On the second Wednesday of every month, I will be constructing the Mets’ Field of Dreams. Each month I will take a different spot on the roster and choose the best Met, or Mets, to ever play the positions. On the final month, I will give the full roster, the starting line up, and the manager for the Mets’ Field of Dreams. Today, I will focus on the pitchers we will have. On the roster, there will be a five-man starting rotation, and a six-man bullpen.
Starting Rotation:
1. Tom Seaver– The ace of this staff is Tom Seaver. Seaver is the only player in the Cooperstown National Baseball Hall of Fame who is wearing a New York Mets baseball cap. Seaver won the Rookie of the Year Award, two Cy Young Awards, made 10 All Star Game appearances, finished second in MVP voting in 1969, and never had an ERA above 3.20, all in his 10 ½ season career as a New York Met.
2. Dwight Gooden– Gooden played 11 seasons with the New York Mets, and he dominated in each and every one of them. Gooden would only have three seasons with a losing record, making the former Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award winner the number two pitcher in the Mets’ Field of Dreams rotation. Gooden made four All Star Game appearances, and in 1992, he won the Silver Slugger Award. Gooden finished his Mets career with a 157-85 record, which gave him a winning percentage of .649.
3. Ron Darling– The current Mets broadcaster grabs the number three spot in our rotation. Darling did not win a Rookie of the Year Award, nor did he win a Cy Young Award, but he did make one All Star Game appearance, and won one Gold Glove Award in his career. Darling played nine years with the Mets, including the 1986 World Series championship team, and wore three different numbers on his jersey. Darling was a great guy in the clubhouse, and a great mentor for both pitchers and fielders.
4. David Cone– Cone played with the Mets from 1987-1992, and then came back and pitched for the team in 2003. Cone was a 20 game winner with the Mets in 1988 and only had three losses. In four of Cone’s six total years as a Met, he had a winning percentage greater than .500. Throughout his MLB career, Cone was a very dominant pitcher, and for the Mets, he is number four in their all-time rotation.
5. Jerry Koosman– Rounding out the Mets’ Field of Dreams’ five-man starting rotation is Jerry Koosman. Koosman pitched for 11 years in a New York Mets uniform, and played a total of 18 years. Eight out of Koosman’s 11 years with the Mets ended with a winning percentage greater than .500, and he made two straight All Star Game appearances in 1968 and 1969.
Bullpen
1. Randy Myers– The first man in the Mets’ Field of Dreams Bullpen in Randy Myers. Myers spent five seasons in the Mets’ Bullpen, and was dominant each and every one of them. Though his first appearance in the MLB was in 1985, Myers did not qualify as a Rookie until 1987, when he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting. Myers kept a steady ERA in his five years, and had just one year with a losing record.
2. Tug McGraw– McGraw spent nine years anchoring the Mets’ Bullpen, and is the second relief pitcher on the team’s Field of Dreams. During his Mets career, McGraw racked up 619 strike outs in the bullpen, and made one All Star Game Appearance. McGraw was also a large part of the Mets magical 1969 team, and finished in the top thirty in MVP voting in 1972 and 1973.
3. Billy Wagner– Wagner spent three and a half years in the Mets bullpen, and was dominant during each and every one of them. Wagner made two All Star Game appearances, and finished sixth in the 2006 Cy Young voting. Wagner had a total of 101 saves in his Mets career, and struck out two-hundred thirty batters.
4. Armando Benitez– Benitez was a part of the Mets Bullpen from 1999-2003, and is now a part of the Mets’ Field of Dreams team. Benitez never pitched below 500 on the Mets, and had at least 50 strikeouts each season. His Mets career came to an end in 2003, when he was traded to the Yankees, and later to the Mariners. However, Benitez did make enough of a impact to land himself on this all-time team.
5. Jesse Orosco– Eight years on the Mets has landed reliever Jesse Orosco as the fifth member of the Mets’ Field of Dreams Bullpen. Orosco made two All Star Game appearances, and in 1983 he finished third in Cy Young Award voting, and 17 in MVP voting. Orosco never walked more than 40 batters in a season, and most importantly: he was on the mound when the Mets won it all in 1986.
6. John Franco– Franco spent fourteen years on the New York Mets, and was the team’s captain in his last year, 2004. Franco had 276 saves, and 592 strikeouts. So, there is no doubt that Franco deserves to be the closer on the Mets’ Field of Dreams team.
With eleven former Mets added to the roster, the pitching portion is complete and there are only 14 roster spots left. No current Mets have made the list so far, but that does not mean there will not be any for the other positions. Of course, if Matt Harvey can stay consistent, and Zack Wheeler fixes a few mechanical issues, there is not doubt that they will both be on a future Mets’ Field of Dreams roster. But for now, the pitching is complete and we’ll move on to the offense, next time.
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5/6 of the BP is left-handed. What dyt is the significance of that?
Ill take that staff any day!
FYI:
Seaver is a 3x Cy Young Award winner (1969, 1973, 1975). He won 66 games in those 3 years.
Got to get Matlack in there too. I know he’s a lefty, but still.
Matlack or Leiter over Darling.
Awesome bullpen, although I’ve always had a soft spot for Turk Wendall, lol!
With the starters, I would put Koosman #3 as he was a tough pitcher especially in post season. Also Matlack might have to be on list.
Relief pitcher wise: I do not put Benitez and Myers in over Skip Lockwood and Roger McDowell.
Myers only had two seasons as closer before being traded for Franco and I guess I was not a fan of Benitez.
Ron Darling should not be in an All-time Mets pitching rotation. In 9 seasons, his record was 99-70 with a 3.50 ERA. Though that looks fine, a closer look at the numbers reveals that his ERA was just 1% better than league average for an ERA+ of 101. His 3.81 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), though not poor, is higher than his ERA and suggests that he benefitted from the defense behind him. He also accumulated a WAR (Baseball-Reference.com definition) of just 16.1.
By comparison, Al Leiter (28.0), Jon Matlack (26.6) and David Cone (19.5) each posted a higher WAR in FEWER seasons (7 each). All three also posted better ERA and ERA+ numbers during their respective tenures with the Mets (Leiter 124, Matlack 114, Cone 112).
So what would my Mets Field of Dreams rotation look like after Seaver and Gooden? Koosman is my number three. Throw out the 1977 and 1978 seasons for the putrid post-Midnight Massacre Mets , and Koosman’s record is 129-102 (.558 winning percentage) with a 2.98 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP (Darling posted a 1.288 WHIP as a Met).
After Koosman, I’ll take Matlack and then Cone. Though it’s hard to ignore Leiter’s 28.0 WAR and 124 ERA+, I cannot over look his 1.300 WHIP and 3.92 FIP either. Both are the highest in this group.
As for the rest of the staff…
With Cone also able to double as a swingman, I then have seven available spots in the bullpen to fill out a twelve man pitching staff. Wagner is the easy call as the closer with his 183 ERA+, minuscule 1.054 WHIP and 10.9 K/9 strikeout rate. I like swing-and-miss power arms, so my two setup men will be Armando Benitez (159 ERA+, 1.133 WHIP, 11.8 K/9) and Randy Myers (126 ERA+, 1.150 WHIP, 9.9 K/9). The rest of the ‘pen consists of Skip Lockwood (126 ERA+, 1.114 WHIP, 8.7 K/9) ,Tug McGraw (120 ERA+, 1.198 WHIP, 7.0 K/9), Jesse Orosco (133 ERA+, 1.209 WHIP, 7.6 K/9), and then a choice between John Franco and Roger McDowell.
Franco would appear to be the easy choice between the two. He has the higher ERA+ (132 vs. McDowell’s 112), the better strikeout rate (7.6 vs 4.4) and the better runners stranded rate (78.1 vs. McDowell’s 73.7). I already have two lefties in the pen though, McGraw and Orosco. McDowell also has a lower WHIP and FIP than Franco. The main reason I want McDowell over Franco though is because I can use McDowell with his sinker as a ground-ball specialist when I need that double-play to get out of an inning. I wouldn’t be upset to have a third lefty instead.