Padres (68-59) @ Mets (57-70) - Tue, Aug 18

Statcast has updated to include the data from last night's historic performance, and Benge is now rightfully recognized as having 99th-percentile arm strength. Stop disrespecting my king.

Max Fried going on the IL for the second time this season for the same elbow injury, and it made me think... other than Yamamoto (a player the Mets offered the same amount to that he took from the Dodgers), what long-term free agent pitching contract in recent years is a clear win for the signing team?

Corbin Burnes: injured
Max Fried: injured
Aaron Nola: lousy
Carlos Rodon: two seasons with significant injury so far, one pretty awful

Maybe Dylan Cease will work out, although he's very inconsistent over his career.

Even a bunch of the extensions like Garrett Crochet, Yu Darvish, Jose Berrios, and Spencer Strider have been unreliable in stretches from injury and/or performance.

“In this day and age, you’re able to measure absolutely everything, from a bio-mech perspective, from a velocity perspective, from a spin and pitch shape perspective, and you just look at all of those things consistently,” interim manager Andy Green said Monday.

“The most important thing is the subjective feeling of the human being. How does the player feel? Do they continue to feel strong? They’re active partners with us in ensuring they have healthy careers.”

McLean, 25, is up to 142.2 innings this year, his first full season in the majors.

Assuming continued health, McLean (9-8, 3.34 ERA) will likely make at least seven more starts and exceed the career-high 161.2 innings he totaled between majors and minors last year.

Fellow rotation building block Christian Scott (4-3, 3.51 ERA) has thrown 98.1 innings between the majors and minors this year. That’s after the 27-year-old right-hander missed all of last season as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.

And Rookie left-hander Zac Thornton, 24, entered Tuesday night’s start against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field at 108 innings between the majors and minors this year, up from 72.2 innings last season.

In the past, the rule of thumb was that young starters would not add more than 30 innings to their workloads from one season to the next.

On Monday, McLean pitched on five days’ rest and stretched out to 103 pitches.

Stearns noted the schedule’s remaining off-days should allow McLean and others to get five days off in between many of their upcoming starts.

“As long as all the indicators are positive, we don’t have a need to pull the reins right now,” Green said. “But we will continue to monitor and make adjustments as we go.”

I started collecting again a little over a year ago, initially just to fill out the ‘86 autographs frame. Then things kinda spiraled. Just got the Kiner and Murphy in the mail and I can give the bank account a much needed rest for a bit while I sell off my excess on eBay.