They’re coming out. They’ve already started. Over the next few days, we’ll get our first look at the Mets’ big starters. If you want to think of Robert Gsellman as having the inside track as the number five man, well, he threw two strong innings this afternoon, allowing a hit, a walk and no runs. Noah Syndergaard, the opening day thunder god starts tomorrow in West Palm against the Astros. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Steven Matz will follow in short order. Best of all, Zack Wheeler is supposed to face real, live major league hitters for the first time in two years next Thursday. Here is when we’ll get our first indication of whether or not we’ll have a rerun of the glorious 2015 or the struggle of 2016.
It’s
been said – and not without merit – that the 2017 season hinges on the health
of the pitching staff. We saw, up close,
what this staff looks like unhealthy. All spring, manager Terry Collins, GM Sandy
Alderson and pitching coach Dan Warthen have told us that all these guys are
looking good. We have no idea, save for
some random clips of bullpen sessions seen on local news. And of course, these first couple of starts
in Florida will prove absolutely nothing, seeing as nobody’s going to pitch
more than two innings at a pop until St. Patrick’s Day, at least. But we can get an idea of what a successful
2017 at Citi Field could look like. For
the Mets, it always comes down to the arms.
There is only one successful Mets’ team that was built on offense first:
Willie Randolph’s great, doomed teams of 2005 – ‘08. The likes of Carlos Delgado, Paul LoDuca,
Carlos Beltran and very young versions of David Wright and Jose Reyes weren’t
enough to overcome the shortcomings of Steve Trachsel, John Maine, Oliver Perez
and the shopworn Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez. No. As in 1969, 1973 and 1986, the arms are
paramount and if they ain’t workin’, we got nothin’.
Here’s
hoping that Syndergaard, Harvey, deGrom and Matz have enough bullets left in
the chamber.
7 comments:
We have more arms than North Korea, with much better control - it should be a really exciting year.
Good line
Word is that Gsellman will be 5th starter and Wheeler will be held bck in camp
Mack, I could definitely see Gsellman breaking camp as the 5th starter. Heck, he could be rookie of the year, no offense to Zach Wheeler. Zach will have innings restrictions, so keep him in Florida until NY warms up. May 1 sounds about right.
With most of their pitching coming off some type of injury it would be wise to limit all of their innings to some extent. I normally wouldn't agree to what I just said but the Mets have the depth to do that and keep all their starters healthy and strong for the post season. A couple of injuries or a couple of the starters way under performing would change all that. Lugo's our #7. There are many teams that he might be a #3 guy.
I think the Mets could do with Wheeler what the Yankees used to do with El Duque: leave him "running on the beach" until mid-August, then you have a fresh, live arm for the stretch drive.
Great article, Charlie, by the way.
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