Kuzul

This is going to sound awfully familiar, but New York Mets first baseman Ike Davis is marred in an awful slump to start the season. He might be testing the organization's patience too far this time around.Through 40 games, Davis is posting an unequivocally abysmal .152/.234/.254 slash line. While the team has waited for him to snap out of his funk, Davis has instead dived deeper into the abyss. He's notched one hit in his last 33 at-bats, striking out 13 times during that stretch.Entering the season, Davis figured to serve as the franchise's premier power bat, but the 26-year-old has earned just four home runs and nine RBI for the "Amazins." (Can we really still sincerely refer to the Mets as amazing?)Last season's stumble out of the gate figured to be a one-time blip stemming from unordinary consequences. Not only was Davis recovering from an ankle injury that sidelined him for nearly ...

This just in: The New York Mets are unwatchable on days that Matt Harvey isn't pitching.Terry Collins is working with a lineup that, on any given night, has six or seven automatic outs sprinkled in among a couple of major league hitters. David Wright and Co.—though this is no fault of the captain's—are 28th in the league in hitting and last in on-base percentage, a part of the game that Collins and Sandy Alderson have attempted to make of paramount importance.His pitching staff, outside of the aforementioned phenom and the sporadic, solid Jonathon Niese start, has been abysmal. The team is 7-2 in games started by Harvey, and 9-22 in others. Outside of Harvey, everyone has been serving up a nice buffet of batting practice and gopher balls.No team in baseball swoons like the Mets swoon. Their slides are a perfect storm of anemic hitting and pathetic pitching.But, just as ...

It's been four weeks since I looked at the numbers put up by the New York Mets in the early part of the 2013 season. A month is a long time in baseball, and player performance can fluctuate over time. Unfortunately for the Mets, many of the early season positives have evaporated. Additionally, some of the negative stats from the first few weeks of the season haven't improved.On the optimistic side, the season is still young, and there is plenty of time for the Mets to turn things around. If they hope to be competitive, they are going to have to address a number of issues.Here's a look at some of the good signs so far for the Mets and some of the less-than-inspiring ones through the first six weeks of the campaign. Begin Slideshow

It's been said, by no less an authority than the great Ted Williams himself, that hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sport.And Mr. Williams never even had to face Matt Harvey.Harvey, of course, is the New York Mets' ace right-hander. He's also one of the biggest stories in baseball this year, as the 24-year-old former first-round pick has become one of the best pitchers in the game—in about the same amount of time it takes one of his 98 mph fastballs to leave his hand and arrive in the catcher's mitt, having missed the hitter's bat along the way, no doubt.But just how "unhittable" is Harvey, and how is he doing it? For the RecordAt 4.31, Harvey's hits per nine rate so far this season looks more like the time it might take Mike Trout to moonwalk to first base. It's also easily the best ...

Let's be honest—the New York Mets are a lousy baseball team. Not only that, but aside from when Matt Harvey pitches, they're an unwatchable team to boot.As we draw near the quarter mark of the 2013 MLB campaign, it's time to take a look at some things that have been learned about manager Terry Collins' squad this season.Aside from the excellent performances of a few select players, it has not been pretty—at all.Read on.Begin Slideshow

Matt Harvey had the game of his career Tuesday night for the New York Mets.Harvey pitched nine innings against the Chicago White Sox and gave up one hit, no walks and struck out 12. His only blemish came on an Alex Rios infield single in the seventh.The Mets won the game in the 10th, but Harvey's pitching was the story of the night.Which begs the question—is Harvey now the Cy Young favorite in the National League?Harvey leads the NL in strikeouts (58), WHIP (0.69); ranks second in wins above replacement (2.1) and ERA (1.28); and third in innings pitched (49.1) and wins (four).His worst outing was a six-inning, three-earned run performance against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 24.Harvey was named the NL Pitcher of the Month in April and looked good in his first start in May.But can he really keep it up the rest of the year? The Nerdiness ...

Heading into play on Tuesday evening, Mets first baseman Ike Davis is scuffling. With a .172/.271/.382 batting line, patience is beginning to wear thin for the fans in New York. The former first-round pick was ticketed for stardom and immense power production, but it's fair to ask if he'll ever become that player.If this topic feels redundant, it's for good reason. Through this date last season, Davis was batting .173/.236/.276, flailing at pitches outside the strike zone and generating discussion about a demotion to the minor leagues.Of course, after going basically 0-for-April/May, Davis finished with a flurry.In the 100 games from June 9 through the end of the season, Davis slugged .565, smashed 27 home runs and drove in 69 runs. In the second half of 2012, he was the sixth most valuable first baseman in the sport, behind only names such as Fielder, Pujols, Gonzalez, LaRoche and Encarnacion.Before we ...

It is safe to say that no one considered the New York Mets to be a playoff contenders at the beginning of the baseball season, but if they don’t provide their fans with a glimpse of the future fairly soon the Mets’ faithful might lose interest in the season. Zack Wheeler, the coveted 22-year-old Minor League pitcher, could provide that spark for the starting rotation and bring fans to Citi Field. With a 12-16 record, and a 3-8 record in the past 11 games, the Mets have fallen to fourth place and 5.5 games back in the National League East division. Not only have they been playing poorly as a team, but their starting pitching has been dreadful outside of pitching phenom Matt Harvey, who is currently 4-0 with an ERA of 1.56 according nymets.com.If you don’t include Harvey’s stats, the Mets starting pitching has a record of 4-11 with ...

As the New York Mets left the field following a 4-3 loss at the hands of the Miami Marlins on Monday evening, the story of the game quickly became about missed opportunities with runners on base and two blown leads (in the ninth and 15th) that would have turned a heart-wrenching defeat into a satisfying victory. If you sat through the 15-inning, five-and-a-half-hour contest in South Beach, an interesting stat popped up during the first half of the game. Matt Harvey, the young, dynamic Met ace, was allowed to throw 121 pitches in less than six innings. That number represented the fourth highest total in baseball this season.While the talk in New York is about the five-game losing streak, marathon loss and dismal outlook on this season, don't forget the big picture: Led by Harvey's arm, the Mets are expecting to compete as early as 2014.Interestingly enough, their manager, Terry ...

Prospects are called prospects for a reason, nothing is certain. When you have blue-chip talents, however, there is less of a chance that the player will turn out like Lastings Milledge and they're more likely to turn into David Wright or Jose Reyes.Since taking over as general manager of the New York Mets, Sandy Alderson has transformed the Mets farm system from one that relies on Fernando Martinez-type raw talents to mature, into ready-to-contribute-now prospects like Travis d'Arnaud and Zack Wheeler.This week was very uneven for top prospects, and here is the updated stock watch. The rankings are based on Michael Rosenbaum's list compiled in spring training. Begin Slideshow