PHILADELPHIA — Great fastball, check. Needs work on secondary pitches, check. Competitor, check.
Zack Wheeler is pitching for the Mets again Tuesday against the White Sox, and Terry Collins can’t wait. The Mets manager knows now, more than ever, the pipeline of pitching has to keep flowing for his team to have any chance of success.
Despite their offensive issues, the decision by general manager Sandy Alderson to load up on as much young pitching as possible is the way to go for the Mets. With Jon Niese’s partially torn rotator cuff, the emergence of Matt Harvey and Wheeler is even more significant.
The Mets got another solid start from the ever-improving Jeremy Hefner last night to beat the Phillies 4-3 at Citizens Bank Park. Hefner has allowed three runs or less in each of his last six starts, and like Harvey and Wheeler, it’s all about power.
Hefner’s velocity has gone up from topping out at 91 to topping out at 94, all because of an adjustment he made about six starts ago with pitching coach Dan Warthen.
“We wanted to add a little deception to my delivery so we added more of a hip turn, and that added velocity as well,’’ Hefner told The Post last night.
For Mets pitchers, it’s all about adjustments and being competitive.
Don’t dare put Collins in the category of those questioning Wheeler’s competitiveness. That’s the biggest thing that came out of Super Tuesday.
“I tell you what, Wheeler is a little laid back when he is not on the mound but when he is out there, he’s one competitive son of a gun,’’ Collins said. “I was really, really impressed.
“There were two innings against the Braves when he walked two guys each inning and had to get out of it, and you know what? It was like he said, ‘All right, that’s enough of this garbage.’ ’’
Then came this telling comment from Collins: “Everybody says Harvey and Wheeler are two different guys; they aren’t on that mound. They each have the same competitive nature on that mound and that’s great to see. That’s what I wanted to see.’’
Wheeler’s biggest improvement has to be to his slider. That will be the point of focus, and as third base coach Tim Teufel pointed out, “Dan Warthen and Ricky Bones are really good teachers. They are going to help him a lot.’’
Just as Harvey has been.
“I really thought Zack would benefit from watching Matt,’’ Collins said. “I thought he would benefit from seeing another power guy and how he faced that lineup.’’
The Niese injury points to the need to grow as much pitching as you can in the farm system.
“Jon Niese was our No. 1 guy coming out of spring training,” Collins said. “This does not help us. We are very, very, very lucky that we have Zack Wheeler in our organization and that we have some more coming, because this tells you that you cannot have enough starting pitching. You can look at the Dodgers, what they’ve gone through, what we’re going through. When [pitchers] fall, they are going to fall fast and you just cannot fill in unless you have depth.’’
All this makes Rafael Montero and the other minor leaguer starters that much more valuable.
Wheeler is on line to make his home debut June 30 against the Nationals. Then his next two starts figure to be on the road before the All-Star break.
The Mets will keep a close eye on Harvey and Wheeler and not over-extend them. Noted Collins: “It’s not always about tonight for these guys. It’s hard to look down the road. You’re trying to make sure everybody stays healthy. They have to understand heroes die fast here.’’
For a team short on heroes, the Mets need to keep developing the young guns to turn this mess around.