One of the pleasant surprises this year was the emergence of the Mets young starting pitching. While Jacob deGrom got most of the headlines, Zack Wheeler took several steps forward and looked fantastic, especially after the last dozen or so starts.
We saw him taking steps forward, but not necessarily as many as he ended up taking. Here is our official projection:
IP: 179
ERA: 3.48
Ks: 159
BB: 76
HR: 16
FIP: 3.68
7+ Inning Starts: 12
Here’s how we did individually:
IP: 185.1
Best: Rogan – 185.0
Worst: Koehler – 160.0
ERA: 3.54
Best: Albanesius – 3.50
Worst: Walendin – 4.52
K: 187
Best: McCarthy – 181
Worst: Walendin & Flattery – 141
BB: 79
Best: Flattery – 78
Worst: O’Malley – 59
HR: 14
Best: Kolton – 13
Worst: Stack – 24
FIP: 3.55
Best: Manners – 3.56
Worst: Walendin – 4.65
7+: 2
Best: Walendin – 5
Worst: Stack – 21
Well, our predictions were a little all over the place, mostly because nobody really knew what to expect from Wheeler this year. Would he progress, or would he experience a sophomore slump? We got the answer, and it was the former. Hopefully in 2015, Wheeler can take another step forward and become that front-of-the-rotation starter that he can be.
Joe, I like his stuff. His K’s and HRs per inning are good. His BBs can get a little better. The most glaring problem is the number of innings per start. He throws too many pitches thus limiting how far he can go and that proves stressful to the BP. If you view him as a top half of the rotation guy he’s got to get through seven
innings in more of his starts.
Wow, was i way off on the 7+ inning mark. That said, I think he’ll take a big leap there next year.
Wheeler did better than predicted so I would say he was better than expected.
His 5.8 IP per start is below league average and his achilles heal. I would be content with his ERA, FIP, K9 going forward if he could get to the 200 IP for the year.
Metsense his achilles heal are his walks. If you average 4 walks per start that’s the equivalent of at least 20 pitches per outing (or an inning and 1/3) Cut down the walks and Wheeler easily goes an additional inning per start (and probably more wins) since your going directly to your 8th inning guy then closer.
I was impressed by how well he pitched in 2014, as I clearly expected more of a sophomore slump. But I was right about his general inefficiency costing him the ability to go deep in games. If he can shake that & go 7 more regularly, he’ll be a stud. Such a huge difference (IMO) between a SP going 6.1 or 6.2 innings & a SP going 7 innings.