You’re the manager; who do you like? I’m guessing your first pick would be Matt Harvey, which makes sense. No one wants to face him, especially now that he’s apparently fully recovered from Tommy John surgery. But remember, Noah Syndergaard has a better fastball and Jacob deGrom has the hair – yes, the hair – that interferes with a hitter’s line of sight. More on that later.

I actually turned the question inside out to a number of opposing hitters I respect, asking who they wouldn’t want to see in a nine-inning shootout with the Mets. Harvey is at the top of almost everyone’s list – almost. You’d be surprised why deGrom and Syndergaard picked up votes.

Here’s the scouting report on our hypothetical steel cage match:

MATT HARVEY: Everyone knows why Harvey was the game’s most dominant pitcher in 2013 before he blew out his elbow. It was that killer 90-mph slider that no one could pick up out of his hand. According to Fangraphs.com, hitters swung and missed at one out of every three sliders Harvey threw that year. That’s just crazy.

“Anything at that [velocity], you have to react to it like it’s a fastball and then it just wipes you out,” one left-handed hitter told me. “I hate hitting against him.”

Harvey says that pre-surgery slider is “definitely coming along” this spring, which is terrible news for anyone having to choose which quadrant of the strike zone to defend against. Pitching coach Dan Warthen correctly noted that when Harvey is throwing his four-seam fastball at or above the belt, and then burying that slider at the knees or below, “then you’re pretty much helpless.”

That’s not hyperbole, either. One 

Yankee went as far as to confide to Terry Collins last year that Harvey’s arsenal was “the best I’ve ever seen.”

Here’s another component of Harvey’s dominance. Compared to deGrom’s long, fluid delivery, Harvey appears to slingshot the ball, which means, “There’s much less time to react with him,” said one National League veteran. “You think you see it and then the ball is on or past you. The pitch you think you’re going to square up on, you end up fouling off.”

And, lastly, Harvey’s claim to the rotation’s top spot is bolstered by his personality: He’s blessed with a warrior’s mind-set that reminds you of game-day Roger Clemens minus the steroids. Hitters pick up on that vibe; to say it’s disquieting would be putting it mildly.

JACOB DEGROM: So, about that hair. This comes from someone who faced deGrom in the postseason last year, and admitted those flowing locks were a problem. Big problem.

“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.”

Obviously there’s more to deGrom’s brilliance than his coif. That fastball, after all, does light up the radar gun to the tune of 94.9 mph, fifth-best in the National League last year. But what makes deGrom such a threat is his ability to pitch without his best heat.

Case in point was Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the Dodgers last year, when deGrom was clearly exhausted. The fastball was off by 2-3 mph from the Game 1 masterpiece against L.A., yet deGrom generated 15 swings and misses. That proved just how crafty and resilient he is. Stick figure or not, you beat Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke in the same series, and you have every right to call yourself an ace.

NOAH SYNDERGAARD: Warning to all mortals: Thor appears bigger and stronger than last season. He says he can throw even harder than he did in October, when the gun clocked him at 102-mph. It’s hard to argue with any pitcher’s credentials at that speed.

But it’s not easy velocity. To the contrary, Syndergaard’s delivery is abbreviated, a from-the-ear delivery that resembles a catcher’s and difficult for a hitter to sync with. He’s at the opposite end of the spectrum of say, deGrom, whose windup is deliberate and long-armed. I’ve actually had some hitters say if deGrom has any single vulnerability it’s that his mechanics are so smooth and rhythmic, they’re actually easier to time than Harvey’s or Syndergaard’s.

And let’s not forget one of Syndergaard’s great intangibles that was on display in the World Series. He’s not afraid to throw at a hitter’s head to send a message that he, and no one else, is in charge of the at-bat.

Syndergaard’s fastball is in the Aroldis Chapman neighborhood – so blisteringly fast it’s impossible to actually see just before it reaches the plate. That’s why he terrifies opponents; if the big right-hander is going to use that fastball above the neck as a weapon, he could very well hurt someone. Conversely, the Mets could be subject to retaliation.

But that’s a discussion for another day. For one-game, winner-take-all arsenal, Syndergaard has the stuff to wipe out an opposing team three times through the lineup.

The only missing piece? “He loves his fastball too much,” said one veteran hitter. “The guy has a much better curveball than he gives himself credit for. Couple of times I saw it I thought, ‘Wow, that wasn’t just a get-me-over hook. That was for real.’

“But he throws the fastball enough that I feel I can sit on it.”

That could change, however, as Syndergaard matures and learns the craft of controlling hitters’ bat speeds. He’s only 23. And that’s scary enough.