How to survive 162
Morning Dose: Wednesday, March 4
☀️ Good Morning:
It is just me, or does it feel like the regular season is taking extra long to get here?
Maybe it’s the fact my daughter’s school keeps closing because of snow and ice.
But last night, we caught a glimpse of the excitement that awaits us.
Whatever your feelings are about the World Baseball Classic, it was pretty cool to see a crowd erupt like this in March:
Juan Soto cranked a 431-foot home run in the Dominican Republic’s 12-4 win over the Tigers. Soto finished the night 2-for-4 with three RBIs. He was supported by his Mets teammate Huascar Brazobán, who struck out both batters he faced on nine pitches.
🇳🇮 Meanwhile, the Mets warmed up Nicaragua with Mark Vientos playing against his MLB team to represent his heritage and make his mom proud. Playing third base, he went 1-for-3 with a strikeout. The Amazins’ new third baseman, Bo Bichette, continues to have some growing pains at third, making a throwing error, but had three successful plate appearances: a sac fly, walk and double.
❶ Robert Stock is off to a hot start.
❷ Jonah Tong continues to work his cutter.
❸ Guest Column: How to survive 162 games watching the Mets.
And stay for the final outs for some interesting notes from camp.
📰 ABOVE THE FOLD
❶ STOCK UP
I hope everyone enjoyed our Q&A with Robert Stock.
⇢ How about his pitching? Yeah, how about his pitching?!
The 36-year-old right hander has clearly been working on more than just his Claude skills. His pitch profile is as impressive as any of the non-roster invitees we have seen in camp.
🇮🇱 WBC: Stock started for Team Israel on Tuesday and matched his spring debut with the Mets, throwing three more shutout innings. Between the two starts, he has struck out nine batters in six frames, featuring a 97-mph fastball, cutter and two promising breaking balls.
The early metrics that Stock’s pitching model surely tracks shows him throwing his four-seamer at a different release point than in prior years, resulting in more arm-side movement on his four-seamer that has led to a bushel of whiffs.
Stock is someone to keep an eye on throughout camp.
🔺 TRENDING BETTER
❷ A NEW TONG
Jonah Tong continued to work on his cutter during his second spring start.
The young right-hander, who also had his contract renewed after failing to negotiate more favorable terms with the team, allowed one run on five hits, while striking out three in 2.2 innings (54 pitches) against Nicaragua.
⇢ Improving: While the overall results weren’t great, he showed maturation with his stuff. We talked after his first start how he needed to create more separation between his new cutter and four-seamer. One start later, he already accomplished that!
