PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets have an entertaining pitcher in Bartolo Colon, and not just because he looks like baseball’s version of Shrek.
Now all they have to do is find a way to score runs and improve their defense. One step at a time, Mets.
“Colon makes the ball dance, he’s like Meadowlark Lemon,’’ J.P Ricciardi, the Mets assistant to the GM, told the Post Monday, referring to the former star of the Harlem Globetrotters, who used to have the basketball on a string.
In the end, having the baseball on a string is a great lesson for the Mets’ young pitchers, another reason why the Mets signed Colon to a two-year deal worth $20 million, even though he is soon to be 41. Colon was 18-6 with a 2.65 ERA last season with the A’s.
“The thing a lot of people don’t realize is that he’s a ridiculous athlete,’’ David Wright said after the Mets’ 11-1 loss to the Marlins at Tradition Field.
Really?
“Really,’’ Wright said. “Look how quick his pickoff move is. He moves well around the mound, he’s fun to play behind and he throws strikes.’’
Pinpoint control and changing speeds on his fastball is what Colon is all about.
“I’m a fastball pitcher,’’ Colon said. “I’m going to use my best pitch. I’ve been working on changing the velocity with my fastball the last four years, and I work hard at that in spring training.’’
Colon, who had been slowed by a calf injury, was brilliant his first three innings in his first Mets outing of the spring. In the fourth he surrendered three runs. There’s work to be done.
The changing speeds was evident in the first, when he got Giancarlo Stanton to bounce into an inning-ending double play on a fastball that was taken down a notch. Stanton vs. Colon was a physique mismatch, won by the rotund Colon.
Stanton later hit a monstrous home run to left off Jack Leathersich that bounced off the back of the batter’s eye on the field behind Tradition, an estimated 525 feet.
For Colon, it’s all about location.
Terry Collins was impressed.
“Bartolo was outstanding,’’ the Mets manager said. “Once again it shows you’ve got to catch the ball because he is going to put it in play. He shows our young pitchers that you can have success if you just move the ball around.
“I can see why he has had the success. You can’t run on him, he’s one [second] flat to home plate, has a great move to first, so we just have to get him some runs to work with.’’
“When I was scouting with Oakland I saw him one-hit the Yankees in Yankee Stadium and he did it on a fastball and a changeup,’’ Ricciardi said. “He threw one slider in the ninth inning to [Derek] Jeter, I will never forget that, it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever saw. He’d go in, go out, great changeup. That’s what I love about the guy, he’s a strike machine.’’
Colon adds and subtracts.
“He pitches and that’s good for the young kids to see,” Ricciardi said. “They still think it’s about, power, power, power.’’
One veteran scout at Monday’s game said this about Colon, a pitcher he has known since 1995: “He’s always had the power arm. He resurrected his career by manipulating the fastball, and maybe throwing a handful of breaking balls all game. He throws two-seamers, and four-seamers cutting it, taking the fastball and turning it into about three different pitches and owning the strike zone.’’
Said former Met Bobby Ojeda: “What’s so impressive is the way Colon spots his fastball — not many people can do that. A well-placed fastball is the best pitch in the game.’’
“He gets ground balls,’’ Collins said. “They seem to hit the top of the baseball a lot off him. That’s why we’re stressing defense.’’
That defense had better come around, because Colon is going to get his ground balls.