Which Mets season was the best? Part V – John Olerud vs David Wright

Last week, round one of the “Which Mets season was the best” bracket came to a completion, with Tom Seaver’s 1969 season topping R.A. Dickey’s 2012 season by 30 votes. Now, it is time to begin round two, which will be between John Olerud and David Wright. Both of these players won their respective matchups in the first round, and now they will go head to head to see who will compete in the final round in the bracket to represent the best Mets offensive seasons. For Olerud, we will be looking once again at his 1998 season, while for Wright we will be focusing on his 2007 season. With only nine years of separation between the two seasons, this comparison will be fair and by the numbers, so without any further ado, it is time to begin round two!

John Olerud, 1998: In 1998, Olerud finished in the top 15 in the voting for the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award. He hit a solid slash line of .354/.447/.551 and hit 22 home runs for the second straight season. With a 7.6 WAR and a 5.5 WAA, Olerud had a tremendous season all around, and clearly helped in the Mets’ attempt to get to the post season (even though they fell short with less than 90 wins). The former first baseman hit just one less home run in 1998 than Mike Piazza who hit a team leading 23 homers, but he did finish with the most walks on the team. Also, Olerud made just five errors on the season, which was good enough for a .996 fielding percentage. Needless to say, Olerud had an amazing season in a year that the rest of the team seemed to struggle slightly.

David Wright, 2007: Nine years after Olerud had his amazing season with the Mets, Wright had what is considerably the best season of his career. In ’07, Wright finished the season with the highest praise of his career so far, with an All Star Game appearance, a Silver Slugger Award, a Gold Glove Award, and a fourth place finish in the National League’s Most Valuable Player voting. In 604 at bats, Wright managed to get 196 hits in 604 at bats, which was good enough for a slash line of .325/.416/.546. He also played his first, and to this point only, 30-30 season with 30 home runs and 37 stolen bases. Wright also tied a career high of 42 doubles, and had a career best 8.3 WAR. On the defensive spectrum, Wright had a 1.4 dWAR and made a total of 21 errors which led to a .954 fielding percentage. Wright has yet to duplicate these numbers for an entire season, but there is still hope that he will come close in 2015!

Fun fact: Olerud and Wright both wore the number “5” as members of the Mets, and this is the fifth addition of the bracket…but that is just pure coincidence. But getting back to business, it is time to decide who will move on to the finals in the bracket, and the voting will go until next Tuesday. Please only vote once, in order for this to be a fair competition. Looking towards next week, the competition will shift to the pitchers with Tom Seaver’s 1969 season taking on Dwight Gooden’s 1985 season, which will be quite the matchup!

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