Thursday Thoughts on Max Scherzer and new Citi Field scoreboard

Spring Training games have been underway for a few days now, creating a buzz around baseball. A lot of it has been about the pitch clock (which is awesome), but for the New York Mets specifically, a lot of the buzz centers around the starting rotation.

Mets ace Max Scherzer used PitchCom to call his own pitches in his first Spring Training start

Many people - myself included - said that it would make more sense for pitchers to call pitches during PitchCom’s inaugural season last year. Pitchers usually know how they want to attack hitters, so it just makes more sense for them to tell the catcher what pitch is coming and the target location.

Scherzer isn’t the only pitcher to try this during Spring Training. Zack Greinke tried it for the Royals, and the Yankees had a trio of pitchers use it: Luis Severino, Clay Holmes, and Domingo German.

I think we will see more pitchers try this. Not only do they have more control over gamecalling, but it also saves time, which is a huge factor now with the pitch clock. Instead of a catcher putting down multiple signs or using the catcher PitchCom, and having the pitcher shake off, the pitcher can just say here’s what’s coming, here’s where it’s going, and throw the pitch.

Citi Field’s mega scoreboard is nearing completion

We’ve been getting gradual updates over the last couple of months, but seeing this monster scoreboard almost done is a special sight. 

Essentially what the Mets did was take away all of the advertisements surrounding the old scoreboard, and replace them with more scoreboard. It’s probably going to be quadruple the size of the old scoreboard, if not more. 

I wrote in the past how the one thing missing from Citi Field is a strike zone that fans in the ballpark can see, I think they have room for that now. Make it happen, Uncle Steve!