MLB: New York Mets at Kansas City Royals

Ace In The Hole: The Inevitable Ascension Of Noah Syndergaard

I don’t know much, but I know Noah Syndergaard is an extremely effective pitcher. Yes, his talent appears to be off the charts, but that’s different from how he applies that talent to the sport of baseball, and he applies said talent in a way that is astoundingly effective—even more so once you factor in his age and experience level. Syndergaard made his first 24 big-league starts last season, pitched 150 innings on the nose, and simply posted the best K/BB ratio of any rookie in the history of baseball. His DRA was better than that of Felix Hernandez and Johnny Cueto and just a tick worse than Madison Bumgarner.

In the playoffs, he became both a star and the answer to various trivia questions.

  • Who started the “Chase Utley game”?
  • Who earned the Mets’ only win of the World Series?
  • Who has the most spectacular flowing locks in MLB?

Through one start this season, he’s already beaten the defending World Series champs and shown off a dazzling 95-mph Warthen slider that will no doubt have some varying percentage of National League hitters screaming aloud in cold sweats every fifth night this season. And we haven’t even mentioned his 89-mph change and 81-mph curve that make those high-velocity offerings look like little more than unfathomable blurs.

Did we know this was going to happen? When Syndergaard came over with his battery mate, Travis d’Arnaud, in the R.A. Dickey trade in late 2012, I didn’t think he was going to be launching effortless 100-mph heaters past the best hitters in baseball in three years’ time. I didn’t think he would stand among the cornerstones of a rotation that threw the fastest pitchers of any rotation in the history of baseball–and which may yet eclipse those numbers this season, especially once Zack Wheeler steps in for Bartolo Colon at the All-Star break. I thought he would fill out as a quality, middle-of-the-rotation starter. With his size, he’d be a workhouse, someone dependable. Your classic innings-eater with a plus-fastball. A guy who could win 12 to 15 games if things broke his way.

The only thing breaking around Noah Syndergaard these days is the will of the hitters facing him. His start last week in Kansas City reminded me not of his Game 3 World Series performance at Citi Field against the Royals but the infamous Game 2 against the Dodgers in the National League Division Series. Before everything completely unraveled in the seventh and Chase Utley took aim at Ruben Tejada’s lower body, Syndergaard was a revelation, making the Dodgers look lost at bat after at bat. Syndergaard took the loss in that one because he lost his control in the seventh while Colon and Addison Reed, as the mop-up men, then let a bad situation (with an assist from Utley) become a hopeless one.

But this is a new season, and Syndergaard appears, dare we say, better than ever, even if the Mets are only one-ish turn through the rotation this far. We may already be at this point, but all of his starts will soon become events unto themselves, the ones where you Stop What You’re Doing and just watch him do what he does. The days when we’ll be truly blessed are when his counterpart is able to match his gifts.

Today is one such day, as we get to witness Syndergaard going up against one of the few young pitchers in the league who engenders the same kind of breathless, pre-start glee that he does: Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins. We deserving and most patient baseball fans were denied a full season of Fernandez in 2015, but he’s back and fully healthy now, posting 13 strikeouts in five and two-thirds innings during his first start. We should be in for a lot of heat and a lot of miffed batter expressions.

That’s what the Noah Syndergaard Experience has become. For fans in the stands and at home, watching him pitch is like watching the universe’s enduring mysteries become clear as day. Can he pitch 101 with ease and go eight strong? Sure can. Does anything seem to rattle this 23-year-old kid from Texas who makes Thor jokes on Twitter like he’s a lifelong Comic-Con devotee? No, sir. Will the capricious Tommy John demon strike him down like so many before him? Bite your tongue and pray upon your Odinsword it does not.

Will he be the Mets’ most important pitcher by season’s end? Dear reader, I think we’re already there.

Photo Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

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1 comment on “Ace In The Hole: The Inevitable Ascension Of Noah Syndergaard”

Surly Duff

Thor lost the Chase Utley game!

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