Jeurys Familia Showed He May Have A Great Year
The numbers weren’t good. Two runs (one earned) on two hits and a walk. Put the results aside for a second.
Jeurys Familia looked like he could be in line for a very good season.
Just look deeper than the results. Neither of the two hits were really indicative of how well Familia was pitching, and as an extension of that, neither was the runs against him.
Neither the Adam Haseley single or Rhys Hoskins double were hit all that hard. In fact, the Hoskins double was the second weakest hit ball of the night. Really, no one made good solid contact against Familia. That’s evidenced by the lack of barrels against him.
With any luck, that’s a 1-2-3 inning. Instead, Pete Alonso throws the ball away trying to get Hoskins at second allowing Haseley to score.
What happened next is important. With everything going haywire, and the day after the Mets blew a late lead with a horrendous inning against the Phillies, Familia bore down. He made quick work of Andrew McCutchen striking him out.
Familia then didn’t give Bryce Harper a chance to launch a homer to let the Phillies back into the game. Instead, like a veteran, he tried to get Harper to bite, and when Harper didn’t, he drew a walk.
We would see the epitome of defensive indifference that inning as well. Hoskins was just allowed to walk to third. That’s one of the only reasons why he scored the second run.
After the Harper walk, Familia faced J.T. Realmuto, and he got him to hit the ground ball he needed. Unfortunately, even with Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil turning it quickly, the ball just wasn’t hit hard enough to turn two.
Again, we saw the defensive indifference as the Mets just let Realmuto go from first to third undaunted. Familia didn’t let this get to him as he got Didi Gregorius to fly out to end the game.
Breaking it down again, let’s review what we saw from Familia.
First off, Familia has really good stuff hitting 98 MPH with his fastball. For a pitcher with real command problems last year, he only went to three balls to Harper, a batter he was arguably pitching around to get to Realmuto.
We saw him respond to a bad and unlucky start to the inning by striking out McCutchen. Also, no one was able to square him up and make good contact against him.
If we see Familia have good velocity, induce weak contact, get big strikeouts, and stay poised when things around him go haywire, he’s going to have a big year. In the end, that’s the biggest takeaway from his appearance, and really, that’s great news for the Mets.
When you are leading by 5 runs in the 9th, it’s not a good idea to walk anyone. Had nothing to do with being a veteran. A HR by Harper doesn’t put Philly back into the game anymore than a walk does. Make him earn his way and hit the ball to the moon, it’s still better than giving a free base runner. A runner is a potential run and there is no way he’s putting a potential run on base when a HR doesn’t do anything but add another run. It doesn’t tie the game. There is no reason to pitch around Harper and try to get him to bite. You try and throw it down the middle because it’s a cardinal sin of baseball to give free passes when you have a big lead and a HR doesn’t hurt you. Educate yourself
Grooving fastballs just because you have a large lead is the epitome of stupidity.
Not in the 9th inning. A walk is as good as a HR. You get the guy out….you don’t put him on base. You don’t know jack shit about baseball do you?
If thinking a walk isn’t as good as a HR means I know nothing scout baseball, then, yes, I know nothing.
You should NOT be pitching around Harper in that situation. If anything let idiot Bryce Harper try to hit it to the moon instead of trying to get on base. Putting a runner on for Realmuto would make zero since. No way he was trying to pitch around Harper.
Look at how he pitched him. It was a pitch around