Mets' David Wright Unable To Throw, Questionable For Opening Day

Shark Fishing with Steven Matz & Sean Gilmartin

Noah Syndergaard on starting Opening Day

Matt Harvey Stops By Mets Hot Stove

‘Eye-Catching’ Prospect Amed Rosario is the Next Big Thing for the Mets

David Wright Talks Health, 2017 Season and Reuniting with Jose Reyes

Dan Warthen Talks Zack Wheeler's Elbow

RELATED: Mets righthander Zack Wheeler ‘feels good,’ expects to be back on the mound this weekend

Mets Video Recap: Feb. 15 - Neil Walker and Jeurys Familia

David Wright Should Only Play 3rd Base In An Emergency

NYDailyNews.com:

Eight months after surgery for his neck injury, David Wright still hasn’t thrown a baseball, and it’s starting to feel inevitable that a move to first base may be best for both him and the Mets. 

Yet Wright said on Tuesday that no one from the organization has even mentioned it as a possibility, and Terry Collins downplayed it as a move that wouldn’t necessitate any adjustment period. 

“If we decide he needs to get some ground balls at first base, that can be done late in spring training,” Collins said. “He’s such a good athlete, he’ll catch on to that easily.” 

Perhaps that’s true, although as recently as a couple of years ago we saw Alex Rodriguez, once a Gold Glove shortstop, look surprisingly awkward playing first base, to the point where the Yankees gave up on the idea.

To me, this is a no-brainer. The way things have been going for David Wright the last couple of years, your damn right the Mets should have him trying out at 1st base. In fact, to take it even further, if I'm the Mets, I get Keith Hernandez down to spring training immediately and have Wright go through a month's worth of 1st-base boot camp with one of best defensive 1st basemen of all-time. After all, can anyone really see Wright staying injury-free this year? Much less playing 3rd base with that weak arm of his? The best chance to keep Wright healthy is to DH him whenever possible and let him back up Lucas Duda at 1st. And then make Jose Reyes your starting 3rd -baseman.

Messing with the Intentional Walk, Messes with the Integrity of the Game

ABCNews.com:

The change in the intentional-walk rule would end the long-standing practice of requiring the pitcher to toss four soft pitches outside the strike zone. Instead, a team could just signify it wants to issue an intentional walk, and the hitter would be sent directly to first base.

Both proposals are part of MLB's attempts to streamline what commissioner Rob Manfred often refers to as "pace of action." But the two changes would have far different impacts.

Getting rid of the old-fashioned intentional walk would eliminate about a minute of dead time per walk. In an age in which intentional walks actually have been declining -- there were just 932 all last season (or one every 2.6 games) -- that time savings would be minimal. But MLB sees the practice of lobbing four meaningless pitches as antiquated, so eliminating them would serve as much as a statement as it would a practical attempt to speed up the game.

Granted, as someone who still despises Interleague baseball, I'm certainly a traditionalist who's biased on the subject. But I don't know how the Players Union can approve this ass-backwards proposal (in the name of 'speeding up the game').

Indeed, walking a player intentionally is not something that every pitcher can do or even likes to do (i.e. Armando Benitez). Then too, while it rarely happens, there have been instances where a pitcher either throws a wild pitch during an intentional walk or a hitter takes advantage of a badly thrown free pass and attempts to hit away. Or how about the exciting event of a 'fake' intentional walk or the fact that it only takes a minute to walk a guy intentionally anyway--so are baseball execs really trying to improve the pace of the game or just being silly because they have nothing better to do?

So yeah, while the degree of uncertainty may be small, as the video above can attest to, change just for change sake can often be dumb.

Addison Reed Talks Role in New York Mets Bullpen

Sandy Alderson Talks 2017 New York Mets

Mets Reportedly Sign Jerry Blevins and Fernando Salas

Big moves here and now you can feel way more comfortable about the bullpen heading into the season. Of course, I'd love to have Sergio Romo too, but at least he didn't go to the Nationals.

Josh Edgin Talks 2017

If the Mets aren't able to re-sign Jerry Blevins than Edgin's going to need to step it up big-time.

Travis d'Arnaud Ready for Spring Training, Ready to Rebound

RELATED: Mets need their catching guru to make Travis d’Arnaud a force

Sergio Romo Is Interested In Being a Met

NYDailyNews.com:

They could use a lefty, to be sure, but Blevins actually was more effective getting righthanded hitters out than lefties last season, and the Mets have righthanded relievers who have success against lefties.

Perhaps more significant, if Romo is healthy, after missing time due to an elbow injury last season, he has the most history of getting big outs, and his slider is a weapon.

“When his arm is right, he still has a plus-slider with depth that gets righties and lefties out,” one NL scout said. “He had the elbow problem last year but looked pretty good late in the season.”

Because of the elbow injury that sidelined him for most of the first half of the season, Romo pitched only 30.2 innings for the Giants in 2016, but his numbers were solid. He wasn’t nearly the biggest culprit in their bullpen problems that haunted them late in the season and in the postseason, pitching to a 1.86 ERA in September.

What with Jeurys Familia still possibly being suspended to start the season and Jerry Blevins apparently asking for too much than the Mets are willing to give him, I'm very curious as to why the Mets haven't signed Romo. The guy's stats last season were pretty good (tho he was injured for a 3rd of 2016), he's been a closer and thus knows how to handle big-game pressure situations and most importantly, not including Addison Reed, he's better than anything the Mets have in the bullpen right now. So unless there's something we don't know, the Mets need to sign Romo already, esp with the Nationals possibly wanting him too.