The Global New York Mets Blog: No Hitter

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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Examining the Career of Johan Santana

March 28th, 2013, likely marked the end of an era for the Mets. With the announcement of Johan Santana having a possible tear in his anterior capsule in his left shoulder, the same injury he had at the end of the 2010 season which required him to miss the entire 2011 season.

Johan Santana came to New York with much fan-fare in a sign & trade deal that saw then top prospects Carlos Gomez, Phillip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, and Deolis Guerra, in exchange for Santana signing a 6 year $137.5 million contract, the richest for a pitcher in baseball history at the time. Out of these four players, only Gomez has shown any sort of consistant success in the majors. After throwing a perfect game last season, Humber's season took a drastic turn for the worse, and Mulvey, who pitched not even a full season in the majors (he last pitched for Arizona in 2010) before retiring as a Met in May of last year. But injuries marred what was supposed to be a reign of dominance by Santana.

His 2008 season Santana nearly won the NL Cy Young Award placing third in voting, and kept the Mets playoff hopes alive (at least for one more day) by pitching a spectacular three hit complete game shutout against the Marlins in Game 161. It was later revealed that Santana had pitched the game on a torn meniscus, thus making the performance all the more spectacular.

Santana's 2009 season was a bit off compared to 2008. In 2009 Santana came out hot, in his first 10 starts he was 7-2, and had a 1.72 ERA, but in his final 15 starts he went 6-7 and had a 4.02 ERA to finish with a 13-9 record and 3.13 ERA in 166 innings pitched, shut down in late August to remove bone chips from his elbow.

The 2010 season does not stand out as memorable on the surface but it has proven to be vastly underrated. To drive home the point, outside of record, innings pitched, and strikeouts, Santana's season was better than his crosstown ace counterpart in CC Sabathia, who placed third in AL Cy Young voting that season. In 200 innings pitched, Santana had a 11-9 record, but a 2.98 ERA, a WHIP of 1.18, and 144 strikeouts. But once again, Santana's season was cut short due to injury, this time a torn anterior capsule in his left throwing shoulder. This injury kept him out for the entire 2011 season as well.

2012 marked a new beginning for Johan. Santana came back with a vengeance, posting a 2.75 ERA and along with eventual NL Cy Young winner, R.A. Dickey made a potent 1-2 punch. On June 1st, it finally happened. That night, Johan Santana threw not only his first career no-hitter, but also the first no-hitter in New York Mets history. His next start, Santana was rocked by the New York Yankees, going five innings and allowing six runs. But after that he seemed to settle down and begin getting his feet back under him, especially after throwing 8 shutout innings against the Dodgers. But his next start, Chicago Cubs outfielder stepped on Santana's ankle and it all went downhill from there failing to make it past the 5th inning while allowing six or more runs in each of his five starts after.

Santana is a very polarizing figure for some Mets fans but he still remains one of the most popular and better pitchers in Mets franchise history. Was he worth the contract that he received? In short, no. But would I do that trade again? In a New York minute.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Tonight Boss

#NotTonightBoss- @MetsWFAN (Chris Madjkowski)

Those words were tweeted out by the Mets radio producer for the past 3 1/2 seasons. But tonight, June 1st, 2012, that all came to an end. For the first 8,019 games in the history of the New York Mets, the team had never thrown a no hitter. On 8,020 the streak finally came to end with Johan Santana throwing the first no-hitter in team history.

This is especially meaningful considering the man who threw it. Coming off major shoulder surgery, who would have even imagined Johan throwing another pitch in the major leagues, let alone a no-hitter. The torn labrum has ruined the careers of many once great pitchers so him reaching this point only icing on the cake. Before the game manager Terry Collins told the media that Johan would be on a 115 pitch count. At 95 pitches at the end of 6 with his pitch count only rising, there was a lot of doubt among the announcers and fans and players alike wondering if Terry would allow Johan to finish this game. With 107 pitches heading into the 8th inning there was a serious debate raging among fans about whether or not to take him out. Under any normal circumstance there wouldn't be any question but due to the shoulder surgery it would have been understandable. With a walk in the 8th inning, Terry did come out with many fans thinking that this would be the end. But in the end history was made.

This game wasn't without it's controversy. In the 6th inning, Carlos Beltran in his return to Flushing since being traded, hit a ball that was called foul but upon further review appeared to hit the chalk (and thus a fair ball). The call was argued but (obviously) to no avail.

Also continuing the tradition in no-hitters, Mike Baxter made a spectacular running catch in the 7th inning, ramming into the wall (and subsequently leaving the game) to preserve the historic occassion

So enjoy it Met fans. The curse is over. We have a no-hitter. Hopefully it won't take 50 more years for the next one to come.

With that there is only one thing to say. TONIGHT BOSS! LGM

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