In his debut season, Matt Harvey made 10 starts. Since then, we’ve compared first Zack Wheeler then Jacob deGrom to Harvey after they, too, have made 10 starts. It’s time to do another update, as Noah Syndergaard has now reached, okay surpassed, that total. So, here’s how it looks:

IP W-L ERA H R ER HR BB K WHIP BABIP deGrom 59.2 1-5 3.77 58 25 25 5 26 53 1.408 .317 Harvey 59.1 3-5 2.73 42 19 18 5 26 70 1.146 .268 Syndergaard 58.2 3-4 3.38 56 26 22 5 12 59 1.159 .311 Wheeler 57.0 5-2 3.63 51 26 23 9 28 45 1.386 .259

Harvey is still the king, with the lowest ERA, the lowest WHIP and the most strikeouts. But Syndergaard ties him with the fewest homers allowed, has the fewest walks and is in second place in ERA, strikeouts and WHIP. The bottom line is that this is pretty heady company and Syndergaard is more than holding his own.

Of course, we know that Wheeler improved some since his first 10 games and deGrom improved a lot. Syndergaard is off to a fine start in this regard, too. In his 11th start, all he did was to log 8 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB and 13 Ks, an outing which lowered his ERA to 3.10 for the year.

These are great numbers to look at in retrospect and even better to have watched unfold live. So, while we are just feeling wonderful about everything, let’s get way ahead of ourselves and imagine things a few months down the road.

I work as the official scorer for a summer collegiate baseball league team. Last night, there was a scout from the Dodgers at the park. This wasn’t the crusty old guy with a cigar in his mouth going on and on about how much things were better back in the old days. No, this scout was a younger guy, much closer to gregarious than crusty.

When the scout found out I was a Mets fan, his tone changed completely. He was still more than willing to share his opinion, but rather than his up-to-that-point storytelling mode, he switched into hyper-serious mode. And he said that the one team that no one wanted to face in the playoffs was the Mets.

This is not any great insight. We’ve heard from beat writers pretty much the same thing. But the thing that makes this interesting is that it’s beyond unlikely that this Dodgers scout who is 3,000 miles away from home in the backwoods of the country is plugged into what the Mets’ beat writers are saying. Instead, he likely has discussed this already with other scouts.

So, let’s assume the Mets make the playoffs, either as a division winner or Wild Card winner. Who does the club utilize in its playoff rotation? Wheeler obviously is out; Harvey and deGrom are obviously in. Which other two pitchers do you use as starters and who goes to the pen?

Bartolo Colon is likely the weak link of the bunch. But he’s also the only one with playoff experience, having pitched 10 postseason games in his career. Wouldn’t you guess that the veteran-loving Terry Collins would push for him to be one of the starters?

Jon Niese seems like an easy call to move to the bullpen. But if you needed someone to come in and give you a shutdown inning, would Niese be your guy? We all describe Niese as a battler. But he’s also the guy who depends on his defense and do we want him coming into a tied game and having to rely on his fielders to help him get out of a tight spot?

It may very well be that if the 2015 Mets make the postseason that Steven Matz and Syndergaard are moved to the bullpen. To be clear, this is not my preference, just an observation on how things might play out.

It should be noted that in his last five games, Syndergaard has been deGrom-like. In that span he has a 1.97 ERA with a 4.75 K/BB ratio and a 0.844 WHIP. It’s nice that the Mets didn’t give up on him after he allowed 11 ER in 10 IP in his previous two starts. It will be even nicer if he continues to pitch like he has lately down the stretch.

The Mets need Syndergaard to pitch well if they are to make the postseason. And Syndergaard can help his own playoff status by being a guy to reliably give the team strong outings. We want Syndergaard’s outings to be eight innings long, not one.

Although it is fun to think about how hard he could throw if he didn’t have to pace himself.

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