Your Friday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
The Rockies recorded 10 hits and scored seven runs off of Bartolo Colon in less than five innings while the Mets struggled to do anything against Colorado starter Juan Nicasio. The end result was a thorough thumping on Thursday night that wasn't as close as the final 7-4 score would indicate.
Recap Parade: Amazin' Avenue short, long, MLB.com, ESPN NY, New York Times, Post, Daily News, The Star-Ledger
Not much went right for the Mets during their first night in Denver, but at least Juan Lagares looked solid. The center fielder went 2-for-4 with a double in his first game back from the disabled list. Travis d'Arnaud tacked on a three-run home run in the ninth inning to make the final score look respectable.
Before the game, Kirk Nieuwenhuis was optioned to Las Vegas to make room for Lagares.
Now that all the team's outfielders are finally healthy at the same time, Eric Young Jr. could be serving primarily as a backup. The speedster pinch-hit and drew a walk in Thursday's game.
With Eric Young Sr. being the Rockies' first base coach, the father and son got to reminisce about the days when the two were players on opposing sides.
With LaTroy Hawkins among the league leaders in saves, it's easy to speculate the the Mets should have offered him more money last winter before he took a $2.5 million offer from the Rockies. Hawkins, though, isn't upset that the Mets didn't offer him a substantial amount.
In media news, the Mets have seen ticket sales rise since last season, but television ratings continue to slide. Also, it seems the team doesn't want Mike Francesa to host his radio show outside of Citi Field during the Subway Series.
Stephen Drew could still be a useful piece for the Mets to pick up if they dream of contention this summer.
Around the NL East
The Marlins just finished off a sweep of the Braves. Casey McGehee had a pair of RBI hits during last night's 5-4 win. Meanwhile, Jacob Turner is ready to rejoin the Miami rotation this weekend.
The Braves continued their extension spree by adding three years of third baseman Chris Johnson.
Good news for Mets fans in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Phillies tickets are going on sale!
Around the Majors
John Sickels released an updated Top 150 Prospects list. The Mets are represented by four players, led by Noah Syndergaard at No. 18.
Tony Blengino of FanGraphs looks at how teams are set up for the grind of 2014 by examining starter durability and bullpen usage. The Mets appear to be decent shape, as they're getting more innings from their starters than all but three teams in the National League.
After hitting a big fly off of Colon, Rockies star outfielder Carlos Gonzalez left the game with a finger contusion. He's now day-to-day.
Reds center fielder Billy Hamiltonsprained a pair of knuckles while making an amazing catch on Thursday. No word yet on how long he'll be sidelined.
In the same game, former Met Carlos Gomez took a potential home run away from Joey Votto.
Another former Met, Mike Pelfrey, is not playing so well and could be out of the Twins rotation soon.
Matt Wieters hit a walk-off home run for the Orioles, who swept the Pirates in a doubleheader yesterday.
Yesterday at AA
Chris McShane reviewed a surprisingly fruitful month of April for the Mets.
Matthew Callan wondered why the highly acclaimed SNY broadcast team ranked fourth out of 30 in a recent Awful Announcing poll.
On this date in Mets history, Al Jackson pitched a gem and Joe Crawford was born.