Daniel Murphy

You know what you can never have enough of? Well, dingers, for one. Starting pitching, definitely. What else? Infield depth, of course! Sure, Wilmer Flores looks like the second coming of Joe Morgan at the plate and Neil Walker continually proves the inverse of his surname and perhaps some day Lucas Duda will grace us again with his presence. But what the Mets could use right about now is a versatile infielder who can rake. Murphy might not hang on to win a batting title this season but that .346 TAv would sure look nice batting in front of Yoenis Cespedes. With third base likely an open question for some time to come, sticking Murph at the hot corner — even with his, uh, suboptimal defense at times — would solve a lot more problems than it causes. — Erik Malinowski (@erikmal)

Michael Fulmer

As the Mets’ rotation runs into midseason injury woes, it’s time for the team to once again turn to a young fireballer waiting in the minors with solid command and a plus slider. Everybody give a warm New York welcome to Michael Fulm– Wait, they traded him? Welp.

Yes, it’s true, the seemingly endless pipeline of top-of-the-rotation pitching talent ran dry for the Mets when they sent Michael Fulmer to the Tigers last season for Yoenis Cespedes, in what might be the closet thing to a true win-win trade the league has seen in a decade. But as the Mets scramble to plug Logan Verrett into the injured Matt Harvey’s rotation spot, it’s awfully hard not to look toward Motown at Fulmer’s 2.11 ERA (2.95 DRA) and 2.2 WARP and not think, “Sure would be nice to have one of those.” — Maggie Wiggin (@maggie162)

Yusmeiro Petit

Now, Yusmeiro Petit never actually pitched for the major-league Mets. He, along with Mike Jacobs, was shipped to the Marlins in 2005 for Carlos Delgado in one of the better trades of Omar Minaya’s tenure. Petit bounced around between Miami, Arizona, Seattle, and the Mexican League, starting and relieving, before re-emerging with the Giants as a successful swingman and eventual playoff hero. He was a viable free agent target for the Mets even last offseason, as he is better-suited to the Logan Verrett role than Logan Verrett. And the Mets could really use another arm right about now — as you may have heard. Prying him from a division rival with bullpen issues of their own is a non-starter, but 23-year-old Jeffrey, who started writing about prospects because of Petit’s 2005 season, would like nothing more than a reunion. And heck, 34-year-old Jeffrey just sat through Logan Verrett’s last start. A reunion sounds pretty good to him, too. — Jeffrey Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro)

Justin Turner

Pure fortune brought the righty-swinging Turner to the Mets in the first place. A seventh-round pick by the Reds in 2006, he was dealt to the Orioles in a 2008 deal for Ramon Hernandez, and the Mets were able to pick him up off waivers in May 2010. The ginger became a regular in the Mets’ clubhouse early in 2011 and held his own against MLB pitching over the next three years, batting .265/.326/.370 with a .261 TAv in his age-25 to -28 seasons. He was a very useful player capable of appearing all around the infield and certainly could have filled at least a bench role on any team.

However, after the 2013 season, the Mets surprisingly decided to non-tender Turner, declining to even give him the pedestrian $800,000 he likely would have earned in 2014. There were even whispers that the decision was based on a perceived lack of hustle. Turner ended up with the Dodgers and suddenly broke out in 2014 with a .340/.404/.493 triple slash in 109 games.

The Mets looked like complete fools for letting him go at basically no cost, and the wildling has maintained terrific numbers in LA. He is already on his way to a career-high in homers in 2016. Turner would have been helpful to have around, particularly with David Wright’s career seemingly stumbling to an injury-ravaged conclusion. Whoops. — Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA)

Oliver Perez

Call me a masochist, but I would enjoy Oliver Perez coming back to the team. During his last two years with the Mets, Perez was an absolute disaster; putting up ERAs of 6.82 (2009) and 6.80 (2010). This, combined with his bloated contract and unwillingness to accept a demotion to the minor leagues, made him one of the most hated players in Mets history. However, it seems like Ollie is more of a goofball than a bad guy. Maybe he was a little selfish, but I think that is the worst you can say about him. Also, since he’s left the Mets, he has been a pretty effective reliever. The main reason I would like the Mets to bring him back is just, I mean, how funny would that be? — Tyler Plofker (@TylerPlofker)

Carlos Beltran

Some Mets fans think about Carlos Beltran and they can’t shake the sight of him taking an Adam Wainwright curveball for strike three. There’s a reason some fans #BlameBeltran instead of #BlameReyes, even after both players left in 2011. I’ve always seen Beltran as a hitter whose on-base skills and power led to 32.6 wins above replacement. Beltran is still a valuable player with a .303 True Average and 1.4 wins above replacement in 2016. The Yankees aren’t going anywhere this season and will look to trade the veteran for one last playoff run. Terry Collins keeps playing Alejandro De Aza on a regular basis, even though De Aza has been a below-replacement player. Let’s bring back Beltran! Maybe this year he will hammer at a hanging curveball from Jonathan Papelbon to give the Mets the division title and end the #BlameBeltran meme for good. — Noah Grand (@noahgrand)

Darren O’Day

Recent New York Mets teams have struggled to find a reliable relief pitcher, forcing them to make trades or sign free agents to fill out the bullpen. While Addison Reed has been a successful example (after the Mets traded for him and subsequently re-signed him to a one-year deal), the Mets could still use another relief pitcher. The perfect player for that role would be Darren O’Day, a submarine-style reliever for the Baltimore Orioles and 2015 All-Star. Despite his low release point, O’Day has been successful against lefties, allowing a batting average against of only .235. He’s been even better against righties, with a batting average-against of .195. In addition, O’Day is an above-average reliever across the board in terms of FIP, strikeout rate and walk rate, making him the perfect long-term option for the Mets bullpen.  O’Day, the perfectcandidate for the Mets bullpen (or any bullpen for that matter) was a New York Met in 2008 for 2 weeks, when the team selected him in the Rule 5 Draft. Unfortunately, the Mets released him and the Texas Rangers grabbed him. Since then, the Mets have subsequently struggled to find a long-term solution to their bullpen woes.  — Seth Rubin (@sethrubin)

Joe Smith

Pretty much everything Seth wrote about Darren O’Day applies to Joe Smith. Except that the Orioles are in first place in the A.L. East and aren’t going to move their $7 million reliever. But the Angels are 14 games under .500 and should be selling everything that’s not bolted down. Smith is a free agent at year’s end, so Los Angeles of Anaheim might well make him available.

The Mets drafted Smith and promoted him in 2007, when he was just 23 years old. Smith pitched to a 3.51 ERA out of the bullpen in his two Mets seasons, but his 5.20 DRA in 2008 was less promising. After the 2008 season, the Mets dealt Smith (and Endy Chavez!) as part of a massive three-team deal, by which the Mets acquired J.J. Putz from the Mariners. Putz was awful in his one Mets season, walking as many batters per nine innings as he struck out and suffering with a 5.40 DRA. The Mets let Putz go at season’s end, after which he threw five seasons with a 2.81 ERA, mostly for the Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, Smith has a 2.86 ERA in his eight seasons since leaving Queens. It’s not easy to build a good bullpen. — Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

Photo Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

But at least for one day, the injury gods smiled on the Mets. An MRI on Thor’s elbow revealed no structural damage. He popped some anti-inflammatories and is on track to make his next start. Cespedes’s sprain was deemed “minor.” He received a cortisone shot and was back on the field a few days later. And Wheeler had not re-torn his UCL. He was diagnosed with a structural nerve issue and will return to his throwing program when he’s up to it. Oh, and the Mets beat the Royals, 4-3. Not so bad!

In the end, June 22, 2016 was not close to the Worst Mets Day. What day is? Keep in mind that none of us BP – Mets staffers were alive in 1962 to see what is still the worst record in baseball since 1950. There were probably some Worst Days in there. So what if this list is #bias in favor of Worst Days that occurred in our lifetimes? Those bad memories have a tendency to stick. — Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

October 19, 2006

The Mets entered the 9th inning of Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series tied 1-1. Aaron Heilman, who pitched the 8th, had been the team’s least-effective reliever in the regular season. Manager Willie Randolph had more or less his full complement of relievers, short of Chad Bradford. That included Billy Wagner, one of the best — and highest-paid — relievers in baseball. Yet Heilman remained in the game to pitch the 9th. Scott Rolen singled. Heilman remained in. Heilman’s next pitch, to Yadier Molina, was the worst of his major league career, a change at the belt that didn’t move or drop. Molina’s home run gave the Cardinals a 3-1 lead.

The Mets got John Valentin and Endy Chavez on as the tying runs to start the 9th. Willie Randolph, again with a full complement of bench players short Michael Tucker, chose former starting left fielder Cliff Floyd, who had been hanging around as a barely-used bench option because of an Achilles tendon injury. Floyd struck out. Three batters later, the Mets had advanced the tying run to second and had Anderson Hernandez on first as the go-ahead run. Carlos Beltran, probably the best player in the National League in 2006 and arguably the best hitter in the history of postseason baseball, came up against a young fill-in closer named Adam Wainwright. Beltran took a fastball for strike one, then fouled off a curve. Wainwright’s next pitch was the best of his major league career, a beautiful curve… – Jarrett Seidler (@jaseidler)

September 30, 2007

Seven game lead in the division with 17 to play? What could possibly go wrong? Mets fans know the answer to this one. By September 30, 2007, the Mets had blown their lead and were tied with the Phillies entering the final game of the season. At least the Mets had Tom Glavine on the mound, a future Hall of Famer who’d won his 300th game earlier that year.

But in game 162, Glavine got one measly out. He allowed seven baserunners and they all scored. The Mets lost 8-1. Philadelphia won their game, completing the biggest collapse in baseball history at the time. Most players and fans said it was something they would never forget. Glavine infamously said afterwards “I’m not devastated. I’m disappointed, but devastation is for much greater things in life.” Then he went back home to Atlanta as a free agent. — Noah Grand (@noahgrand)

September 28, 2008

September 28th, 2008 was supposed to be a celebration of the past 45 years: the final regular season home-game at Shea Stadium. The Mets had already collapsed for the second straight year and rain the day of the game was just an ominous sign of what was to come. The Mets needed a win to force a one-game playoff with the Brewers, meaning at least one more game at Shea, but it was not meant to be.  In the 7th inning with the score tied 2-2, Scott Schoeneweis and Luis Ayala allowed back-to-back home runs to Dan Uggla and Wes Helms, putting the nail in the coffin on the Mets season.

Meanwhile, fans in the stadium could see that in Milwaukee, CC Sabathia and the Brewers dominated the Cubs.  What was supposed to be a joyous occasion turned into a funeral for Shea. Fans were sad and speechless and the post-game “festivities” did nothing but put tears in fans’ eyes remembering happier times. — Seth Rubin (@sethrubin)

December 11, 2008

The Mets’ second-consecutive historic September choke job turned out to be puppies and rainbows compared to the repercussions from the FBI’s morning raid of a luxury Manhattan penthouse. Thousands of investors lost everything they had in one of the largest securities frauds in the nation’s history. It literally was the worst day of many peoples’ lives. But it was also a Worst Mets Day that continues to affect the team to this day.

The Madoff scandal shockwaves reached Citi Field almost immediately. It turned out that Mets owner Fred Wilpon was one of the winners in Madoff’s fraud: Although Wilpon lost $178 million he thought he’d wisely invested with Madoff, Wilpon had also withdrawn $162 million from his Madoff accounts in the past. It’s a basic legal principle that returns beyond one’s initial investment in a Ponzi scheme are fraudulent as to (and can be clawed back for the benefit of) investors who lost money. Stated differently, not only did Wilpon’s $178 million disappear, he also had to return millions out of his own pocket to the bankruptcy trustee.

As soon as Wilpon could clear Mets salary off his books to stem the bleeding, he did so. Team payroll dropped from third-highest in baseball in 2008 to 21st (!) in the league by 2015. One can certainly question whether Wilpon doth protest too much when he spends so little. The miserly Mets may now be authentically destitute. They may be playing penniless possum. Either way, no off-the-field event has ever hit the Mets harder. — Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

June 12, 2009

Sure, there have been bigger foibles on grander stages with more at stake, but Luis Castillo dropping the ball — even its mere description sounds like little more than an Arrested Development gag come to life: Well, Luis dropped the ball. Oh really, how? No, he literally dropped the ball, it was terrible — was some kind of perfect awful storm for the Mets, who were up 8-7 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Alex Rodriguez pops it up toward the deep infield to the right of second with runners on first and second racing for home. After A-Rod slams his bat on home plate in disgust, Castillo eyes the ball, calls for the play, starts drifting to his left, and then … the ball … just … pops out of his glove. The game is all but over by the time he can recover, Francisco Rodriguez puts his hands on his head in stunned amazement, and A-Rod is mobbed at first base for his role in this enduring moment of #LOLMets incompetence, a 15-second sequence that was both simple to comprehend but unbelievable to process.

The Yankees were a juggernaut that year, winning 103 games and the World Series, while the Mets were a season-long joke. For 26 outs that day, those roles were oh-so-slightly reversed, but sometimes that final out never does come. — Erik Malinowski (@erikmal)

August 15, 2009

2009 is when I started watching every Mets game. As a dumb 15-year-old kid, I thought for sure the Mets were going to win it all. Unfortunately, the season was marred by countless injuries  (Beltran, Reyes, Delgado, etc.) and embarrassment (see above), an unassisted triple play, and Ryan Church missing third).

The awful season came to a terrifying halt when David Wright – the last man standing – got drilled in the head by a Matt Cain fastball. I didn’t see the beaning live but when I heard the  news I was devastated. It seemed everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and it put someone’s livelihood at stake. Luckily, Wright was alright. And luckily, the Mets problems as a whole lasted only another five years. — Tyler Plofker (@TylerPlofker)

August 26, 2013

2013 was a rebuilding year for the Mets, the fourth in a row. But unlike the previous three, there was light at the end of the tunnel — a growing collection of aces headed by Matt Harvey, whose sophomore season ranked alongside years put up by Seaver and Gooden. Wheeler’s debut was a great success and Syndergaard waited in the wings. With dead payroll about to clear, 2014 was the year it would all come together.

But on August 26th, a morose Harvey sat next to Sandy Alderson as he announced that the seemingly indestructible ace — he of the superlative build and mechanics — had torn his UCL, with Tommy John surgery a likely outcome. In an instant, the goodwill built up over the course of the season vanished and Mets fans once again were left to wonder when, if ever, they would break free of the #LOLMets curse. — Maggie Wiggin (@maggie162)

May 23, 2015

In the middle of April 2015, Met fans groaned as David Wright came out of the game after a simple slide into second base. Thankfully, the injury was just a mild hamstring strain, and Wright was going to be back in two weeks. Two weeks became five, and the hamstring issue became lower back pain. Then, on May 23rd, 2015, David Wright was finally diagnosed with spinal stenosis. Major league players just don’t suffer this kind of injury (the disease usually becomes symptomatic at age 50, not 32), so it was particularly Metsian that the greatest position player in franchise history would be hit with a chronic back condition just as the team was emerging from a long rebuild.

Wright missed the majority of 2015, then came back and contributed down the stretch and in the playoffs. It looked like he might get the ring he so clearly deserved, but the Mets fell short. Now, with Wright out for all of 2016 with a neck injury, it’s fair to wonder if Captain America will ever get another chance to play in a World Series. — Lukas Vlahos (@lvlahos343)

On Wednesday night, Colón had his worst start of 2016, and it was all downhill from there—the Mets pitchers walked 11 batters across nine innings, and Mets’ hitters were stayed by the Nationals’ Gio González for a 7-1 loss. In the rain.

But Thursday was the darkest night, when Harvey gave up eight hits and walked two with six earned runs, all in the span of 2.7 innings. By the end of the third inning the Nationals led 9-1, at which point the Jumbotron promptly blacked out and had to be rebooted. Perhaps the tears of its operator shorted the circuit board.

Watching those games was unpleasant. But as I got back on the 7 train Thursday night, I found in me a certain nostalgia attached to taking such a beating. I came to consciousness in the early 90s—I was in first grade in 1993 when the Mets went 59-103. The Mets of my childhood were terrible. I remember once asking my Dad what did a team have to do to get into the playoffs. “You have to win more games than you lose,” he said. It seemed simple when he put it like that. And yet.

Of course, the 2016 Mets are heads and shoulders above those teams of the early 90s, but the history is ours nonetheless, so here are five sad Mets moments and their corresponding bright sides from within my lifetime to remind us where we came from, and that it could be worse.

Anthony Young Breaks a (Bad) Record (1992-1993)

So Colón was liberal with his walks on Wednesday; so Harvey imploded on the mound in a matter of minutes the following night—they’ve still got nothing on Anthony Young, who managed 27 consecutive losses in 1992-93, going 0-14 as a starter and 0-13 as a reliever. Young broke the previous record of 23 straight losses, which had been recorded by Cliff Curtis in 1910-11. The bright side? He’s a record-holder now! And, interestingly, Young didn’t pitch as badly as one might expect from such a streak, with his ERA for that period at 4.36, and a career average of 3.89. Plus, after he beat the Marlins in July 1993, Young—who had become nationwide comedic fodder over the course of the streak—appeared on “The Tonight Show,” where Jay Leno offered him the chance to make fun of his chin as payback.

Timo Perez and the 2000 World Series

2000 was a nice, round number, the perfect year, it seemed, to make some history. It was the first Mets-Yankees World Series meetup, with the last postseason Subway Series occurring 1956, between the Yankees and the Dodgers. But when Todd Zeile’s almost-home-run bounced back into play, Timo Perez didn’t seem to notice, slowing down to a light jog only to be thrown out at home. It wasn’t a series-losing blunder in itself—it was only Game 1, after all—but it was a stupid way to lose a run in a close game, and for me reminiscent of the Mets’ wild throws, ball drops, and other silly mistakes that paved the way to Royals’ victory in 2015. Back in Game 1 of the 2000 series, the Yankees ended up winning in extra innings, and won the World Series in five games. The good news for those early aughts Mets is that after a brief stint in the minors in 2001, Perez returned to bat .276 with 114 RBI until he was traded to the White Sox before the 2004 season.

Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron Break Each Other’s Faces (2005)

In August 2005, Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron, both center fielders at heart, made one of the nastiest collisions in modern day baseball when they both went after a ball in right center. Cameron took the brunt of the damage—he was removed from the game on a stretcher, and later had surgery on his nose and cheekbone fractures—while Beltran was concussed with a more minor fracture to the face.

If an optimistic thread can be gleaned from such serious injuries, it’s that neither suffered long-term damage to their fielding stardom—Cameron won a Gold Glove in 2006, was fifth and then third in fielding percentage for National League center fielders in 2007 and 2008, with the second and third-most double plays turned in the National League in 2006 and 2007. Beltran won three-straight Gold Glove Awards from 2006-2008, and was an All-Star in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013. And the collision makes a lot of top ten lists of worst sports injuries, a baseball rarity.

Luis Castillo Drops the Ball (2009)

Or, Luis Castillo being a Met in general. The team signed Castillo, by then past his prime and prone to injury, for a too-big, four-year, 25-million-dollar contract that, (surprise!) he couldn’t play through. He played well in his first 50 games as a Met in 2007, rode the bench for a good part of 2008, then started off 2009 with an offensive bang, until …

Bottom of the ninth; the Mets led the Yankees 8-7. With two outs and runners on first and second, the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez hit what should’ve been—what was—an easy out pop-up, which Castillo just…dropped. Jeter scored, and by the time Castillo decided to pick up the ball, he was so removed earth’s reality that he threw to second base to out Rodriguez, apparently forgetting about Teixeira, who was homeward bound. Final score: 9-8 Yankees.

If you type “Luis Castillo” into an internet search bar, Google auto-completes “drop.” Because there is no silver lining to this one, except maybe that post-Madoff the Mets don’t have the money to make a stupid deal like this again.

Scott Kazmir (2004)

I wasn’t alive when the Mets traded Nolan Ryan (and more!?) to the Angels for Jim Fregosi, or when they gave away Tom Seaver for four random Reds. But I was around for another sad pitcher trade—Scott Kazmir to the Rays for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato, both of whom were pretty lackluster, and then injured, during their time as Mets, while Kazmir went on to achieve pitching stardom. Kazmir was an All-Star in 2006, 2008, and 2014, led the AL in strikeouts in 2007, and is currently first in the NL in fielding percentage as a pitcher. One can only hope that the Mets have learned their lesson as far as trading star pitching prospects goes, especially after seeing how far a good rotation can take the team.

So, the next time I sit through a nasty defeat this year, I’ll remember that it could be worse, a lot worse. It’s a long season; we can’t win them all, and so on. And, however heartbreaking they were at the time, thinking back on how good the team looks in comparison now does make me feel better—though not quite as good as that sweet, Bartolo-flavored revenge of the Mets’ own 7-1 victory in DC on Monday night.

Photo Credit: Sara Novic (double threat!)

Just because we know that time heals all wounds and regresses all stats, it doesn’t mean early-season lines aren’t fun while they last. For your enjoyment, selected small-sample performances by your New York Mets. — Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

David Wright’s Worst-Ever O-Contact Rate

Anyone who says they can predict what David Wright will do this season is either lying or a witch, but so far he’s putting up unexpectedly strong production, with a TAv of .315 (same as last year) compared to his .283 PECOTA projection. Wright is also drawing a ton of walks, which helps offset his well-below-normal .254 batting average. Wright’s bugaboo at the plate is a career-high 35% strikeout rate, 10 points higher than his second-worst season.

The reason for this is not hard to figure out — a 16% swinging strike rate and a 60% contact rate do not translate well. If this is his new true talent level, Wright may very well be looking at a Mark Reynolds-esque season. But there’s no back condition in the world that would let him maintain a 23% contact rate on pitches out of the zone, which is the worst in baseball and would be the worst in history. He may not get that number up to his 64% career average, and expecting a career high in strikeouts is not a particularly hot take, but David Wright has some pretty clear room for regression to the mean. — Maggie Wiggin (@maggie162)

Walker Isn’t Walking

Neil Walker is a liar. Sure, he’s off to a very nice start in a Mets uniform, hitting .288/.299/.606 with seven homers in just 16 games. Something odd should stand out about that triple-slash though. Walker has hardly lived up to his surname — until Saturday night, he did not have a single walk on the season. Only 16 players since the end of the Deadball Era have managed an OPS+ over 110 while drawing under 20 walks; could Walker be number 17?

Since Walker has been hitting so well, it hardly matters, but eventually he will need to incorporate more plate discipline into his game. Walker has never been a hacking Alfonso Soriano/Dave Kingman type. His walk rate has never dipped below seven percent in a season, yet it took 62 plate appearances in 2016 for him to take four pitches outside the strike zone.

Given his reliable history of normal walk rates, this is a trend that is unlikely to continue for much longer. Walker will walk the walking path to walks. — Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA)

Steven Matz Since An Anonymous Scout Called For His Demotion

I get the pressure that comes with having to fill column inches every week. I do. Sometimes there isn’t much baseball to talk about, and you have to conjure a little soft shoe number about fried ham product. Maybe that doesn’t play in the tabloids, I don’t know. There’s good reason why they never make me an editor. But making grand proclamations after one game is a good way to look foolish a couple weeks later. Since our secret scout’s hot take, Matz has thrown 13.1 innings, allowed two runs, struck out 17, and walked 2. So a bit of skepticism might have been useful here. Was Sean Gilmartin really going to be a short-­term upgrade? Being a blithe stenographer for a scout that wants his opinion in ink is all well and good, but it can on occasion make you look W A Y behind your peers.

There will still likely be growing pains for Matz during his first full season in the majors, but the stuff matches up with the rest of the Mets’ big four, and one shaky outing after almost two full weeks off a mound shouldn’t have been above the fold on the Op­Ed page at Panic City Press. Fortunately, lessons have been learned, and we now wait for three or four starts before proclaiming a Mets starter toast. — Jeffrey Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro)

Lucas Duda Since the #SNYWhale

Mets Twitter, like every kind of Twitter, understands the occasional outage, even if we experience acute withdrawal for the few minutes our timelines fail to update. Mets Twitter is far less understanding when our underrated first baseman, he of the career .297 TAv, opens the season slashing .195/.233/.244. That kind of performance deserved its own Fail Whale, and SNY was ON IT.

Following the #SNYWhale’s appearance during Lucas Duda’s second at-bat on April 17, he’s hitting .333/.320/.909. That’s three doubles, three dingers and two singles, along with a sacrifice fly, in 25 post-Whale plate appearances. We all knew Duda would start hitting soon — we just didn’t realize he’d need to be rebooted first. — Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

Logan Verrett’s Microscopic ERA

Until a scoreless inning of mop-up duty in the Mets’ 8-2 win on Saturday night at Turner Field, Verrett was sporting a 0.69 ERA through 13 innings on the year. To say he’s been an especially nice buffer for a rotation that suddenly found itself without Jacob deGrom is an understatement. In starts against Miami and Philadelphia, Verrett allowed no earned runs in 12 innings and struck out 10 against only nine hits and three walks. Sure, consider the competition, but Verrett had command of his pitches — a four-seamer sitting at 91, mixed in with an 84-mph slider — and gave Dan Warthen some emergency starts that kept the team afloat during some early-season uncertainty.

Now that deGrom is back, Verrett returns to the pen, but he’ll surely be called upon to make more spot starts as injuries and circumstances arise. Ultimately, his major contributions this season may come more as a valuable long man-with-starting-experience. Think of Yusmeiro Petit with the 2014 Giants team that won the title. Plus, Verrett is still only 25 and learning just how good he can be. OK, his stuff doesn’t rival that of the others on this staff, and his ERA will surely level off as the year progresses, but he doesn’t need to be deGrom or Harvey or even Colon for the Mets to get decent value from him going forward. For now, they’ll take what they can get. — Erik Malinowski (@erikmal)

Noah Syndergaard (Also) Has A 59 Percent Ground Ball Rate

Hahaha. It’s cool everyone. Despite Jake Arrieta continuing to improve towards a 0.01 ERA and despite Clayton Kershaw putting on a convincing “Sandy Koufax, but longer-lasting” impersonation, some people are calling Syndergaard the best pitcher in baseball … right now. Yes, Thor has more velocity than the Autobahn and a world-beating strikeout rate of 13.1 batters per nine innings, but it’s his ridiculous ground ball rate that has me scratching my head. Yes, it will definitely go down. It must! However, if Syndergaard can raise his ground ball rate from last season (48 percent) and keep it inching up, then that’s a great sign.

Why? Because as much as we’d like it, his velocity is not going to be top-of-the-heap for his entire career. Eventually, someone else will take the velocity crown, and Syndergaard will have to do all the things that mid-career pitchers learn to do: change eye levels, sequence their pitches, and get some grounders. In the meantime, a rising GB rate means that there’s less stress on the young fella’s arm (more short PAs!) and more indication that Thor can not only shove, but he can do literally everything a great pitcher can do. There’s no way he’ll maintain this Keuchel-ian rate for long, but it’s a good, tiny sign. – Bryan Grosnick (@bgrosnick)

The Mets Are #OnPace To Break The Team Home Run Record

What new deadball era? The 2016 Mets could set a new team record for home runs in a year. Through 16 games, the Mets have hit 25 dingers, on pace for 253 for the season. Perhaps even more remarkably, the team only put two balls over the wall in the season’s first eight games, improving to 23 homers, nearly three per game, in their last eight contests.

The 2006 Mets currently hold the franchise record for home runs in a year, at 200. I suspect many fans could recall the stars on that team — Carlos Beltran (41 homers), Carlos Delgado (38), David Wright (26) and Jose Reyes (19) — but how many remember that Jose Valentin added 18 long balls to finish 5th on the squad? Meanwhile, back in 2016, Neil Walker and his seven jacks are on pace for 71, Yoenis Cespedes is on pace for 51 and Curtis Grandslamderson is on pace for 41. — Toby Hyde (@tobyhyde)

Bartolo’s Leading The Mets in K/BB Ratio

Strikeout-to-walk ratio is a fun metric for pitchers because it takes two related but distinct results and provides a balanced statistic. The Mets’ small-sample strikeout to walk leader among all pitchers so far this season is Bartolo Colón, with 8.5 strikeouts per walk. Notably, Colón is the leader among a staff with a rotation-mate, Noah Syndergaard, who is striking out 13.1 batters per nine innings. Colón is not merely leading the pack on the strength of his command (although his miniscule 0.96 walks per nine innings helps). Colón wouldn’t be the leader if it weren’t for 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings. And that figure is worth noting because it’s Colón’s best K/9 in the majors since the year 2000, when aforementioned rotation-mate Syndergaard was seven years old. — Eric Garcia McKinley (@garcia_mckinley)

Bartolo’s BB = HR

Over his first three 2016 starts combined, Bartolo Colon has walked two batters and given up two home runs. Allowing the same or fewer walks than home runs feels unusual, so I went on Baseball Reference’s excellent Play Index tool and looked it up. This used to be a fairly unique trick — it only happened five times before 1998, but has happened 20 times from 1998 through 2015.

The list is littered with pitchers that had good-to-great careers: David Wells four times, Brad Radke twice, Bret Saberhagen, Greg Maddux, and Curt Schilling once each. These starters have some traits in common with each other and Bartolo Colon. They’re extreme command/control artists, flyball pitchers, and they often accomplish this feat late in their careers. The most recent pitcher to give up more home runs than walks over the course of a season? Why, that’s Bartolo Colon in 2015, of course. – Jarrett Seidler (@jaseidler)

Antonio Bastardo Ks > Matt Harvey Ks

Antonio Bastardo has more strikeouts than Matt Harvey. At Bastardo’s current pace, he will punch out 152 batters in only 94.5 innings. Both the raw K total and the innings-pitched marks are outstanding (and unlikely to continue) for a modern reliever. On the other hand, Matt Harvey has struggled to start the season. He has the lowest strikeout rate (5.6 K per 9) and highest walk rate (3.2 BB/9) of any Mets starter. On Friday he kept leaving the ball up, needing 101 pitches to get through five innings. Opposing batters are more likely to make contact with Harvey’s pitches out of the zone instead of swinging and missing. It’s possible that Harvey is still warming up after an aborted Spring Training and has some mechanical issues to sort out. — Noah Grand (@noahgrand)

Jeurys Familia Has The Highest Velocity Of Any Mets Pitcher

Zero-point-one-four. There’s only a 0.14 mph difference in velocity between Jeurys Familia and Noah Syndergaard, but anything over 0.01 is excess. This stat is prime #smallsamplesize material because the sample is exactly what determines Familia’s minuscule advantage over Thor. Over 129 pitches during the 2016 season, Familia has thrown only one pitch under 95 mph on average — his slider — and has used that pitch but 15.5% of the time; his primary pitch, the sinker, averages a shade above 95.5, which is impressive but a full three mph below Syndergaard’s. The starter, however, utilizes his slower changeup and curve over 28% of the time, and with 285 pitches under his belt, this slows down his velo enough to give the closer the temporary edge. — Brian Duricy (@briansusername_)

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports