PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Noah Syndergaard draws an imaginary line from his armpit down the right side of his body.
"Your lat is a huge muscle that goes from under here, all the way down your back," he says, explaining how it interacts with his hips and his leg muscles. Syndergaard is speaking about what he learned last season, after a lat tear torpedoed what was supposed to be one of the best years of his career. He is talking about hip flexibility and t-spine mobility, the types of things that prompt trainer Eric Cressey to call him "a little bit of a nerd.