Reese Kaplan -- Most Fun to Watch Not Always the Best

While most of us have our favorite players due to what they contributed to the stats on the backs of their baseball cards, there are others for whom we developed a fondness even if they weren’t the best players of their time or all time.  It’s hard sometimes to justify why a particular player appealed to us when the numbers don’t tell the whole story, but everyone has a whole team of them that they truly enjoyed watching.

First Base

While it’s easy to name the usual suspects like Keith Hernandez, Carlos Delgado or Pete Alonso as our favorite at 1st base, there were surely others we enjoyed watching play even if they weren’t considered the truly elite of their time.  For me, of course, I always bring up John Olerud who put together a fantastic short run for the Mets, but even he’s a bit too obvious with the big numbers. There are others who have a fond spot in our hearts for being good players on bad teams or just fun players to watch.  This group would include John Milner, Willie Montanez and Rico Brogna. Milner was a bit of a power threat when the team didn’t have much in that regard. Montanez was a hot dog who you hated if you opposed him, but was fun to watch when he was carrying out his antics on your team.  Brogna was a great hitter whose health unfortunately failed to let him develop as everyone would have hoped. And, if you can put personality issues aside, who can forget the all-or-nothing swings of Dave Kingman?

Second Base

While it’s easy to pick out the Edgardo Alfonzo or others of that ilk, for me the real show stopper was Wally Backman.  For a little guy, he hit line drives with abandon and ran the bases as you’d hope a base stealer would. He was a fiery player who didn’t shy away from confrontations (a personality trait that got more developed as he became a manager).  

Shortstop

I really have to say during some extremely bad years I truly enjoyed watching Frank Taveras play.  He was a very competent shortstop, but it was his drag bunting and base stealing that made some awful teams watchable.  

Third Base

Obviously David Wright is the standard bearer for that position, with Robin Ventura and Edgardo Alfonzo having their supporters as well.  For me it was the superball-filled bat of Howard Johnson that caught my attention. He could beat you with the long ball, with his legs and even defensively.  At a time when Mets teams were not filled with star players he was one who was worth dropping whatever you were doing to see him in action.

Catcher

Yes, there were some golden moments for Mike Piazza, Gary Carter and even Wilson Ramos, but for me it was extremely entertaining (on the offensive side of the game) to watch Mackey Sasser deliver much better offense from the position than people were accustomed to getting.  During his five years in New York he was a .283 hitter. Now if only he didn’t have to throw the ball back to the pitcher…

Left Field

I know I’ll lose a lot of readers here but I am a strong advocate of Kevin McReynolds as the team’s left fielder.  He hit with great consistency, fielded his position adequately and made the period of the late 80s and early 90s bearable without the need for copious amounts of adult beverages.  During his initial five-year stint with the Mets he delivered 15.4 WAR, about 3 WAR per year. That’s superstar level play yet he was thoroughly despised by the fans.

Center Field

While everyone hearkens to some of the longer run options out there like Mookie Wilson (definitely a fan favorite), Lenny Dykstra (the less said, the better) and others, it’s the short-termers who provided the Mets with some pretty incredible performances, including one Lance Johnson.  The Mets picked him up as a free agent and in his one full season with the boys in blue and orange he delivered a 7.2 WAR season. No, that is not a typo. He hit .333 with 50 SBs, 9 HRs and 69 RBIs while playing top-of-the-pack level of defense. He was traded midway through his second season while hitting .309 for Brian McRae (good), Turk Wendell (good) and Mel Rojas.  Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad!

Right Field

Well, there are any number of options out here who did well, including Darryl Strawberry and Michael Conforto, but the most entertaining one to watch on both sides of the game was Roger Cedeno.  People forget how productive he was with his bat and his legs while playing for the Mets. The Mets picked him up along with catcher Charles Johnson when they sent Todd Hundley to the Dodgers. He lasted just one year the first time around, hitting .313 and stealing 66 bases.  You would think that would be worth more in the WAR stats than just 1.5, but you have to remember that defense is part of that equation as well. For that side of the game you held your breath every time a fly ball went in Cedeno’s direction. He made it back to the Mets for another decent year in 2001 when he hit .260 and stole just 25 bases, earning just 0.8 WAR.  That was it for the highlights of his time at Shea and he was sent packing to the Cardinals who put up with him for parts of two years before he was out of baseball due to his 40+ pound of weight gain that hampered the one aspect of his game that was unenviable when he was slimmer and faster.

Pitchers

I’m lumping them all together here as there were good ones, bad ones and fascinating ones.  For many Mets fans, the short and late burst to R.A. Dickey’s career may be the brightest light of all.  People rallied around him and supported his bizarre journey from mediocrity to a Cy Young Award. Watching players flail helplessly at his knuckleball was some of the best baseball theater available.  He was 39-28 with a 2.95 ERA for his three-year Mets career.