There is no way around it: Over the past two weeks, Bartolo Colon has been dreadful.
Over that span, he has made three starts, allowing 19 runs (17 earned) on 26 hits in just 15.1 innings. His last two starts have been especially bad, with Colon allowing six and then nine runs. Last night, he went less that five innings for the first time all season.
All of this comes at a time when the Mets are barely treading water. The offense has been brutally awful, scoring more than five runs just twice since May 10, and scoring two or less in six of those 11 games. If there were a time the pitching had to step up to make up for the lack of hitting, it’s right now. That’s probably what is making fans so frustrated with Colon’s cold streak. Once a Mets pitcher gives up more than two runs, fans feel the game is basically over.
However, when you look at it objectively, there really isn’t much cause for concern with Colon. The 41 year-old has had blowups like this before, and he always bounces back.
Here’s the way I look at it: Every pitcher goes through periods where they don’t have their best control. Colon normally has impeccable control (as his 48.1 inning walkless streak would attest to), but even he goes through slumps. However, the type of pitcher that Colon has evolved into makes him far more vulnerable when he doesn’t have his control. Many of the young stud pitchers in the game, such as Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom, have electric stuff, whether their control is on or not. Both of them rank in the top ten in baseball in fastball velocity. Colon doesn’t have that. He ranks 76th in baseball (out of 109 qualified pitchers) in fastball velocity. (Ironically, Jon Niese is 14 spots below him, but he has some quality secondary pitches). When Harvey is tired or doesn’t have it, he can crank it up and blow a 98 mile per hour fastball past a hitter. Colon’s only weapon is his control, which, when on is fantastic, but it also slumps. When Colon’s control is gone, he might as well be a soft-tossing minor leaguer without any real breaking pitches.
When Colon is on, he is arguably one of the best in baseball. That sounds crazy, but it’s true. Last season, Colon went seven innings or more in 18 of his 31 starts, or 58 percent. Before falling to injury in 2013, Harvey’s same percentage was just three points higher at 61 percent. For comparison, here’s a look at how the rest of the staff fares in that department:
This is where Colon is unappreciated by Mets fans. Fans will look at his overall numbers from this year and last year and see a mediocre pitcher when in fact, the chances of him going out there and dominating a game are similar to Matt Harvey’s chances, as ridiculous as that sounds. However, because he has very little to fall back on, when he isn’t on top of his control, he is terrible. There isn’t really a middle ground either.
While is is definitely frustrating to see a pitcher take a team with an already-struggling offense out of the game so early, a stretch like this hardly means Colon is done.
