Reese Kaplan -- Chicks Dig the Long Ball But No One Digs Walks

After the disastrous end to the Dodgers series and the opening giveaway in the Giants series you have to start to wonder a little about the Mets pitchers.  The question is not whether they can remain healthy nor is it about the assortment of pitches they have in their arsenal.  No, the issue is why home plate has become a “Where’s Waldo?” exercise with having given up recent game totals of 10, 7 and other blatantly embarrassing number of walks. 

Granted, we Mets fans are spoiled by many of the fine arms who have come through this franchise during their long careers.  I’m not here today to bring forward the exploits of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Doc Gooden, Sid Fernandez, Al Leiter or even Jacob deGrom.

No, the man to consider today is none other than “Big Sexy” — Bartolo Colon.  This guys career was a little bit of a mixed bag of speed, location, PEDs and girth.  By the time he got to the Mets in 2014 he was already 41 years old and had played for so many teams he outlived at least one of them as he spent 2002 with the Montreal Expos. 

For the Mets he was a mainstay in the rotation for three years from 2014 through 2016, winning 15, 13 and 15 games in that trio of Mets seasons.  He was so effective in 2016 he represented the Mets in the All Star Game.  By the time many of us have decided on a favorite reclining chair in which to watch ballgames or take a nap, big Bart was spending his 40s pitching like a lesson plan for younger hurlers.

During his Mets career Colon was not going to blow people away like Nolan Ryan.  He wasn’t going to struggle to find the plate like Randy Johnson.  No, Colon gave up during his Mets three seasons 1.3, 1.1 (league leading number) and 1.5 walks per 9 innings pitched.  That is not a typo.  He simply didn’t give away bases on balls.  As a result he could withstand his batting average against which was somewhat higher than many would like to see when he didn’t offer up free base runners to the opposition.

During his long career Colon kept evolving.  Earlier after making his way up the ladder from his Dominican Republic upbringing he was not always this kind of pitcher.  As a rookie for the then known as Cleveland Indians he was coughing up 4.3 walks per 9 IP.  He improved somewhat over the next few years but the numbers were acceptable rather than exceptional.  He was in the 3s and 4s until his 2002 split season good for 20 wins, 10 each for Cleveland and 10 for the Expos.  During that year he was 6th in the Cy Young Award voting and a large part of the positive pitching numbers may be at least partially attributed to a never before seen exhibition of control when he now only allowed 2.7 walks pre 9 innings pitched.

As his career progressed, there were a few small backsliding years, but soon that control got even better and he multiple times was below 2.0 in that walk total per game.  He kept getting better and better at working on the full strike zone and that helped make him a valuable mound asset to the Mets. 

He did tinker around for a few years after leaving the Mets with the Braves, Twins and Rangers, but Father Time caught up with him during his ages 44 and 45 seasons resulting in an ugly set of stats — 14-26, a 6.13 ERA and a WHIP of 1.465.  Still, through those two years and three teams he still kept the ball in the strike zone with a 1.9 per 9 IP final total. 

Whether it’s early season adjustments being made, ignoring advice from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner (or ineffectively executing his recommendations), the Mets pitchers ought to watch some game tapes of Colon in his Mets prime.  Somehow they have to learn the value of significantly better control if the club is going to continue attempting to win ballgames, particularly with their parallel offensive struggles.