No-Land
Morning Dose: Wednesday, March 18
☀️ Good Morning:
Nobody got hurt.
At least not the kind of hurt that puts you on the injured list.
Nolan McLean looked like Nolan McLean. His fastball was zipping, his stuff downright nasty, and he battled in and out of trouble to carry himself into the fifth inning of the World Baseball Classic championship game against Venezuela.
Unfortunately, he was victimized by the few things that tend to nag him: inconsistent command and the long ball.
Venezuela captured gold against a USA team that couldn’t hit despite an All-Star-studded lineup. Someone must have told Aaron Judge it was October 🤪.
❶ Nolan McLean still passes important test for Mets.
❷ Sean Manaea looks better, but still not the same.
And stay for the final outs for some interesting notes from camp.
📰 ABOVE THE FOLD
❶ NO-LAND
Some people will blame Team USA’s disappointing World Baseball Classic finish on a rookie pitcher.
Nolan McLean, who has all of eight major-league starts under his belt, started two games in a tournament that featured the likes of Paul Skenes and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
He walks away from the experience 0–1 with a 5.87 ERA, having surrendered five earned runs in 7.2 innings on three homers, three walks and eight strikeouts.
Those numbers don’t tell the entire story, particularly about his stuff. His velocity reached 98 mph, two ticks above his season average from last year. His sweeper looked like a frisbee, bending away from right-handed hitters.
