☀️ Good Morning:
It’s beginning to look a lot more like spring in the northeast.
This has always been one of my favorite weeks since I was a kid. Nothing beats those first few days when the weather gets a little warmer, college basketball kicks into March Madness and the calendar shows that circled date for Opening Day baseball only a few weeks away.
The Mets look ready to compete for a playoff spot, St. John’s is dominating the Big East, the temperature will reach 60 degrees again in New York, what a time to be alive!
Of course, it’s also NFL free agency time. If you’re like me and spent a lot of yesterday following Jets news and debating whether signing Justin Fields is a good idea, make sure you check out The Jets Way, your Mets-Fix-like source for Jets news.
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
Griffin Canning is the early candidate for the Nerd Pitcher of the Year this season. That is, he’s the pitcher that we should have no business getting excited about, but with a few tweaks here and a few more changes there, suddenly we’ve convinced ourselves David Stearns and the Mets have found something.
There are only two other starters among 71 qualified pitchers who had a higher ERA than Canning last season (5.19). If advanced metrics are your thing, you can navigate to his Baseball Savant page and find a bunch that tell you he has been pretty bad.
So why should fans have any excitement about Griffin Canning?
We saw a glimpse of it last night. Making his first spring start (and second Grapefruit appearance), Canning tossed 3.2 scoreless innings, allowing a single hit while striking out five Cardinals.
While we didn’t get the full new Canning experience, we saw hints of a new starter who has added a sinker and cutter to his arsenal, continues to tweak his slider and has a new windup that should help his overall mechanics.
🗣️ “I felt good out there,” Canning told reporters after the game. “That was my first real start of the spring, so it felt good to get that out of the way. I feel like I'm getting better every single day. I'm just trying to stay in the present moment, just trust the process and taking things one day at a time.”
⚾️ SLIDER
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