Kuzul

From ESPN’s Sports Center to the subway streets of Manhattan, no one believes in the New York Mets.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Following Johan Santana’s terrifically inspiring performance against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 1, general coverage of the New York Mets is still held with a grain of salt.

As Santana became the first pitcher to ever throw a no-hitter whilst wearing the blue and orange jersey of the New York Mets, ESPN was given a perfect opportunity to perhaps bridge into a profile segment on the exciting and lovable group of ballplayers who compose one of the most compelling teams in 2012 baseball.

Instead, ESPN focused their coverage on the controversial call of ruling Carlos Beltran’s would-be double a foul ball.

Columnists and media pundits dwelled on the “missed call” and pointed to other instances of botched officiating in the history of the no-hitter. Rather than looking at the other 26 hard earned outs Santana recorded in his more than impressive showing, it was negativity that highlighted this performance.

After 50 years of hardship and an improbable run of flagship pitchers unable to close out the historic performance needed for a no-hit showing, this is what the folks at ESPN chose to focus on?

In the 2012 New York Mets, you have a group of young players rebounding from organizational financial crisis and the loss of star player Jose Reyes to a divisional rival.

With the guise of collaborative effort at the forefront of this team’s identity, the team is coming together and approaching each game with confidence.

Perhaps that’s why this team has actually been successful.

The players on the current team have certainly not been fans of the New York Mets forever, and none of them knew that they would be picked up by this particular organization when they declared for the MLB draft.

But, what brings them together is that they now put on the orange and blue hat at the beginning of every day of work.

This is their franchise, this is their team and many of them feel as if this their times.

Even if no one else in the world believes it.

When Johan Santana threw his final changeup of the June 1 game, a rush of electric emotion came over my being. I felt invincible. My father and grandfather had both gone their entire life without seeing a no-hitter by their beloved Metropolitans, and it was beginning to feel as if it was never going to happen.

Until it finally did.

As the entire team rushed the field and players like R.A. Dickey flashed their smiles of compassionate and poetic understanding, it all began to sink in.

Maybe this team could be for real.

Quickly, from my fraternity house in Eugene, Oreg., I put down my slice of authentic New York pizza I had happened to order for the game and frantically called my dad.

“LET’S GO METS! LET’S GO METS! LET’S GO METS!” were the words that carried over the phone from the Pacific Northwest to my home in Southern California.

My grandpa was the next one to hear my thrill. It’s just been one of those years for the Mets.

There are two extra wild card positions that can earn a team a spot in the playoffs this season. With their winning record (35-30), the New York Mets have as good of a shot at clinching the inaugural positions as anyone else in the National League.

If that’s what this season can come down to for the club, there is more than enough reason to celebrate.

Coming into the Subway Series against the New York Yankees, the Mets had been working to solidify their identity as a team. Centered around youth and strong pitching, their thoughtful resilience was beginning to unfold as a story central to the narrative of the 2012 MLB season.

Unfortunately, the Yankees swept the Mets.

Much of the momentum they carried was beginning to feel as if it may fizzle and fade, as Santana gave up two homeruns to Robinson Cano in a crushing 9-1 defeat.

The Mets went on to a 4-2 loss by Dillon Gee and a late 5-4 loss surrendered by Dillon Gee.

The most hyped game of the season was arguably an interleague battle between sudden star and New York Mets ace R.A. (C.Y.) Dickey (9-1) and David Price (8-4).

The two pitchers led their respective league in wins coming into the game, but that wasn’t going to stop Dickey. With confidence, the Mets offense came into the game and shelled the Rays for a wildly impressive nine-run performance.

In the game, Dickey took command of the 2012 MLB record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched (32.2 IP) while setting the franchise record process.

He didn’t surrender a walk, which is wildly impressive for a knuckleball pitcher. He also had his career-best performance in strikeout’s with 12, inspiring the @RADickheads twitter account to spell his name with slightly too many K’s.

Perhaps the most impressive part of his day was the fact that he threw his second career one-hitter. Manager Terry Collins quickly tried to get the Mets their second no-hitter in two weeks as he appealed the ruling of B.J. Upton’s infield single as an error on behalf of David Wright.

Either Collins was specifically asking for the MLB to continue to help write the “Amazin’ Mets 2012” movie, or he was blatantly asking the MLB to remind the organization that it doesn’t believe in them.

Either way, it was an interesting decision for the Mets skipper.

“If anybody deserved a no-hitter or a perfect game tonight, it was him,” Collins told ESPN.com.

Collins was only echoing the sentiments of the rest of the country, who all seem to be riding his bandwagon. This ESPN article, for instance, discusses his Cy Young candidacy.

As does this article on Bleacher Report.

And this one on FanGraphs.

Meanwhile, we can only assume that Dickey will challenge San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain for the starting spot on the National League squad in the upcoming All-Star Game.

“He’s at a different level right now. It’s amazing what he’s been able to do,” Wright said. “It just seems like each outing he’s getting better and better. It’s fun to be a part of.”

First he climbs a mountain. Then he publishes the beautifully written memoir.

Now this.

Dickey has been unstoppable as of late.

And, in my opinion, so have the Mets. They have been a pleasure to watch, sans the poor play from Mike Nickeas and the injury troubles of Jason Bay.

The team is coming together. Kirk Nieuwenhuis is finding his swing and hitting homeruns, Scott Hairston is hitting .428 with five homeruns in his last 11 games and the Mets are rolling.

The Mets are currently in third place in the NL East, but that has proven to be one of the more competitive divisions in baseball.

Behind only the San Francisco Giants for the first wildcard spot with 35 victories, they’re now tied with the Atlanta Braves for rights to the second spot.

The Mets are playing like a team this June, even if no one believes it.

We’ve learned lots about the Mets so far in June, but what is perhaps most impressive is the way that they’ve been able to rally around the team and play like a real club.

As long as they continue their hot streak into the second half of the season, we may be seeing the Mets in the playoffs for the first time in quite a few years.

Follow @BryanKalbrosky

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

One of the opening weekend highlights of the ongoing TriBeCa Film Festival in New York was Saturday’s outdoor screening of the new documentary Knuckleball!, which tells the stories of (to date) the last two professional pitchers to use the dancing, dazzling knuckleball as their primary weapon, Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey. 

What made the evening special was a clinic that the two hurlers, along with famed practitioners Charlie Hough and Jim Bouton, conducted for kids just steps from the film seating at the World Financial Center.

The knuckleball is a “pitch born of desperation,” or so said all four of the pitchers prior to the screening, though not in so many words.  That may be true, but the long careers enjoyed by Wakefield, Dickey, Hough, Phil Niekro, Wilbur Wood, Hoyt Wilhelm and other knuckleballers attest to the value of harnessing this tantalizing pitch, even when it can’t really be harnessed.

“No one is getting drafted as a knuckleballer,” said Dickey (a first-round pick of the Rangers as a fireballer in 1996), whose tribulations started almost immediately when a special test indicated a missing ligament in his throwing arm.  If ever a first-round pick could become an immediate underdog, here it was.  A few years of struggles at the big league level led, almost accidentally, to a shift from the hand to the fingernails.

“It’s a dying art that needs to be emphasized,” said Wakefield of the pitch that is now thrown only by Dickey among pitchers at all levels of organized ball.  “The filmmakers did a fantastic job in capturing what the pitch can do and how it affected our lives.”

Wakefield was switched from a first baseman to knuckleball pitcher, the “desperation” coming in the form of the alternative, which was his release from the Pirates.  After taking Pittsburgh by storm as a rookie, the ball stopped dancing his way, leading to his departure a year after making the All-Star team.  Boston picked him up, with Phil and Joe Niekro on board as instructors, and the rest is history.

Knuckleball! delves into these parallel careers, and through a brief sit-down with Dickey, Wakefield, Phil Niekro and Hough, gets into some of the psychology of throwing the pitch and what it took for these quite similar personalities to excel at it.

The directors will host a special screening at Independent Film Festival in Boston on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre,

The film could probably use more of these all-time greats, but the Dickey and Wakefield stories are compelling, and the access granted last summer gives fans a look inside their clubhouses and living rooms, but more importantly, inside their heads.

Jerry Milani is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained first-hand.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When building a fantasy rotation, you’re going to need to add depth, and the more you can add, the better you’ll be. Fortunately, you can do a lot of that with pitching, and these guys are some good ones to look at. Best of all is that any or all of these guys will probably be available to you. 

Mark Buehrle, Miami Marlins

The concern here is that Buehrle’s around the plate a lot, so he does surrender a lot of hits. But that’s really the only concern here. 

The hits are more than made up for by the fact that he hardly walks anybody, so the WHIP is greatly neutralized. On top of that, he does not allow a lot of run, so the ERA will be fine. 

Buehrle is pitching on a team that will give him plenty of chances to win games, and he throws a lot of innings, never logging fewer than 200 in a full season. That’s a good way to keep your staff ERA down, as it limits the damage caused by one run. 

On top of all of that, Buehrle is now in the National League, so he now gets the benefit of facing a pitcher instead of nine professional hitters. This is a good middle of the rotation guy that will make your team very deep in pitching. 

Dixon’s Projection’s 

R.A. Dickey, New York Mets

The drawback here is the Mets are just not a very good team, so the wins aren’t likely to be high. Still, pitching in Citi Field has done good things for Dickey, who has a 3.08 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in two years as a Met.

What a guy like Dickey will do is enable you to pick up pitchers that will win a lot of games but have inflated ERA’s, like guys on the Yankees or Red Sox. Dickey will be there to provide a good balance. 

Even with the fences moving in, there is no reason to think that Citi Field won’t still be a strong pitching park. The fact is that it’s hard to hit that knuckle ball, so a spacious stadium is good for the ERA. The strikeouts won’t be great, but won’t be terrible either. 

Dixon’s Projection’s 

Wade Davis, Tampa Bay Rays

Think of this is sort of a coupling move. I previously said Dickey would be valuable because you could then go for a guy on a good team that will win games but have a higher ERA and WHIP than you would like. Davis is that guy. 

The innings will be solid, which is always good. The walk totals won’t be high, which will neutralize a lot of hits. But the Rays will win a lot of games, which means Davis will win games. That’s just as valuable as any category in fantasy baseball. 

Dixon’s Projection’s 

Follow @mdixon1985

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If the New York Mets are going to have any chance of finishing over .500 this season, then they are going to need to get a lot of outstanding performances from their starting pitchers.

The Mets’ rotation is set entering the season, but they still have a number of questions about the health and abilities of their starters.

It is very possible that the Mets’ rotation looks a lot different at the end of the year. Pitchers may be dealt and prospects may come up from the minors to replace ineffective starters.

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With less than a month until New York Mets pitcher and catchers report to spring training in Port St. Lucie, Florida, many predictions about this 2012 squad have already been published. 

Whether these estimations have the Mets written off in a deep National League East, or as a sleeper candidate to finish above .500, you never know until game 162 is in the books.

It’s easy to be optimistic about this team as a life-long fan, but lets see what Mets “experts” have to say about this team as the 2012 preseason is only weeks away.

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With 2010 being “The Year of the Pitcher” it seemed high time someone threw together a list of the nastiest pitches from the season. 

This list isn’t based on any statistical evidence, merely on my opinion and observations. 

Credit for my inspiration for this list goes to Joel Reuter who compiled a similar list in 2009.

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Throughout the offseason, some of the moves GM Sandy Alderson made were in attempt to bolster the Mets starting staff.  He’s acquired pitchers Chris Capuano, and more recently, Chris Young.  Here’s a look at what the Mets starting rotation might look like in the 2011 season.

1. Johan Santana (LHP)

Once Santana arrives back from his injury, he’ll most likely take over the No. 1 spot.  The left-hander shouldn’t rush back from injury, as the Mets will need him to be effective if they plan to make a run at the playoffs. 

Prediction: 12-7, 2.90 ERA

2. Mike Pelfrey (RHP)

Last season, Mike Pelfrey turned in a solid year.  He was plagued by inconsistency.  He started off the season amazingly, then had a rough go for a few weeks.  He went back and forth between pitching well and pitching poorly. 

If “Big Pelf” can stay consistent this year, and pitch like he did at the beginning of last season, he’ll be a sturdy, reliable No. 2 starter, who will eat up a lot of innings for the Mets

Prediction: 17-10, 3.05 ERA

3. Jon Niese (LHP)

Jon Niese was a young, reliable lefty last season—the perfect complement to Johan Santana.  He’s showed way more bright than dull spots.  He almost pitched a perfect game last season; a double, the only chink in his armor.  Niese has shown he’s reliable, with a solid performance throughout last season.  Still young at the age of 24, he’ll get even better with age. 

Prediction: 15-11, 3.50 ERA

4. R.A Dickey (RHP)

R.A Dickey was a very pleasant surprise for the Mets last season, with a very nice 2.84 ERA.  What’s more is that he’s a knuckle-baller, and a very crafty and unconventional one at that.  He was able to stifle many offenses last season, almost  throwing a perfect game against the Phillies, only allowing a hit to the pitcher Cole Hamels.  Dickey should be able to give the Mets another solid season as long as he stays crafty and tricky. 

Prediction: 16-8, 3.09 ERA

5a. Chris Young (RHP)

The Mets acquired Chris Young from the San Diego Padres in the offseason.  Young, with a career 3.80 ERA, is a nice bottom-of-the-rotation pickup for the Mets.  If he stays healthy this year, he’ll be able to win a few games for the Mets, and pitch effectively. 

Prediction: 10-11, 4.01 ERA

5b. Chris Capuano (LHP)

Another move Alderson made was acquiring Chris Capuano from the Milwaukee Brewers.  Capuano, with a decent 4.35 career ERA, is coming off an injury plagued season.  Capuano should still be able to give some support to the bottom of the Mets rotation.  Either him or Young will probably get demoted to the ‘pen once Johan Santana comes back from his injury. 

Prediction- 8-12, 4.38 ERA

Possible/Honorable Mentions

Some other Mets candidates for the rotation may be young guns Jenrry Mejia and Dillon Gee, both RHP.  It depends on their performance, along with the rotations.  The Mets may not have the best rotation in the league, but they do have a solid one.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

“Every year players come out of nowhere to become success stories. Look no further than R.A. Dickey. He signed a minor-league deal last January, became a fixture in the starting rotation in May, and finished the season with 11 victories and a 2.84 ERA. I believe some of our offseason acquisitions can be this year’s version of R.A.”

New York Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson stated this in an e-mail to fans earlier today, and he could very well be projecting the future.

With not much for Mets fans to look forward to this upcoming season, there is always a chance that a proven or unproven player can surprise fans enough to keep their butts in Citi Field.

R.A. Dickey was our success story in 2010, and now we take a look at eight players who could surprise us this season.

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Was there a more surprising 2010 performance than R.A. Dickey’s?  Signed as a minor league free agent, he didn’t open the year in the Mets rotation.  By year’s end, however, he had entrenched himself as their most dependable starter.

In knuckleball years, he’s considered a young pup at 35 years old; Dickey is still honing his craft.  Remember, while he was terrible in prior Major League stints, it wasn’t until around 2006 that he made the transition to knuckleball pitcher.  Yes, he continued to have problems, but he was still learning.  He was still developing the pitch as his own.

This year, it all came together for him.  Joining the Mets rotation in late May, he posted the following line:

11 Wins
173.1 Innings
2.86 ERA
1.19 WHIP
103 Strikeouts (5.35 K/9)
41 Walks (2.13 BB/9)
.283 BABIP

Aren’t knuckleballers supposed to struggle with their control?  Dickey walked seven batters in his first two starts as a Met (four in one and three in the other).  Over his final 24 starts he walked more than two batters just twice (again, never more than four).

That just goes against everything we know about knuckleball pitchers, isn’t it?  Maybe it’s the fact that he throws a harder knuckler, allowing him to control it a little bit more.  Interestingly enough, Tim Wakefield posted a BB/9 of 2.2 this season (entering his final start) and hasn’t been higher than 3.47 since 2001 (he posted a 3.90 that year).

Maybe this whole notion of control problems for knuckleball pitchers is ill conceived.

Still, the number is awfully impressive no matter what the type of pitcher he is.  Is it repeatable?  His minor league career mark is at 2.89 and his Major League mark (prior to 2010) was 3.60.  That certainly takes some lean years into account, so while there may be a slight regression there is certainly reason to believe that he can continue to control the strike zone.

Couple that with a believable BABIP, and you are looking at a pitcher who should continue to post a usable WHIP.

The strand rate, also believable at 77.2 percent, helps lead us to believe that the ERA is repeatable.

Of course, he posted a career-low fly ball rate (27.8 percent) and a career-high groundball rate (55.3 percent), which certainly helped him post strong numbers, especially given the ballpark he pitched in.  At Citi Field he posted a 2.02 ERA over 80.1 innings (on the road he still had a respectable 3.58 ERA over 93.0 innings).

This is where a little discretion needs to be factored in.  Do we believe that he has gotten to the point where he has mastered the knuckleball, making these peripheral numbers believable?  It’s impossible to answer, but there certainly is reason to believe that he’s going to regress, at least a little bit.

That’s not to say that he’s going to post a 4.00+ ERA and 1.35 WHIP, but I don’t think it would be a stretch to expect an ERA more in the 3.25-3.50 range and WHIP in the 1.25 range.

Couple that with a lack of strikeouts and you are looking at a pitcher to fill out your fantasy rotation, not one to anchor it in 2011.

What are your thoughts on Dickey?  Is his 2010 to be believed or do you see a regression coming?

Make sure to check out our 2011 projections:

• Morrow, Brandon

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As the 2010 Major League Baseball regular season begins to wind down, it is time to start to think about candidates for the annual awards.

After years of hitters dominating the league, this season has been all about the resurgence of the pitcher.  That is why this year’s NL Cy Young race is filled with a lot of pitchers who have had great individual seasons.

Here are the top five candidates for the 2010 NL Cy Young award.

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