For a story in Friday’s Post, we attempted to place the Mets’ young starting pitching trio of Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard in historical context.
I found it interesting that the threesomes working for the 2003 Cubs, 2010 Giants and 2001-02 Athletics didn’t stick together for the bulk of their careers — unlike Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, who shared Braves roster spots for 10 years, 1993-2002, with only Smoltz experiencing any turbulence (he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2000 and then became Atlanta’s closer) — and those trios didn’t sustain for disparate reasons. So I focused on that.
What also stood out to me and the people I interviewed, though, was how much deGrom, Harvey and Syndergaard stand out just for how hard they throw.
“There’s definitely a difference in styles,” longtime A’s general manager Billy Beane said, in comparing Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito to the current Mets. “The Mets guys are pure, dominant, power guys who can overwhelm you with your fastball. Our guys all had good arms. They were sort of technicians, to some extent.
“Mulder could sit you up and sit you down in an hour and 40 minutes. Barry had that big curveball. Hudson had the power sinker, the split-finger and changeup.
“Physically, the Mets guys are right out of the power-pitcher handbook. Timmy was 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds. He was a little whippet. Mulder was 6-foot-5 and angular. Barry was more classic. They had very different styles than the Mets’ group. They’re power guys you can see doing that just with the fastball. Our guys struck out a lot of guys, but they were just great pitchers in terms of their ability to mix things up.”
Those comments prompted me to use FanGraphs’ leaderboards to determine where the Mets rank this year in fastball velocity. When you adjust the minimum innings pitched from “qualified” (one inning per team’s game played) to 90, to get Syndergaard and his 94 2/3 innings in there, you see Syndergaard (96.9 mph), Harvey (96.0) and deGrom (94.9) rank first, second and fifth in the National League in fastball velocity.
When you do the same process for 2010, you see that none of that Giants trio of Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez ranks even in the top 10. Cain shows up in 14th place (one behind the Mets’ Mike Pelfrey) at 91.6. Lincecum is 17th at 91.3 and the lefty Sanchez resides in 24th place at 90.6.
“You’ve got the guys with the Mets all throwing in the mid-90s and above,” said Giants GM Bobby Evans, who was San Francisco’s assistant GM in 2010. “These were guys 91, 92, more in the average-fastball range. These Met guys are absolutely firing bullets.”
To get some representation from the ’86 Mets, I spoke with a pitcher from that group, Ron Darling, who gets to witness the young guys up close in his role as SNY analyst. Here are a few additional thoughts from Darling that didn’t make the cut but that I nevertheless enjoyed:
“I think their talent is much higher than our talent was. That being said, we were lucky enough to play with a little better squad than they did.”
“What made the ’80s guys great is that they did it for six years. I think, from my perspective, there’s much more talent here, but they’ve got to be able to match it for six years.”
“What is happening now is, you’re getting a little of that Dwight [Gooden] feel. You had Doc and his K Corner, then the Coneheads [David Cone joined the team in 1987]. Now you’ve got deGrom with the hair, Harvey and his toughness, Syndergaard as Thor. It’s making it fun for the fans. Every night, I’m going to the Mets game, and it’s, ‘Thor’s pitching!’ or someone else. It’s superhero stuff.”
If Harvey were to read this last paragraph, he surely would remind Darling he is The Dark Knight.
This week’s Pop Quiz question came from Gary Mintz of South Huntington: In a 2015 episode of “The Goldbergs,” Barry (Troy Gentile) says his lifelong dream is to appear on a Wheaties box alongside a beloved Phillies player from the 1980s. Name the player.
The Pop Quiz answer is Pete Rose.
If you have a tidbit that connects baseball to popular culture, please send it to me at [email protected].