"It wouldn’t really matter to them how it turned out for Matt Harvey, the six hits he gave up before his second strikeout against the last batter he faced. What mattered to them was that they got to see Harvey on this day, a long way from Jersey and a long way from the start of the season. He is that kind of star for the Mets again, that kind of pitcher. There have been only a handful like this, since Seaver."
So you actually attended a Spring Training game in person and, when the Golden Child doesn't dazzle as you expected, you have the gall to say it doesn't matter?
If it doesn't really matter, then why did you make the trip?
"Len Adler, out of Short Hills, N.J., is standing at the corner of the Mets dugout, first base side of Roger Dean Stadium, an hour and a half before Harvey and the Mets would face the Marlins, baseball in one hand, pen in the other. He says he bought tickets to this game a month ago."
You're interviewing Mets fans at a Spring Training game and asking them what they think about Matt Harvey.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say they think Matt Harvey is good.
"Maybe 40 minutes from Port St. Lucie, this was not the kind of spring training day that last Friday was for Matt Harvey, when he pitched in a game for the first time since August of 2013. You know what kind of moment that was for him, for his team, for Mets fans, even in just two innings, even in the first week of March. He struck out three and got two comebackers and hit 99 on the radar gun and even threw a 3-2 curveball that seemed to start up in Short Hills before breaking all the way down here."
It doesn't really matter that he threw a 3-2 curveball and hit 99 MPH on the gun.
"He is back. His arm is strong. When he is at his best this season, he will return to being the biggest baseball star in New York, the way he was before he tore that ligament in his elbow and before Tommy John surgery. In his absence, Masahiro Tanaka became New York’s pitching sensation last season, before the minor tear in his pitching elbow, as if there is such a thing as a minor tear in a pitcher’s elbow."
Lupica said Harvey was the biggest baseball star in NY before he got injured. That is not correct. Derek Jeter was the biggest baseball star in New York at that time.
It's quite likely that Lupica wasn't counting Jeter ... that Lupica didn't mean it that way ... but Lupica wrote it unambiguously.
You'll never guess what Matt Harvey's career record is.
Go ahead and guess.
It's 12-10.
With a lot of strikeouts (10 per 9 innings), very few HRs for a power pitcher, and fantastic control. The sky is the limit. Young, inexpensive starting pitchers are the most valuable asset in baseball.
Still, it's a long way to go before the silly comparisons to Tom Seaver mean anything.
"Tanaka says he can keep pitching without the surgery. We will see about that. Tanaka’s spring training starts, on the other side of Florida, will be a different kind of event than Harvey’s over on the East Coast. The Yankees will hold their breath every time he throws his split-fingered fastball, and with the big stuff he showed before he got hurt. Harvey has already returned to the business of being the kind of pitcher who can take your breath away with his own stuff."
Lupica's anti-Yankee bias is so strong, that he actually roots for Yankee players to get injured. Ellsbury last year and now Tanaka.
It's beyond "I told ya so" score keeping ... I truly think Lupica despises the Yankees so much, that he simply can't separate the uniform from the human being who is wearing it.
After reading Lupica's breathless article, now I'm suddenly curious if Pineda can hit 99 on the gun. If Betances can hit 99 on the gun. If so, I need to know what some random dude from NJ thinks about it. It's compelling Spring Training baseball analysis.
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