Ricky Vaughn & friends
Why this new lineup is like something out of "Major League"
Good Morning,
Thanks to injuries, you are now rooting for a team that (temporarily) includes has-beens, never-will-be’s and lovable losers who play hard and have real heart. In other words, a real life version of the classic movie, “Major League.”
In a game the Mets couldn’t really be expected to win — given their AAA-quality lineup and depleted pitching staff — they almost stole a sweep of the Braves before losing 5-4 on a Ronald Acuña, Jr. walk-off HR in the 9th.
We’ll break down all the day’s news (especially the ever-growing rash of injuries), and discuss last night’s starter David Peterson’s inconsistency (and what might be behind his mixed results).
But first, let’s recap last night’s action.
⚾️ IN SHORT: Thanks to injuries, the Mets fielded the kind of lineup you’d find on a distant field in spring training, but still held a 4-3 lead going into the 8th, before Aaron Loup and Jacob Barnes gave it away. New York got big hits from Jonathan Villar (an early HR), José Peraza and Tomás Nido, but ultimately came up just short, losing 5-4. [Box Score]
🔑 KEY MOMENT: Asked to hold onto a 4-3 lead in the 8th, Aaron Loup allowed three hits on eight pitches, including the tying run on a line drive single by William Contreras. Up to that point, it looked like the Mets might escape Atlanta with a shocking sweep, but after tying it in the 8th, the Braves would end it on the first pitch Barnes threw in the bottom of the 9th.
☀️ ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: Newly recalled outfielder Khalil Lee isn’t hitting anything (literally), but the man can play the field. After an impressive catch in Tuesday’s game, he flashed the leather again last night in a big spot in the 7th, robbing Freddie Freeman of extra bases with a man on first in what was a one-run game at the time.
3 TAKEAWAYS
❶ MIXED START: Given the lineup supporting him, the Mets needed David Peterson to keep the Braves off the board. The lefty was cruising right along, nearly perfect for the first four innings, before a sudden meltdown in the fifth. After two quick outs, he quickly surrendered three runs by allowing five consecutive batters to reach base (HBP-1B-1B-BB-1B). He’d leave with the bases loaded, before Drew Smith bailed him out. This has been a recurring issue for Peterson this season, whom we’ll discuss in more detail in a minute.
❷ WHO ARE THESE GUYS? Jerry Seinfeld’s old line about sports fandom really just being about “rooting for laundry” (since everything else about the teams change so much) never felt more apt than last night. You know the lineup is full of unfamiliar faces when recently recalled backups like José Peraza (who had a big two-out RBI double in the 7th) suddenly felt like an old friend. Thanks to an ever-growing number of injuries, the Mets were forced to field a starting outfield of Khalil Lee, Johneshwy Fargas and Cameron Maybin. With Luis Rojas also unable to play Pete Alonso (more on this below), the lineup had a distinctive Grapefruit League feel to it (though ultimately, it was good enough to plate four runs).
❸ TALL ORDER FOR BULLPEN: With Peterson out in the 5th, the over-extended bullpen was asked to go long again, and it caught up to them. After solid work from Drew Smith and Miguel Castro to the get to the 8th, Loup surrendered a 4-3 lead and failed to record an out. Barnes then came in and managed to contain the damage, thanks to a great throw by James McCann to nab Dansby Swanson trying to steal third. But the house of cards would collapse in the 9th.
🧑🏫 SOUND SMART: Outfielder Khalil Lee struck out three more times, to increase his dubious streak of 8 straight strikeouts to begin his career. The book on him appears to be that he cannot hit the breaking stuff, as he’s seen a steady diet of curveballs and failed to connect each time. The good news? The other Met to strike out 8 times in his first 3 games was named Darryl Strawberry.
🏁 HERE’S THE CATCH: After blasting an eventual game-winning homer on Tuesday, backup catcher Tomás Nido came up huge again last night, with a pinch-hit bloop single in the 7th to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs at the time. While the big free-agent signing McCann has an OPS of .511 to start the season so far (and failed to bring in the go-ahead run in the 9th with one out and a man on 3rd last night), Nido is now at .902, though in an admittedly small sample.
⚾ DOM AT FIRST: With Alonso resting, Dominic Smith was back at his old, familiar first base last night, and his comfort immediately showed. He made two key defensive plays, including an impressive stretch-and-pick.
🏎️ MAYBIN: New acquisition Cameron Maybin may be one of the oldest players on the squad — but he still has wheels. After striking out in the 9th, he beat out a throw to first when the ball evaded the catcher, and then proceeded to steal second and advance to third on a second wild pitch. While he didn’t score what could have been the go-ahead run, he displayed an element of excitement that could bolster a beaten-down lineup. Think of him as the speedy “Willie Mays Hayes” character of this new group (mixed together with the aging Jake Taylor or Eddie Harris).
⏭ NEXT UP: The Mets are off today, a godsend for a team with an over-used bullpen and more injuries than a nursing home pickup-game. However, they’re about to embark on 17 straight games without another day off until June 7. Tomorrow, they’ll visit Miami to play three against the Marlins. With Peterson and Marcus Stroman their only healthy starting pitchers at the moment, lord knows who will start these games, but Stroman should be one of them.
⛑ ANOTHER INJURY: Pete Alonso was out of the lineup and unable to pinch-hit last night due to soreness in his left hand/wrist. The Mets believe the injury is lingering from when he was hit by a pitch in St. Louis. While X-Rays were negative back then, manager Luis Rojas says Alonso will probably have an MRI to confirm what’s wrong. Rojas said he didn’t reveal the injury before last night’s game because it would have been “a competitive disadvantage.”
🏥 INJURED LIST: Taijuan Walker was placed on the 10-Day IL (retroactive to May 18) with left side tightness. In addition, farmhands Sam McWilliams and Stephen Tarpley were both placed on COVID IL. As noted above, the Mets called up recently-acquired outfielder Cameron Maybin from Triple-A Syrcause, and batted him third in the lineup. And RHP Yennsy Díaz (acquired in the Steven Matz trade with Toronto) was added to the team’s taxi squad.
💪 LOOKING GOOD: Yesterday, Noah Syndergaard made his first rehab start since undergoing Tommy John surgery, and he looked great. Pitching for St. Lucie, he tossed four innings, allowing just one hit, while striking out five (36 strikes in 44 pitches).
⏲ MORE TIME: After feeling good in two bullpen sessions, Jacob deGrom (right side tightness) will make a rehab start for the St. Lucie Mets on Thursday. This obviously means he won’t be ready to return to the rotation on Friday, which would have been the earliest date after being placed on the 10-Day IL, retroactive to May 10. If all goes well in his rehab start, it’s possible he could be back on the mound for the Mets on May 25 against Colorado.
🍎 ALMOST READY: J.D. Davis (sprained finger) played six defensive innings at third base for the Syracuse Mets last night, going 1-3 at the plate.
🍪 COOKIE IN THE MIX: Carlos “Cookie” Carrasco played catch with assistant pitching coach Jeremy Accardo on Wednesday. Carrasco was also seen with the team in the dugout.
✍️ SIGNING: The Mets signed RHP Akeem Bostick to a minor league contract.
What do the Mets have in David Peterson?
🧓 by Jeffrey Bellone
Yesterday, one of our loyal readers wondered which David Peterson we would see last night (we actually saw both the good and the bad version), and tweeted this:
In response, Zach S. tweeted, “Something isn’t adding up in those numbers. Huge K% but normal whiff/chase rates combined with a bunch of “blue” numbers. Curious about the explanation.”
Challenge accepted!
It’s true, when you look at Peterson’s Statcast numbers this season, they don’t seem to make any sense. Opponents are hitting him hard, his chase rate ranks relatively lower to league average, but he is striking more people out.
How is this happening?
It’s a story about his improved fastball and his two-strike pitches. Peterson is actually getting hitters to chase each of his pitches more often than last season, except for one: his changeup. So instead of relying on his offspeed stuff as his complementary put-away pitch to his slider, he is using his fastball as both a command pitch and an action pitch.
A few things are going on with Peterson’s four-seamer. First, it is a better pitch than it was last year. He is throwing at a similar speed and spin rate, but it is more efficient coming out of his hand, resulting in more rise. He is also gaining some perceived velocity with a slightly longer extension.
But there’s more to it than that. Something Peterson changed at the end of last season and has carried over into this season is where he stands on the rubber. He is delivering closer to the third base side relative to where he used to position himself at the beginning of 2020, as you can see in the graphic below.
By doing so, he has started throwing inside to right-handed hitters with more frequency. While he still induces swing-and-misses by throwing fastballs up and away to these hitters, he has boosted his called strike rate rate on the inner third of the plate, which has given him the ability to work both inside and outside, while building favorable counts to strike more people out.
Of course, the trouble with throwing a fastball with above-average armside movement inside to righties is that it can very easily tail back toward the middle of the plate, or just completely miss its spot, resulting in trouble. We saw this during his first outing in Philadelphia this season. Trying to locate his fastball inside to righties, he missed away, and the Phillies hit him hard.
Unable to command his four-seamer with consistency, Peterson relied heavily on his two-seamer over his next several starts, and found mixed results. This month, he has gone back to using his four-seamer most often.
When Peterson is striking people out, working efficiently through each inning, he is locating that four-seamer on the inner third of the plate, stealing called strikes, before throwing it up and away to get swings and misses, which is how opponents’ whiff rate against it has jumped from 20.3% to 31.6%, and he is using it as a put-away pitch twice as often as he did last year.
When Peterson struggles, it’s because he loses his command. His four-seamer, two-seamer, and slider all get hit hard when not located properly (what a novel concept!). His slider has lost movement compared to last season, so while he is still getting whiffs off it, he sometimes leaves it up in the zone, resulting in a .308 average (and 91 mph average exit velocity) when hitters make contact. His change-up has been a good pitch for him, but as mentioned before, hitters are chasing it less, and Peterson is throwing it less.
BOTTOM LINE: While the Statcast numbers might appear funny looking at first glance, they actually make sense in explaining the up-and-down season we have seen from Peterson. His fastball is helping him steal strikes on the inner third of the plate, while getting whiffs up and away. But he falls into trouble when he suddenly can’t locate it, and he hasn’t had a consistent feel for his secondary pitches.
⚾️ Corey Kluber threw the 6th no-hitter of the season so far, beating the Rangers 2-0. It is the first Yankees no-hitter since David Cone’s 1999 perfect game.
⚾️ Nationals manager Dave Martinez was ejected from last night’s 4-3 win over the Cubs for arguing a call at first base on a dropped strike three. To help articulate his point, Martinez lifted first base out of the ground, slammed it down and kicked it.
⚾️ Baltimore Orioles’ first baseman Chris Davis will have season-ending hip surgery. He has one year left on his seven-year, $161 million contract. Like him, it did not age well.
🔗 As Taijuan Walker joins walking wounded, Mets persevere, by David Lennon, Newsday: “To get a feel for how dire the Mets’ medicals are at the moment, here’s a snapshot: Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Seth Lugo are members of the Class A St. Lucie rotation. The big-league starters? That would be Marcus Stroman, David Peterson and whichever bullpen arm is the freshest on any particular day. Somewhere in the limbo between lies Carlos Carrasco and now Taijuan Walker, who was placed on the IL before Wednesday’s game, making him No. 14 on that current list.”
🔗 MLB injuries worsen in extremely worrying trend, by Joel Sherman, NY Post: “A general manager called this week to discuss injuries or, really, the volume of injuries besieging MLB. My knee-jerk response was to repeat common wisdom about going from a 60-game pandemic schedule back to 162 games and the impact that has on the body.”
🔗 How the Mets are showcasing their evolving resilience amid a spate of injuries: ‘This team has a big heart’, by Tim Britton, The Athletic ($): “It is one thing to speak about your clubhouse’s resilience and another to show it on the field the way the Mets have over 18 frames against the three-time defending division winner. New York has received a total of three innings from a starting pitcher and six hits from its lineup regulars — in a pair of tight wins.”
And … you might not recognize him with a shirt on, but we assure you, that’s Noah Syndergaard pitching against professional baseball players:
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