Matt Harvey What The Hell

Something has to be wrong here. A few years ago, there was no doubt in anybody's mind that Matt Harvey was the ace of the New York Mets Starting Rotation. The Dark Knight was the talk of the town when it came to starting pitching in New York. There was no argument, he was king of the hill. He was good, he dominated, he made the baseball move and dance and really throw hitters off balance. Now, however, its a totally different story.

Just two years ago, he was the National League starter at the All Star Game in Queens. After missing a year with Tommy John Surgery, he pitched last year to a 13-8 record and helped get the Mets to the World Series for the first time since 2000. Now, he's 3-6 with a 5.77 ERA. So this does beg one to wonder..........what the hell is wrong with Matt Harvey?

Don't believe yet that something might be wrong with him, look at last night's start against the Washington Nationals at home. It was the worst start of his career. He lasted just two and two thirds innings, walking two, giving up eight hits and nine runs, six of which were earned runs. Harvey even gave up a hit to Bryce Harper, who was 0-for-21 before a third-inning single snapped the skid. And to think, a year ago when Harvey faced off against Stephen Strasburgh, the Citi Field crowd chanted "HARVEY'S BETTER." This time around, Harvey got booed right off the mound. That short outing for Harvey last night should tell you right there that something isn't right with the former Mets ace.

Harvey's velocity is down (from 96 mph in 2015 to 94 mph in 2016) and his ERA is now up to 5.77 (from 2.71 last season). He spoke to mechanical adjustments he needed to make to find comfort in his delivery heading into Thursday's outing, but the results continue to show he's still searching for answers. After the game Mets manager Terry Collins said he would consider skipping Harvey's next start, scheduled to be next Tuesday against these same Nationals (Yahoo). Ya know what, that might not be such a bad idea.

Look don't get me wrong I still really like Matt Harvey. I support him, but its starting to wain a little. It is getting hard to do that now. It sucks to see a guy with all the talent that Harvey does have to see him pitching like this. He has the stuff, I mean he can get his fastball up in the high 90's, that's been well documented. Its just something about his mental makeup right now that's not there. He knows he can pitch, but he's fighting himself on the mound, you can tell just by watching him.

Most big league pitchers, so far as I can see, when they take the hill, you know just by looking at them if they have command of their pitches on a given day or not. Watching Matt throw the last couple of outings, you can tell he's not there. It's mental with him, which is throwing off his timing and mechanics. He used to go out there and sort of say here try and hit this. He could really make the ball dance on the mound out there. But now, the ball has no movement and is staying flat and fat over the plate and its getting rocked. I'm sure Mets management and even Matt Harvey don't want to do this, but it might not be such a bad idea. Send him down to Triple A for a little while. Let him get his confidence back in his other pitches. Once he gets that mental side of the game worked out everything else will fall back into place and he will be back to dominating big league hitters again in no time!