Your intrepid columnist likes to think long thoughts, sometimes. Jenrry Mejia was mowing down Dodger after Dodger for six innings until he was betrayed by some bad defense — “Oh, Murph…” goes the Twitter lament when Daniel Murphy makes a gaffe like last night’s – and atrocious umpiring. A graphic on SNY told the columnist that Matt Harvey was going to be facing Hyun-jin Ryu on Tuesday. Immediately, giddiness set in. That the Mets can trot a couple of potent weapons out onto the hill on consecutive nights brought back memories of the early-1970s. Let’s see… Is Mejia Jerry Koosman or Jon Matlack? Harvey is clearly the Tom Seaver equivalency, so does that make Zack Wheeler Gary Gentry? The mind boggles, thinking about the parade of quality arms passing in front of the Met fan these days. Dillon Gee and newly-returned and rejuvenated Jonathon Niese round out this current quintet with a non-steep dropoff from the “Big Three,” and the whispers of the prowess of Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard and either or both eventually replacing and possibly upgrading one of them is nothing short of astonishing.
For now, though, just watching Mejia and Harvey back-to-back is one of the great pleasures of the 2013 baseball season. Mejia amazes continually, seeing as he is – by his own admission – limiting himself because of bone chips in his elbow; he’s actually policing himself to not “muscle up” and try to throw harder. Imagine his effectiveness when the debris is cleared and he can fully cut loose. For the longest time last night, the Dodgers had very few answers for him as it was.
Nobody has had any significant answer for Matt Harvey – including the pesky Marlins, against whom Harvey has “struggled” this year. Watching him go about his business like a man half-again as old, one wonders why it took him until early last week to notch his first career complete-game shutout. Whatever hardware he might be bringing home, Harvey is cementing himself as a New York sporting deity for years to come. Words are starting to become scarce to describe his season: it’s tough to think of something to say that hasn’t already been said. Harvey is having a superb year and thoughts of him – and Mejia and Wheeler and Montero and Gee and Syndergaard and whoever else you care to name – on a bigger, later, cooler stage can’t help but be entertained by a success-starved fan base in this “transitional” year.
Long thoughts…
Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley
Yes, the future rotation is looking very amazing. I often wonder like you how Mejia will pitch next year after the bone chips are removed. I fully expect him to start throwing in the upper 90’s again. If Mejia continues to pitch as he has so far, he will be the SP1-B for the Mets next year.
HarvBeast, Mejia, Niese, Wheeler, Montero (sorry Gee) I love you but someone has to go the BP.
Now I know that it is always good to have 2 left handed pitchers in the rotation but once Syndergaard is ready, I would trade Niese and just wait for Matz because:
HarvBeast, Mejia, Syndergaard, Wheeler, Montero is just too tempting.
Its amazing how all 5 of those guys have a legit chance to post up a sub 3 ERA for the next few years.. The future is bright, Met Fans!
Mejia has been great in these few starts and it’s not just his new found control or bite to all of his pitches. You can tell how happy he is to be healthy and back out there. He looks like he is having a ball, but at the same time is pissed when someone gets a hit. If his velocity comes back after the chips are out, he is going to be a heck of a second or third guy in this rotation.