I’m writing about starting pitching for Rotographs and thought the Pitcher List community would enjoy the in-depth discussion.
Today I’ll be talking about the holy one, the pitcher with arguably the filthiest repertoire, the most dominating stuff, the man who should win every single at-bat.
And I’m going tell you why that probably isn’t going to happen. At least not yet.
Let me preface this by saying that I love Noah Syndergaard. I have a relationship with pitching that is directly opposite of the Orioles and cutters, and I struggle to watch Syndergaard pitch without starstruck eyes. Just look at this triple digit heater:
[gfycat data_id=”AncientUntimelyAddax”]
Or this casual 93mph slider:
[gfycat data_id=”IncompatibleDizzyHermitcrab”]
And why not, here’s a changeup with absurd movement and hinting 90mph:
[gfycat data_id=”AccomplishedImpressionableAmericanindianhorse”]
Three pitches that no mortal deserves to own (and I’m even ignoring his above-average curveball). But he is no mortal. Funny, but jokes aside, even with these three pitches, Syndergaard hasn’t yet been the definitive “best pitcher in baseball.” There is a problem here, a flaw that is holding him back and it’s about time we talked about it.
I can’t read this article on my phone as FGs ads prevent me from doing so.
The FanGraphs community wasn’t interested in this – the comment section made my head hurt. They literally didn’t know good analysis when it was staring them in the face. That is a community that is interested in numbers more than baseball and it gets a little bit more skewed in that direction every day. It makes sense that a large chunk of their articles are about what needs to change about baseball. As of late, much of their content has been legalese. I like to think of FG as the opposite of PitcherList.
Great read, super interesting! Was targeting him in my final auction tomorrow but thinking twice now