New York Mets starter Noah Syndergaard has come a long way since being validated by his first major league standing ovation 10 months ago.
About 10 days before the season started, I asked the Twitterverse what the ceiling was for Syndergaard this season. The result was a mix, mostly high end (“Kershaw” was the response of a few) but with a little more conservatism (3.15 ERA, 1.20 WHIP), too.
I posed the same question after Syndergaard’s second start and the high-end assessments were even higher (“ceiling Clemens, floor Smoltz”). The conservatism was gone, replaced by superhero worship (with humorous intent, of course).