The more I watch Noah Syndergaard throw, the more I understand the organization’s nurturing of the 22-year-old mutant since they acquired him in winter of 2012 from Toronto. His development, although frustrating at times, is paramount to the success of the franchise - forget the value he provides in a trade or how long it took him to get to the majors. The rookie has hit some rough patches this season, but he’s shown flashes of brilliance that lead scouts to believe that one day he will fulfill his potential as one of the best pitchers in baseball.
So, what makes him special? For starters, Syndergaard is a giant: he stands at 6’6” - Terry Collins says he’s 6’8” - and weighs 242 pounds. He’s also a weightlifting enthusiast and is capable of squatting 455 pounds and deadlifting upward of 500. His nickname is “Thor,” appropriately, and he names his gloves after fictional characters - “Drago,” “Heisenberg” and “Rick Grimes,” for example (for now, it’s consequently called “Thor”). He has possibly the strongest arm for a starting pitcher in the game, and flirts with triple digits on the radar gun on a regular basis.
“That s--- ain’t fair,” said one Miami Marlin after facing Syndergaard during Spring Training this year. “They need to give us aluminum bats or something.”
What has the fan base, front office and coaching staff so excited about the right-hander is his ability to pitch and how he will only improve going forward. He has spectacular power and even possesses the strength to hit mammoth home runs - like the 430-foot blast he ripped against the Phillies in late May. Here’s a look at what makes Thor one of the most exciting prospects in the game.
All stats courtesy of Brooks Baseball.
WHAT HE THROWS:
1. Four-Seam Fastball: 98.07 mph, 38.91 percent usage, -3.15 inches horizontal movement, 9.74 inches vertical movement
Syndergaard, using his massive frame and superhuman strength, can throw the ball at breakneck speeds, with his slowest pitch being his curveball - it still comes in at around 81 mph. That’s crazy. His fastball is constantly hovering around the 96-97 zone late in games, a result of the negative effort effect - in other words, he saves the heat as the game goes on - and he has even topped out at 100 a couple of times this season. In terms of starting pitchers' velocities in the MLB, Syndergaard tops the list, and it’s not really even all that close. It’s obvious that his fastball is his favorite weapon, and even though he has a history of erratic control, it is still highly effective. However, anyone who watched him at the minor league level would realize that there hasn't been much of a shift in terms of how much he relies on the pitch. Here’s a look at 98 mph heat he struck out Khris Davis with against the Brewers in start no. 2 on a full count:
He currently uses this or his two-seam at a rate of around 63 percent, which isn't surprising considering that he almost exclusively relied on fastballs when he was in Las Vegas, oftentimes when he got behind in the count. He's been working with some of his other pitches as well lately, but it might take a while for him to ease away from fastballs. Hitters swing at it nearly 52 percent on the time and miss at about a rate of 17 percent. Even when they aren’t missing, like his most recent start against Cincinnati, he’s gotten better at keeping it down in the zone like Matt Harvey and keeps hitters frustrated. Opponents are hitting it at a clip of just .244, which is pretty impressive for a rookie. He does have better control over it than he did in Las Vegas, so expect improvement in this area.
2. Two-Seam Fastball: 97.98 mph, 24.51 percent usage, -7.24 inches horizontal movement, 8.02 inches vertical movement
In the minors, Syndergaard threw a lot of fastballs, but almost all of them were four-seamers. In fact, based on what I saw during Spring Training or simply by tracking Thor, he last used it regularly in St. Lucie, back when he was in Single-A. In the minor league system, there really wasn’t any need for him to develop another pitch - Syndergaard’s rotation of four-seams, curveballs and changeups was lethal enough to keep any opposition contained. But in late May, shortly before Syndergaard would pitch those 7.1 scoreless innings against Philadelphia, he worked with pitching coach Dan Warthen to adjust his two-seam grip and has used it fairly effectively ever since. It’s essentially become a new pitch, allegedly, as Syndergaard’s original two-seamer back from Single-A ball was really more of a dud, and now that he needs it and it’s reliable, it’s really become one of his go-to choices. Watch the movement here against Freddy Galvis after Syndergaard changed his grip:
The movement is pretty visible, even though it comes in at a blinding 98 mph, and Syndergaard was so successful with it this game that he ended up using it at a rate of around 54 percent, compared to 16 percent prior. Batters swing at Thor’s two-seamer nearly 46 percent of the time and whiff on it at a rate of close to 8 percent. Opponents are getting hits off of it one-third of the time, but that’s coupled with the pre-grip-adjustment two-seamer and shouldn’t really be considered a fair stat. It’s also generated a ground ball rate of 56.5 percent on balls in play, which is pretty impressive compared to a typical two-seamer, and Syndergaard has used its speed and last-second movement to make it successful.
3. Curveball: 81.03 mph, 23.34 percent usage, 7.85 inches horizontal movement, -0.85 inches vertical movement
The curveball was Syndergaard’s third-best pitch, according to him in 2012, but he does throw it at a pretty frequent rate now. To be fair to his claim, it was heavily criticized when he was still developing, but there’s been obvious improvement since. Syndergaard has gotten better over the course of the season with his pitches, so it shouldn’t be all that surprising as it develops further. Terry Collins calls it the "Hook from Hell." Here’s a curve from Syndergaard, who makes Carlos Gomez’s helmet fall off:
GIF courtesy of Rich Macleod, MLB.com
GIF courtesy of Rich Macleod, MLB.com
4. Changeup: 88.94 mph, 12.08 percent usage, -8.83 inches horizontal movement, 4.96 inches vertical movement
When he was still a prospect in the Blue Jays’ system, Syndergaard told reporters that he liked to keep his changeup around 84 mph. Well, things have changed. It now comes in around 89, and if it didn't have any movement, someone could probably mistake it for a fastball pretty easily (that's faster than Bartolo Colon's current fastball, by the way). In the process of mastering his curveball, Syndergaard lost focus on his changeup, but it’s working its way back up. Against Toronto last month, when he went six innings and struck out 11 batters, he was primarily successful because of his changeup. This is Syndergaard striking out Nick Ahmed with an 88 mph changeup:
Syndergaard still can go back to his tendency of throwing mostly fastballs, but has looked more balanced and confident with different pitches as of late, especially when he's behind in the count. His success with the heater and the curve have been enough to dominate in Triple-A, but he'll need to get his changeup to an above-average level if he ever wants to be in the upper tier of pitchers. The major issue with Syndergaard’s changeup now is the fact that there isn’t really much consistent movement (this is hard to justify with that GIF above, but it really can get flat) and his delivery is a little unorthodox. When he throws it, there have been tendencies to slow down his motions, which is concerning, but something that he should be easily able to figure out.
5. Slider: 87.28 mph, 1.16 percent usage, 2.87 inches horizontal movement, 4.01 inches vertical movement
I’m not going to spend much time on the slider here, mainly because Syndergaard has only thrown it around 10 times this season. It’s still a relatively new pitch, and it could technically be described as more of a hard cutter. As he spends more time in the offseason honing his repertoire, it seems inevitable that he’ll continue to build it up. Looking forward to it.
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To be fair, Syndergaard has performed pretty well this season under the circumstances (3-4, 3.59 ERA), although all of his impressive starts have been at Citi Field - each of his losses (Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and San Diego) have come on the road. He also has two double-digit strikeout games, although one came against the Padres in which he allowed 10 hits. Another area of concern for Syndergaard is his inability to keep his pitch count down. He’s only pitched eight innings once in nine starts, and that was an exception: he was dominant against Cincinnati and threw just 89 pitches (he probably would have gone the distance had it been against batters other than Todd Frazier, Jay Bruce and Joey Votto). We'll see how he does against the Dodgers' bats tonight.
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