Mets righty Matt Harvey turned in another abysmal start last night, leaving him with a 13.19 ERA in his four outings since returning from the DL. As Marc Carig of Newsday writes, Harvey seemed rather dejected after the game, calling his work “terrible all the way around” — though, perhaps, there’s at least some cause for hope in the fact that he is working in the mid-nineties with his fastball. Of course, that’s hardly sufficient in and of itself, and the results have been sobering. “Everybody’s watching,” said Harvey. “I don’t really know what there is to say except for there is nothing to say. It’s terrible. It’s not fun. There’s really nothing to say. There’s no reason for questions. There’s no answers.”
- Meanwhile, the Mets are still waiting to see just how fellow righty Noah Syndergaard will look when he returns to the majors after a long layoff for a partial lat tear. As Mike Puma of the New York Post reports, though, it’s likely at this point that Syndergaard will only be allowed to make two appearances. It had been hoped at one point that he’d be able to make a much more significant return to end the year, but the club has understandably exercised caution. The young ace, after all, is a critically important member of a pitching staff that possesses many questions heading into the offseason.
- It’s now unlikely that Marlins third baseman Martin Prado will make it back for any significant playing time before the end of the 2017 season, Tim Healey of the Sun-Sentinel reports. The veteran has been trying to return from knee surgery, but his rehab efforts were interrupted by Hurricane Irma. Whether or not he can suit up, it seems promising at least that the 33-year-old seems to have bounced back fairly well from the procedure. After all, he’s still promised another $28.5MM over the next two seasons.
- The Braves appear to be closing in on yet another stadium deal with significant taxpayer money involved. As Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes, construction on a new Spring Training facility in North Port, Florida will begin in short order — if the deal is approved today by the city’s commissioners. In addition to the well-documented move to SunTrust Park for the major-league club, the Braves have found accommodating local governments to help build stadiums for several team-owned minor-league affiliates in recent years. This latest project, in Sarasota County, has already ballooned to just over $100MM in projected costs — just over half of which will be the responsibility of the ballclub.
The Dark Knight no more. It’s more like the Knight is in the dark. Time to go bye bye. Mets should really think about moving this guy while he has a lil bit of stock left.
The time for that has passed.I highly doubt he has any trade value at this point
What could they possibly trade him for?
Nothing worth it. They should just see how he does in spring training. If no improvement then release him. Nobody is trading anything of any value for a 13 era and climbing by the outing. The Mets should shut him down to a few bullpen appearances rest of year then see if he wants a career in baseball and have a shot at that big contract how he comes back in the spring.
Julio Teheran.
NO ! Don’t trade the “Ace of the Braves” !
–Braves fans
Hey Da.
He has no value at this point. No team is willing to take any of the Mets’ damaged goods. There is suspicion around the MLB that this team ruins pitchers careers. So get with reality and give the kid a chance since it was “TC” and company’s mismanagement in blowing thru his innings limit that caused this situation.
I believe Dusty Baker owns the franchise for ruining pitchers’ arms.
Dusty never clean swept an entire starting staff.
He also never mismanaged a pitcher like Johan Santana who “TC” allowed to throw (around) 137 pitches so he could get a complete game no hitter.
Johan was NEVER the same pitcher.
I can think of a place the Mets could trade Harvey? How about to the Phillies for Maikal Franco? Both team’s players are down on their luck, and have little trade value. The Phillies need pitching, and Harvey, despite his injuries/ineffectiveness, still has tremendous upside. The Mets need bats, and infield depth, and Franco has struggled but is still young and has talent. Could be a win-win (or a lose-lose) for both sides.
Except the Phillies need a 3B, and Harvey’s struggles seem to be a result of failure to return from injury, while Franco’s put it together before (and continues to, in small stretches), but just seems to be slow at adjusting.
Also, Harvey is 28, which isn’t very young for a SP with multiple injury problems, made $5MM this year, is arb-eligible, and a FA after next year. Franco is 24, hits his first arb year next year (making league minimum so far), and isn’t FA eligible until 2022.
The idea isn’t bad, but the situations just aren’t equal.
The Phillies are souring on Franco, and aren’t in desperate need of a third baseman. They have a glut of infielders…Hernandez, Kingery, Galvis, Crawford. They’re likely to trade one or two of them at some point in the next 12 months, and Franco’s value has fallen as well. He has not put it together it spurts…he has a couple of good games, followed by a terrible month or two. He’s a right-handed Ryan Howard without the MVPs and home run crowns.
The Phillies need pitching more than anything else, and perhaps a change of scenery will help Harvey. Is there a discrepancy in finances of the two players? Absolutely, but cash is the one thing the Phillies aren’t short of. IF they were to acquire Harvey and he becomes dominant again, they’d be glad to write whatever check he costs him.
Matt Harvey’s career has so much in common with both Mark Fidrych and Mark Prior. Wunderkinds that just could not come back from devastating injuries.
Prior was a shame…. he and Wood were a formidable 1/2
Harvey has got to be the most overhyped pitcher of the last decade.
How can someone that got injured which is the sole reason for the decline be overhyped? I think you simply don’t like him.
I think it is a little bit of both. Some people were practically ready to put him in the HOF in the middle of his rookie year. That is the very definition of over hyped. Although he is far from the first or last to be over hyped as well.
His rookie year? He was good his rookie year but I don’t think anyone considered him a Hall of Famer or even a Cy Young candidate the year he came up.
How? He’s only played two full seasons and both have been amazing. Injuries have derailed his career
Hey Yasmi–The 2015 Mets are the most over hyped team of this century to have never won a world championship. They referred to the brain trust as genius. The starting rotation was referred to as being Hall of Fame bound.
The most chilling statistic is that group’s collective achievements. Together they have LESS THAN 100 WINS!
They are legends in their own minds.
Stadiums built by tax paying dollars shouldn’t be allowed in a multibilllion dollar industry it’s the exact reason nobody can afford going to games with your family.
I mean, no, that’s not the exact reason. In fact, if teams had to secure the entirety of their financing privately, they would likely charge even more for seats, because they’d want to recoup those costs as soon as possible.
However, taxpayer funding should almost certainly be capped at somewhere in the 10-30% range, because as the NFL has shown, franchises are willing to move if they think it will allow them to reap substantially higher returns. That’s fine (if unfortunate) if they’re the ones footing the bill, but less so if they’re essentially couch-surfing in perpetuity.
No, the more subsidies provided the more removed from reality a “business” becomes.
Subsidizing food is good as would utilities and rents, but professional sports do not need any help from the taxpayers.
I would tend to agree, however I also think it’s unreasonable to expect that localities won’t try to entice sports franchises one way or another (lots of municipalities offer tax reductions to attract large employers, which often can end up costing the citizens of the area significantly more than an initial investment over the life of the discount), so you build in some wiggle room, to prevent them from going completely overboard in a less-orthodox fashion.
That said, MLB really has no incentive to reduce taxpayer spending on venues beyond a potential PR hit.
I certainly don’t care to foot the bill for another stadium in Florida that Is more than 8 hours away by automobile.
Agree. On top of that, North Port just got blasted by Irma. That whole SW FL area still has tens of thousands of homes and institutions without power. Is the money for the repair of the infrastructure — roads, bridges, signals, water treatment, support services — going to this costly boondoggle instead? Shameful attitude and greedy behavior by the city, Sarasota county, and the Braves.
That is very faulty logic. You are saying that because billionaires have to spend less money, they need to charge more for tickets? That’s not how it works at all. You have one cause and one effect, but they are totally unrelated.
In Atlanta, the price of a Braves game, parking and concessions makes it the most expensive game to attend as a family. The best deal in town is the Atlanta United that has modest ticket prices, coupled with the best concession pricing in pro sports (with the Falcons). I’m a full season ticket holder with the Braves, but I have been deeply disappointed in the enormous costs now associated with the new ballpark. As much as I love the new ballpark and the Battery around it, Turner Field provided far more bang for the buck, even if it didn’t have all the modern bells and whistles and sat in a less desirable location.
I mean, thats how every park is when it first opens, because their is demand to go and see it for the first time. Prices should go down at some point assuming the Braves aren’t ridiculously good in the next year or two (they wont be)
You cannot put a price on Not Being Soccer.
I’ll call bullshit on that.
$5 tickets are cheap. Parking is like $20.
Simply don’t buy $400 worth of concessions.
I used to have a blast taking MARTA from North springs to old Fulton County Stadium 92-96, tickets were cheap and the beer was flowing
Tax payers should not be buying play grounds for a multi-billion dollar industry. Period.
Think Ed Smith Stadium in sarasota is older ones (late 80’s) in use as a ST facility if not mistaken.
Was there 2 seasons ago. It’s not bad by any means and has decent Minor league facilities located right next door (more than some other can say). I’d rather Ed Smith go on being upgraded a little if tearing it down and the Orioles leaving was the plan over Atlanta coming in to replace.
In a way I disagree that tax payers should never fund stadiums, I just don’t agree with the structure. For example, if a city/state tax-payers contribute 50% of the funds to build a stadium, then those tax payers should be entitled to 50% of the team’s revenues for as long as the team plays in that stadium. (I think if that were the case, team owners would quickly find another solution to funding their buildings.)
Maybe 25% (since half of their games are played in other teams’ stadiums)? Or rather, it could become shares of in-park revenue (so in other words, it doesn’t affect the TV deals or revenue sharing, but 50% of the money collected at the ballpark goes back to the municipality)…
Not a Mets fan, but Harvey was the real deal. 11.2BWAR in his first 428 IP is pretty darn good, Career could be over. This is why I blame teams rather than players for long term FA contracts that don’t pan out. A lot of these players get one shot.
Only a half a shot in mets pitchers case, Mike as the team abused their arms.
He reminds me of josh Johnson in a way. Amazing talent that can’t stay healthy. Josh was better longer though.
Mets still should take him back. Way too much talent to waste on non tender. No team is going to go crazy next year waiting for the following years free agent class. Might be a wash year next year too if health remains issues so might as well see what he has one more time. High reward on a regular Mets risk.
Perhaps getting MH in the bullpen, for shorter sessions, years ago I remember John Smoltz became an awesome closer after an injury…then went back to starting..and again was awesome…this is from a longtime mets fan when the bravos use to be in their hayday…
Put him in the bullpen rest of the season. Then if he is not performing in spring training then trade him to a team looking for a project. You won’t get alot. But you can get a low minor. Teams are always looking for projects. If he ended up with a good pitching coach who can twerk a couple of things and bring back some confidence. He might amount to something useful. He had talent before.
The whole Mets team and management should go into the bullpen quietly. Enough of all of their drama. Baseball is a team sport. Good teams have leadership and competence, two qualities not possible in Flushing with the current make believe owners.
Do you guya see Fredi Gonzalez as the Marlins Manager again if Mattingly goes???
Why would Mattingly be replaced?
B/c he only has a job b/c of his name, and shouldn’t have ever been hired, but b/c Loria has a hard** for Yankees, here we are
$100 million for a friggin’ spring training facility. Just shameful if the taxpayers really end up having to fund half of that.