Look, all I know is what they taught me at SABR Blogging school. There are certain rules about baseball. Rule number one is young pitchers get hurt. And rule number two is strategy can’t change rule number one.

Now is an appropriate time to re-work this M*A*S*H quote. It seems all that anyone wants to talk about is the two pitchers that the Mets have lost already. While there’s no debating the seriousness of losing Josh Edgin and Zack Wheeler for the season, it seems that an even bigger storyline is getting lost in the commotion. While the masses moan and groan about TJ surgery, three starters that entered camp with various forms of question marks are dominating hitters this Spring.

For over a year, all we’ve worried about is how Matt Harvey will respond to surgery. And in his first three outings he has a 2.08 ERA with 1 BB and 8 Ks in 8.2 IP. He’s hit the upper 90s with his fastball and he’s not showing any control problems. If you had to hope for one result from Grapefruit League action it would be that Harvey comes back close to the Harvey of 2013. And all signs point to that direction.

Hands down the biggest pleasant surprise of 2014 was the emergence of Jacob deGrom, who went from prospect afterthought to Rookie of the Year Award winner. Yet we can all name ROY winners who struggled to repeat their glowing performance in their sophomore season. Currently, deGrom has a 2.45 ERA with 1 BB and 12 Ks in 11 IP as he looks to avoid the fate of Chris Coghlan, Geovany Soto, Jason Jennings and others.

All offseason we listened to how Jon Niese was damaged goods and how other teams wouldn’t even consider trading for the guy who has the 13th-most starts in the National League over the past five seasons due to … injury concerns. All Niese has done this year is to take the ball each time he’s supposed to while delivering a 2.61 ERA with 2 BB and 10 Ks in 10.1 IP.

While people look for scapegoats for the injuries to Edgin and Wheeler, three guys who are here and who all have something to prove have combined for a 2.40 ERA with 4 BB and 30 Ks over 30 IP. With all due apologies to the injuries to other pitchers and the amazing Grapefruit League performances for those fighting for the last few bench spots – this is the story of the Spring.

Now’s the time when the bleatings about how “Spring Training stats are meaningless!” and “Small sample size warning!” come out of the woodwork. Go ahead and trot them out and no one can refute you. But my preference is for guys with question marks about their ability to match stats from previous years go out and, you know, match their stats from the past.

Compare Harvey’s lifetime WHIP (0.986) to his mark this Spring (1.154). Or deGrom’s ERA in 2014 (2.69) to this Spring (2.45). Or Niese’s BB/9 his last nine starts last year (1.9) to this Spring (1.7). Those are all encouraging things to see. My preference is for that trio to meet our hopes and for Bartolo Colon to get lit up rather than the other way around.

Harvey could get rocked in his next outing, deGrom could lose his control and Niese could get hurt. All or any of these things would change the narrative. Still the important thing right now is that more than halfway through Grapefruit League play, the guys who should start the first three games of a playoff series are out and out dealing.

Opening Day is two weeks from Monday!

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