The Nationals are going to sign Max Scherzer making their rotation just bananas at this point. They were already the best rotation in the NL East in terms of both prior success, prime-age and pedigree, and now they are probably the best in baseball:
- Max Scherzer
- Stephen Strasburg
- Jordan Zimmermann
- Gio Gonzalez
- Doug Fister
(For the record, I’m one of those people who thinks that Zimmermann will have a better season than Strasburg next year, and Fister will have a better season than Gonzalez, but that’s why I’m an amateur and not a professional).
That rotation is bananas. The argument could be made that any of those five could be the ace or near ace of other pitching staffs. If everyone stays healthy, this also gives the Nationals some interesting trade possibilities since Desmond, Zimmermann and Span are all free agents next year and it will be difficult to financially keep the squad together.
So the Nationals are ripe bananas. The pitching staff is good, in their prime and all together. They shape up on paper of being just amazing.
And the Mets are green bananas. They are so close to being ripe, and at least in terms of national press, the Nationals might be helpful here (because heaven forbid that the local NY press takes a day off). The Mets season is going to rest on the arms. Can everyone live up to their hype? Are they developed yet? What does a sophomore year of deGrom look like? What will Harvey be? Can Harvey be close to expectations? What will Syndergaard look like when he comes up? For 2016: is Matz the real deal?
The Mets rotation has a lot of talent, but they haven’t had everything on the field yet ready to go. Now I prefer my bananas green anyway, so I’m excited to watch them, but maybe by 2016, 2017 we have the ripe banana rotation in the National League.
