Taking a look back

Morning Dose: Wednesday, March 19

☀️ Good Morning:

Spring Training can feel a bit like the early days of parenting.

Many of you remember the days (or perhaps you are in them). It’s a time of incredible happiness and optimism, balanced against the tedium of daily routine (spring games) and the constant reminder that things will soon change (when games actually count).

Luckily, life moves a bit slower than baseball. As much as it seems like a snap of the fingers since my daughters were in diapers, it’s been a journey to reach where we are today. Whereas, it’s only a few weeks before the infancy of a baseball season matures into consequence.

With the regular season just over one week away, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the things we were talking about this time last year. Were they meaningful? Did those first words signify anything special?

🇯🇵 Before we get into that, a quick word on Roki Sasaki. If they are playing real baseball somewhere, we might as well talk about.

Making his major-league debut in his home country this morning, Sasaki proved that if you’re wild in warm-ups, you have a good chance of being wild on the mound. After giving catcher Will Smith a workout before the game started, the 23-year-old came out throwing 100 mph, but struggled with his command. He threw only 25 of his 56 pitches for strikes, walking five batters in three innings, but escaping with only one run crossing the plate.

His splitter was nasty, as advertised. It just wasn’t very effective since the Cubs knew he couldn’t land it where he wanted. A question for Sasaki’s development is whether he can develop a third pitch. He showcased a pretty nasty slider to escape a bases-loaded jam in the third. The game is still finishing up. And yes, Ohtani has already homered.

☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!

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We jump into our time machine to look back at headlines from the March 14, 2024 Mets Fix newsletter, titled Luis, Luis!

There’s no storyline that gets fans more excited in spring than a breakout pitching candidate. We have several currently making headlines from Florida. Looking at who I was writing about this week last year, Luis Severino jumps to the top of the list.

As published in March 2024

👉 Severino turned a 1.29 ERA in four Grapefruit League starts into bounce-back season with the Mets. The positive signs in spring turned into reality. He ended up throwing his most innings since 2018 and was instrumental in the team’s magical playoff run. Sevy later cashed in on a three-year, $67 million deal with the Athletics.