Hagen: Panic concerning Harvey overblown

WASHINGTON — The hot takes have been flying. The anonymous scouts have been polled. Calipers have been used on every bit of Matt Harvey’s velocity, statistics and mechanics than can be measured. That which can’t be quantified — his psyche, his confidence — has been speculated on at length.

All of which has left the impression that the 27-year-old Mets right-hander will be making the biggest start of his career when he takes the mound opposite the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday night at Nationals Park. That he needs to dial up the sort of dominance that used to be his norm. Or else.

Or else what, exactly, though?

Look, Harvey hasn’t pitched in the style to which everybody has become accustomed this season. The 5.77 ERA after nine starts makes that pretty clear. And, yes, he’s coming off his most abbreviated big league start, 2 2/3 innings against the very same Nationals, a game in which he gave up nine runs (six earned) and was serenaded with boos at Citi Field as he exited.

You know, there are unconfirmed rumors that many outstanding pitchers, even some who were eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame, occasionally had an unsightly pitching line. For some reason, though, Harvey’s seems to have made many want to head for the storm cellar.

Didn’t we just go through this? Wasn’t it just last season that he found himself in the middle of a maelstrom that had to do with how many innings he should pitch coming off Tommy John surgery and whether he should be shut down and what his priorities were?

And didn’t all of that seem really beside the point when he made four postseason starts, including eight powerful innings in Game 5 of the World Series? It was a performance …

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