19
2012
Is Matt Harvey A Cy Young Contender In 2013?
An article by 
Our own Craig Lerner came up with several bold predictions of his own last week, so I thought I would throw my own into the mix.
We saw the triumphant debut of the Mets 2010 1st-round draft pick Matt Harvey, providing one of very few bright spots in an otherwise dreary second half of the 2012 season. He came up and looked like the pitcher we have been told about, and in many cases dreamed about. Pitching to a 2.73 ERA, the same exact figure of teammate and likely Cy Young award-winner R.A. Dickey, Harvey was absolutely dominant. Now that the allure of a rookie campaign is over, we have to wonder if we can expect such a high level of performance from Harvey for years to come.
My answer to that question is yes. In the 10 starts he had in 2012, I don’t believe everyone realizes just how solid Harvey was. In addition to the fantastic ERA, the rookie had 70 punchouts in only 59.1 innings pitched, that’s a 10.6 SO/9!
Could Harvey be in the mix for the Cy Young Award in 2013?
He didn’t necessarily rack up the win totals hoped for going 3-5, however you could target most of the blame on the absence of any offensive production on the part of the Mets lineup. In many cases, Harvey had to provide his own offense! In the 21 times Matt Harvey stepped up to the plate, his OPS of .778 was only eclipsed by David Wright and Scott Hairston.
When I was in the press conference at Citi Field prior to Matt Harvey’s final start of the year, Terry Collins was asked what he wanted from Harvey this winter, he replied: ”Nothing, all I want from him is not to get hurt.”
Then went on to label Harvey a “consistent winner”. Hmm, ‘consistent‘ and ‘winner‘, haven’t seen much of either from many Mets over the past four years.
To give you an idea of just how good Matt Harvey was in his rookie campaign, I stretched his stats out for you over a full season and compared them to those of R.A. Dickey’s.
The major factor for Matt Harvey of course would be actually putting these numbers up over the course of a full season and not just ten starts. However if he can maintain his level of play from 2012 and continue it throughout 2013, the Cy Young would not be out of his grasp. He is a gamer, someone who much like Ike Davis, has a fire under him and is someone who cannot stand the idea of losing and someone I truly believe will indeed be in the mix for the Cy Young award come summer 2013.
Not only that, but picture a rotation with Dickey and Harvey pitching at this level at the top of the rotation.
…Oh wait we don’t have to picture it anymore, it’s no longer a fantasy…It’s here.
About the Author: Clayton Collier
Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com
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This can’t be serious…
sorry Clayton, but I have to second Mitch’s comment……your joking right?????
Well he certaily has the skills to do it but I don’t see it happening that quickly.
Yes he did really well but we need to take into account how long and when he actually pitched to get those numbers and that there really wasn’t enough time for batters to figure him out to force him to make an adjustment.
That will happen at some point next year for him and I have a high confidence that he will overcome it when it does.
The Stuff aside the guy has the makeup to be a great pitcher, I see a lot of Seaver in him in regards to approach and confidence. You can’t teach that!
So yes he will get a Cy Young one day but I doubt highly it’s next year.
Please. Are you kidding me? THE KID CAN BARELY WALK IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES.
Please….. we’ve learned and we’re so much better to think that the small sample size he gave us will translate over the full season.. He is a rookie and will have his growing pains.
I would be perfectly content with a Jon Niese-esque season. 13-9 with a 370 era and more strikeouts than innings pitched… I would love that. But CY YOUNG? Come on lets temper expectations here because if we don’t we’ll be setting him up to fail.
Come on Clayton.. you’re better than that
A better article would have been can Harvey and Niese shortly down the road become Seaver and Koosman revisted? Wheeler lets wait and see.
Well, while i think he has the potential, next year is too soon. I hope he does become our ace already, but in order to win games you gotta have a good team or a t least a well enough team behind you, our defense is suspect at best, our offense sucks, our bullpen will probably blow a ton of games for him, so i highly doubt next year he’ll break out the way we’d expect him to break out.. all eyes on 2014 though. Him and Zack Wheeler along with Niese and maybe Gee and Familia can be a good rotation if we build the right way around Ike Davis..
Oh brother. I just had this discussion with Hitman in the Shoutbox a day or two ago.
Stop looking at Harvey’s ten starts as some sort of indicator of things to come.
Nobody loves Harvey more than me. In December 2010 I predicted he’d breeze through AA in 2011, starts 2012 in AAA and make his major league debut later that season. I said that before he tossed his first professional pitch.
That said, looking at Harvey or any rookie pitcher’s first ten games as what’s in store for the future is preposterous.
How does the Mets offense do whenever they face a new rookie for the first time whether he’s a top prospects or some minor league journeyman. What happens? Normally we get shutout.
There was no book on Harvey. Other teams did not know how to approach him. They will in 2013 and the question will be can he adjust. He has a long road ahead of him and right now Jon Niese is more valuable than Harvey is until he proves otherwise.
Wait a second, in clayton’s defense the CORE will say something, just after 24 starts in the majors TIM LINCECUM became the 2008 AND 2009 Cy Young winner.. Harvey showed domninant stuff just as lincecum did in his rookie year… while harvey only pitched in 10 games he was a good pitcher in the minors and deserve this type of articles… HEre’s lincecum and Harvey’s #’s between the majors and the minors
Lincecum : 30 GS 11-5 3.48 176.1 IP 196 K 134 Hits 76 BB 1.26 WHIP
Harvey: 30 GS 10-10 3.3.35 169.1 182 K 139 Hits 74 BB 1.38 WHIP
Why not be optimistic like clayton is here? It can happen you know, need i mention Dwight Gooden to some of you mets fans?? I rather see a post about a met player anyday instead of the crap we’ve been put to read about sandy alderson having a good day, needing to apologize to billy beane and how now we should emulate the detroit tigers… You guys need to be at some point be more positive.. But hey, clayton, i’m sure you’d get more supporters if instead of harvey this post would’ve been about zack wheeler SMGDH
We’re Mets fans. We are set up for failure. Lincecum and Gooden are the exceptions… not the rule. Sadly, we have come to expect utter failure ala Generation K or some sort of thing like that. It’s just how it is…
There is nothing wrong with optimism. This is beyond optimistic. It’s the scene is Spaceballs when Lord Helmet wanted to jump directly to ludicrous speed. Clayton has gone to plaid.
Beyond optimistic? why mitch?? This is a met fan writing an article about one of the few positive we have to look forward for next year.. And to be honest. a lot of us pick this kid to be the best SP out of the familia, wheeler and harvey pitching staff… Not sure why the need to pick on clayton just because he’s been positive.. again, for all we know, Harvey can be the best mets pitcher by MAY.. He’s got DOMINANT stuff, that helps pitchers win games. i don’t see the crazyness in the article
I Get that, but no need to attack the writer just because of that.. He presented very good points and unless we get to next season there’s no reason for him or anyone to think harvey can not even be better than he was this year.. For all we know he can become our ace by MAY!!! and be in top 10 CY contenders…
I suppose anyone of the league’s pitchers that earn one of the starting 5 spots on the 15 teams is a Cy Young candidate. Let’s take a deep breath on Harvey – yes, his debut was even better than expected, and he has a shot at being an ace-level pitcher, but let’s give the guy a little more slack as the league starts to see more of him and the MLB adrenaline wears off a little.
“Our own Craig Lerner came up with several bold predictions of his own last week, so I thought I would throw my own into the mix.”
I understand the boldness of my prediction, however breakouts like this happen. I also did not say he would win it, I said would contend.
2011, anyone predict the year out of Ian Kennedy?
Or how about this past year with Chris Sale, Lance Lynn and Wade Miley.
Breakout years where young players turn into Cy Young contenders happen more than you would think, and I’m predicting Matt Harvey will be one if them in 2013.
Now those are solid points. You should have used those points in the article to further back up your prediction. When you base your Cy Young predictions on how he performed in 2012 alone, it isn’t a very strong argument.
And if you want to take the situational into account here you could say that Harvey has as much chance of being in the Cy Young as Gio has of repeating…
He benefitted from being on a good team and moving to the NL where no one had seen him pitch before….
Next year he won’t have that advantage and could get hit a lot more now that they have seen him for a season.
Well, if we’re going to think, why not think big?
Juan Centeno will win a Gold Glove next year…
why do you love centeno so much?
Well i love catchers that can throw out opposing base-stealers…that have a half-decent bat…and are 22 years old..
if its Juan Centeno or Kai G or anyone…i like em…
I liked Thole too…but in my opinion…he should’ve taken his defense more seriously in the 2010 winter…
i know the ramos kidnapping in venenzuela probably spooked him…but still…thats no excuse…he could’ve gone to Arizona, PR, DR, Mexico….
for a guy who did not start off as a catcher, i felt he was too green to take the foot off the gas pedal
No he’s not…so dumb
Jaun Centeno is horrible. He sucks. Do you even know why only five people, including you, have heard of him? Because he stinks. He’s a step below Thole with a bat and that speaks volumes. Thole batted around .300 since practically low A ball and he’s being taken to the dungeon and tortured in the majors. Centeno couldn’t hit the floor if he tripped and you think he’s an answer?
There’s a reason he’s not considered a Mets top twenty prospect….because he’s at about number 52 right now. If the Mets offered him to the Yanks for A-Rod strait up, while also agreeing to pay his remaining salary, Cashman would ask for Andres Torres instead. That’s how bad he is.
So go finds some stats that showed he batted .312 in low A ball and come back to me trying to prove he’s got some worth, but just know…even Jaun Centeno thinks your crazy.
i agree completely, but he did actually hit 312.
Yadier Molina also hit .275 with 2 HR in AA…
as a matter of fact…
Yadi didnt hit that well until well into his MLB career…
and yet people STILL considered him the BEST catcher in baseball…
O and folks had Lastings Milledge ranked way higher than Carlos Gomez…
which one is still a starter here…
which one is in Japan…
If Kevin Plaweki cant throw out runners, doesnt distinguish him defensively and ALSO doesnt hit for monster power, he will be Aaron Heillnan’s personal catcher in the mexican league
Actually…
he hit .320 in 2010
he hit .318 in 2011
he hit .285 in 2012
And played good defense and threw runners out at an avg of 40%
what logic do you have for saying he sucks again?
other than his name not being Kevin Pawlecki ?
Juan Centeno 41%caught stealing this year and his manager and the batting coach López and Natera comments in the inside magazine said he is the most improve player in Binghamton this year and is correct he hit the ball 371 in Brooklyn middle A in 2010, 319 in St Lucie last year and 285 this year with Binghamton AA . SO I THINK THEets has to protect him this year in the 40 men roster if not ,probably other team can take him in the rule 5 and after that you are going to recognize his skills and lost a future big leaguer start catcher. 39% caught stealing avg in 6 years. AT least you are not going to see him in the prospects because his size and round , but , he is 22 and others prospects like Dock Doyle, Pena, gronauer, Cordero, Forsythe ,the mets gave them more money for sign, and now all of them are in back of him, so, the next in the list are Plawecki and Cam, or something like that, that only has 13% caught stealing . Centeno is the under dog but like David he continue killing Goliath.
At least we aren’t putting unrealistic expectations on a 23 year old with 10 major league appearances. Harvey is very good. I love him. He is not winning the 2013 Cy Young Award. As good as he is for as young as he is…he is not Gooden or Clemens. Give him a few years before we name him the best pitcher in the league.
Too early to tell. However, I can see him having a meteoric rise like Doc Gooden did in his first 3 years in the majors. Again, too early.
Are u out of material to write?
Talk about laying unwarrented pressure on the kid..
Hi Clayton,
He has great stuff and I would be shocked if good times were not in store for him and the Mets in the future but Harvey is still a baby and getting his feet wet – even though I loved the poise and emotional maturity he demonstrated last season. Give him time to develop first before raising the stakes too high – there is still the question of how much the league catches up to him this coming season.
We also have to remember that back in 2007 after just 24 innings the Yankees already reserved a spot in Cooperstown for Joba Chamberlain, let alone the Cy Young award. Fortunately, the Mets are expressing their enthusiasm in terms of hopeful optimism instead so I don’t think Matt will fall into the trap of getting caught up in believing his own press clippings. I’m more worried about that possibly happening with Zack Wheeler because the Mets have been indeed prematurely touting him as the next Tom Seaver to convince fans of Sandy Alderson’s long-term visionary genius.
I know most Mets fans have reason to be un- optimistic about 2013, but would it really kill you guys to lighten up a bit? I’m only seeing negativity in all these comments, and about what? When Harvey pitches, I get excited, and apparently Clayton does too, is that so bad? I was born in 1994, and in my tenure as a Mets fan I haven’t had too much to get excited about. And when one comes along in the form of Harvey I will get excited and think the ludacris thought that we may have a really good, and potentially elite talent in our rotation going into 2013.
So to the negative Mets fan out their, enjoy sulking and complaining about every move the Mets will and won’t make this winter. I’d rather think that things at Citi Field are going to be great in 2013
it is not all Met fan. Just that some of them are really, really insistent about harping on the negativity.
Based on his start, heck yeah you should be excited to see him pitch this year, and be excited about his potential for the future.
is it reasonable to expect a cy young this year? not logically, no. But does he have the “stuff” and upside to do it someday (and maybe even this year?) Yes he does.
so, watch him pitch and enjoy what you get. Which bottom line, is what the whole point of being a fan is!
Hi PA,
The negative reaction has little to do with Matt Harvey having the potential to turn into a great pitcher but with the question of his being a potential Cy Young Award winner in his first full year in the majors.
There is a difference. Most all of us are psyched about Harvey but are being reasonable in the understanding that things like Cy Young take time and that even if he doesn’t turn into a Cy Young candidate down the road that does not mean he can’t be a solid starter nonetheless.
I like Matt Harvey…he can be developed as an ace in the future but it’s too early to determined about his credentials as Cy Young Awards for 2013. Even he put a great numbers in 2012, he need to cut down the walk and have pitch efficiency. Again, it’s too early for contender for award but can be for future.
I don’t like how you refer to him as a gamer like Ike Davis..The Mets want to get rid of Ike because he has supposed attitude problems.. I guess being a gamer is bad for a team, for a front office that seems to want robotic players. THough I will agree with it, Like Ike, Matt, is really into the game and has a desire to win. Sadly, this fornt office seems to think fiery gamer types are bad for business.