With Antonio Bastardo already in camp, the New York Mets bullpen will start to take form. There’s a battle for the last spot, depending on whether Sean Gilmartin, Rafael Montero or Logan Verrett can fill the sixth starter role.
Bastardo believes he’ll be the answer in the 8th inning, although Addison Reed will likely have something to say about that. There’s also some concern about whether Jerry Blevins can be the same left-handed specialist that didn’t allow a hit in seven appearances before a twice fractured forearm ended his season.
But little has been said about the man that will assuredly get the call at the end of the game. One that unleashed a pitch that reminds me of 1986…
Pat Jordan, in an article in People in 1987, raved about Houston Astros’ ace Mike Scott and the pitch that made him unhittable in 1986. Scott says “It approaches the plate like a fastball, and then what it does is…it…it….”
What it did was earn Scott the Cy Young with 306 strikeouts in 275 innings all thanks to a pitch he learned from the instruction of an original 1962 Met. Roger Craig lost the first game in team history, part of a 10-24 campaign where he clearly wasn’t using the pitch he taught Scott.
Craig taught it to his pitching staff during his tenure as manager of the San Francisco Giants in the 1980s. But it’s a simple process so it’s curious anyone had to be taught anything, but Cubs manager Joe Maddon was quoted by the AP in the New York Times saying,
“I always thought that if thrown properly with the fingers really split like a forkball, that’s when you can get hurt because there’s no resistance against the ball being thrown and it really put a lot of pressure on the elbow,” said Maddon.
“But it’s not just about them getting hurt. They’ll never develop their other pitches because they’ll always get guys out with that pitch.”
That’s where Jeurys Familia comes in.
Andy Martino of the Daily News reported that the Mets’ closer had been working on it with pitching coach Dan Warthen and bullpen coach Ricky Bones “for a couple years now” in the bullpen. But Familia didn’t trust it enough to use it until the middle of last August, specifically when the Mets hosted the Red Sox.
Anthony DiComo of MLB.com famously quoted Red Sox DH David Ortiz saying, “Familia, man, blowing a split at 95 mph? Are you crazy?” This was in the same game that ended with Mookie Betts watching a 100-mph fastball for a 5-4 Mets win.
If you think about the fact that he throws that speed on his fastball, then a pitch roughly 4-6 mph slower that drops off the table it really is a little scary.
And I’ve yet to mention the sinker that sustained him to earn 27 saves through the first 89 games of the 2015 season.
Then there’s a two-week stretch in late July when he blew two saves, then allowed a three-run HR to Justin Upton on a rain-soaked afternoon at Citi Field. I remember exactly where I was for that game and I’m saddened to say, I was reminded of Armando Benitez.
Luckily there’s a lot of truth in a FanGraphs article titled “No one does what Jeurys Familia can do”. The ‘what’ is that splitter I previously mentioned. In fact, among all pitchers in 2015, Familia has the fastest secondary pitch in the majors at 93.7 mph. No one throws a splitter that hard; throws the Warthen Slider – a pitch that looks like a fastball then breaks away from the plate late – and two other pitches that look like fastballs and end up heading towards the dirt or in it.
Looking back, it’s easy to remember that Familia didn’t fare too well against the Royals. The sinker he attempted to quick-pitch past Alex Gordon in the bottom of the ninth in Game 1 ended up sailing well over Juan Lagares’ head and onto the tarp in straight away center. Then he couldn’t escape a two-on, one out jam in a 3-2 game in the eighth inning of Game 4, or strand the tying run in the top of the ninth in Game 5.
But there were errors and general defensive mishaps in both of those last two instances. And while the stat sheet still shows three blown saves, it also shows five saves and an overall ERA during the postseason of 0.61. Looking at the projections I’ve found at RotoChamp and Baseball-Reference, it looks like Familia is being punished a little for his World Series performance.
| Wins | Losses | Saves | ERA | WHIP | K | BB | |
|
2015 |
2 |
2 | 43 | 1.85 | 1.000 | 86 | 19 |
|
Composite |
3 | 3 | 39 | 2.49 | 1.14 | 68 | 21 |
| RotoChamp |
2 |
2 | 39 | 1.94 | 1.09 | 68 |
21 |
| Steamer |
3 |
3 | 39 | 3.14 | 1.21 | 68 |
22 |
| Steamer600 |
3 |
3 | 39 | 3.10 | 1.20 | 68 |
22 |
| Baseball-Reference | 3 | 3 | 18 | 2.88 | 1.153 | 70 |
23 |
According to most of the projections, there’s little confidence that Familia can repeat and/or improve on what he did last season. But I’m not buying it. A computer can’t take into account the addition of a splitter and the fact that Familia likely won’t be called on for all those four-out saves again now that we have some quality depth in the pen.
So how do you think Familia will fare in 2016? Are we looking for more of that dominance we witnessed in his first year as the team’s closer?
Now onto a bigger concern… Can we decide on a nickname for him? “Somos Familia” is cool and MLB Network’s Dan Plesac loves it, as you can see from this clip:
https://youtu.be/foFZS3RhwQs
But that means ‘we are family’ and that phrase is already linked to Willie Stargell and the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. So why not stick with the Godfather theme and just use the actual words: Nunca Contra Familia.
Look it up and let me know what you think. Enjoy Super Bowl weekend!
