Your Wednesday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
It rained and poured sporadically throughout the game but the Mets and Jon Niese had no issue beating the Phillies 6-1 at Citizens Bank Park last night.
Choose Your Recap: Amazin' Avenue Short, Long, MLB.com, ESPN NY, Daily News, Associated Press, Star-Ledger, NY Post, Newsday
Guess who the Mets leader in WAR is so far? You'll probably never guess.
Juan Lagares is working his way back and could return Thursday in Denver. Terry Collins is still unsure of how the outfield will look when he returns.
Lucas Dudaspent time working with Phillies outfielder Marlon Byrd in the offseason. Byrd is grateful for the opportunity the Mets gave him last season. Speaking of Duda, apparently the first baseman's home was robbed by some movers.
Is there anything to Zack Wheeler's early struggles with batted balls in play?
Brandon Nimmo is on fire so far for High-A St. Lucie. Speaking of Nimmo, Jeff Moore watched him play and has a scouting report up at Baseball Prospectus (also in there is an exciting report on Steven Matz).
At Kranepool Society, Steve reflects back on 50 years of Mets fandom.
Yesterday At AA
Jeff and Rob have another edition of the Amazin' Avenue Podcast for you to listen to.
Matthew Yaspan continued his interview with former Mets stats guru Ben Baumer.
Carlos Torres and Gonzalez Germen have thrown a lot for the Mets early on.
Joe Sokolowski reviewed the most pertinent Mets quotes from the past week.
Aaron Yorke previewed the Mets series with the Phillies.
Around the NL East
Jose Fernandez did it again, as he tossed eight shutout innings en route to a 9-0 Marlinsvictory over the Braves. The Nationalsbeat the Astros thanks to Adam LaRoche's 9th inning RBI single.
Around the Majors
Oakland A's pitcher AJ Griffin will undergo Tommy John surgery.
Manny Machado is back for the Orioles.
Do innings limits actually work?
Yankees fans booedRobinson Cano in his return to the Stadium. Michael Pineda, meanwhile, got hurt throwing during his suspension.
Grant Brisbee tries to learn some lessons from vintage baseball photographs.
If you read an article or find a link that you think would be a great addition to a future edition of Mets Morning News, please forward it to our tips email address tips@grission.com and we'll try to add it in.