New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey made his 2018 spring debut on Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves allowing one run in two innings and striking out two.
The outing impressed former long-time Braves manager and now special adviser to the GM, Bobby Cox.
Cox talked Kevin Kernan of the New York Post about what he saw from Harvey, “The velocity and where he put the ball on the black, everything was good. It was a great start for me to see that, very, very impressive.”
Harvey threw 38 pitches in those two innings while hitting 96 MPH on the gun. He struck out the Braves top prospect Ronald Acuna and their star first baseman Freddie Freeman in the first inning.
Cox, who has managed his fair share of great pitchers including the Hall of Fame trio of Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, liked what he saw from Harvey, “He looked like the old Harvey for me. He looked like a No. 1. The velocity was really good. He’s in great shape. He looked super.”
Several scouts at the game also said that the gun was slow on Wednesday at Champion Stadium and that Harvey was actually throwing harder than the 96 MPH that he posted once.
It’s not just Harvey that Cox likes, he thinks the Mets have a chance in the NL East because of their pitching staff, “The Mets have a great chance. The Nationals are tough, no doubt, but those guys with the Mets are nasty. You’ve got five No. 1s, how many teams have that?”
