Matt Harvey
From the first time he took the mound with the New York Mets, Matt Harvey was special. You could see it. It was more than just the great stuff. He had the build and demeanor to be one of the best pitchers we have ever seen. In 2013, he would be so good where he would not only be in the running with Clayton Kershaw for the Cy Young Award, we would hear him start to be compared to Tom Seaver.
There was the bloody noses. The time he almost had a perfect game against the Chicago White Sox. There was moment after moment until he had to undergo Tommy John surgery.
Harvey would return from that, and he would return to being a top of the rotation caliber starter. Yes, there would be some drama caused when his agent Scott Boras asked the Mets to honor their agreement over the innings limits, but despite that, Harvey would pitch. Harvey pitched where Stephen Strasburg once did not, which at the time only seemed fitting considering the “Harvey’s Better!” chants which echoed across Citi Field.
Harvey was great in the postseason. He won a pivotal Game 3 in the NLDS. He was lights out in Game 1 of the NLCS setting the stage for a Mets sweep of the Chicago Cubs. His performance in Game 5 of the World Series was one of the best pitching performances in Mets history. He and the Mets would come THIS CLOSE to pulling it off.
From there, things went bad, really bad. We don’t need to recall all the drama. In the end, what really mattered was Harvey had TOS. It would cost him almost all of 2016, and it would cost him his chances of once again being that ace. It would lead to him being designated for assignment from the Mets, which led to him being traded for Devin Mesoraco.
After seemingly reclaiming something with the Cincinnati Reds, he would get a free agent deal with the Los Angeles Angels. After 12 starts, he would be released, and Harvey would try to catch on somewhere. He would finish that season in the Oakland Athletics farm system, but they showed no interest in calling him up. During the pandemic season, Harvey signed on and flamed out with the Kansas City Royals.
What the real story is with Harvey is this is a guy who continued to work hard. Where even the strongest willed people would’ve justifiably retired, Harvey just keep working trying to find his way back to a Major League rotation again. He did everything conceivable, and he would leave no stone unturned. That led to him signing with the Baltimore Orioles and earning his spot onto their Opening Day roster.
Through seven starts this season, Harvey is 3-2 with a 3.60 ERA, 1.286 WHIP, 2.6 BB/9, and a 6.4 K/9. No, this is not the Harvey we knew and loved. And yet, this is still a good Major League starter who is putting up a 118 ERA+.
Because of that, we are going to get to see Harvey take the same mound where he first brought hope to Mets fans after the Madoff Ponzi scheme. He’s going to take the mound where he started the 2013 All-Star Game and where he dominated in the 2015 postseason. He is going to take the mound in Citi Field, but this time as a visitor.
Harvey did more and went through far more than anyone could’ve imagined. It will be tough to see him facing the Mets, but as a Mets fan, you can’t help but root for him. Orioles uniform or not, seeing Harvey on the Citi Field mound makes this a great day. In fact, we can once again celebrate and say “Happy Harvey Day!”
As has been the case with him over the past year (probably longer), Marcus Stroman has been a lightning rod for criticism. In terms of the New York Mets, it began when he opted out of the 2020 season, but there’s a possibility it began sooner than that.
In terms of that, Stroman was open and honest he was afraid of the outbreaks in Miami and St. Louis, and he had family members who were high risk. Rather than accept his explanation, people opted to read malice into his decision.
Since that point, Stroman signed the qualifying offer, has worked to develop a new pitch, and he has been just about as enthusiastic a Mets fan as there is. Yes, every action he has taken has indicated he is every bit the Mets fan he was like the day he was at Citi Field for Johan Santana‘s no-hitter.
Marcus Stroman taking on Negativity in the media. #LFGM pic.twitter.com/SWALbrDypQ
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) February 12, 2021
This is a pitcher who not only believes in himself, but he believes in his teammates. He openly speaks about how Jacob deGrom is the best pitcher in baseball. He talks about the talent on the roster. He talk about how great the Mets are. Really, if you look at Stroman, he pushes positivity and belief in not just himself, but also his teammates.
Still, like we saw in 2020, Stroman is going to make decisions which are good for him and his career. After seeing how Matt Harvey‘s career has transpired, we should have learned by now that’s not being selfish, but also, smart. The best ability you can give your team is availability, and if you hit the IL because you unnecessarily pushed it, you’re no longer available.
After the ridiculous decision to start the game against the Miami Marlins which was then suspended due to rain, Stroman announced his frustration he was not available again for five more days. He put in all that work, and it was all for naught. Of course, people opted to take that as Stroman being selfish and not team-first.
As an aside, the reason the Mets did not go with a six man rotation this year was because deGrom voiced his objections. Like all starting pitchers, deGrom is a creature of routine, and he didn’t want anything messing with his routine. What’s interesting is when this was Harvey, he was vilified, and for Stroman, when he said he wanted to stick to his routine, he was criticized.
Well, now, Stroman threw a bullpen session, and he declared himself good to pitch in the doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies. Once again, Stroman is stepping up and helping the team. He is doing it when few pitchers would be willing to pitch on one day’s rest.
Now that he is doing that, the people who refuse to embrace him, need to find another reason to criticize him. Better yet, instead of going that route, they should probably embrace him and acknowledge they’re getting to see not just one of the best pitchers in baseball, but also a positive individual who only seeks to build up everyone around him.
After being unable to make more than eight hitless pinch hitting attempts over two years, Jed Lowrie has out-hit the entire Mets team in 2021. For that matter, so has Zack Wheeler.
So much for the universal DH.
Wheeler also has more strikeouts than anyone on the Mets pitching staff including Jacob deGrom. For that matter, so has Matt Harvey. In fact, Harvey has struck out more batters than the entire Mets staff combined.
If you think that’s scary, consider Chris Flexen does as well. In fact, Flexen has more wins that the Mets do this year. Of course, that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise considering Brodie Van Wagenen was horrible as the GM.
Of course, we all know the reasons why Wheeler is out-hitting the Mets, and Flexen has been stats than anyone on the Mets is because the Mets haven’t been able to play their opening series.
Until that point, Noah Syndergaard, Seth Lugo, and Carlos Carrasco are atop all the Mets pitching categories despite their not being able to begin their season for at least a month. Of course, no one is pitching for the Mets now.
The stats are so skewed J.D. Davis is the Mets top fielder . . . and hitter. Right now, Davis can be considered the Mets player because he’s tied atop every statistic. That’s how you know things aren’t great.
Fortunately, the Mets hiatus will be over soon when they take the field in Philadelphia on Monday. When that happens, we should soon see deGrom correct a number of these bizarre discrepancies caused by the Nationals COVID infections.
Thanks to the Washington Nationals, we can’t watch New York Mets baseball just yet. What we could do was see former Mets pitchers in action.
Matt Harvey took the ball for the Baltimore Orioles, and he looked good. His slider was moving, and he touched 95 MPH. Unfortunately, he fell one-third of an inning short of the win.
Matt Harvey, 94mph Fastball…and gets the fist pump from Severino. pic.twitter.com/A7rSeI92sG
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 3, 2021
Zack Wheeler took the ball for the Philadelphia Phillies, and he’d have more hits himself than he allowed. He was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI.
Zack Wheeler was rollin'. pic.twitter.com/hdXs1mqI3k
— MLB (@MLB) April 3, 2021
On the mound, he struck out 10 over 7.0 innings with the only hit against him coming from Travis d’Arnaud.
We also saw the former bullpen arms do well. Darren O’Day pitched 0.2 scoreless and picked up a hold. Michael Fulmer picked up a hold for pitching a scoreless inning while hitting 95 MPH.
All-in-all, it was a pretty good day for former Mets pitchers. Hopefully, that momentum for Mets pitchers will confine when the Mets are finally able to start their season on Monday.
After a disaster of a first start of Spring Training for Matt Harvey, he rebounded in a big way. It wasn’t just the results, it was how he pitched.
Brandon Hyde said Matt Harvey hit 96 mph on the gun today. "I thought he pitched great," Hyde said. #Orioles
— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) March 15, 2021
Through 4.0 innings, he allowed two earned on five hits with no walks and four strikeouts. While not dominating, it was a clear positive step for Harvey.
That’s what Harvey has been making all offseason after not pitching a full season in the majors since 2018, the year the Mets designated him for assignment. It’s been a hard and difficult road since that season.
One thing Harvey did was go to the Baseball Performance Center this offseason. There, he worked to not only regain velocity but more importantly spin.
First time getting @MattHarvey33 off the mound after 3 days of heavy spin work. Main focus was to get that carry FB back from 13-15 (18V). From 18-20 his FB carry was only 12V at the same velo. Getting the carry back was the main focus to bring back that electric FB. Today: 18V? pic.twitter.com/LsTXrEDYDq
— Baseball Performance Center (@The_BPCsj) February 10, 2021
Seemingly, against all odds, it seemed to work, and as a result, Harvey landed a minor league deal with the Orioles. If for no other reason, that seemed a good fit as that is a rebuilding team who can give him a chance.
That’s all we should want for Harvey – a chance. Sooner or later, you just pray it’s going to click again. Maybe, this start was the beginning of that happening. If so, good for him.
Harvey gave his career to help the Mets try to win a World Series. Hopefully, there is a second act in the works.
And who knows, with the Mets potentially needing bullpen help, there could be a second one in Flushing. Maybe, this time he comes in for the ninth and seals the deal for the Mets third World Series title.
We can dream, can’t we?
Typically speaking, you don’t like to see pitchers jump over 100.0 innings from one season to the next. The problem is with the 60 game season in 2020 nearly every pitcher in Major League Baseball is going to have to make that jump. How to combat this is going to be a concern for all 30 Major League teams, especially the New York Mets.
The Mets have Marcus Stroman, who didn’t pitch last year, and they have Noah Syndergaard returning from Tommy John at some point this season. Carlos Carrasco is still building up his endurance on the mound after battling leukemia. There is also the opportunity for David Peterson to crack the Opening Day rotation. Throw in protecting Jacob deGrom, the best pitcher in baseball, and you see how the Mets may want to find a way to limit everyone’s innings.
There’s more to it as well. None of these pitchers threw even 70.0 innings last year. We don’t know when, but it is reasonable to assume at some point the Mets starters may face fatigue and may hit a wall. As we typically see, there are going to be a few pitchers who battled ineffectiveness and hit the proverbial dead arm periods. That’s even with extremely well conditioned pitchers like deGrom and Stroman.
Really, the Mets need to figure out the best possible way to let their pitchers keep strong all season long, and hopefully, be in a position to be as strong as possible heading into October. In a different way, that was an issue the Mets had in 2015.
That season, the Mets opted to throw their five best pitchers to start the season. To a certain extent, Zack Wheeler‘s needing Tommy John forced the issue there. Beyond that, the Mets didn’t really plan for making the postseason. Their season as well as Matt Harvey‘s return from his own Tommy John surgery as well as Scott Boras forcing the issue with innings limits forced the Mets to confront the issue.
At times, we saw a six man rotation. That was something which was met with some resistance from the Mets young starting staff. To a certain extent, you could understand that as baseball players, especially starters, are creatures of habit. Considering that being the case, perhaps it would be better to start the season with a six man rotation to give the Mets starters a better opportunity to adapt.
Certainly, the Mets have the arms to pull that off. To start the year, they already have a strong top of the rotation with deGrom, Stroman, Carrasco, and Taijuan Walker. After that, they have a strong competition for the fifth starter spot with Peterson, Joey Lucchesi, and Jordan Yamamoto. There is also players like Jerad Eickhoff and Corey Oswalt who could force their way into the conversation.
In terms of Spring Training competitions, we should not that they’re terrible in nature. You’re judging a bunch of players against differing levels of competition. You may get to face a team full of Double-A to Four-A players and dominate while another player gets to face Major League caliber competition. That leads to skewed results.
One way to combat that is to take your best six pitchers up north. You can ease your four best pitchers into the 2021 season and then get a better look at the fifth starters against Major League competition. This means while you are saving your best pitchers for the end of the season, you are also getting a better look at your pitchers in what could be described as a protracted competition.
Keep in mind, you can easily skip this sixth starter in the rotation if need be and have them available in the bullpen. With early season rain outs and off days, you may not want to go right to the sixth starter. That also gives the team an added benefit to see how a Lucchesi or Yamamoto could look coming out of the pen for an inning or more.
Overall, there is a lot of benefit to having a six man rotation to start the season. Pulling it off properly requires a deft touch by Luis Rojas. If done properly, the Mets can secure a postseason spot, and they can have deGrom at full strength to have a similar run to what he had in 2015. In fact, imagine what he could do now! But before that, we just have to figure out a way for him and the rest of this rotation to navigate the 2021 season.
The Alex Rodriguez ownership group is taking a really odd route to push for buying the New York Mets. It starts with A-Rod, who made the bizarre, hypocritical, and partially retracted push for a salary cap.
It’s not just A-Rod. It’s the rest of his celebrity athlete potential ownership group who are making non-monetary pitches to buy the team.
We finally have a society paying attention to race, discrimination and injustice. And now that there’s a chance to sell the Mets to bidders of color, MLB wants to give instead to Steve Cohen — a billionaire with a long track record of shady dealings?https://t.co/fi2zL3ruuU
— Bradley Beal (@RealDealBeal23) July 17, 2020
Beal thinks an ownership group should get it due to racial composition. Then, there’s Mason Plumlee, who took to his blog to try to tell us they have the superior ownership group because they’re cooler.
It should be noted that post was taken down because he incorrectly asserted Nets owner Joseph Tsai would be part of the ownership group. He won’t.
Sorry Twitter, it is not true. I grew up as a Mets fan and I have a lot of respect for Alex and Jennifer. But I’m not involved in bidding for the Mets. Gotta focus on basketball. https://t.co/lX3C4sWnJk
— Joe Tsai (@joetsai1999) July 18, 2020
Going back to the deleted post, Plumlee pitched the ownership group as passionate fans, and from the player standpoint, Plumlee talked about things like having a good locker room and how they hate to lose. Note, he didn’t say spend what it takes to win.
He then made part of his pitch to the fan base on his group. Aside from this group of athletes (without much of a pedigree), he alluded to how much cooler and sexier his group is:
To be fair, he made a direct appeal to people who cheered Brodie Van Wagenen when the Mets were a complete failure at that point in the season. As for the rest of us, we just want ownership fully dedicated to winning, ownership who has the full capacity and willingness to build that winner.
To Mets fans, a really cool owner is the owner who delivers a World Series. It’s the owner who will stop at nothing to win. That’s why Nelson Doubleday, a literal book nerd, is the coolest owner in Mets history.
Doubleday bought the Mets, and he handed the keys to Frank Cashen. He was the man who basically told the Wilpons to shut up as he pushed Steve Phillips to trade for Mike Piazza. For fans, there’s nothing cooler than that.
A real Mets fan would rather sit next to a parent, spouse, child, sibling, and/or friend at a World Series game than sit next to an owner or GM for a bad Mets team.
They also want one who can get guys like Piazza. For his part, Plumlee isn’t off to a good start taking pot shots at Noah Syndergaard, Yoenis Cespedes, Ike Davis, and Matt Harvey. If you’ll notice, he also took a shot at Steve Cohen with his SEC troubles.
Of course, if we wanted, we could focus on A-Rod’s PED history, lying about it, and suing everyone to avoid culpability. We could focus on Mike Repole’s willingness to enter into business with people with a troubling racist and misogynistic track record.
We could dig deeper into this group to see all the positive or negative things they do, but that completely misses the point. The point is the Mets need ownership whose sole focus is winning. They need ownership who has the financial might and ability to make that happen.
With every utterance from A-Rod’s group, it becomes increasingly clear it’s not them. In fact, they only seem to confirm Steve Cohen is much better suited to leading the Mets to glory than they ever can be. In the end, that makes Cohen the right and cool choice.