Matt Harvey finishes strong, joins elite company before being shut down by Mets
Sep 20, 2012, 11:51 AM EDT
Getty Images Matt Harvey‘s final start of the season was delayed one day by a rain and the Mets rookie tossed seven innings of one-run, one-hit ball against the Phillies last night before being shut down to limit his workload.
Harvey finishes with a 2.73 ERA, .200 opponents’ batting average, and 70/26 K/BB ratio in 59 innings, which along with his at times overpowering raw stuff has to have Mets fans awfully excited.
He also joins some pretty elite company by making double-digit starts and striking out double-digit batters per nine innings as a 23-year-old, which had previously been accomplished by just seven other pitchers in baseball history:
YEAR SO/9 MATT HARVEY 2012 10.6 Stephen Strasburg 2012 11.1 Scott Kazmir 2007 10.4 Mark Prior 2004 10.5 Johan Santana 2002 11.4 Bobby Witt 1987 10.1 Sam McDowell 1966 10.4 Sandy Koufax 1959 10.2
That’s a pretty interesting mix of pitching phenoms.
Counting his work in the minors Harvey threw a total of 169.1 innings this season with 182 strikeouts versus 139 hits allowed. His control still needs plenty of work, but Harvey sure looks like he has ace potential.
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- sknut - Sep 20, 2012 at 12:04 PM
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Between Harvey and Wheeler looks like the Mets have some good starting blocks for years to come.
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- chill1184 - Sep 20, 2012 at 12:12 PM
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At least pitching wont be a question for next season.
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- gammagammahey - Sep 20, 2012 at 12:36 PM
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The Mets may need to trade from that depth to fill in the holes at nearly every other position.
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- Gobias Industries - Sep 20, 2012 at 12:40 PM
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Quick! Trade him for Victor Zambrano while his stock is high!
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- baseballisboring - Sep 20, 2012 at 12:49 PM
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I heard the Sugarland Skeeters are interested…
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- sicklife1 - Sep 20, 2012 at 4:37 PM
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As a Mets fan, I’ve heard this story too many times before to get excited. Paul Wilson, Bill Pulsipher, & Jason Isringhausen were supposed to lead us to glory years ago. How’d that work out? And Isringhausen was only good AFTER he left the Mets, and started to close games. Most recently Pelfrey was the next “ace”. Lets see Harvey do this for a full season before we start singing his praises.
