Tom Brennan – DOUG FLYNN, BUD HARRELSON, REY ORDONEZ, AND LUIS GUILLORME – A QUICK COMPARISON

Tom Brennan – DOUG FLYNN, BUD HARRELSON, REY ORDONEZ, AND LUIS GUILLORME – A QUICK COMPARISON

Luis Guillorme is a steadily rising player and defensive whiz in the Mets minors.  How do his numbers compare to three low power, great fielding Mets players in days of yore, namely Doug Flynn, Rey Ordonez and Bud Harrelson.

Doug Flynn started out with Cincy, making the majors after a quick 3 year whirl thru the Reds’ minors in A, AA, and AAA in 1972, 1973, and 1974, debuting in the big leagues in 1975 just as he was turning 24.  He was traded to the Mets in mid-1977 as part of a trade for a certain HOF pitcher whose name escapes me.

In 1978 and 1979, he went a little Iron Man on us, playing all but 11 games over those 2 seasons.   His Mets highlight was a 61 RBI season in 1979, when he only managed to amass as many as 42 ribbies in any other of his 11 seasons.

Overall, Doogie had 4,085 plate appearances in the bigs, and put up .238/.266/.294 stats, with 115 doubles, 39 triples and 7 homers in his career.  And in 1980, he won a Gold Glove with the Mets!  (Unlike the other 3 mostly-shortstop-playing gents in this article, Doogie was mostly a stellar 2B, but he also got into over 300 games at shortstop, which I had kind of forgotten).

Bud Harrelson also managed 7 career dingers, in 5,516 career plate appearances during his career spanning 1965-1980, starting his big league career at age 21.  Besides beating the snot out of Pete Rose, the 5'11', 160 (generously) SS managed to compile 45 triples and 136 doubles, and was better than Flynn at working out walks, giving him a career split of .236/.327/.288.  He also won a Gold Glove, at SS, in 1971.

Rey Ordonez, another petite guy at 5’9”, 160, managed not one, not two, but THREE gold gloves at SS in 1997-99.  All told, he played with the Mets from age 25 in 1996 to age 31 in 2002, playing 916 games for them in those 7 years.  He got old young, playing just 2 more years totaling 193 plate appearances with other teams.  Rey’s career nombres were .246/.289/.310, very similar to Bud and Doogie, with 129 doubles, 17 triples, and 12 homers.

Luis Guillorme is a 5’9” 199 pound lefty hitting SS, considered the best glove in the organization by some.  He will play his age 23 year next year, most likely starting at Las Vegas in AAA.

In his minors career, his numbers most closely parallel Harrelson’s offensive numbers, with a career .285/.361.328 split in about 2,000 plate appearances.  Unlike Buddy, triples are not a part of Luis’ forte, with just 2 so far (1 every 1,000 ABs vs. Bud’s 1 every 122 at bats), and just a few homers. 

Had Luis played in less power-focused times, like the other 3 did, he’d surely have a similarly long career – but in an era that highly favors power bats more than in the past, it will be interesting to see if he gets the chance for real playing time in the big leagues that he will soon deserve.  The Mets hit just 61 homers in 1980, when both Doogie and Bud were playing; 136 in 1998, when Rey was playing; and 224 this season. 

Luis appears he will be a very low-powered player in a high-powered world, with his glove and a knack for getting on base as his calling cards.