Adam Rubin of ESPN New York reported this morning that Matt Harvey will begin his launch off the mound today at the Mets facilities in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The organization continues to follow the rehabilitation process with precise caution as Harvey only threw off of the slope of a mound Friday and today is taking the official launch- semantics I suppose. “It’s like the official day”, Harvey noted.
Rubin also stated that, although Harvey won’t pitch in the majors this year, he’ll see action in “less intense” settings such as the fall instructional league out of Florida and the same Arizona Fall League the he was initially set to rehab his torn UCL out of prior to getting TJ surgery.
I like that Matt won’t let go of the idea of pitching at least once this year, while I agree with the organizational approach to his rehabilitation, I admire his tenacity. Keep chugging Matt.
Thoughts from Joe D.
Apparently, Matt Harvey was supposed to pitch off a mound for the first time today and not last Friday. But Harvey didn’t see it that way and decided Friday would be the day. While the confusion was apparent among Mets brass after Harvey’s bullpen session, they scrambled and made sure the message was consistent and uniform by the time the beat writers came along.
I love Harvey. He believes in himself and he believes in his teammates. He has enough confidence and swagger to go around for the entire team. He’s that rare superstar that has the personality and cockiness to match. He’s strong-willed and maybe too much so for a vanilla-flavored franchise like the Mets, and therein lies the problem. The Mets want their players to toe the company line 24/7 and follow the script. Then along comes someone as refreshing, independent and dynamic as Harvey and they don’t know how to deal with him. They don’t know how to package him and market him because he prefers to be unbound and unleashed. Most teams would see the greatness in this and embrace it, but the Mets are too often behind the curve on things like this.
