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I Hope Matt Harvey Watched Last Night

Reporter: Was there a pitch count last night?

Maddon: It was infinity

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If I had to guess Matt Harvey was probably watching the Rangers last night. Wearing his Mark Messier jersey curled up with his favorite Rangers blanket cheering on the Blueshirts. Probably still hasnt gotten over the Yankees loss either. So who knows if he even watched Arrieta last night. But I hope he did. I hope he saw what a Man’s performance looked like. That was Big Boy pitching. Arrieta of course has filthy stuff on the mound but thats not what won him that game. What won him that game was sheer determination and confidence. A fucking week ago he told Big Cat he was going to shut out the Pirates and then he just went and did it. Ultra arrogance. Complete focus. The pure desire to win and dominate.

And back here in New York we got the dude who was supposed to be the franchise savior picking and choosing which games he’s gonna play like its a fucking a la carte menu. Trying to strategically choose his starts to limit the amount of time he can be out there competing to win. Again for the 5 millionth time I know its a different situation with Harvey. I know he’s coming off injury, I know he’s younger, I know he has a chance to make big money. I understand all that. But it just goes to show the two different mentalities you can have in sports. Jake Arrieta aint think about his contract right now. Jake Arrieta aint thinking about pitch counts and innings limits. Jake Arrieta is thinking about one thing and one thing only – winning. Winning his next start. Winning the World Series. Bringing a championship back to his starving city. Spending every waking minute with his teammates and doing what it takes to make sure he wins that next start.

Is Matt Harvey doing that? Sure doesnt fucking seem like it. And the saddest part of all is that Matt Harvey could be Jake Arrieta. There were times where he was Jake Arrieta. And then he just flipped a switch and did a 180 on everyone. Of course its a business and of course money matters, but I genuinely think you cant put a dollar amount on what Arrieta did last night. There are certain things that are worth more than money and immortal performances like that are one of them. Winning in the postseason is the rarest of all things in sports. The opportunities are gonna be few and far between. In terms of money, worst case for Matt Harvey is he makes about a hundred and fifty fucking million dollars. Career wise? Legacy wise? You know what the worst situation is there? You never make it back to the playoffs. You never even get the shot to put the team on your back and try to bring them to a World Series. Not that you try and fail. That you dont even get the chance to do it again. Because maybe the team that looks set up for years to come chokes, like what happened to David Wright. Because maybe the precious arm you try so hard to protect blows up on you anyway. Because of a million reasons. You might not even get the opportunity to do this again. And yet right now, with that opportunity sitting right in front of your face, you just choose to not relish it. You choose not to grab this postseason by the balls and make it yours. Choose not to try to leave your stamp on baseball history and dominate like the whole fucking world knows you’re capable of.

I feel like Jake Arrieta and Joe Maddon would actually burst into laughter if Matt Harvey explained his plan to preserve his arm and play it safe. I feel like they would laugh at him and be like “Good luck with that pal.” Like a couple of guys on the varsity taking to a member of the JV squad. “Good plan, kid. You’ve got it all figured out. How about you just play fucking baseball?”

As a fan it sucks. Its heartbreaking. Its disappointing. Its probably the same way for his teammates too. And I hope that it registers the same way for Matt Harvey. I hope that Arrieta’s performance last night at least made Harvey stop and say “Wait a minute. I dont want this. I want that.” Because if it didnt, things are a lot worse with Matt Harvey than they already appear to be.