New York Mets: Noah Syndergaard Off to Historic Start, Has Yet to Allow Walk
The New York Mets are not having the greatest 2017 season thus far. They are sitting in fourth place in the NL East with a sub-.500 record of 8-11. Even the rebuilding Philadelphia Phillies are playing better right now.
They have injuries up and down their lineup, but so do a lot of other teams. It comes with the territory of playing baseball, but the New York Mets do have a huge bright spot in their 24-year-old ace Noah Syndergaard.
Just looking at Syndergaard’s numbers in 2017 is truly awe-inspiring. He’s got a 1.73 ERA over 26 innings in four starts.
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Even more impressive and on the verge of historic is the fact that he has yet to allow a home run or give up a walk.
Oh, and there’s the other small fact that he has struck out 30 batters in those 26 innings.
Still, focusing on his non-existent walk and home run rates are what is so amazing about the season he is having. Will he walk a batter at some point? Of course. Will he give up a home run this year? It’s inevitable.
However, as of right now everything he’s doing is nothing short of historic, especially because of the way he is doing it.
Prior to the season, Syndergaard made it known that he had bulked up over the offseason and had decided he was going to throw even harder this season.
That’s a pretty big goal considering he had the highest average velocity of all qualifying starters in 2016 at 97.9 MPH according to Pitchf/x, Dayn Perry of CBS Sports wrote back in February. If you were to look at relievers who qualified at just 50 innings, only Aroldis Chapman threw a harder fastball in 2016.
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Syndergaard is doing exactly what he said he would do. Over his first four starts this season the average velocity of his fastball is averaging 99.6 MPH, his changeup is hitting around 91 and his slider at 93, per Brooks Baseball.
It’s much harder for big league hitters to hit power pitchers than finesse pitchers. So Syndergaard’s low ERA makes sense.
What’s crazy is the fact that he can control the ball so well while throwing so much heat! He’s kept the ball in the strike zone a career-high 49.2 percent of the time, while according to Fangraphs the league average is 44.5 percent.
He has already set a New York Mets franchise record by going 26 innings without allowing a walk, but according to Baseball-Reference.com he’s currently 13th on the all-time list for innings pitched without allowing a walk.
Syndergaard is closely within range of moving up to second on that list. The second player on the list is Tiny Bonham of the 1944 Yankees who pitched 33 innings without a walk.
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First place on the list is a bit more of a challenge. In 1923, Pete Alexander of the Chicago Cubs pitched a whopping 51 innings before allowing his first walk of the season.
There is no real reason, at least the way Syndergaard is pitching right now, that he couldn’t accomplish that feat, but it would certainly be a big challenge.