Prospect maven John Sickels really loves righthander Noah Syndergaard, who he ranked #12 on his Top 50 Pitching Prospects list inside his 2013 Baseball Prospect Book.
He shared what he wrote about Syndergaard on his site Minor League Ball this morning:
Noah Syndergaard is one of my very favorite prospects. A supplemental first round pick in 2010 from high school in Texas, he’s thrived thus far in pro ball, generating very enthusiastic scouting reports to go along with excellent statistics. Syndergaard has a 92-98 MPH sinking fastball that gets on top of hitters quickly. He picks up a lot of grounders (2.16 GO/AO), while maintaining a strong strikeout rate (122/31 K/BB in 104 innings in Low-A, just 81 hits). He’s developed a very good changeup, and I think his curveball is underrated. He commands all three pitches well, shows positive mound presence, and seems like he will be durable. The Blue Jays have managed his workload well. Assuming no injuries or weird command slippages, Syndergaard can develop into a number two starter. I really like him. He was traded to the Mets in the R.A. Dickey deal. Grade A-
“The knock on Syndergaard has always been his breaking ball, which needed a lot of tightening, ” says Sickels. But he adds that in the second half of last season he saw much improvement. He admits that he likes the new Mets addition better than most, and that other sources don’t share the same enthusiasm, and mentions that Baseball America has Syndergaard ranked at #54 due to concerns about the righthander’s secondary pitches not being very impressive.
To see a video of Syndergaard, check out SNY’s Toby Hyde interviewed him over at Mets Minor League Blog. Hyde talks to him about how he found out he was traded for Dickey and also asks him about his arsenal which now includes a slider to go with his fastball, change and hook.
