It's that time of the year when people in the USA are theoretically supposed to pause to discuss the things for which they are thankful during this past year and their lifetime. Being a Mets-oriented forum, it would seem appropriate to take a few moments to consider the things for which Mets fans are grateful during the season that just concluded.
While a great many fans are seething at the Mets' newly minted front office for allowing first Noah Syndergaard and now Aaron Loup to depart for the Angels, please slow down and take a deep breath to enjoy what he did for the club in this past season. When he was brought on board for $3.5 million, most folks just figured he was another middle reliever arm to help hold down the fort for an inning or two when the starters failed to last as long as had been hoped.
Yes, he was a lefty and yes, he had a very respectable career ERA. However, at age 33 he'd carved out his middle inning niche and was more of an additional body than he was thought to be a difference maker. If you said to anyone he was going to finish the year with an ERA of 0.95 (better than Jacob de Grom!), a 6-0 record, a WHIP of just 0.950 per game and he would appear in 65 of the 162 games, not a single person would have taken that bet.
Yes, everyone wanted him back based upon what he did and surely he deserved the $17 million deal he got from the Angels, but push aside the built-in Mets fan hatred for all things related to the front office and be thankful for perhaps the best year of relief pitching every achieved in the history of the ballclub.
After his stellar rookie year in 2019 the Mets were sure they had found a cornerstone on whom they could build things for the future. His home run swing didn't abandon him and he won his second straight Home Run Derby at the All Star Game. While he finished the season without 52 HRs, his final line of .262/37/94 with no offensive support around him was highly appreciated.
Even more son was his forward progress as a much more solid fielder than he had shown in 2019 and 2020. He continued to be the face of the offense and every time he stepped to the plate it was pretty much a drop-everything moment because you knew the potential for a long ball was there in his bat.
Before everyone goes all typical fan on the overuse and high velocity pitching too soon and too often that likely led to his season ending injury, please take a moment to reflect what Jacob had done as a starting pitcher for this directionless ball club. Saving our best for last, his season ending ERA would have broken Bob Gibson's 1968 record of 1.12 as deGrom was sitting at just 1.08.
In his 92 innings pitched he fanned 145 batters and was giving up just over 1/2 of a run per inning pitched with a never-before-seen WHIP of just 0.554. Even wilder was his control where he was fanning 14.3 per 9 IP while walking just 1.1. His strikeout to walk ratio was an ungodly 13.27. For anyone who is old enough to remember watching Tom Seaver or Doc Gooden in their prime pitching for the Mets, Jacob deGrom was clearly better. (And remember, Seaver is in the Hall of Fame).
There were certainly other players who had some notable moments including Edwin Diaz, Brandon Nimmo and Javy Baez. The fact that Luis Rojas is no longer in charge on the field and Sandy Alderson is no longer playing GM are also reasons to be thankful. However, none of these developments nor achievements can hold a candle to what was accomplished by this trio of 2021 New York Mets.
2 comments:
The trio did great.
If Pete had a friendly home park, and deGrom held up, the trio would have been completely off the charts.
I will miss Loup but there is a good chance 2021 was his best year in his career.
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