New York Mets right-hander, Jacob deGrom took the no-decision in Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies. He pitched 6.1 innings, while allowing three runs on four hits. DeGrom both walked and struck out three batters, he still is not feeling comfortable on the mound as he tries to regain his star form.
“I’m still not feeling very comfortable on the mound,” deGrom said. “My front side is still not getting up where I want it to. But I kept us in that ballgame. That was my main goal. They say this is a pretty tough place to pitch, but overall I felt decent.”
Although he feels he had struggled so far this year, and has not been where he would like to be, his numbers are not terrible. DeGrom is 3-1 on the year with a 2.50 ERA, his WHIP stands at 1.19. Jacob though has seemed to have the need to gut through every performance so far this year, as he has not had his best stuff;
“When I go out there, I go out there with what I’ve got,” deGrom said. “During the game, you can’t think about it too much. You take what you’ve got out there and do what you can with it. That’s kind of what I did today. My secondary pitches weren’t great. They were hitting some balls hard right at people. I got fortunate there.”
The biggest concern for many this season, has been the dip in velocity of deGrom’s fastball. It is currently averaging 2-3 MPH off from where it was last season.
Jacob though seems to be trending in the right direction, as baseball analyst, Mike Petriello tweets out in the following chart that tracks deGrom’s velocity so far this season.
As fun as it probably is for Mets fans to panic about DeGrom's velocity, signs are headed in the right direction: pic.twitter.com/87ERmnvdX1
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) May 13, 2016
All this said, deGrom has been able to keep his team in just about every game he has pitched this season. Jacob is a true pitcher, even when not having his greatest stuff, he’s been able to go out there and do a good enough job to put the team in a position to win.
If his velocity continues to tick upwards, he could be on track to getting back into the top caliber form we’ve come to expect from him. At the same time it is somewhat unsettling to hear both deGrom and Matt Harvey tell the media that they are uncomfortable on the mound in the space of one week.
