Matt Harvey means legitimate hope for Mets fans. (Credits: Michael G. Baron) |
In the sixth inning of Friday's Mets, Nationals game, a new chant rained down from the scattering of fans in Citi Field.
"HAR-VEE'S BET-TER, HARVEE'S BET-TER"
Young ace Stephen Strasburg had just given up his fourth run of the game, on back-to-back jacks. He left after the sixth, leaving his heavily favorite Nationals in a 4-0 hole. Opposite him was Matt Harvey, 24-year-old rookie, cruising to what would be his fourth victory in four tries. A sparkling 0.93 ERA accompanying him as finished the game going seven innings, surrendering only one run. Harvey was better, much better.
Preceding that fourth start, Harvey had battled below freezing temperatures in Minnesota going eight innings in short sleeves. He allowed one run. Before that he had out-dueled aging superstar Roy Halladay in hitter's haven Citizen's Bank Park. Seven innings, one run. In his first start of the season, Harvey dazzled the Citi Field crowd throwing seven innings of one-hit, shutout ball. Matt Harvey has arrived.
Harvey stands a physically menacing 6-foot-4, 225 lbs, a man who seemingly swallows up the pressure and spits it out in a demeanor of a 30-year-old veteran, not a 24-year-old neophyte. He doesn't posses the long arms that most pitchers do, but he is built like a tank, legs like tree trunks. Legs that he uses to fling upper-90 MPH fastballs with a flick of the arm. This guy was put on the earth to throw the baseball, and throw it hard. He won't dazzle you with knee-buckling breaking balls or a wide-ranging selection of pitches. The mound is for getting the job done and he does so with a flamethrown fastball with quick movement that takes advantage of the slightest batter hesitation. His slider also has the ability to overwhelm batters. Rounding out his repertoire is an under utilized curveball, which can be deadly and a solid changeup that only can be improved. You may think that a pitcher that relies so heavily on a fastball will eventually be figured out, but the versatility of his two-seam and four-seam fastballs confuses the hell out of batters. A pitch so simple with the slightest of movement, thrown at that speed? Mind-boggling. The best part, however? It puts the least stress on his arm. Knock on wood, but longevity could be on his side.
For Mets fans, the word "longevity" doesn't appear to often in their vernacular. We all know about Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, and in smaller terms, Shawn Marcum, John Maine and Oliver Perez. Anytime pitching talent walks through the doors in Flushing, Mets fans shutter in fear. There's rarely caution-less excitement from Mets fans. But as you watch Harvey dominate in the way he has, in such relaxed fashion, it's hard for the fans to keep themselves glued to their seats. It makes you want to shout out and proclaim him the next Tom Seaver, (knock on wood). It makes you dream of a sub-2.00 ERA seasons. It makes the bright future even more of a tangible thing. Matt Harvey has brought a legitimate hope to Mets fans.
And so a funny phenomena will occur this summer. The Mets are currently 9-8, an impressive record for a team resembling more of a Triple-A squad than a major league outfit. But it won't be much longer before the Mets are 10 games under .500, so on and so forth. Watch as Citi Field fills sells out every fifth day, when Hope toes the rubber. Then watch scattered crowds fill the rest of home games in Flushing. It will be an odd sight, but a better one than anything else we could've expected out of the Metropolitans this year.
The future grows brighter with every sizzling 97 MPH fastball, every K he rings up. Then you look down the line and see Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard as future pieces of the rotations. You see Travis D'Arnaud, who currently ranks as sixth on the MLB's top prospects list as possibly the next coming of Mike Piazza. You see all these things and you dream of the 2015 playoffs. But we all know that the Mets have superpowers beyond any organization at transforming a bright future into an ugly reality. "Proceed with caution," is a lesson every Mets fan has taught and will teach his or her son.
Fortunately for now we have Harvey to help us believe that the next few years will see us get more and more competitive. We get to receive some national attention, to see Baseball Tonight analysts salivate over Harvey's future. He can rid us of the nightmares of Johan, Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran's bat-on-the-shoulder moment. He can make watching the Mets fun again, even if it is only every fifth day.
Harvey means hope and hope's all we got right now.
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