deResurrection

 

I stand firm in my belief that the Jacob deGrom we have been dealing with since his mid2022 return from multiple arm injuries is a much more tangible, beatable Jacob deGrom. You look at the numbers before and after, there's a palpable difference. Not MadBum different, but still noticeable. deGrom hit his peak in 2018 and figured something out, and from then until mid-2021, his ERAs were in the 1s and 2s, and since he came back they've been above 3. We haven't seen this since long-hair deGrom. Remember long hair deGrom? Good times, right? But still, the ERAs are higher, and the WHIPs are higher, and the WAR is lower.

But let me just make one thing absolutely clear: 2023 Jacob deGrom is still awesome. I mean, look at him. Jeez Louise, he's already got 43 strikeouts. We've been back for a month, come on now.

Jacob deGrom may be the single closest thing we have to a second coming of Sandy Koufax. I mean that in the sense that we have a smaller career spread, a shorter yet insane peak, and some of the most absolutely insane stats in a thirty-mile radius. deGrom hasn't had his WHIP over 1 since Matt Harvey was still on the team. He only started 15 games in 2021 but still ended the year with a 4.5 WAR and finished ninth in the Cy Young voting, which is to say that one guy voted for him, and I think I can guess his zip code. 

The goal, I assume, is to get to the point where he can still have the same quality of output while also going back to starting 200 innings a year. Is it possible? The Rangers certainly hope so.

Look, so far, deGrom has 2 wins and a 3.04 ERA, and while it's not quite as showy as Martin Perez [how...odd is it that THIS is a thing I can say], he's still a very important piece of this rotation, mostly because several of the other added arms, such as Nate Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney, aren't doing well at all. I think they did get deGrom to be the level-headed captain of that rotation, and unlike with Kluber it has worked very well so far, and if deGrom stays healthy, and please let him, they should be better off as they go. I am thinking that eventually Dane Dunning will need to start games again if one of those other guys keep blowing games, but they'll figure it out eventually.

Otherwise, a ton going right in Arlington. Adolis Garcia and Nate Lowe are hitting, Seager and Semien are playing like the Rangers paid them to, Travis Jankowski's stealing a lot of bases and Josh Jung is looking like the guy. A lot of what this team's been building for the last year or so is beginning to pay off and click, and they're currently outdoing the rest of the AL East and hoping a series against the Yankees doesn't break them too much. I think the Rangers will get a lot done this year, but I'm not sure if they'll be in first forever.

Coming Tonight: Oh good heavens, he finally figured out how to close games again.