The perpetually underrated Jerry Koosman

In talking to a fellow Mets fan about my article from last week (Can the Mets Win 100 Games Next Year?) we kept coming back to circle around and talk about Jerry Koosman.  It was probably blasphemous that I would compare the 2015 rotation and saying that they could be better than Koosman/Tom Seaver. I [...]

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Matt Harvey and previous late-season pitching promotions for the Mets

Full disclosure: The idea for this article was blatantly stolen from my co-writer on Mets360.com, Brian Joura. While he focused on the offensive side, let’s now take a look at the pitching side. It’s not easy to pull up exclusively late season promotions, so the criteria I used was pitchers age 23 or younger, making [...]

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Dilson Herrera and previous late-season promotions for the Mets

Who are Dilson Herrera's comps among past players for the Mets? It's not an easy question to answer. Given his age and his defensive position, Jose Reyes might jump to mind. But Reyes was promoted in June and received 292 PA in his rookie season. Let's look for comps based on age and expected playing [...]

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Quick Hitter: Factoids for the Mets-Phillies rivalry

Sunday the Mets downed the Phillies, 6-5. The victory gave them a 2-1 series win and wrapped up the last time the two teams would meet in 2014. The Mets finished the year with a 13-6 record against their division rival. Here’s some other factoids in the Mets-Phillies rivalry. If the two teams did not [...]

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Three years after the Beltran-Wheeler swap, a look back

July 28th marks the three-year anniversary of Sandy Alderson's first 'big' move as General Manager of the Mets, trading Carlos Beltran to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for right-handed pitcher Zack Wheeler.  At the time, the move was cheered by many as the first step in the arduous process of rebuilding the Mets from [...]

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What’s the single best offensive season for a Met?

If you ask most Mets fans, they will tell you that Dwight Gooden probably has had the best single-season pitching performance by a Met back in 1985 (13.2 WAR!). Nobody comes close to that. It’s the best performance in the post Babe Ruth era, with only Steve Carlton posting a 12.5 in 1972 coming close. [...]

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Johnny Pappas: the Kid who came to the Mets

In February of 1962, Johnny Pappas, a 21-year old kid from Astoria, Queens strolled into the Mets’ spring training camp and said he was there to be a pitcher for the team. He stood 5' 10", weighed 150 pounds, threw left-handed and looked like a combination of Gary Gentry and Joey Ramone. Johnny Murphy, assistant [...]

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Scott Kazmir: Coulda woulda shoulda

Scott Kazmir has never pitched a major league game for the New York Mets. We’ve had our chances though. Where Kazmir is concerned, we’ve had more chances than most. Where would the team be if during this off-season, we had devoted our earliest FA money to signing Kazmir? All Met fans know the sordid story [...]

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Tom Seaver and the Alaska Goldpanners

I picked up a 1971 copy of this book written by George Sullivan and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons at auction a couple of weeks ago. The book is geared towards young adults and is part of a series of biographies written on America’s baseball heroes. Some other athletes in the series are Willie [...]

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The night Omar Minaya got nervous

I met Omar Minaya once. We encountered each other on the elevator at Shea Stadium before the Mets’ game against the Seattle Mariners on June 25th, 2008. The entire event comprised probably less than two minutes but in that short span of time, I still managed to unnerve him. Here’s the story: On June 17, [...]

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Six original Mets you’ve never heard of

I was doing some research last week on the first original Met to pass away. I had thought it was Hall-of-Famer and original Mets’ Hitting Coach, Rogers Hornsby. Hornsby, however was the second original Met to pass away. He died on January 5, 1963. Fellow coach, Red Kress was actually the first original Met to [...]

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Mets we’ve loved: Yogi Berra

“It ain’t over, till its over” — Yogi Berra Yogi Berra recently celebrated his birthday.  He was born on May 12, 1925. Yogi Berra was an important Met.  He played for them, he coached them and he managed them.   Maybe he didn't win a World Championship as their manager and maybe the team almost ran [...]

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