This week’s series between the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs was one of the most anticipated events of the early baseball season. The story was simple: two teams universally considered on the rise, thanks to exciting young players – hitters for the Cubs, pitchers for the Mets. Hell, 90% of trade speculations last offseason was between the two teams, who had a surplus of prospects. Throw in a surprisingly scorching start from the Mets while the Cubs were able to tread water, and baseball fans were salivating at the prospect of seeing these young players battle for wins.
Of course, that isn’t exactly what happened. Chicago swept the Mets in four games, thanks in no small part to a Mets offense that is at best “struggling and injured” and at worst “literally in ruins.” It continued what’s quickly turning into a free fall for the Mets, who hold a 1.5 game lead over the Nationals in the East, while the Cubs got themselves to 19-15 and in second place in the NL Central. Not all these exciting young players put up gaudy numbers; Jacob deGrom struggled in the first game for the Mets, and Kevin Plawecki has been slumping in his efforts to replace the injured Travis d’Arnaud. On the Cubs side, Starlin Castro continued a slump that’s seen his batting average sink nearly 30 points in the past 10 games.
Even with all that considered though, there were a number of young players on each team that shined in this series (yes, even on the Mets side). Let’s take a look at 5 players who worked their absolute hardest to live up to this series’ hype.
Kris Bryant
Bryant was the talk of March, and while nobody reasonably expected him to continue a 9-homers-a-month pace, his first month in the league hadn’t had any real breakout moments – he didn’t hit his first home run until May 9th in the prior series, and came into the Mets series hitting just .247. By the end of Thursday’s game, his average had gone up to .274. Bryant went 6-14 against Mets pitchers with 3 walks and 4 RBIs. It must have also helped for him to finally hit his first home run the week prior, because he slugged two more homers, one in each of the first two games. Bryant was arguably one of the most anticipated players to watch in this series, and hitting nearly .500 didn’t do much to dissuade that. Cubs fans saw a flash of the big time hitter they know he can soon become.
Anthony Rizzo
While Bryant is the big young hitter Cubs fans want to see develop, Rizzo is the one they’ve been seeing develop. It’s often said of young power hitters that as their power increases, their hits that were once doubles become home runs, and Cubs fans know that firsthand from watching Rizzo – he went from 40 double and 23 home runs in 2013 to an impressive 28 doubles and 32 home runs last season – and he’s still only 25! Other Cubs hitters may be more potential, but Rizzo is the known fear, and that fear continued as he went 4-10 against the Mets with 2 RBIs, 4 walks, and of course, a home run. He raised his already phenomenal .330 average to .336 and now has a 7 game hitting streak. Rizzo might be slightly underrated, having played on poor teams his whole career, but as the Cubs improve he’ll be seen as the constant rock in their lineup.
Matt Harvey
Harvey’s start in the third game of this series was a classic Matt Harvey game in every sense; unfortunately, as Mets fans know that means a great pitching performance that results in a no-decision. Harvey has returned to the Mets from surgery looking as sharp as ever, winning his first five starts of the year, before losing his sixth start where he only gave up three runs. It was three more than he gave up to Chicago on May 13th, as he completely and totally stymied the young Cubs lineup, allowing just five baserunners (three hits and two walks) over 7 innings, and struck out 9 batters. In the process he lowered his already solid ERA from 2.72 to 2.31, and brought his K/9 rate back above 9. It was an absolutely sensational start from Harvey, but the Mets’ sputtering offense only scored one run for him, and after Carlos Torres blew the lead in the 8th inning, disastrous bullpen management from Terry Collins resulted in Jeurys Familia walking in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th, wasting a fantastic start.
Addison Russell
Russell came to the Cubs organization by way of the trade last season that sent Jeff Samardzija to Oakland, and coming into this season was named one of the top prospects in all of baseball. He was called up to the Cubs nearly a month ago and has been playing everyday since. Though the average isn’t terribly high yet, Russell has been a solidly consistent hitter. And he even managed to raise that average a little against the Mets, going from .250 to .256 as he went 4-14 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs. Russell’s quickly proving himself to be a pesky hitter at the plate, and was certainly a thorn in the Mets side this series.
Noah Syndergaard
So maybe “shined” isn’t exactly what Syndergaard did, but there was a lot of good to take away from his performance. Like Russell, Syndergaard came into the 2015 season as one of the most hyped up prospects in baseball. It was clear that he would be up in the majors sooner than later, as the Mets would want Harvey to get occasional rest. Once Dillon Gee hit the DL, Syndergaard (Thor, as Mets fans have taken to calling him thanks to his blonde hair and tall frame) was promoted to replace him. The initial stats from his first start against the Cubs aren’t particularly flashy – a 5.04 ERA after giving up 3 runs in 5.1 innings – but Syndergaard, until his final inning, had done a solid job of limiting the damage of his walks and some defensive miscues. The most impressive part of Thor’s start? According to nj.com, he had “an average fastball of 98 MPH.” If that doesn’t get you excited for his future, what will?