#9 Thor

Today I want to write a short post, well more of a rant, about the Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard. He resembles the superhero Thor so that’s why he’s called Thor. A little back story on this rant, he started on Sunday against the Nationals but left with only one out in the second inning in obvious pain. He already gave up 5 runs he wasn’t throwing a no-hitter or anything but still. It’s not the fact that he got injured that makes me want to write about him today it’s what lead up to it.

I know I’m a Nats fan but I’m not wishing for the Mets and Syndergaard to get injured or anything. They are a fragile team, and when healthy they are also an extremely streaky team. That’s why I was surprised when some experts were picking them to win the NL east but back to Syndergaard. So Syndergaard had his original start pushed back because of a “sore arm” and then on Friday he said no to a MRI. He said no. I understand nobody really likes a MRI but when your employer ask you to do something they’re not really asking they’re telling you to. They’re paying you a lot of money to play a game for a living the least you can do for them is take a stupid MRI. Because he was their ace the Mets just let it go. You can hear the displeasure of the Mets because they thought something was wrong but Noah didn’t want a MRIi. My guess is Syndergaard already knew something wasn’t right but because he’s a competitor he wanted to pitch through it. Well it didn’t work out like that and now the Mets are ace-less for the foreseeable future because he has a partially torn lat muscle.

#43 next week

First off I will be taking next week off, because I’ll be a little busy and there won’t be much to write about except for the wild card games. With that being said I’m going to knock both out today. I’ll be predicting who takes all 4 wild card spots, both AL and NL are extremely tight races so I could be way off the mark but it’s what I think will happen.

Let’s start in the NL, because that race is a little less murky. There’s only 3 teams in this race, the Cardinals, the Giants, and the Mets. Right now it’ll be the Mets and the Giants in the one game playoff in New York. The Cards do have a chance to steal a wild card spot but in my honest opinion they’ll be on the outside looking in. With that said the playoff game will be MadBum vs Bartolo Colon. And if that’s the matchup the Giants win that one 9 times out of 10.

Now to the AL which is much tighter. I’m not going to list every team still in the hunt, there’s at least 5 teams it’ll take too long. But my favorites to win are the Tigers and the Blue Jays. Because both of their offense are extremely tough and it’d be interesting to see a team slug it out with the Rangers and the Red Sox. The Orioles are also still in the race which is another strong offense but I don’t think they have a good enough pitcher to start the win or go home game. The same thing goes for the Tigers and the Blue Jays so I don’t see either going much farther than the one game. If the starters aren’t Justin Verlander for Detroit and Aaron Sanchez for Toronto I’ll be shocked.

#39 New York

Now that the season is winding down I’m running out of ideas to write about every two days. Believe it or not something interesting doesn’t happen in baseball every other day. Today I’m just going to write a quick post about the two New York teams, the Yankees and the Mets. I still think they’re both on the outside looking in but both have been pushing for a wildcard recently.

First I’ll start with the Yankees. Like most baseball fans I have never really liked the Yankees at all. These Yankees are no longer the George Steinbrenner’s Yankees that just flash their money and buy every free agent out there. This is basically a regular team with plenty of young talent and not just young they’re actually producing. After this year C.C. Sabitha is a free agent, Mark Texeria is a free agent, don’t have to pay Arod to underproduce anymore, that is a lot of money coming off the books. So next year it’ll be Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge, Tyler Austin, and Clint Frazier will be pretty close. All those players getting regular at bats I think are in better position to win next year than they have been in recent years. But as for this year, I like how the “Baby Bombers” are swinging it but pitching is the key and I don’t think they have enough pitching to snag a wildcard.

Now lastly the Mets. I stand by what I said at the beginning of the season that the New York Mets were not a playoff team. Yes, I know they’re making a nice push but no I do not think they can actually snag a wildcard. I knew Syndergaard was going to be good this year, both Matz and DeGrom have been injury plagued in the minors so not surprised about them, the only thing I can say surprised me was Harvey struggling and then being injured. Everyone was like “the Mets got Cespedes they’ll be a playoff team again” that was clearly wrong. What people failed to realize is the Mets got David Wright back healthy the same time they got Cespedes. So if you think he was the only reason they made it to the World Series, you’re wrong. So no the Mets are not a playoff team. Maybe they could make it if they called up Tim Tebow.

#38 the NL east

There are couple things I would like to write about today and they both reside in the NL east, hence the title. Beginning with Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals, ending with Tim Tebow and the Mets.

First and foremost Stephen Strasburg come off the DL to pitch against the Braves but exited in the 3rd inning with an apparent injury. As a Nats fan my heart dropped because he threw a pitch and grimaced clutching his elbow. It is never good for any pitcher to clutch his elbow after throwing a pitch, especially a guy that’s already had Tommy John surgery. In case you didn’t know Tommy John surgery is when they have to repair a torn ligament in the elbow, when you throw a pitch it puts a lot of stress on that certain ligament. If he did tear something that isn’t good for the Nats World Series chances. Roark is having an outstanding year and he can easily move up in the rotation behind Scherzer, but Stras was the X factor of that rotation. Scherzer is un hittable, Stras can be un hittable, and Roark has a 2.80 era. It’s said that he only felt “a pinch” in his elbow so fingers crossed it’s not bad. Update: Strasburg’s mri shows no structural damage.

This is going to be quick because I do not care for Tebow nor the Mets. He signed a minor league contract with the Mets. I don’t know the specifics yet but my guess is it’s probably only for a year or two. A guy I use to play little league with said it perfectly if anybody besides Tebow showed up to a tryout and with the same skill set they would’ve been sent packing. So it’s whatever congrats to Tebow I guess.

#21 the NL east

Today I just want to write about the Mets and the stupid people who picked them to win the east. In case you didn’t know I am a Nats fan so I’m a little biased, I admit it.

It goes without saying that I didn’t think the Mets were going to win the NL east. I’ve been right about the majority of the Met players except Matt Harvey’s slow start, he looks like he’s turned around the last couple weeks though. Jacob DeGrom just has a nice fastball I knew eventually the league was going to figure how to beat him, I saw his struggles coming from a mile away. You don’t just come through a system as shortstop then switch to pitcher and all of a sudden you’re a top 10 pitcher in the majors that’s not how it works. The league will adjust to you and figure you out I wouldn’t say DeGrom was getting “lucky” for his first year and a half but it was like they didn’t have a legitimate book on him yet. The good ones can adjust back and that’s yet to be seen from DeGrom. Noah Syndergaard is the polar opposite of DeGrom, he’s a big guy and was a top prospect that just looks like a major league pitcher. What I like about Syndergaard, again the opposite of DeGrom, is that he made an adjustment before the batters did. Well not really an adjustment but he added a little slider/cutter to keep people off his 99 mph fastball. And now he’s probably injured and heading for Tommy John surgery, not surprised. The Nationals fell apart during the last couple months of the season last year and the Mets took advantage, I already forgot about it. I know they have Yoeninis Cespedes again this year but I don’t see them climbing back any time soon. They got swept by the Braves…

#8 the power of Thor

I said on Tuesday that I was planning on writing about Noah Syndergaard but my plans were changed at the last second. It was just pushed back a couple days so I’m going to spend today writing about Noah Syndergaard and his hot start. In case you didn’t know Noah Syndergaard’s nickname is Thor mainly because he looks like him with the long blonde hair and being tall and in great shape. That’s where the title comes from.

He’s off to one of the the hottest starts in baseball and there a reason for it so I’m going to dive into it a little bit. He’s already 2-0 with a 1.69 and 38 k’s and the under 1 WHIP means under 1 baserunner per inning. A big part of Thor’s early success is that he’s incorporated a new slider/cutter. It’s 91-94 mph with little break so it’s not really a slider it’s more of a cutter. But regardless of what you call it, it’s doing its job and keeping hitters off his 98 mph heater. Much like Jake Arrieta in Chicago, the cutter isn’t really their strikeout pitch but it’s something the hitters won’t hit too hard plus it makes the fastball look better. Would I say it’s Noah Syndergaard’s best pitch? Of course not, he constantly hits 98-99 mph with his fastball. I wouldn’t say his curveball is great but it’s definitely not bad. So he takes the mound at 6’6″ 240 lbs pounding 98-99 inside then drops a decent 85 mph curveball after that he throws 94 mph cutter that you just miss and hit a week ground ball to second base. Yup I think that’s pretty good. Now Syndergaard is no Kershaw or anything but he’s looking pretty good right now. That being said I don’t see Syndergaard keeping this up all year, like Kershaw probably will, but him having a 15 win season with an under 3 era is not too much to ask. The right arm of Thor is looking pretty good for the Mets right now.