By William Coppola
I remember it clearly as my boss, the late Tom T-bone Giordano and I sat in Citi Field and marveled at his poise and command over the powerful Yankees. He would go on to pitch seven beyond solid innings of stellar baseball. Giving up a run while scattering four hits and striking out six. He even had the first hit by a Mets pitcher in 64 attempts by the staff at that point in the season.
Tom and I were working for the Texas Rangers at the time, covering the American League East and who ever they played. We decided to follow the Yankees to Citi Field after watching the Yankees drop the first two of this series to the Mets in the Bronx. We, both, were very happy we stayed in NY. That night we recognized what we saw deGrom do as something out of the ordinary for a first time starter in he big leagues.
Any scout who watched the ease of his delivery and command of all of his pitches, plus as I stated before, the poise he showed in his first ever start in the big leagues, had to of sent in a similar report. This was a no brainer for us at the time and unfortunately for us and the other 28 teams in baseball, the Mets thought the same.
People will be talking about this big time extension Jacob just got from the Mets. Either loving it or hating it for what ever reason. The money part came at the right time for both the Mets and deGrom. It is a business and I feel the Mets handled their star properly. So let’s get past the money stuff and see what we have here.
The media and call-ins to the sports radio shows by fans last year, were full of trade talks about deGrom and why the Mets should try to get a stock-pile of top prospects for their ace. I understand the logic there in thinking the Mets could have gotten a lot. But pitchers of his ability come along only once in a while to major league clubs. Look at the span from Seaver to Gooden to deGrom. That’s a span of almost 54 years. Prospects are just that, prospects and like that box of chocolates, you don’t know what your gonna get.
Find a prospect with good scouting, make him better with your player development department and watch him grow. Seaver, Gooden and deGrom are all home grown. Home cooking is always better than store bought and right now the Mets have a Thanksgiving dinner with Jacob deGrom at the head of the table.
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