Today is the day!
Justin Verlander makes his Mets debut today, starting the game against the Marlins in Jupiter. The Mets lost Jacob deGrom in free agency this off season and replaced him with the best possible option – the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner.
Verlander and the Mets look to bounce back from yesterday’s bizarre loss where Max Scherzer had a third inning for the trivia books. He committed a balk (controversial call) and then had a pitch clock violation for the ages. He tossed the ball as time expired, resulting in an inning ending double play, but with the violation it turned into a ball – and then all hell broke lose. Ultimately the whole point of spring training is to try things out. In years past, that might have meant throwing a curveball over and over and over again to get a feel for the pitch. This year it means learning gamesmanship. The games do not matter so let’s learn away!
Three Things To Watch For:
- Justin Verlander: Verlander had a 1.75 ERA over 28 starts and 175 innings with a 2.49 FIP, 0.829 WHIP and 220 ERA+. He led the league last year in wins, winning percentage, ERA, WHIP, H/9, and ERA+. It was the type of Cy Young resume that would make old school and new school baseball heads swoon.
- Francisco Lindor: Over the first five games he’s played in Lindor has collected five hits and four walks in 15 plate appearances. He already has a .455/.600/.727 slash line in spring. First, a hot at the plate Lindor is great news for the World Baseball Classic next week. Second, if Lindor keeps this up in April the Mets are going to be unstoppable at the plate. Eventually this batting line is going to come back down to Earth, I just want to look at it a bit longer.
- Eric Orze: Orze is scheduled to pitch in his third spring game today. He’s a non-roster invitee in camp and we are getting closer to when some pitchers are going to get moved to minor league camp as starters get stretched to go deeper into games. In his first outing he allowed two hits and no runs while walking one and striking out two. Then in his second outing he allowed one hit and two walks while striking out one. Will today be the day he breaks his 3.000 WHIP?
Let’s Go Mets!