New York Mets Morning News: Harvey Deals, Getting The Strasburg Treatment

What is with the suddenly decent bullpen? I think most fans would have assumed we'd be in the game while Matt Harvey was on the mound, but when he exited after six and a third, the bullpen didn't allow another Phillie to reach base. A Lucas Duda two run shot in the third inning proved to be the deciding blow last night, as that would end the scoring for both teams. The recap can be found here, the box here.

Matt Harvey was effective yet again, but it's looking like he might be shut down a bit early this season. One hundred and seventy five innings seems fairly reasonable, likely more so due to the fact that we're not exactly in a pennant race. There should be plenty of arms like Mejia and McHugh available in September to pick up the slack anyway.

Also out there in the news yesterday, there were some comments from Terry Collins indicating the the Shoppach acquisition was about getting a look at him ahead of potentially signing him this winter. Like Shoppach or not, it's good to know that when the season actually starts we're not planning on carrying Mike Nickeas or Rob Johnson.

Also in that article, the Mets participants in the Arizona Fall League were mentioned. They included Ryan Fraser, Chase Hutchingson, Greg Peavey, Adam Kolarek, Cesar Puello, Daniel Muno, and Darrell Ceciliani. The full rosters can be found here for those of you interested.

Around Baseball:

We'll start with the divisional games, even though we're long since out of that race. The Nats increased their lead yesterday, beating the fish by an 8-4 scoreline while the Braves lost by an 8-2 scoreline.

An old favorite of all Mets fans is back in action now. Guillermo Mota has served his 100 game suspension and has rejoined the Giants for the stretch run. I know how much all of us love Mota.

One player that won't be finishing the season on the active roster is Jose Bautista. Bautista has gone down with a wrist injury, so the Jays will have to do without him for the remainder of the year. In other injury news, Chad Billingsly has had a second MRI, and it looks likely that he'll be shut down as well. Maybe the Dodgers still have some top prospects to trade for Johan Santana, heck, we'll even throw in Jason Bay. That would to calm down uber-troll Joel Sherman.

Finally for today, Eno took a look at whether or not throwing a cutter actually has an impact on fastball velocity. It's an interesting read, and it makes you wonder why Rick Peterson feels the way he does about the pitch.