Photo by USA Today
A couple of weeks ago, Noah Syndergaard made his long-awaited arrival to Queens.
As a key piece of the deal that sent reigning Cy Young award winner, R.A. Dickey, to the Blue Jays, Syndergaard has progressed smoothly through the minor league level.
For the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate, Las Vegas 51s in 2015, Syndergaard pitched to the tune of a 1.82 ERA with over 10 strikeouts per 9 innings.
Ultimately, his performance in the minors led to his debut at the Major League level with the recent injuries to Dillon Gee and Rafael Montero.
In his first two starts, Syndergaard has adjusted his approach to pitching in the Majors, but continued development/progress will be needed if he wants to become the star pitcher that everyone expects him to be.
In Noah Syndergaard’s first start against Chicago, he showed a lot of promise with six strikeouts through 5.1 innings and escaped multiple situations with men in scoring position.
However, a combination of two problems plagued Syndergaard throughout the evening: variety in pitch offerings and command issues.
In terms of pitch offerings, Syndergaard focused primarily on featuring his 97 MPH fastball during this outing, which is understandable given his debut in the Majors.
Still, Syndergaard struggled with his command and, additionally, had trouble attacking the Strike Zone.
In many cases, Syndergaard was unable to hit the corners with his fastball and left the pitch over the heart of the plate.
But, most concerning, he left a majority of his secondary pitches low and out of the zone.
For example, in Figure 2, Syndergaard was unable to properly control his secondary pitches, which led to 26% of his pitches being low and out of the zone.
Figure 1: Percent of Pitches against the Chicago Cubs on May 12th
Figure 2: All Pitches against the Chicago Cubs on May 12th
Ultimately, his failure to establish his secondary pitches led Syndergaard to rely heavily on his fastball, which subsequently led to the four-run outburst by the Cubs in the sixth inning (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Percentage of Pitch Offerings against the Chicago Cubs on May 12th
In his second start against the Brewers, Syndergaard was able to pitch 6 innings of 1 run with 5 strikeouts and only a single walk given up.
This improvement can simply be chalked up to the improvements he had to make from his previous start: better command and variety in pitch offerings.
As you can see in Figure 4, in his second start, Syndergaard was able to pound the different parts of the strike zone a lot more often than in his previous start.
In addition, he showed more willingness to pound righties with fastballs on the inner half of the plate.
Figure 4: Percent of Pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 17th
In terms of pitch offerings, as shown in Figure 5, he exhibited his curveball predominantly and mixed in his fastball/changeup combination more evenly.
The results showed in his performance as he cruised through the first five innings only allowing a hit and a walk.
Figure 5: Percentage of Pitch Offerings against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 17th
The question going forward is whether Noah Syndergaard is ready to contribute to the Mets now or needs more seasoning at the minor league level.
With a fastball that ranges from 96 to 98 MPH, Syndergaard can get away with mediocre pitches over the heart of the plate.
However, as evident during the course of both his starts, Syndergaard has struggled pitching through the sixth inning as hitters have begun to adjust to his natural tendencies over the course of the game.
At this point, in his young career, some more seasoning at the minor league level could prove to be helpful in his development.
At the beginning of the season, Frank Viola, the Las Vegas 51s pitching coach, was working with Syndergaard on his secondary pitches.
However, through his first two starts, Syndergaard has relied heavily on his fastball to get himself out of trouble.
Still, Syndergaard is adjusting to the pressures of pitching in the Show, and it will be interesting to see what adjustments he will make going forward as shown by his significant progress from his first start to his most recent start.
References:
1. "Baseball Reference." Baseball-Reference.com. Baseball Reference, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
2. "Baseball Statistics and Analysis | FanGraphs Baseball." Baseball Statistics and Analysis | FanGraphs Baseball. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.
NOTE: All statistics accurate as of 05/22/15
By Sanjay Pothula
AriBall.com
