During last night’s game between against the Phillies, Ron Darling lauded young starter Seth Lugo for recognizing that in order for someone to be a successful starter in the major leagues, they first have to establish their fastball in games. In Jeff Passan’s “25 Things You Didn’t Know About Baseball” piece for the Yahoo! Sports, we have learned that Bartolo Colon has taken establishing the fastball to a whole new level.
This season, Colon has thrown his fastball an amazing 89.4% of the time. That is an increase from last year when he threw it 83.8% of the time and 2014 when he threw it 82.6% of the time.
As we have seen this season, the result of Colon throwing more fastballs is him having the best year he’s ever had in a Mets uniform. This season, Colon is 14-7 with a 3.12 ERA, 1.188 WHIP, and a 129 ERA+. The wins are the second most he has had in a Mets uniform, and as it stands now, he is the Mets leader in wins. The ERA, WHIP, and ERA+ are far and away the best he has had as a Met.
Overall, it is strange to think the Mets starting staff was supposed to feature five guys throwing over 95+ MPH dominating with their fastball. Instead, it was Colon with his mid to upper 80s fastball who is getting the most out of the pitch. It’s a big reason why he’s had a terrific year and stands to be the Mets number two starter in the postseason.
