Matt Harvey Impressive In Spring Debut
By Billy Moy
Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports
Matt Harvey made his long awaited Spring Training debut earlier today, pitching for the first time since he had Tommy John surgery 16 1/2 months ago. If I had to sum up today’s outing with one word it would simply be: wow.
I know that it’s only Spring Training, and I know that he only threw two innings, but they were an impressive two innings and, most importantly, he looked healthy and sharp.
Heading into the game, Terry Collins had planned on having Harvey throwing right around 35-40 pitches; Harvey only threw 25 pitches though because that was all he needed to get through two clean innings. Harvey started off the game by firing a 96-mph strike to Anthony Gose and then finished him off later in the at-bat with a 98-mph heater. The Mets’ ace then retired three straight batters on balls put in play before striking out Jordan Lennerton on a 96-mph fastball and then Bryan Holaday with a curveball to close out the second inning.
Check out this GIF posted by MLB.com’s Cut 4 to see Harvey’s first strikeout.
According to Fantasypros.com, Harvey is currently the 20th pitcher being taken in drafts – sandwiched in between Jeff Samardzija and Julio Teheran – and you can snag him in the seventh round. If he can put together a healthy campaign in 2015, he is assuredly going to provide positive returns for anybody who manages to get him in the seventh round or later (even with an innings limit).
On a per-start basis, he has a great chance of being a top-10 pitcher. Remember, this is the same pitcher who had a 2.27 ERA to go with a 0.93 WHIP (yeah, 0.93!) and 191 strikeouts in 178.1 innings before getting hurt in 2013.
It would not surprise me at all if Harvey starts to creep up draft boards following his outing today and if he continues to look sharp this spring the cost to acquire him might be double what it is now by the end of March. The Matt Harvey hype train is preparing to leave the station.