The Man Beneath the Golden Hair: How Noah Syndergaard is Winning the Mental Game

On Thursday, the day after the Royals seemed to figure out Mets ace Jacob deGrom on their way to taking a 2-0 lead in the World Series, Mets starter Noah Syndergaard addressed the media at Citi Field in Queens. The rookie, who will start Game 3, was quietly confident when discussing what his approach will be against the apparently strikeout-proof Royals lineup.

"I've got a few tricks up my sleeve that I'll be able to break out tomorrow night," he said, giving it a smile that managed to straddle the line between quiet confidence and swagger.

Syndergaard got the Thor nickname for his super-hero physique and golden locks. But the physical skills aren't the only thing that have carried him into October as perhaps the Mets least frayed starter. Syndergaard is a thoughtful person and pitcher. Working on my book, Baseball Maverick: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the Mets, I talked to him after a Triple-A game in Sacramento, California, on a night when he hadn't pitched and no one else was around. It was dark, out beyond center field, and he did something few young athletes ever do with reporters: He asked me a question, one that wasn't rhetorical, and waited for an answer, his eyes holding mine.

"Do you know who Harvey Dorfman was?" he asked.

I sure did: As I described the moment in the book, "I did a double take, half expecting to turn and see some old sportswriter friend of mine smirking in the near distance, having put Syndergaard up to this. But no, it was just the two of us out there. 'Sure,' I said, not wanting to break the flow of conversation by noting that it was Sandy Alderson who first hired Dorfman to work in big-league baseball."

Syndergaard explained to me in Sacramento: "I have The Mental ABC's of Pitching by him, and before every start, I just make it routine, I read a few chapters out of that book and get my head right. I get focused. That's been a big thing for me, is being able to focus for seven, eight innings at a time. That's what helps when it comes to executing pitches, is extreme focus."

Syndergaard was not speaking to me like how an athlete would give a quote to a reporter, hitting a talking point or hiding in the bushes of too familiar, pre-approved verbiage. He was speaking honestly, and what impressed me was he was curious to see my reaction, curious for my take, even though he didn't know me at all and, I'm sure, had never heard of me.

What that moment showed me was that this young man had an unusual ability to absorb lessons from people he encountered. He was a young man who just enjoyed talking pitching.

"The thing I love about him is he's like a magnet," said his Triple A pitching coach Frank Viola. "You say something to him and he takes it all in."

Paul DePodesta, Alderson's lieutenant and heir apparent with the Mets, oversees the team's farm system, and hit similar notes in describing the young pitcher.

"Noah's a pretty thoughtful guy," DePodesta told me. "Going into his senior year in high school, he was not hyped as the next best thing coming out of Texas. It wasn't until later in his senior year that his status came up. The Blue Jays surprised people with where they took him in the draft, thirty-eighth overall as a supplemental pick. I think he's more grounded than your typical top, top prospect. This is a guy who has become a great prospect. I don't think he's as caught up in it as some other guys."

Those words, describing Syndergaard as he was working his way up to the big leagues, also work for his continuing progress. He made his major-league debut in early May at Wrigley Field, and at that time was an exciting, but erratic, young prospect. He stabilized quickly, experimented with his pregame routine under Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen's tutelage, and he was soon throwing harder than ever, while also showing much more command of his off-speed pitches.

"Working with Dan has just been a huge joy: He's a pitching guru," Syndergaard said Thursday afternoon. "I feel like he's really revamped my career and my status on the mound. The amount of confidence that I've gained throughout this entire season and the journey has been an unbelievable experience for me."

The Royals, as a function of their commitment up-and-down the lineup to take short, compact swings and putting the ball in play, are exceptional against hard throwing pitching, hitting .284 on fastballs of 95 mph or above. But it's different hitting 99 compared to 95, as we saw in the NLDS when Justin Turner led the Dodgers with a dazzling display of hitting, but still looked overmatched against Syndergaard.

The chatter on Thursday about the Royals having figured out how to pick up deGrom's pitches, based on some tip-off, highlighted a deeper truth: K.C.'s pro scouting department has studied every Mets pitcher. But they've likely paid more attention to solving Harvey and deGrom than rookies like Syndergaard and Steven Matz. Truthfully, Syndergaard is too much a work in progress for anyone to completely read—that goes for Royals pro scouts, the Mets coaching staff, and even his teammates.

And nobody can read what's most important about Syndergaard anyway: his mind.