MLB

Ivan Nova has always been an interesting prospect to me. He’s usually received glowing reports from scouts, but his numbers generally haven’t been there in the minors and his peripherals, like walk rate and strikeout rate, haven’t really been there either.

In his defense, like I said, he does get good scouting reports, he’s a big guy at 6′4″, he throws hard in the mid-90’s, and has been on the younger side at each level he has pitched.

The New York Mets need to make changes in order to remain competitive in the NL East this summer.

They are 18-17, which is slightly better than some fans had them in April, before they took the three games in 24 hours sweep against the Dodgers.

There is no question that they have a challenging schedule the first half of play, and not having a return date of Carlos Beltran is certainly weighing on the minds of fans and players alike this spring.

Less than a week ago Mat Latos was three outs away from his first career shutout in Houston. It did not take long for him to get another shot at it.

Latos came within one hit of a perfect game Thursday, yielding only an infield single in the sixth inning to Eli Whiteside while overshadowing Jonathan Sanchez yet again as the first-place Padres won 1-0 to complete a three-game sweep at AT&T Park.

According to Phil Hoops at Always Amazin’ , the Mets have signed minor league first baseman/outfielder Val Pascucci to a minor league deal to play for their Triple-A Buffalo affiliate.

There has been a lot made of the Mets lineup since Jerry Manuel dropped the "Jose Reyes to hit third in the order" bomb on us this spring. Well, he’s been there for a couple of weeks and the results have not exactly been thrilling.

Last week we took a look at pitchers who were lucky (click here) and unlucky (click here) based on BABIP.

After looking at this past week’s success and failures, I think you will find that using an early pick on a “stud” closer could have been a waste. The “other” closers seem to be the ones picking up the slack this year. It is still early in the season, but if you look at the top saves guys I think you would be surprised.

Make sure you don’t miss my article on Phil Hughes and the importance patience plays when producing young pitchers. Here are a few other notes for today:

One thing I’ve heard and read a lot over the past couple of days—people saying that they were wrong about Phil Hughes.

In the span of less than a week, two Philadelphia Phillies fans ran onto the field at Citizens Bank Park, with one being subdued by use of a Taser fired by a Philadelphia policeman.

Is the Taser a reasonable manner of suppressing runaway fans, or is there a better, safer way to squelch these shenanigans?

Of course there is, but nothing is more entertaining than witnessing the incapacitation, via the Taser, of a stupid fan who dares breach security for a jaunt on the playing field.