10 years ago the rotation was mostly internally built. What happened to get where we are now? Bad drafting...bad international signing, bad player development? Hopefully, it's all being fixed.
When you think about it, that rotation in 2015 had 'Tolo at the top (he led the team in IP), then four good-to-great homegrowns in deGrom, Niese, Harvey and Syndergaard.
All of the homegrowns got hurt. Only deGrom was effective -- if pitching at all -- after age 30, and he's only started 46 games since his age 31 season.
So, I get it when GMs put their development emphasis on position players and look to buy their pitching. The injury trends and profiles are different, so you have to approach filling the roster differently. It would be great to develop a Seaver, Koosman, Matlack core and ride them as the heart of the rotation for a decade, but it just doesn't happen very often.
I'd rather they gave the last starting pitcher slot to Megill rather than Blackburn, Canning, or Quintana. I think he's got a lot of upside. I'll reiterate that given how much money they invested in Soto, it would've made more sense to go all in and to have signed one of Snell, Burnes, or Fried.
He has had three years to show that upside. All I have seen is a pitcher who constantly tinkers, throws way too many different kinds of pitches and not enough stamina to get through two lineup turns.
That's the bad Megill. The other Megill is a guy who has had about 3 stretches of 4-5 games when he's pitched like an ace.
10 years ago the rotation was mostly internally built. What happened to get where we are now? Bad drafting...bad international signing, bad player development? Hopefully, it's all being fixed.
When you think about it, that rotation in 2015 had 'Tolo at the top (he led the team in IP), then four good-to-great homegrowns in deGrom, Niese, Harvey and Syndergaard.
All of the homegrowns got hurt. Only deGrom was effective -- if pitching at all -- after age 30, and he's only started 46 games since his age 31 season.
So, I get it when GMs put their development emphasis on position players and look to buy their pitching. The injury trends and profiles are different, so you have to approach filling the roster differently. It would be great to develop a Seaver, Koosman, Matlack core and ride them as the heart of the rotation for a decade, but it just doesn't happen very often.
I'd rather they gave the last starting pitcher slot to Megill rather than Blackburn, Canning, or Quintana. I think he's got a lot of upside. I'll reiterate that given how much money they invested in Soto, it would've made more sense to go all in and to have signed one of Snell, Burnes, or Fried.
He has had three years to show that upside. All I have seen is a pitcher who constantly tinkers, throws way too many different kinds of pitches and not enough stamina to get through two lineup turns.