Coming off a solid two-inning performance against the Atlanta Braves in his first spring start, Noah Syndergaard drew rave reviews from Mets personnel, fans and bloggers alike. Many of those fans have begun clamoring for the young righty to begin the season in the Mets starting rotation despite the front office’s plan to wait until sometime in June or July.
In this edition of MMO Fair or Foul we feature Shannon Shark of Mets Police who is one such blogger that wants to see Syndergaard now. Shannon emphatically states that he should be in the rotation and that Sandy Alderson needs to put all excuses aside and make this happen.
Mets fans have been told for several years now that the future was coming. Just let us get past this Madoff stuff. Just let us get past whatever we want to blame Omar for. Just let us get past the Bay and Santana contracts. Just let us get past the debt refinancing. It is time to play baseball. Real baseball. 90 win baseball, right Fred?
He likens this season and the situation to 1984 when the Mets brought up a 19-year old Dwight Gooden and how it led to one of the most exciting eras in team history. He words his final plea as follows:
Don’t worry if this costs you a few bucks next decade. Tomorrow never comes. Harvey Day isn’t coming at all this year. You jumped halfway in the pool with Granderson and Colon….let’s get wet….start your best 5 pitchers. Time to get serious. Excuses are over. Put Syndergaard on the team. And that 1984 team I mentioned? 90 wins. Your move Sandy.
I’m as excited about Syndergaard as anybody else. I love Thor’s makeup, composure, and his incredibly high ceiling. And it’s because of those things that I feel we need to exercise a little more patience with him than you would a fringe prospect. Syndergaard hasn’t even tossed a pitch above Double-A yet and even his time in Binghamton was just a partial season.
One other problem is that this isn’t just about saving the Mets some money down the road. There is the matter of team control which may be even more important. Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors, pointed out something this week that really jumped out at me.
Marlins gave up rights to Jose Fernandez's age 26 season (2019) so he could throw five additional innings for them in 2013 (Apr 7 debut).
— timdierkes (@timdierkes) March 6, 2014
I would hate to see the Mets make the same mistake as the Marlins did with their phenom, and lose Syndergaard to free agency one year sooner than we have to.
It would be unwise of this front office to give in to an impatient fan base and lose an extra year of control on our number one prospect. Heck, it would be unwise to rush him to the majors before we even know if he’s ready anyhow. There’s no reason why he can’t make a few starts in Las Vegas with Frank Viola there to mentor him.
Quite frankly, haven’t we already had our fill of GM’s that made bad decisions because they pandered to the fan base? Do we really want to go down that road again?
Let Syndergaard go to Triple-A and develop further. Let him go to Las Vegas and work on that changeup – which is the one pitch he’ll need to compliment his fastballs and breaking pitch if he is to become the ace we all believe he can be.
Sandy needs to make the smart move here, and knowing that he has his eye on the big picture, that’s exactly what I know he will do.
But what do you think? Do you agree with Mets Police? If Syndergaard has a lights-out Spring Training do you want to see him on the Opening Day roster and say the heck with his age 27 season? Fair or Foul?
By the way, Syndergaard gets the assignment today against the Detroit Tigers in a 1:05 PM start. However this game will not be broadcast on radio or TV.
Photo by Rob Foldy, Getty Images.
