On Amazin’s staff, Smoltz makes Brave comparison
IT’S TOUGH to put a ceiling on what the Mets’ pitching staff can achieve. Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz all combine youth and potential with hard, nasty stuff that, with some offense, could lead the Mets into an era of prosperity.
And while the quartet has yet to produce any concrete results outside of a couple AllStar appearances and a Rookie of the Year Award, John Smoltz — who will be officially inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame next weekend and pitched on arguably the greatest starting staff of all time with the Braves in the early-to-mid ’90s — didn’t shy away from offering some serious praise for the Mets’ big arms.
“They’re way better,” Smoltz said of the Mets in comparison to his Braves rotation, which featured five elite pitchers all under the age of 30, including Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. “They’ve got more talent than we could ever have.”
Still, Smoltz questioned whether the Mets pitchers could compile the same kind of careers the Braves starters did because of the current climate of the game — from innings limits to Tommy John surgery.
“The opportunities that exist today won’t allow a lot of staffs to find out what kind of staff they can be. That’s the shame of the game. The injuries have taken over. The inability to learn how to pitch (and) fast-tracking a lot of kids,” Smoltz said. “There’s no doubt that the dynamic arms are way better than we’ve ever seen. And the issue is how long can we keep them healthy and how long can they stick together financially? What we did in the era that we did, we take a lot of pride in it. We worked really hard and we didn’t miss a lot of starts.
“We’ve anointed people a little too quickly in this game. And they don’t have the ability to wait and learn and have a fair shake at the game. . . . Everybody wants quick results, expectations through the roof. And that’s what these guys are fighting today. They’re not giving them a chance to fail too often. And when they do, what happens?”