IGT 5/12/15: Mets@Cubs � Syndergaarden of Earthly Delights

[Edgy MD]

The debut of that latest Mets pitching phenom, that bounty for R.A. Dickey bounty, that consumer of in-game meals, Noah Syndergaard.

[fimg=450:339yfevk]http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1617961!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/back-cover-february-18-2014.jpg[/fimg:339yfevk]

[Ceetar]

Happy Thorsblot!

[Guest d'Kong76]

NY Mets at Chi. Cubs
When: 8:05 PM ET, Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Where: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
SportsDirect Inc.

Terrific starting pitching has carried the New York Mets during their hot start to the season, and they're about to add another potential weapon to the arsenal. Highly touted right-hander Noah Syndergaard is set for his major-league debut Tuesday when the Mets face the host Chicago Cubs in the second game of a four-game series.

Syndergaard, a first-round pick in the 2010 draft, joins an impressive starting rotation that already includes young guns Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom. The Cubs haven't won consecutive games since a four-game winning streak from April 24-28, but they have a chance to change that after claiming a 4-3 win in the series opener. Chicago managed only six hits in the opener but made them count, getting back-to-back homers from Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo in a three-run first inning. The Cubs are trying to end a streak of three straight series losses.

TV: 8:05 p.m. ET, MLB Network, SNY (New York), CSN Plus Chicago

PITCHING MATCHUP: Mets RH Noah Syndergaard (NR) vs. Cubs RH Jake Arrieta (3-3, 3.41 ERA)

Syndergaard gets the call to fill in while Dillon Gee (groin) is on the disabled list, but if all goes well he could stick in the rotation. Syndergaard has been a dominant force throughout his time in the minors, averaging more than a strikeout per inning in his pro career. The 22-year-old is 3-0 with a 1.82 ERA in five starts at Triple-A Las Vegas this season and has more strikeouts (34) than walks and hits combined (28).

Arrieta has lost two straight starts and has failed to get through six innings in both. The 29-year-old gave up a season-high five runs (four earned) in 5 1/3 innings in a loss at St. Louis last time out. Arrieta is 0-1 with a 2.41 ERA in three career starts against the Mets and allowed only one run in 11 2/3 innings over two meetings last season.

WALK-OFFS:
1. The Cubs are 13-2 when their starter records a quality start and 3-13 when they fail to do so.
2. New York CF Juan Lagares went 0-for-3 Monday, dropping his batting average in road games to .227, compared to .328 at home.
3. Mets OF Curtis Granderson is 9-for-25 with three homers versus Arrieta.

[Centerfield]

Twenty years from now we are going to sit around and have trouble remembering the order of all of our 5 consecutive ROY's. We will remember it started with deGrom, and then was it Syndegaard next? Or was it Conforto then Syndegaard? Was Matz one of them? It will be doubly confusing when trying to separate it from the order of Cy Young awards.

At least the World Championships will be easy to track. Every year from 2015 to 2030.

[MFS62]

I'd like to see Recker catch him, to guide him through any rookie jitters he might have.

Later

[Ceetar]

MFS62 wrote: I'd like to see Recker catch him, to guide him through any rookie jitters he might have. Later

Plawecki has caught him so many times..

[TransMonk]

I didn't know this (sorry if it's been posted here before):

MLB.com wrote: The Blue Jays actually selected both Syndergaard and Bryant in the 2010 First-Year Player Draft, 17 rounds apart. Syndergaard signed and began developing in Toronto's system, before the Mets traded R.A. Dickey for him in a seven-player deal three winters ago. Bryant never signed with the Jays, instead going to college and becoming the second overall pick in the 2013 Draft.

[ashie62]

Syndergaard & Plawecki, a battery for the ages, I hope.

GO GETTEM THOR!!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I gotta say, I like the gimmick possibilities of "Noah's Arc."

[Centerfield]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I gotta say, I like the gimmick possibilities of "Noah's Arc."

Absolutely. He can become the spokesperson for McDowell's.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO SHAKE YOUR HAND, OR KISS IT, OR WHAT-- I FEEL LIKE BREAKDANCING
Noah celebrates first no-hitter with all-nighter at Marquee

YES, YES-- F*CK YOU, TOO!
Rookie returns to Twitter, engages with fans

MY BUNS HAVE NO SEEDS
Syndergaard angrily denies PED allegations

[batmagadanleadoff]

[fimg=555]http://www.seriessub.com/series/episodes/5179.jpg[/fimg]

[fimg=222]https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/espn-grantland/img/grantland-logo@2x.png[/fimg]

Journey Into Mystery: It�s Finally Time for Syndergaard vs. Bryant, and Lots of Superhero Metaphors, and Really Exciting Baseball, So Get Pumped

Tonight, a giant man who people call Thor will attempt to save New York from a runaway genetics experiment who operates under the rule of the deposed mastermind of an evil, world-conquering empire and his bespectacled, snake-wielding henchman. Mets pitching phenom Noah Syndergaard will stand his ground against Cubs hitting phenom Kris Bryant on a cool, breezy evening at Wrigley Field, one of America�s great landmarks, with the power of Syndergaard�s arm brought to bear against the power of Bryant�s bat (or sword, if we�re keeping the metaphor going). Syndergaard, with his effortless but prodigious strength, will battle Bryant, with his smile handsome but menacing, like the bad guy in a teen romantic comedy, and his eyes glowing blue as if he were chosen by the Prophets to battle the Kosst Amojan. Mankind is on a slow but inexorable path toward all popular culture being part of the Marvel Universe.1 What was once the province of comic books and movie theaters has come for network TV, in the form of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Everwood,2 and more. And now, baseball features Thor battling other superheroes. At this point, we know Bryant well � the inconceivable raw power, the psychic plate discipline, the fact that the amount of swing-and-miss in his offensive game makes him resemble Adam Dunn as well as a deity of the trade winds. And the bat�s not all: Bryant is a good all-around athlete with a plus arm and plenty of baseball savvy. This is the same process of discovery and praising-with-faint-damnation that we went through in discovering the full extent of The Mighty Giancarlo Stanton�s greatness, but while it took years with Stanton, it took only a few weeks with Bryant. Whenever a new life-form evolves, however, nature will eventually bring around a new kind of predator to hunt it. Syndergaard might not be a perfect analogue for Bryant�s quality, but he�s a similar kind of player. At 6-foot-6, 240 pounds, he looks like what we�d get if Boeing made human beings. Like Bryant, Syndergaard took a huge leap forward in his draft year, and the Blue Jays took him 38th overall when he was just 17 years old.3 Unlike Bryant, who stepped into the professional game nearly fully formed and destined for stardom from the start, Syndergaard needed some time to develop. He never put up the kind of gaudy minor league numbers that Bryant did because, among other reasons, he pitched the past season and change at Triple-A Las Vegas, a place where the air is so hot and thin it�s like playing baseball on Mercury. But over the course of six minor league seasons, Syndergaard grew larger and more imposing, like a pile of unfolded laundry. In his current form, Syndergaard can throw a 93-to-97 mph fastball well into the later innings, and because velocity for velocity�s sake isn�t enough in the big leagues, he can also drop a solid changeup and a menacing curveball on anyone who�s sitting too intently on the heater. He�s the size of an SUV, with a Scandinavian last name and this kind of hammer to wield; you can see why they call him �Thor.� That Syndergaard has arrived in the major leagues at the age of 22 is the latest testament to the Mets� ability to scout, draft, and develop power arms in recent years. The franchise has been completely unable to get out of its own way in plenty of other areas, but at this moment, the Mets have more pitchers than they can use. In the past few years, they�ve fleeced the Blue Jays for Syndergaard and the Giants for Zack Wheeler, and they�ve gotten Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom to outperform their draft profiles by tremendous amounts. Next year, those four pitchers could form a playoff rotation; this year and last, they gave the Mets enviable depth that meant that when Harvey got hurt, they could bring up deGrom, and when Wheeler got hurt, they could go back to Dillon Gee, and when Gee got hurt, they could finally bring up Syndergaard. Nowadays, no team makes it through a season with only five starting pitchers, so building up that kind of potential and quality is not only necessary, but extremely difficult. If the Mets are going to ride their incredible April wave all the way to the postseason, though, that�s exactly what they�re going to need to keep doing. Because while the single combat metaphor was convenient for this superhero battle gag, Syndergaard will have to contend with more than just Bryant on Tuesday night and beyond. He�ll have to face Anthony Rizzo, and Jorge Soler, and lots of other potent bats on lots of other teams. The only thing that can defeat a superhero is another superhero.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-noah-syndergaard-kris-bryant-mets-cubs-prospects/

[Lefty Specialist]

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote:

Thanks ReadTheApple.

[Edgy MD]

Stop Thor-Jacking!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

[Ceetar]

[Guest d'Kong76]

Fowler CF
Bryant 3B
Rizzo 1B
Montero C
Soler RF
Castro SS
Coghlan LF
Arrieta P
Russell 2B

[Ceetar]

Tuesday, May 12

@ Chicago



Curtis Granderson � RF
Daniel Murphy � 3B

Michael Cuddyer � LF
Lucas Duda � 1B

Wilmer Flores �SS
Kirk Nieuwenhuis � CF
Kevin Plawecki � C

Noah Syndergaard � RHP

Ruben Tejada � 2B

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Go, Niuewy. We need you!

[Benjamin Grimm]

[A Boy Named Seo]

Today I read "Happy Thorsday" somewhere on the internet, then remembered I still have to show up to work 3 more times this week.



replaced by

[Edgy MD]

Aurelio L�pez � now that's the guy with a couple o' nicknames. You realize he had two nicknames that put "Thor" to shame? In his native M�xico, he was known as "El Buitre de Tecamachalco" ("The Vulture of Tecamachalco"). Stateside, he just went as "Se�or Smoke."

Syndergaard chews through the league a couple of times, he might get a nickname half as good as either of those.

[batmagadanleadoff]

[Lefty Specialist]

Gee, when I went to Bacalod City I stayed at the Motel 6 and had frumpjacks for breakfast. Worst P20,000 I ever spent.

Hey, is there a ballgame tonight?

[ashie62]

Yes, in 15 minutes.

[ashie62]

And they are off.

Lagares out with right side strain. day to day.

[ashie62]

Granderson gets his 21st walk. Arietta is a civil war beard guy.

[Zvon]

Should have kept taking Muffy. He hasn't harnessed his movement yet. DP.

Cuddy swings at shit.

[Edgy MD]

That's a gift of a first strikeout here in the Syndergaarden of Earthly Delights.