Cuncel Da Snydergarden
Who knows if theres gonna be any legitimate baseball season this year...but if there is, it wont really involve the Mets. Noah has always kinda been the lynchpin to this whole regime's success when you look at it. Like if there's ONE guy that I think holds the most power to tip the Mets from pretender to contender, its Noah. If he ever lived up to his potential, he and deGrom become the most formidable 1-2 punch in the game. I say that meaning if he reaches his FULL potential - because I think he has more raw talent and strength than like anyone in baseball. If he's maxing out on that fastball and throwing that 95 mph slider (NINETY FIVE!!!) hes unhittable. If deGrom - back to back Cy Young winner - was somehow the LESS scary pitcher out of a 1-2 combo?? SHEESH. But alas, Noah has never come close to reaching that potential and now, with this blow, its unlikely he ever will. Noah's career was destined to split into a fork in the road, where he either went the way of Jake, or went the way of Matt Harvey. His attitude and his inconsistency always had him trending more towards the Matt Harvey story, and now with an injury like this its all but guaranteed he ends up on the wrong side of things.
Hes young enough and TJ is common enough now that its no longer a death sentence, but the idea that Noah was ever going to become that Cy Young contending, Number 1, Ace type was starting to get dicey. Hes got enough time under his belt that I think he was gonna be exactly what we saw - an inconsistent guy with electric stuff. Sometimes looks like the best pitcher in baseball, sometimes is gonna give you like 120 pitches over 4 1/3. He fell in love with putting on weight and gaining muscle, always tried to strike everyone out, and always looked like he was just throwing as hard as he could rather than truly pitching. It never felt like an artform the way it feels like when you watch the greats. Now you factor in an entire missed season, yikes. I hate to be pessimistic but I feel like this is the end for Noah as a Met.
He'll probably flourish in the Bronx one day. He's got Doc Gooden written all over him.