Last week, John Olerud went up against David Wright in the semifinals of the “Which Mets season was the best” competition, and Olerud was victorious by fewer than 10 votes. Needless to say, it was a close competition, and this week may be even closer. In the first round of the bracket, Tom Seaver’s 1969 season beat R.A. Dickey’s 2012 season, so he will face Dwight Gooden’s 1985 season to see who will get to the finals this week. So, without any further ado, it is time for these two great pitchers to go head to head.
Tom Seaver 1969: In 1969, the Mets did more than win their first World Series in club history…they also had their first Cy Young Award winner. Seaver, the recipient of the award, went 25-7 in 1969 and finished second in the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award voting. Seaver posted 208 strike outs in 273.1 innings that season, which gave him a K/9 rate of 6.8. With a 2.21 ERA, there is no doubt of Seaver’s dominance during the historic season, and his 1.039 says the exact same. In the post season, Seaver went 2-1 with 22.0 innings pitched and gave up 20 hits. Seaver would finish the season with a 7.2 WAR and 4.8 WAA, and made what was then a whopping amount of money: $40,000.
Dwight Gooden 1985: At the young age of just 20 year-old, the man nicknamed “Doctor K” put up outstanding numbers in the 1985 season. Gooden went 24-4 in 1985, which was equivalent to a .857 winning percentage. He posted an ERA of 1.53 in 276.2 innings of work, and even struck out a National League leading 268 batters. Also, for the readers out there who are into advanced metrics, Gooden had a 229 ERA+ in 1985 and even had a 4.19 RA9avg. Gooden made the same amount of money as Seaver did in his 1969 season, and finished fourth in the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award voting. Unlike Seaver, Gooden did not make the post season in 1985, but that was not his fault…it was the fault of the Mets playing in a division in which 98 wins was not good enough to win a division title.
This decision will not be an easy one, and may in fact be the most difficult competition so far. Both of these pitchers pitched their hearts out in their respective seasons, and it is hard for Mets fans to find any sort of bias towards either one. Of course, Gooden may not have all of the credentials that Seaver has, such as a retired number and plaque in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, but that is not due to his baseball numbers. It is because of his drug/alcohol issues. As has been the case for the other matchups in the competition, please only vote once in order to keep this a fair competition. This week’s victor will face Olerud next week for the title of the “Which Mets season was the best”, and the votes will be counted at an undisclosed time next Tuesday evening!
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How did Wright lose to Olerud when they had similar numbers but Wright went 30/30 and Olerud had 22 HRs and didn’t even have 100 RBIs or 100 runs scored?
Wright lost because many Met fans here on Mets 360 are much younger than you and I Gus. Hard to separate fact from fiction. But then again it’s only an opinion poll. I’ll bet you that most of the readers never saw Seaver pitch live and Gooden will win easily
To me Dan the decision is an easy one. I’ll take Seaver every time. The Mets had a woeful offense in 1969. I wonder of the 7 loses Seaver incurred, how many runs did the Mets score? Cannot compare winning percentages. Different run support. I was fortunate enough to see Seaver pitch in ’69. Opposing teams hitters knew they were in for a long day and we as Met fans knew it would be a low scoring game. We were always cheering whenever Seaver had two strikes on a batter. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? I remember after a win at Shea when Ralph Kiner was interviewing Seaver during Kiners Korner how Seaver would prefer to talk about his hitting if he got a hit rather than the 13 or 14 strikeouts he just accomplished. The consummate professional pitcher.
1.53 ERA? They are close, but I have to say Doc’s year is amazing. Close to Bob Gibson’s 1968.
And Doc did it on a lower mound. So who did you choose Gus?
I chose Doc and Wright. While I think Seaver may be the next best and I would put several of Beltran’s years ahead of Olerud’s the only thing impressive is the Batting average and OBP. The production stats are much lacking.
Which pitcher had better run support from the offense?
These were two magical years and it is fun to review them.
I choose Seaver because until he came along the Mets were the laughing stock of the NL. He brought a work ethic and determination that the team sorely needed. he set the standard bar for future pitchers in this organization. I choose Wright simply because to me there was just no comparison. Not even close.
Just a side note on Seaver versus Doc. It would be interesting to gauge their win-lost records If we knew how many runs the team supported each pitchers loses. I would not be surprised if the Mets were shutout or scored only 1 run in regards to Seaver and his losses