Your Thursday morning dose of New York Mets and MLB news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
There was no game on Wednesday night, as the rain that interfered with Tuesday night's game stuck around and left no window open to have a chance at even a shortened contest. The game has been rescheduled for June 2, which means the Mets will play five in a row at Citizens Bank Park as May turns into June. The team now heads to Colorado, where they will begin a four-game set against the Rockies tonight at 8:40 pm EDT. Bartolo Colon will square-off against right-hander Juan Nicasio.
Juan Lagares is expected to be activated off the disabled list in time for tonight's game, and Terry Collins reveals that he plans to rotate Lagares, Chris Young, Eric Young, and Curtis Granderson now that his options have expanded.
Ruben Tejada leads the majors in line drive percentage, but unfortunately, those line drives aren't becoming hits.
Baseball Prospectus's Sam Miller takes an accounting of the terribleness of the Mets' pitchers' batting efforts, which have sunk to a major league-leading 0–42 after Tuesday night's game.
On SI's The Strike Zone, Cliff Corcoran has singled out Curtis Granderson as baseball's least valuable right fielder for the month of April. Jay Jaffe highlights the month's all-stars.
Bill Chuck over at Gammons Daily coins a new measuring stick for pitchers that he calls the "Nolan Start" (which is named for Nolan Ryan and entails starts of seven-plus innings with three or fewer hits). Dillon Gee is one of only nine pitchers this season with multiple Nolan Starts (he has two).
The Mets have issued a call to action to their fans through a letter signed by Cleon Jones, Jerry Koosman, Ed Charles, Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, and Doc Gooden. The letter is an attempt to rally fans around the Mets by attempting to persuade them to sign their names as an oath of fealty to the team. One fan will be chosen from the list of signees to present the letter to the team at the opening game of the Subway Series at Citi Field on May 14. Mike Vaccaro calls the campaign an affront. In response to the campaign, Adam Rubin outlines five non-embarrassing ways that Mets officials can increase fan support.
Mike Puma tweeted an apology to Bartolo Colon for his peanut butter comment. Puma also explained in a tweet that the Mets aren't optimistic that Wilmer Flores can become an everyday shortstop.
On this date in Mets history,Al Leiter defeated his 30th different team.
Yesterday At AA
Steve Sypa explained the disastrous ways that things fell apart for Mets pitching prospects in yesterday's Farm Report.
Around the NL East
Aaron Harang's deal with the devil must have expired last night, as the Braves fell to the Marlins 9–3. The Nationalsswept their two-game series with the Astros by beating them 7–0.
Corey Seidman attempts to make sense of the Mets' ownage of Cole Hamels. With Mike Minor returning to the rotation, Talking Chop looks at what can be expected from David Hale in the Braves' bullpen.
Over at Fangraphs, Mike Petriello explores what the Braves' historic pitching month might mean going forward.
Nationals utilityman Kevin Frandsen made a bananas catch off the outfield wall. Also: lookee at what Jose Fernandez did.
Finally, ESPN's David Schoenfield places Giancarlo Stanton on a short list of the best pure power hitters in the history of the game.
Around the Majors
Billy Hamilton, who is not a caricature.
Joe Posnanski explains that luck is having Duane Kuiper as a hero.
Prepare to lose your entire day to Pitcher GIFs. Am I late to the party on this? This is new to me, and it is awesome.
A Grant Brisbee Thought Experiment™: What if Donald Sterling owned a baseball team?
Javier Vazquez has earned an important position with the MLBPA.
You can buy Yogi Berra's house if you want to.
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.