For two seasons now, the baseball world has been trying to figure out the secret to Jacob deGrom’s success. DeGrom was never a top prospect and didn’t reach the majors until he was 26 and had already undergone Tommy John surgery, but he has dominated the National League pretty much since arriving in 2014.
Well, one hitter who faced deGrom in the postseason last year thinks he knows the right-hander’s trick: distract batters with his flowing locks. Via the Bergen Record‘s Bob Klapisch:
“First of all, I see this guy on the mound who looks like a stick figure,” the hitter said. “I mean, you don’t see major league pitchers who look like that. And he’s got that hair – you can’t not look at it, it’s everywhere. It bothers me when I’m trying to pick up the ball out of his hand. All I see is hair.”
I mentioned that scouting report to deGrom, who laughed and said, “That’s pretty cool.”
I then asked if he’d ever heard about his hair interfering with hitters’ concentration and he shook his head.
“Not really, I don’t talk to hitters much,” deGrom said. “But I guess now I’ll never cut it.”
So to put this in Biblical terms, deGrom is Samson, and his 97 mph fastball and devastating slider will go away if he ever cuts his hair.
DeGrom might want to stay away from the barber’s chair, if only because there’s no need to fix what isn’t broken. The 2014 NL Rookie of the Year has a 2.61 ERA in 331.1 big-league innings, and looks like the ace of a stacked Mets starting rotation. Fellow long-maned pitcher Noah Syndergaard may want to take note.
