Monday, June 29, 2015

Steven Matz's arrival, and why the Mets still need to be worried


OK, let’s be clear: by no means does this make the Mets immune to their previous concerns. They are not a powerhouse offensive team, they do not have an all-star defense and they still have a shortage of talent across the field.

But it’s a start.

Steven Matz was called up last week and made his MLB debut yesterday, going 7 ⅔ innings and allowing five hits, two runs, three walks and striking out six. Matz flashed a 96-mph fastball and countered with a sweeping curveball that devastated Reds hitters all game. After allowing a solo shot to Brandon Phillips (also known as Mets killer; he has hit safely in each of the 32 games the teams have played), Matz settled down and dominated a very good Cincinnati lineup. The most notable moment appeared to be the end of the top of the seventh, when Matz struck out Joey Votto and fans thought he was done for the day.

That is, until he came back out for the eighth, quickly got two outs and was replaced by Carlos Torres after a two-out walk. He threw 110 pitches, which was nine more than his previous season-high, and left to a standing ovation from a Mets crowd that he was part of as a child - he grew up just 50 miles away in Stony Brook, Long Island.

More notable, however, was Matz’s day at the plate, a 3-for-3 performance that kicked off with a two-run double and culminated with a liner over Phillips’ head that drove another two runs in. Matz was batting .304 in Triple-A, but no one expected that.

“I love hitting,” he said after the game. “I don’t like to be an easy out up there as a pitcher.”

Matz comes as a highly-regarded prospect, a 24-year-old who was drafted with the 72nd overall pick in 2009 and spent three years until coming back from Tommy John surgery. He swiftly moved through the farm system and dominated Triple-A this year in a hitter-friendly league, posting a league-high 2.19 ERA and striking out 94 batters in just over 90 innings. Las Vegas manager Wally Backman allegedly told Terry Collins that Matz was bored in Triple-A.

None of this matters now, of course, as Matz is simply the final piece in what should be arguably the best rotation in baseball. He joins Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler (who will return next summer) as a five-headed monster full of young guns. For the next two seasons, at least, until Harvey becomes a free agent, the Mets might even have the potential to produce one of the best starting rotations in history.

However, there are still glaring concerns, starting with the fact that despite scoring seven runs in Matz’s debut, the Mets scored just 15 in their previous 10 games, and four of the seven runs they scored were driven in by their starting pitcher. They’re expecting Daniel Murphy back against the Cubs on Tuesday, but there are still huge concerns - Lucas Duda and Michael Cuddyer have fallen off a cliff, Ruben Tejada and Wilmer Flores are inconsistent as ever and Juan Lagares and Kevin Plawecki aren’t producing, either.

There is small comfort in the fact that Curtis Granderson is having his best stretch as a member of the Mets, slugging five home runs in his last eight games and batting well over .400 during that stretch (an eight-game hitting streak included). However, the rest of the lineup remains a concern, and Granderson’s hot streak should not excuse his below-average defense that has cost the Mets in games.

But for now, the Mets are three games over .500 and just three games behind the Nationals for the division lead. They do, however, have a brutal stretch coming up and need to provide this star-studded pitching cast some runs. We’ll see how things turn out.

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