Matt Harvey not happy about being taken out of the Mets' starting rotation
@Polly Ticks I wrote about the prospect Friday but I didn't post it up on the forum. Here it is:
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Harvey AgonistesLast fall, playing out an injury-compromised season also marked by self-immolation over a fractured would-be romance, Matt Harvey
showed what some would call rare introspection after the Cubs used him as a personal
pinata, battering him for five runs en route a
17-5 demolition. The one-time Dark Knight didn't just fall on his sword, he swallowed it whole.
"[W]ith the injuries I've had, some of the other outside distractions that I have caused, which I am not proud of," Harvey told a
New
York Daily News writer, Kristie Ackert, "it makes those decisions easier for management. It sucks, but it's the way it is. The only thing
I can do is move forward and try to put myself in the best position to help this team win and whatever decisions they make, I will
just have to deal with it."
The season finally wound down for Harvey and the injury-riddled Mess---er, Mets. Harvey himself was among the walking wounded. He
struggled to overcome thoracic outlet syndrome; he all but admitted he was brought to his knees after discovering a girl in whom he
was more than mildly interested returned to her former boyfriend---about which he read in the press.
But his winding-down also included a seven-run, twelve-hit, four-inning beatdown by the Marlins, of all people, in Harvey's following
start. He'd have all winter to re-horse, all spring to figure out how to be a different but still successful pitcher.
As the Mets jumped out of the gates and off to one of the best starts in baseball this season, Harvey's had only a moment or three of
looking like that different but successful pitcher and more moments where he's looked like some other team's target practise.
In his first start this season, Harvey looked like the best part of the pitcher he was going to have to become, a thinking person's
pitcher relying on knowledge and location instead of overpowering pitches. But on Thursday night, Harvey managed---underline that
---to pitch six innings and give relief to the Mets' effective but slightly overworked bullpen.
The problem was, he didn't give relief to the Mets overall. Those weren't exactly six great innings. They weren't even six good ones.
They were barely six mediocre ones.
The Braves tore six runs out of him---including two driven in by former Astro Preston Tucker (The Man and His Dream) en route a
five-steak night---with seven hits in the first three innings. His only strikeout was against Braves starting pitcher Matt Wisler. And
manager Mickey Callaway, the new kid on the block who's been pulling mostly the right strings with the surprising, first-in-the-
National-League-East Mets so far, is just about out of patience.
Callaway let that slip when he told reporters he "couldn't commit" to Harvey's next scheduled start. And Harvey the introspect of
last fall suddenly became Harvey the kid who doesn't understand why everyone's still mad at him for putting his foot through the
neighbour's china closet.
"I'm a starting pitcher," he said after the game Thursday, perhaps with just a little defiance. "I've always been a starting pitcher,
and I think I showed that in the fifth and sixth innings---I can get people out still in the fifth, sixth inning when my pitch count
gets up. So I'm a starting pitcher."
Pitching coach Dave Eiland wouldn't buy that if it came with a discount and a free toaster. "The game starts in the first inning,"
Eiland said flatly, "not the fourth."
Callaway is said to be thinking seriously about moving Harvey to the bullpen for a spell. It wouldn't exactly be a disaster, considering
how much work the pen got out of the chute, to the point where they faltered a few times in the last week or so. They're still the
Show's most effective, but they're not supermen or automatons. And a lapsed starter who can go more than an inning or two would
have to be a salve for them.
Just don't try to convince Harvey just yet. You have an admiration for a man stubborn enough in professional pride to remain convinced
of his job and his purpose, even as you lament that such pride may get in the way of what's best for his organisation.
The Dark Knight is history. But Harvey's dark days are far from over. With realistic hopes of going the distance to the postseason on a
remarkable 13-5 season start, the Mets can't afford anything more dark than a night game. They might empathise with his feeling but
they have to draw the line between empathy and reality. And not be too late.
"That last three innings I think I was able to break through that mental block I was feeling every time I went out there," Harvey said
Thursday night, perhaps turning from defiant to as plaintive as he can get. "I know that the results aren't there. I feel bad that it took
me so long to figure it out."
He and the Mets may feel worse if too long proves to be too little, too late. Callaway has a very hard decision to make.
Poll
