Tagged: Noah Syndergaard

Bartolo Colon waddles his way into many a Mets fan’s heart.

Listed at a ludicrous 285 pounds, besides a short stint as a Montreal Expo, Bartolo Colon has spent nearly his entire 17-year career in the American League, garnering 10 hits over 106 career plate appearances during that time. Thanks to the Mets somehow reaching out of the Wilpon Financial Quagmire of Despair (S/O to Jonah Keri) though – the team dangerously handing Colon a two-year $20 million deal to pitch in a city known for it’s cheesecake – the jolly fellow who Tristan H. Cockcroft alleges to steal from the buffet will be forced to come to the plate every fifth day now he’s finally in the NL.

Last night the 40-year-old made his Mets debut against the Washington Nationals. On the boring side of the Bartolo Colon Experience, he allowed three runs on nine hits in six innings in a 5-1 loss to an impressive Washington squad*. The real fun would occur when his spot in the lineup came up – in BFBC’s first trip to the dish at Citi Field, this happened:

One at-bat into his Senior Circuit tenure, and a tremendous Colon meme was spawned; there was the simple Tee Ball photoshop, Colon the fisherman/swimmer, and Bartolo at the Oscars. Naturally too, there were more lewd incarnations.

Unfortunately his debut plate appearance as a Met would ultimately end in a broken bat liner straight to Nats second baseman Anthony Rendon, who calmly threw to first for the  4-3 putout – not that he especially had to hurry. Colon running out grounders might be even more amusing than his taking a ball; Bartolo laughed his way up the first base line, wobbling all the way.

It almost goes without saying that Colon struck out in his only other at bat of the night.

While it remains to be seen if the 5’11 round mound of (Biogenesis tainted) Colon can be a decent substitute for Matt Harvey, a de facto ace of staff while Noah Syndergaard starts the year in the minors and Zack Wheeler cuts his teeth at the ML level, Colon’s hacks will provide ample entertainment in what could be another long year for the Mets.

And when he finally sneaks a ball through into the outfield, you can be sure there will be a post celebrating the occasion.

*including a home run to his opponent on the mound, Gio Gonzalez.

It’s obvious right? It’s Xander Bogaerts.

As previously detailed in my case for Noah Syndergaard, I’ll occasionally be interspersing my usual content with my (probably misguided) award predictions for the upcoming season. Today marks the next installment pertaining to my poor judgement – it’s time for an AL ROY pick. Let’s just say it isn’t quite the dark horse equivalent to my NL selection…

Brian Cashman only projects his Japanese import to be a third starter, despite Masahiro Tanaka’s Spring Training so far. Jose Abreu might hit 30 home runs, but he may also struggle to just make contact. Houston’s stud outfielder George Springer will similarly come up with nothing but air far too many times. Taijuan Walker already has shoulder soreness. Kyle Zimmer may not get an opportunity to crack the Royals’ rotation, especially if Ervin Santana returns. I briefly flirted with the idea of Nick Castellanos, but let’s face it –  there can only really be one AL ROY. It’s obviously Xander Bogaerts.

It’s not often that a player can boast about being a key cog on a World Series champion one year while still retaining his rookie eligibility for the next, but the no. 2 prospect in all of baseball can. The fact that Bogaerts only flashed his potential in his major-league cameo too, yet still drew rave reviews for his performance, should have the rest of the AL East on notice. As assessed by Marc Hulet of Fangraphs, the Aruba native “could be a perennial all-star at either shortstop or third base for years to come in Boston.”

The then-20 year old earned his one-way ticket to Fenway Park on the back of his combining to accrue an .865 OPS between Double-A and Triple-A in 2013. He played sparingly during the regular season however, appearing in only 18 games and hitting .250/.320/.364 over 50 plate appearances. Then came October. Despite his youth, Bogaerts was asked to take over as Boston’s starting third baseman in the middle of the ALCS, and took full advantage of the opportunity; as put by Baseball Prospectus “he looked like a veteran of huge, high-leverage, bright-spotlight moments when it counted, drawing key walks and scoring runs when the Red Sox needed them most.” And if their testimony to his precocious ability to belie his years weren’t enough, just ask Max Scherzer about his already incredible approach at the plate.

At 6’3 and 185 lbs, Bogaerts is bigger than the traditional shortstop, but with Boston’s apparent lack of interest in re-signing Stephen Drew, that will be the position he plays everyday in 2014, with Will Middlebrooks back manning third. By all accounts, his defense will be at least average for the position, with his offense primed to set him apart from his shortstop peers. Dubbed by Keith Law to be “Troy Tulowitzki with a little less arm”, Fangraphs judged his approach to be advanced for age. Similarly, in their Top 100 Prospects write-up, MLB.com assessed of Bogaerts’ offensive skills “He uses his smooth, balanced swing to make hard contact and drive the ball to all fields. He has big raw power and already knows how to use it.” So while it may be hard for him to replicate the .893 OPS he put up during the postseason, it’s neither an unattainable target for the young star to strive for in his first full season. To put it plainly, such a mark will likely be the regulation mark for Bogaerts in the future should he continue adeptly handling the heightened competition – an adaptation he has made successfully at every stop of his professional career so far.

Projected to begin the season hitting seventh in a potent Red Sox lineup, and with no competition (yet) for his position, Bogaerts has a great opportunity to accrue the sort of counting stats (RBIzzzzzz!) ROY voters traditionally love. His being on a nationally recognized, winning team too will only further bolster his case, setting him apart from most of his fellow junior circuit rookies. The award is his to lose at this point, at least in my opinion. Now, if we had to choose where Bogaerts will rank among Boston’s best hitters by seasons end – that’s a question worth debating. For the record, give me somewhere among David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia on the Red Sox podium.

Did I mention this guy is 21?

The case for Noah Syndergaard.

While Spring Training lingers on for the next three weeks or so, I’ll every now and then be interspersing my usual content with award predictions for the 2014 season. Today marks the first such instance of my forecasting, as I plump for a relative outsider in the National League ROY race.

Boy was 2013 a doozy of a year for exciting rookies joining the Senior Circuit; in terms of hitters there was the indomitable Yasiel Puig, overshadowing key contributors such as Jed Gyorko and Nolan Arenado, whereas on the pitching side of things, Shelby Miller, Julio Teheran, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Gerrit Cole all built strong enough cases to claim the award in any other year but for one including the dominant eventual winner – the Marlins’ Jose Fernandez. The 2014 class too, looks like a heated debate waiting to happen; aside from the (currently-blocked) future stars Archie Bradley and Oscar Taveras, names such as Billy Hamilton, Kolten Wong, Kris Bryant, Chris Owings, even Eddie Butler, are waiting in the wings themselves ready to break out. Somewhere in the middle of those two echelons though, is my favorite – the New York Mets’ top prospect, Noah Syndergaard.

Packaged to New York alongside catcher Travis d’Arnaud in exchange for R.A. Dickey prior to the 2013 season, the 6’6 righty simply destroyed the minors in his first year as a member of the Mets organization. Behind – as Baseball Prospectus so aptly put it – “his ungodly K/BB numbers” (he struck out 133 batters in 117.2 innings, walking just 28 along the way), Syndergaard blazed through a season in which he spent time at Single-A, but ultimately finished at Double-A Binghamton. With a “plus-plus fastball that he can throw to a teacup” (H/T to BP again) that regularly flirted with triple digits, a curveball that manager Terry Collins has already dubbed the “hook from hell”, and a potentially plus change up too, the Texas native oozes ace potential – something that has not gone amiss so far this spring.

When Baseball Prospectus wrote “He could probably do a decent Matt Harvey impression at the major-league level right now,” even after his supreme 2013 showing, I was skeptical; the 21 year old hadn’t thrown a single pitch in Triple-A after all. Then came Monday, and his Spring Training debut, after which I quickly changed my mind. In his first Grapefruit League game against the Atlanta Braves, Syndergaard demonstrated exactly why Mets fans are dreaming of a time in the near future in which he, Matt Harvey and Zach Wheeler will all simultaneously occupy the same rotation. He pitched two innings of scoreless ball, striking out both Jason Heyward and Evan Gattis with 98mph fastballs, giving up a solitary single to Ryan Doumit, and generally looked at ease against big-league opposition. When Terry Collins said afterwards “he’s on track to be special,” he wasn’t wrong – Syndergaard is going to be great. When the Mets allow him to be so however, is the question crucial to his ROY case.

The timetable for Syndergaard’s arrival will presumably be much akin to the paths taken by Matt Harvey and Zach Wheeler to The Show; both were delayed somewhat by the Mets’ willingness to delay the inevitable ticking of their respective service time clocks, and were brought up only once their addition wouldn’t cause further financial damage to a low-payroll squad rocked by the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme scandal. With Jonathon Niese, Bartolo Colon, Zack Wheeler, Dillon Gee, and Jenrry Mejia all healthy so far – the likelihood of Syndergaard being taken back north at the end of the month would appear to be slim; he’d instead spend until late June or even July at Triple-A Las Vegas waiting for his Super-2 eligibility to expire, and spend only a half-season in the majors. Typically, that’s not going to be long enough to stake a legitimate ROY case, no matter how good you are.

However, the reports of Mets GM Sandy Alderson’s internal staff meeting might have ramifications that would see their top prospect arrive sooner rather than later; as John Harper of the Daily News pointed out, “if Alderson really thinks this team is capable of winning 90 games, Syndergaard should be up here sometime in May.” With news of his demands now public, Alderson to some extent owes it to Terry Collins (and the fans too for that matter) to provide him with the best roster possible – a prospective 25-man unit which would easily include Syndergaard. And if he is to crack the rotation early (Collins has said it “conceivable” that the 2010 draft pick makes it straight from Spring), Syndergaard’s case for ROY may well be comparable to Fernandez’s 2013 offering in terms of results.

Though it may seem that I’m banking on the aforementioned Taveras and Bradley encountering similar issues in regard to their service clocks in building my case for Syndergaard, I equally believe in the power righty’s potential. Though he may not spend the year in the majors, I’m all-aboard the hype wagon after the rave reviews he has so far drawn from teammates, managers, and opposition alike this Spring. That, and the fact that Mets fans sorely need a Matt Harvey-like feel-good story replacement to root for this year, is why I’m picking Noah Syndergaard as my 2014 National League Rookie of the Year.

Hello Baseball! The return of Reyes.

You made it! After 4 weeks, 29 teams, and countless hours spent writing when I probably should have been paying attention in class, it’s finally Day 30 of my 2014 MLB Season Preview Series. With Spring Training games well underway, I yesterday detailed the alternative options vying for a back-end spot in Texas’ already injury-riddled rotation. Today though, a team which suffered from more injuries than most in 2013 is on the clock; it’s (somewhat obviously via simple deduction) the last team of the alphabetical AL, the Toronto Blue Jays, who will be looking to rebound in 2014 behind healthier showings from their top talent.  

Ask the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles, 2012 Angels of Anaheim, or a host of other momentarily hyped, but ultimately disappointing teams. They’ll attest that a splashy offseason often doesn’t manifest itself in immediate on-field results, a cruel fact that last season the Toronto Blue Jays unfortunately learned the hard way. After seemingly taking advantage of Miami’s fire sale to acquire Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, and Jose Reyes, they parted with top prospects Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud in order to nab NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey from the Mets, and rounded out their offseason by inking NL batting champ and All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera to a two-year, $16-million contract. With a presumably wide open AL East ripe for the taking, and tipped for much more than simply a division crown, Toronto improved their lowly 2012 record by a measly one game, finishing 74-88 and in last place.

But as is often the case when considering lost seasons, injuries lay at the heart of Toronto’s struggles. Per Baseball Prospectus, the team ranked 29th in days lost to the DL (1449 in total), a figure only exacerbated by the quality of those players who went down; Franchise centerpiece Jose Bautista suffered a twisted ankle on just April 4th, and saw his season end in mid-August after being shut down with an ailing hip. Promising center fielder Colby Rasmus finally experienced a pseudo-breakout, but only garnered 417 at-bats, missing time with an oblique strain, and late in September, a case of takingaballtotheface-itis. New addition Josh Johnson made only 16 starts due to a variety of injuries, though probably helped the team by his getting so many splinters from the trainers table – in his 16 starts the righty went 2-8 with a brutal 6.20 ERA. Even Edwin Encarnacion put off putting up career numbers for 20 games. Perhaps no more statistic was more telling of the Jays’ fragility than the fact that no regular played more than designated hitter/first baseman Adam Lind, who himself only appeared in 143 games. No one absence however, hurt more than that of shortstop Jose Reyes.

The prized capture of the Marlins haul, Reyes started out strong in April, even as the rest of the team foundered; entering Game 10 against the Royals on April 12th, the Dominican Republic native was raking to the tune of .395/.465/.526, and had already racked up five stolen bases. In the sixth inning however, his feet got tangled up underneath him on a further steal attempt; Reyes severely sprained his left ankle, and would miss the next 2 1/2 months. Without him, the Jays became mired in a funk; after being tapped as pre-season contenders, by the end of April alone, the team was already 9 1/2 games back of the Red Sox for first place in the AL East.

Though his replacement Munenori Kawasaki made a noticeable impact on the fans, his lack of production only highlighted the powerful absence of Reyes – both at the dish and on the left side of the infield. R.A. Dickey perhaps voiced the powerful absence of Reyes to the team best, surmising ”Imagine a car trying to start without a spark plug, that’s what it was like.” Defying medical expectation by making it back before the All-Star break however, Reyes tried his best to play catalyst to the team, but was clearly still hobbled – his lingering injury robbing him of the trademark speed that led GM Alex Anthopoulos to call the shortstop in his introductory press conference, “my favorite guy in the league to watch.”

Despite his best efforts, Reyes just wasn’t the same post-injury. Though he finished with a more than respectable (especially so given his position) slash line of .296/.353/.427, his extra-base-hit percentage (7.2 percent) was the second-lowest rate of his career with a minimum of 300 PAs. As noted by ESPN‘s Jayson Stark too, after hitting 12 triples the year prior, Reyes failed to noth a single one in his 93 games in 2013, and was beten in the category by Dillon Gee and Hyun-Jin Ryu. And though Fangraphs still pegged him as a 2.2 WAR player, both his base running and fielding value dropped off a cliff from his usual standards; perennially amongst the lead leaders in the category, Reyes stole just 15 bases on the season and was 7-for-13 in attempted steals of second post-injury – his 0.9 BRR significantly below his 4.6 BRR in 2013. Similarly, his range in the field was noticeably limited, an observation borne out in the statistics. Fangraphs rated his 2013 fielding to be —8.0 UZR/150, a substantially worse return than the -3.1/150 mark of 2012.

When told of his numerical decline last week, Reyes remarked “That wasn’t me, that was somebody else playing.” Entering the third year of a six-year, $106 million contract, the Blue Jays will need him to make good on his promise to return to full-speed – after averaging just under 110 games played per season since 2009, the soon-to-be 31 year old Reyes has vowed to play in at least 150 games this year, Rogers Centre’s artificial turf be damned. With few expectations upon them heading into 2014 after lying low through the winter, the everyday presence of their spark plug atop the lineup would certainly go a long way towards Toronto surprising some folks in 2014.

The talent is there for the Jays to make a push. It just needs to stay on the field.