All-20th
Century Team
Another Voice Heard
by
Bob Tompkins
I expect this article to generate some conflict. But that's part of the reason that articles like this are written, isn't it?
In 2002, to help celebrate the Mets' 40th anniversary (which took place in
their 41st year, incidentally), months of balloting were held in order for the
fans to pick their favorite Mets from the entire history of the club. This was
dubbed the All-Amazin' Team, and Fleer put out a
special set of baseball cards to honor them. And while there was a very nice
selection of Shea heroes chosen, I need to tell you
that, at least on the basis of production, the fans were not universally
successful in picking the best possible team.
|
Fan-Selected All-Amazin' Team |
|
|
Catcher |
Mike Piazza |
What I will be proposing in this piece is a 25-man roster featuring the 10 pitchers you'd want on the Mets' all-time team, along with a starting lineup of the 8 players who posted the best offensive seasons at each position, and we'll fill in the gaps with the best bench we could put together from the runners-up. We'll make this an all-20th century team, featuring the years 1962-2000 inclusive. For those of you who are ardent Bud Harrelson and Keith Hernandez supporters, sorry--defensive contributions don't count for the purposes of this team. And these picks will be based on single-season contributions, not career totals. Enough to proceed? Here we go!
Manager
I wanted to get this one out of the way before we got into the really controversial picks. While Gil Hodges was the fans' choice, and I really don't have any problem with that selection, my manager has to be Davey Johnson. And that's on the basis of only one thing: winning percentage.
The only managers I would seriously consider for my club would have to be the four who guided the Mets to post-season berths: Hodges, Johnson, Bobby Valentine, and Yogi Berra. And that makes the choice pretty easy. Davey leads the way with a magnificent .588, Bobby is second with a nice .534, Gil a close third with .523, and Yogi brings up the rear with a pedestrian .497 (which, of course, is still better than the Mets' all-time winning percentage of .489 from 1962-2000).
So while I sincerely hope that Gil Hodges takes his rightful place in the Hall of Fame someday, Davey Johnson gets to manage this team.
Catcher
One easy pick before the controversy begins. Mike Piazza is the Mets' all-time
offensive catcher for the 20th century, and he would have held that position
for any team in major league history. There is simply no other catcher in the
entire nearly-150 years of baseball history that has been a better offensive
player. With that settled, let's take a quick look at the top five offensive
seasons for Met catchers up to the conclusion of the 2000 season.
|
Top 5 OPS
Seasons |
|
|
1.024 |
Piazza, 1998 |
The actual calculation I used to determine the finalists for these positions was slightly more complicated, but for ease of understanding, OPS (On-Base Percentage Plus Slugging Percentage) yields basically the same results.
A pattern you will see frequently developed for many of the offensive players shows immediately at the left: for the first 39 seasons of the Mets' existence, just about nobody from the first 34 years shows up! In fact, among all of the Mets' catchers in their history, the only other fellow to post a better than .800 OPS was Gary Carter in 1985. The five seasons shown in the table at the left were the five best by a wide margin. Todd Hundley makes the all-20th century team as Piazza's backup.
First Baseman
This is the one that I expect will generate the most dispute, but it's also
the one I feel most strongly about defending. The fans selected Keith Hernandez. I have written glowingly
about Keith at other times and in other places, and I have the utmost respect
for his leadership and defensive skills; in fact, I believe a statistical case
can be made for the proposition that he was the greatest defensive first
baseman in history. But the Mets have had another great first baseman, one who
is surprisingly overlooked in almost every discussion I have ever heard of the
Mets' all-time first basemen.
|
Top 5 OPS
Seasons |
|
|
.998 |
Olerud,
1998 |
What is it about John Olerud that makes him so easy to forget? The three seasons that this quiet superstar manned first for New York were the three best offensive seasons that any Met first baseman ever had. He is the all-time Met batting champion, with his .354 average in 1998 easily outdistancing Cleon Jones' .340 from 1969. Not only that, but he was the anchor of the greatest infield defense in history (1999), when he, Robin Ventura, Rey Ordonez, and Edgardo Alfonzo combined to commit far fewer errors than any other infield foursome ever assembled for a season. It's just amazing to me that, whenever discussions of the best Met first basemen in history are held, I hear names like Hernandez, Ed Kranepool, Donn Clendenon, John Milner, even Willie Montanez, but John Olerud is omitted!
Dave Magadan makes the all-20th Century club as Olerud's backup, ousting Hernandez from a spot on the roster via the strength of his superb 1990 season. Dave's .417 OBP, .457 SLG, and .328 average were all higher than Keith ever attained in any full season for the Mets.
Second Baseman
Okay, the fans got it right with this one. Edgardo
Alfonzo's seasons in both 1999 and 2000 were far, far better than any
other season produced by a Met second baseman in history.
|
Top 5 OPS
Seasons |
|
|
.967 |
Alfonzo, 2000 |
When I heard conjecture about the All-Amazin' team on a televised game in 2002, I heard Met broadcaster Howie Rose (whom I respect immensely) suggest that Felix Millan should perhaps have been chosen as the all-time second baseman. Um, sorry, Howie. Not even on the charts. Millan's best offensive season was the 14th-best for a Met second baseman up to 2000, trailing years produced by Alfonzo, Gregg Jefferies, Ron Hunt, Jeff Kent, Charlie Neal, Carlos Baerga, and even Wally Backman.
Fonzie's two dominant years as a second baseman shouldn't be dismissed lightly. During one or the other of those two seasons, he established records for a Met second baseman in home runs, runs batted in, batting average, runs scored, doubles, total bases, walks, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage, and very nearly won a Gold Glove too. Superb.
Third Baseman
The fans also got this one right, though frankly, I was a little surprised
at the outcome of my own statistical study. I had really expected Robin Ventura's 1999 season (32 HR, 120
RBI, .301 average) to carry the day, but Howard
Johnson's superb season from ten years earlier (36, 101, .287) ended up
getting the nod on the virtue of his superior OPS.
|
Top 5 OPS
Seasons |
|
|
.928 |
H. Johnson, 1989 |
In fact, HoJo had three of the top four campaigns a Met third baseman ever recorded in the 20th century. His three hopscotched seasons of 1987-'89-'91 were each 30 HR/30 SB years, and he averaged over 36 homers and 105 RBI for those three years. In addition, he showed patience at the plate, drawing more than 75 walks in each of those seasons, and twice scoring more than 100 runs. Only the perception that he was a subpar defender kept HoJo from superstar recognition. But since this all-20th century team is an offensively-biased club, HoJo is the man at third base.
Did you notice number five on the list of top five third base seasons? Yes, that's Edgardo Alfonzo again.
Shortstop
Simply put, the Mets have never had a shortstop who could hit.
|
Top 5 OPS
Seasons |
|
|
.758 |
Brooks, 1984 |
The fans selected Bud Harrelson to the All-Amazin' team, and I can't argue with that selection at all. Buddy's Gold Glove, his All-Star selections, and his longevity with the club all make him stand out from among his New York peers. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this team, no Met shortstop had a better season with the bat in the 20th century than transplanted third baseman Hubie Brooks, in his only season as a Met shortstop. He pounded out 16 home runs with 73 RBI and a .283 batting average in 1984; no other Met shortstop ever had more than 10 home runs or 60 RBI, and the only one to ever have a higher batting average than that was Jose Vizcaino, with .287 in 1995.
Worth noting about the list of top five seasons is two names that are missing. Ed Bressoud's .665 OPS in 1966 and Rafael Santana's .648 in 1987 would both have made the top five, but they fell quite a few at-bats short of qualifying for the list, even though they were clearly the regular shortstops in their respective seasons. And for those of you who are curious where Rey Ordonez ranks among these "batsmen," his best season OPS of .636 just missed the list. Of course, when an offensive season by Rey Ordonez just misses your top five offensive seasons ever, you understand what I was saying at the beginning of this section: The Mets have never had a shortstop who could hit.
Infield Reserves
Gregg Jefferies and Robin Ventura make the all-20th century club as utility infielders, joining Dave Magadan and Todd Hundley and leaving three spots open for backup outfielders. We don't have a pure shortstop on this club at all; my one regret about making this purely an offensive team. But somehow, between Hubie, HoJo, and Fonzie (who was a shortstop in the minors), I'm sure we could put a body out there every day. In fact, the best alignment for this infield would really probably make Robin Ventura the starter at third and Howard Johnson the starting shortstop, but rules are rules, even if they're self-imposed.
Outfield
The fans selected Darryl Strawberry,
Mookie Wilson, and Lenny Dykstra to the All-Amazin' team, showing a definite 1986 bias! But (sorry to
those of you who are Mookie and Lenny fans), Dykstra's best season as a Met
shows up on the Mets' 20th century list of outfielders at number 24 (though he
had a couple of great ones with the Phillies). And Wilson's best season as a
Met shows up at number 46 among qualifiers (and there were several
near-qualifiers that ranked far above it, too)! Were they popular, successful
Met stars? Absolutely. But do they make the all-20th century team? Um, no.
|
Top 15 OPS
Seasons |
|
|
.981 |
Strawberry, 1987 |
Since there are three times as many outfielders on a team as anyone else except pitchers, I have expanded the list at the left to include the top 15 OPS seasons for a 20th century Met outfielder. The first thing you should notice is that, yes, Darryl Strawberry belongs. Four of the best eight seasons a Met outfielder had in the last century were his.
In fact, the only other player who had more than one season among the top 15 at the left was the underappreciated Cleon Jones, who had two and earns one of the three starting jobs on the all-20th century team. The other starter is Bernard Gilkey, who for one shining year (1996) was the best player the Mets had.
It's hard to avoid mentioning at this point the notion that, relatively speaking, the Mets' outfield history hasn't been too much more prosperous than at their shortstop position! Of course, the offensive contributions represented here are far greater than at short, but wouldn't you expect that? Whereas middle infielders are often spindly types who are so valuable with their glovework that you can put up with spindly offensive production, that's not true in the outfield. In the outfield, you expect to find the boppers, the mashers, the sluggers...and in the Mets' history, they are conspicuously absent. For example, Cleon Jones had two of the top nine offensive seasons for a Met outfielder in their entire history, and he never hit as many as 15 home runs in a season! Lee Mazzilli, Lance Johnson, and Joe Christopher also show up in the list of the top fifteen, and none of them ever hit more than 16 homers. Butch Huskey? Frank Thomas? Kevin McReynolds? Bobby Bonilla? Nice players all, but out of a possible 117 outfield seasons (39 years times three), wouldn't you have expected just once for someone like Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa or even Albert Belle to have spent a season with the Mets? It just didn't happen.
Where, you may ask, is Rusty Staub? Tommie Agee? George Foster? Neither they, nor Dave Kingman, nor Tommy Davis, nor any other Met outfielders in their first 39 seasons had any OPS marks that were any better than those shown in the chart. Perhaps we can hope for more in the 21st century, but the early returns have not been promising!
Outfield Reserves
Rickey Henderson, Bobby Bonilla, and Lee Mazzilli round out the roster of position players, with Lance Johnson just missing the cut.
Relief Pitchers
The choice of the appropriate relief pitchers for the all-20th century
pitching staff was one that was almost impossible for me to say definitively,
"These are the right guys." From the beginning of the Mets' history
until now, the changing role of the relief pitcher has made it exceedingly
difficult to compare the contributions of relievers from different decades. In
the 1960s, relievers pitched a couple of innings a game and didn't get saves.
In the '70s, save totals started to climb as the closer's role became more
defined, but they still pitched about two innings per game. In the late '80s,
the idea came into vogue that the closer only should pitch the last three outs
of the game, and only in save situations, resulting in dramatically increased
save totals, and plummeting innings pitched totals. Even more recently has been
the development of situational specialists, who come into the game often in
order to pitch to only one batter!
|
Top 10 ERA
Seasons |
|
|
1.47 |
Orosco,
1983 |
With that said, let me state here that, no matter who got picked for the all-20th century bullpen, it was the right choice! The Mets have had a long history of absolutely superb relief pitchers, with notable contributions from Tug McGraw, Skip Lockwood, Jesse Orosco, Randy Myers, and Armando Benitez being passed over by the fans in the All-Amazin' voting. The fans' choices of John Franco and Roger McDowell were entirely palatable. But for the five open roster spots available on this all-20th century team, I have made the arbitrary decision to include the pitchers who posted the five best earned run averages for seasons in which they pitched at least 50 innings in relief. The chart at the left contains the top ten such seasons, for interest's sake. There are a couple of names you didn't expect to find, aren't there? Did anyone at all know that Carlos Diaz was going to appear on this list?
In any case, my five-man bullpen of Jesse Orosco, Bob Apodaca, Tug McGraw, Randy Myers, and John Franco is a pretty outstanding corps. The only possible flaw with that pen is that four of the five are left-handed, so if you demanded to replace one of the lefties with Armando Benitez, who just missed making the cut with his 1.85 ERA in 1999, or even Skip Lockwood, who posted an awesome 1.49 ERA in 48.1 innings in 1975, and again posted a 1.49 ERA in 42.1 innings in 1979, I would be okay with that. Nevertheless, this is the all-20th century team bullpen.
Starting Pitchers
The other area where the Mets have been blessed beyond all reason throughout
their history is in their stock of starting pitchers. Some great ones have
graced Shea Stadium's mound. And, due to similar
reasons as those that made it hard to choose the relievers, it is hard to
compare starting pitchers across different eras adequately. There was the
change from a four-man to a five-man rotation, the rise in prominence of middle
relief pitchers taking innings off starters' totals, the increased role of
offense causing higher earned run averages in recent years.
|
Top 10 ERA
Seasons |
|
|
1.53 |
Gooden, 1985 |
But using the same basic criteria as the relievers (in this case, best ERA in a season with at least 200 IP), we can fashion a starting five that will be nearly beyond dispute. From the stellar list at the left, we choose as our five-man rotation--the only five people mentioned there! Due to Tom Seaver gobbling up five of the top ten seasons a Met pitcher has ever had, and Jerry Koosman taking two of the others, there were only three slots left in the top ten. And they were siezed by pitchers who, when they were on the top of their game, could have been the ace of just about any staff in the majors. Except the Mets, where they were often viewed as number two starters! Welcome David Cone, Jon Matlack, and our opening day starter, Dwight Gooden, who had the single greatest season of any Met pitcher ever, his sophomore season of 1985, when he was only 20 years old and we all thought he was going to be the greatest pitcher ever. Ah well.
Just for the record, the next several pitchers who would have entered the list on the left eventually, had it been extended a bit further, are Craig Swan, Al Leiter, Bob Ojeda, Frank Viola, and Sid Fernandez--another fine starting five.
Well, that's about it, I guess. We'll close by posting the fan-selected All-Amazin' team together with the all-20th century team proposed in this article so you can compare both clubs nose-to-nose. They were the heroes of Shea, all of them.
|
All-Amazin' Team |
All-20th Century Team |
||
|
Mike Piazza |
Catcher |
Mike Piazza |
|
|
Keith Hernandez |
First Base |
John Olerud |
|
|
Edgardo Alfonzo |
Second Base |
Edgardo Alfonzo |
|
|
Howard Johnson |
Third Base |
Howard Johnson |
|
|
Bud Harrelson |
Shortstop |
Hubie Brooks |
|
|
Darryl Strawberry |
Outfield |
Darryl Strawberry |
|
|
Ed Kranepool |
Bench |
Bobby Bonilla |
|
|
Tom Seaver |
Starting Pitchers |
Dwight Gooden |
|
|
John Franco |
Relief Pitchers |
Jesse Orosco |
|
|
Gil Hodges |
Manager |
Davey Johnson |
|
* * * * *
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