There are three main ways to improve your team. You can draft amateurs; you can trade for players and you can sign free agents. The Mets of the late 70s were terrible because they weren’t good in any of these three areas. The farm system that once cranked out players slowed to a trickle once [...]
In 1958, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants made their debuts in California, leaving behind a gaping hole in the hearts and mind of baseball fans in New York City. This massive wound that was left in their perspective fanbases lead to a new baseball franchise coming into existence in 1962, the [...]
Recently there was some chatter about who the best Met defensive players have been. Marv Throneberry or Keith Hernandez – Bud Harrelson or Rey Ordonez, and so on. Anecdotally, there are a couple of Mets with tremendous defensive reputations, and Gold Gloves, but were they deserving, given what we have learned from advanced metrics? Let [...]
Everyone knows that the Mets have made some awful trades in their tenure. What’s surprising is that one that certainly should have been awful turned out slightly positive for them. In early November of 1972, the Mets sent Danny Frisella and Gary Gentry, two 26 year olds, to the Braves for Felix Millan and George [...]
Steve Trachsel allowed 348 home runs in his 16-year career in Major League Baseball. But the one he allowed to Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals on September 8, 1998 cemented his spot as a footnote in baseball history. The right-hander served Big Mac an 88 MPH fastball and with a quick, short stroke [...]
This year is the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Mets team. Although not as celebrated as its predecessor, the World Series winner of 1969, the ‘70 club was interesting in its own right. With a few breaks, it might have been playing meaningful ball in October. The defending champs were in contention for most of [...]
The 1962 Mets were one of the worst teams in the history of professional Baseball. They won 40 games and lost 120, while producing enough ineptitude to fill multiple volumes of literature over the years. The reasons for these foibles are many. One was the expansion draft itself. It was held only seven days after [...]
After using the Baseball-Reference Play Index tool last week to look at the batters who did the best against the Mets, now it’s time to see which opposing pitchers did the best. We’re going to have a minimum of 100 IP against the Mets to qualify for these lists. We’ll list the top 10 pitchers [...]
As the likelihood of actual games being played for the 2020 season diminishes daily, it’s natural to think about past games and players. Working from my home office surrounded by memorabilia and the fact that MLB network television is playing game repeats from the past added to this reflectivity, and especially who my favorite Mets [...]
So, how’s the COVID-19 quarantine treating you? My time has been spent rather unproductively but what are you gonna do? There was a box of my stuff that was dived into and among other things, it included four 1969 Citgo Mets portraits that were purchased on ebay some 20 or so years ago. The lot [...]
The Baseball-Reference Play Index search function is free for the month of April. If you haven’t ever used the Play Index before, you owe it to yourself to check it out now. You can use it to answer all sorts of player and team-specific research question. Today, let’s look at the Mets’ opponents and see [...]
Throughout their history, the Mets have had trouble filling certain slots on the diamond. For a long time third base was considered the biggest problem and they traded Amos Otis and Nolan Ryan chasing a solution. Then there was the stretch of 20 or so years where no one held down right field for more [...]