To which my natural reply is, “Why NOT Rick Ankiel?” This team has run out overly-right-handed lineups as long as I can remember. Sure, Mark Grace was a very useful ballplayer, with his Gold Glove level defense and on-base skills, but aside from the occasional fluky Ricky Wilkins season, the only impact lefty bat this team has had since Billy Williams was sent to Texas with Jamie Moyer for Mitch Williams back in 1988 (I don’t think until just now I had considered just how lopsided the subsequent career values of Palmeiro+Moyer for Mitch Williams was… wonder why that deal doesn’t often gets discussed among the worst ever – yikes!) - rick ankiel
The Japanese Greg Maddux! Why couldn’t the Mets just acquire the real Greg Maddux? He wore goofy goggles, was very ineffective, and blew a Subway Series game by giving up a homer to former Met Robin Ventura. That night Armando Benitez blew a save, Jeter was the Yankee that tied the game with a two out hit, and a beloved ex Met won the game for the Yankees. Not one of the best nights a Mets fan can have. Oh, and the next day, Shawn Estes missed Roger Clemens. Fortunately Estes hit a homer and won the game. Komiyama was not even Greg Maddux circa 1986, much less the Hall of Fame version. - nybaseballdigest
Team Characteristics: Hodges used his bench as much as he could, in part because he oversaw terrible offenses that were routinely among the league’s least effective at scoring runs. He went to his bullpen frequently, and his relievers were generally better than his starters. He was usually among the league leaders in intentional walks. His teams suffered far more strikeouts than they inflicted.
LPA: 4.32 (through 1965 only) LPA+: 151 (through 1965 only)
More than any other manager in baseball history, Hodges relied on his bench. Four times – in 1964, 1965, 1967, and 1969 – three of his reserves played in at least 100 games. On all other teams from 1963-71, 183 rosters in all, only seven had a trio of backups appears in 100 games. In 1966, two of Hodges’ backups played in 100 games and a third was in 94. The 1971 squad featured three reserves who played in at least 97 games. In all, he had twenty bench players appear in 100 games in his nine campaigns, twice as many as typical. In part this was because Hodges had underwhelming lineups, but he also made sure all his starters had days off, even his rare quality ones. In nine years on the job, only twice did one of his players appear in 155 games. From 1963-71, the other teams had 285 occasions a starter played in that many contests. Only eight times did one of Hodges’s players appear in 150 games. Other baseball teams averaged that 2.45 times per season. Hodges’s second baseman played 130 games once. He never had a first baseman do that. None of his right fielders ever played 140 games. - buy book
Tuesday...
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