.

Familia hasn’t allowed a run in 14 of his 16 appearances this season, which explains his impressive 2.45 ERA. However, he has allowed a hit or a walk in 10 of those games. If it feels like he is always getting into trouble, it’s because he is. Only twice in his career has he finished a season with a higher WHIP than his current 1.70 mark.

What’s interesting is the way opposing hitters reach base against him. We tweeted last week how his outings can feel like death by a million paper cuts. As the game moves more and more toward relievers who can throw 100 MPH fastballs up in the zone, Familia is a different kind of pitcher. He throws hard, but he no longer strikes a lot of people out. He pitches to contact, using his sinker to induce ground balls. A typical Familia inning consists of a walk and a ground ball that finds a hole, or a soft bloop that inconveniently lands between two fielders. His hard hit suppression ranks near the top of the league, and hitters almost never barrel one of his pitches. That’s why when he gets into trouble, he can find ways to wiggle out of it.

Limiting hard contact isn’t something new. Familia has been able to do that even in seasons he has struggled. What has changed is his command. He still walks too many hitters, but a lot less than he has over his previous two campaigns. And command isn’t just about walk rates. He is locating his pitches in optimal spots, and for the first time in his career, he is able to throw both his fastball and sinker in the zone over 50% of the time. That allows him to keep hitters honest with his swing-and-miss slider and play his four-seamer and sinker off each other.

When you think of a pitcher improving their repertoire, a lot of times we focus on movement: how they added more drop on a breaking ball, or generated more rise on their fastball. For Familia, he is finding success this season by taking movement away from his pitches. He has added some gyro to both his sinker and slider, which means they move less relative to how they have in the past, but this allows Familia to know where they are going to land, while keeping hitters off balance from what appears to be a seam-shifted wake effect.

Most right-handers throw a slider with a spin direction that is distinct from their sinker. Familia’s slider almost spins like a fastball, but takes a sharp turn in moving toward his gloveside instead of his armside. The ol’ Warthen Slider slider is a lot like a cutter. Thrown in tandem with his four-seamer, the two pitches play well off each other, especially when placed in the right spots.

Familia is locating his pitches more consistently on the edges of the strike zone this season. You can see in the overlay above how his sinker and slider look the same coming out of his hand before ever-so-slightly breaking apart, landing in slightly different locations with different speeds.

You would have to go back to 2015, when Familia was becoming an All-Star, to find a season in which he located as many pitches in the shadow zone has he has so far this year.

Pitch Chart via Baseball Savant

BOTTOM LINE: There’s a reason why the 31-year-old reliever is finding better results this season. His command has improved and he continues to induce soft contact. However, he still gets himself into trouble, with a sinker that leads to ground balls with high batting averages when put in play, and a walk rate that is still relatively high. It feels like the Jenga tower is one piece away from falling down, but if Familia continues to pick the right spots, he might keep it standing.

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⚾️ Because it’s 2021 and he’s a Major League Baseball player, Cleveland pitcher Zach Plesac broke his thumb taking off his shirt this week. The good news — he won’t need surgery, which had been a possibility.

⚾️ Former Mets Manager Mickey Callaway was placed on MLB’s ineligible list for the next two seasons and fired by the Angels following an investigation into sexual harassment allegations.

⚾️ White Sox Catcher Yasmani Grandal is hitting just .136 on the season, but he has a .391 OBP. That .255 gap between average and OBP would be the largest for a full season, breaking a mark set by Barry Bonds in 2004 (.362 BA, .609 OBP). (h/t Sarah Langs)

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🔗 Billy McKinney slated for prominent Mets role after trade, by Greg Joyce, NY Post: “Before he was designated for assignment on Saturday, he was hitting .207 with three home runs and a 69 OPS-plus in 40 games. His most extended MLB opportunity came in 2019, when he hit .215 with 12 home runs and an 83 OPS-plus in 84 games with the Blue Jays.”

🔗 Defensive specialist? Nido showing thump, by Anthony DiComo, MLB.com: “Nido, who like McCann is a strong defender, has outperformed the man above him on the depth chart by no small margin. Entering Wednesday’s play, Nido owned an .835 OPS, a .357 wOBA and a 131 wRC+ in 27 games. By comparison, McCann had produced a .527 OPS, a .242 wOBA and a 56 wRC+, which are all well below-average marks. Because McCann signed such a large contract to join the Mets, he will continue to start most days over Nido. But the longer this discrepancy in performance continues, the louder the calls for Nido will become.”

🔗 A fresh start in Bronx for LI's Steven Matz as he puts in solid outing for Blue Jays, by David Lennon, Newsday: “He became the first pitcher in Blue Jays history to win his first four starts with the team, and did so in dominant fashion, with a 2.31 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings while holding opponents to a .169 batting average and .539 OPS. When the Mets dealt Matz to the Jays, these definitely were not the numbers new president/former GM Sandy Alderson expected from him. But his next five starts more resembled his latter days with the Mets, as Matz went 1-2 with a 6.93 ERA and opponents were hitting him at a .346 clip with a .939 OPS. His pitch counts rose again, his outings shrank, and the confidence Matz had exhibited in those first four starts began to crumble.”

And… we leave you with SNY’s Doug Williams’ indisputable plan to make baseball perfect:

Doug Williams @DougWilliamsSNY

How to save baseball

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