Matt Harvey WON’T Start on Saturday

Sandy Alderson has done a decent job of listening to what Mets fans want, but he is ignoring their pleas for Matt Harvey. The would-be phenom will not be coming up from Buffalo to start on Saturday against the Dodgers.

“I’ve said on more than one occasion that his development and future are independent of our needs in 2012,” Alderson said, according to ESPNNewYork.com. “He’s pitched very well… I think it’s more likely than not that he will pitch in New York sometime this season. It just won’t be Saturday in Citi Field. It could be shortly after that. It could be some time after that.”

Alderson said the idea to bring up Harvey right now is not a crazy one.

“On the other hand, one could conclude that he’s done everything he needs to do at Triple-A, and that his best bet is to continue his development right here in the major leagues. And that’s something we took into account. And my guess is that’s something we will do sometime this season — that if he’s in our plans for next year, he ought to be pitching here sometime this season. It just makes sense. But we didn’t feel the time at this time was right.”

So that means Miguel Batista will start on Saturday. It is safe to say there will be far less electricity at Citi Field when Batista takes the mound than there would have been had Harvey been making his major league debut.