Have you had your fill of Matt Harvey yet?

If so, door's on your left, pal.

Otherwise, sit right down and let's take yet another look at the new Mets ace—by comparing him to a former Mets ace.

Harvey, a right-hander, made his debut for the Mets last year on July 26 as a 23-year-old.

Some 45 years earlier, back on April 13, 1967, a 22-year-old righty pitched in his first major league game for the Mets. His name?

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Remember when the Boston Red Sox were a dysfunctional, despicable collection of scoundrels?

I know. Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? It turns out that sour baseball memories are easily buried when there's good baseball being played by a team that's both quite good and quite watchable.

And that's the 2013 Red Sox.

The Red Sox entered Thursday's action with a 14-7 record that has them in first place in the AL East. They've been doing a lot of winning, and they've done much to endear themselves to Red Sox Nation. Unlike the last couple Red Sox teams, the 2013 Red Sox are very much worth rooting for.

How did it happen? How did the Red Sox go from being the least likable team in baseball one minute to being arguably the most likable team in baseball the next minute?

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Our mission, should we choose to accept it—which we wouldn't, but it was assigned, so we kinda have to—is to solve Justin Verlander.

Mission? Impossible.

But let's at least try to find out how a hitter should go about facing the game's premier pitcher, who at age 30, is still in the middle of his prime and coming off the best two seasons of his career—so far.

Have an Approach

Last week, in talking about facing Mets flamethrower Matt Harvey, who's first in the National League with a .122 batting average against, Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman explained that a hitter's approach is similar against most power pitchers, whether it's Harvey or Zimmerman's teammate Stephen Strasburg.

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The Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers are going to hook up for a three-game series at Dodger Stadium this weekend. Two of baseball's best players will be sharing the field: Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun and Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp.

When the series ends, Braun and Kemp will go their separate ways. Then Braun will go on to have a better career than Kemp.

I know this because I have seen the future. In the future, Braun is regarded as one of the great players in baseball history, and he is worshiped by both humans and their alien insect overlords.

Not that one really needs to see the future to determine that Braun is going to have better overall career than Kemp in the long run. That's a conclusion that becomes evident when weighing various numbers and circumstances.

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Teams hoping to upgrade their roster via free agency each offseason have more than a few examples of why they should be cautious. Exhibit A would be Alex Rodriguez and his ten-year, $275 million contract, which doesn’t expire until after the 2017 season. Rodriguez will be 42 years old, and his best days are far behind him. 

If this past offseason was any indication, teams will be trying to stay away from these types of long-term deals that will pay players well past their prime. Only seven free agents signed deals for longer than three years, and only one, Josh Hamilton, will be over 35 years of age at the end of the contract. 

Zack Greinke will be 34 years old when his six-year deal with the Dodgers expires. Angel Pagan will be 35 when his contract in San Francisco runs out. The Indians’ big free-agent signings—Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher—could become free agents at ages 33 and 34 respectively. Edwin Jackson of the Cubs and Anibal Sanchez of the Tigers will both be 33 when they can become free agents again. 

The Angels’ signing of 31-year-old Josh Hamilton to a deal with less than half the financial commitment (five-year, $133 million) of Rodriguez’s was still considered a huge risk because of his prior off-the-field issues. It’s his early season performance, however, that should have the Angels worried. 

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For Major League Baseball pitchers, the 100-pitch threshold is a scary thing. Once they enter the land beyond 100 pitches, all bets are off.

That's the general perception, anyway. But as far as performance is concerned, the land beyond 100 pitches really isn't so scary.

There's a conclusion, but what got me going were questions: How do pitchers perform immediately after 100 pitches compared to immediately before 100 pitches? Is there any sort of fluctuation in performance between the 76-100 pitch territory and the 101-plus territory?

It turns out that there is, but not the bad kind of fluctuation. All I needed to do to find that out was go to Baseball-Reference.com and take a look at:

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True or false: The Colorado Rockies are a first-place team.

Sorry, trick question.

You see, the Rockies are in first place—they're 13-7, best in the National League West—but that doesn't mean they're a first-place team.

April can be a wonky month, full of surprises based on results that often are too early and too small in sample size to take all that seriously just yet.

One three-game losing streak can knock a team from first to fourth in a single weekend, while a couple of April showers-infused rainouts can prevent another team from winning two more contests and returning to the warm, dry safe haven that is a .500 record.

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It’s time to get out the crystal ball and figure out what the biggest priority of each major league organization will be in late July. 

Will it be a minor roster tweak, like adding a bullpen piece or a right-handed power bat off the bench? 

Does an organization have the resources to make a priority of acquiring an impact bat or starting pitcher?  

For teams expected to be out of contention, will they be looking to deal soon-to-be free agents or just looking to build momentum heading into 2014? 

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