After a quick start — which was followed by a precipitous fall — not much has gone right for the New York Mets in 2018. There are a handful of reasons why it’d be worth watching the club, though, and one of those is starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard.
The young right-handed flame-thrower has been hobbled by injury and multiple trips to the disabled list since the start of 2017, but he’s finally healthy, back on the mound, and looking more like his old self these days. After allowing at least three runs in each of his last four starts entering Wednesday, he finally put together a line we’re used to seeing: two runs on five hits, one walk, and six strikeouts in six innings against the San Francisco Giants.
As the mountain of a man that he is, Syndergaard was also up to his usual tricks when it comes to ridiculously high velocity and the type of ball movement that belongs in a video game.
First, let’s talk about how hard this guy throws his slider:
Noah Syndergaard struck out Brandon Belt with a 93.5 mph slider.
The average 4-seam fastball in MLB in 2018 is 93.1 mph.
— David Adler (@_dadler) August 22, 2018
Trying to hit a mid-90s fastball is hard enough — I don’t even want to think about what a slider with some legit bite would look like in the batter’s box. We could always ask Brandon Crawford, who didn’t find much success:
Thor, Filthy 93mph Slider. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/4inuKyKHU7
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 23, 2018
It’s not like his sinker is any easier, as it’s just harder and has more movement. Just ask Austin Slater about that:
Thor, Ridiculous 98mph Sinker (and path). 😨 pic.twitter.com/9sodGo2kZI
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 23, 2018
Since Pitching Ninja is the man, he put both of these ridiculous pitches in one video, making it look even more impossible to hit:
In case you were wondering, this is what Thor's 98mph Sinker & 93mph Slider would look like as an overlay. pic.twitter.com/Ew1pbZ7bXo
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 23, 2018
Literally not fair, you guys.
Missing as much time as he has over the past couple seasons makes finishing 2018 strong a priority for Syndergaard. Although he has just 106.2 innings under his belt, his 3.1 fWAR is tied for the second-highest mark of his career, which happened as a rookie in 2015.
The 25-year-old’s strikeout rate is a little lower than we’re used to seeing (24.6% in ’18, 28.4% from 2015-17), but that incredible velocity and movement are definitely not going anywhere anytime soon.
About Matt Musico
Matt currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book about how to become a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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