Matt Harvey's Debut Must Set the Tone for Mets' 2015 Contender Dreams

Matt Harvey brings more than just his upper-90s heat and wicked repertoire to the New York Mets' season—he brings hype and, more importantly, hope.

Cheesy? Sure, but entirely true, too.

Yes, the Mets somewhat surprisingly won their first game of the season, doing so behind Bartolo Colon, who managed to beat stud starter Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals, everyone's presumed favorite to win the NL East, which just so happens to be the Mets' division.

On Wednesday, New York sends Jacob deGrom, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, to the hill to face off against Jordan Zimmermann. 

But Thursday, the real fun will begin. That's because Harvey, the Mets ace who missed all of last season due to Tommy John surgery but who once again looks like one of the very few elite pitchers in baseball, will get on a major league mound in a game that counts for the first time in—count 'em—594 days, dating back to Aug. 24, 2013.

Oh, and he'll be opposing none other than Stephen Strasburg, the right-hander who led the Senior Circuit in strikeouts a year ago.

It's a premier matchup, pretty much as good as it gets—and it's important for Harvey to showcase that he is, indeed, all the way back to the stud he was in 2013.

"I'm ready to go," Harvey said, per Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com. "All the work's been put in, and it's time to just let all that loose."

Think back two years ago, and it's not hard to recall the excitement and energy that emanated from Flushing every time Harvey, now 26, went to work. He showed it over and over, posting a microscopic 2.27 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 191 strikeouts in 178.1 innings before his season ended prematurely in late August due to the torn ulnar collateral ligament.

Harvey's 2.01 fielding independent pitching (FIP)—a metric that measures the elements a pitcher can control, namely, strikeouts, walks and home runs—also was the lowest in all of baseball that year.

If his spring showing is any indication, then Harvey is ready to rock. The 6'4", 215-pounder allowed just three runs on 17 hits in 22.2 innings to go with a nearly immaculate 21-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. That translates to a 1.19 ERA and 0.79 WHIP.

"You hear stories of guys who have trouble with command coming back [from Tommy John surgery]," Harvey, who had the procedure on Oct. 22, 2013, told Rubin. "That was something that I really worked on."

It shows.

As Buster Olney of ESPN The Magazine writes:

"

The first pitches that Matt Harvey threw this spring, and the last, seemed to have redefined what the Mets might be this year. If the chorus of rival evaluators is right, that Harvey is already an East Coast version of Clayton Kershaw -- right now -- that’s a nice starting point.

"

But here's the catch: Harvey needs to carry that over and be, well, Matt Harvey right from the get-go. That's how important he is to this pitching-rich Mets team that is, for the first time in several seasons, considered something of a contender with a shot at a wild-card spot and the postseason for the first time since 2006.

It might be overstating things to say that a dud from Harvey would deflate the hype and hope surrounding him and the club at the moment, but we are talking about the Mets—a snakebitten team with a fanbase known for its notorious inferiority complex that has built up over six consecutive losing seasons.

The first sign of trouble is bound to cause a ripple effect of pandemonium.

If, however, Harvey can build on his huge spring and prove that he has returned to being one of the very few elite aces in the sport—and start by dominating the favored Nationals—then the opposite will happen.

And as any Mets fan will tell you, sometimes ya gotta believe.

That's also cheesy—and true.

Statistics are accurate through Tuesday, April 7, and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11