Tom Brennan - THE METS' BEST HITTER IN THE DECADE OF 2000-2009

Boy, oh boy, picking the best Mets hitter for the first decade of the new millennium is TOUGH!

Piazza; Wright; Reyes; Beltran; Delgado.  

Jeesh!  That is some exceptional talent.

Mike Piazza? Yes I use the word "great" a lot, bit that Mike was.

His Mets career spanned 10 seasons from 1998-2007, but what did he do from 2000 through 2007? A lot.   

157 HRs, 455 RBIs in 722 games. He only got into 310 games in the last 3 of those years, as catcher wear and tear started to low him from baseball's stratosphere.

A terrific 2000 season (.300), 305 RBIs from 2000-02 after a surreal 124 ribbies in 1999, and a gradual age-related decline each year thereafter.  

I often wonder what he would have accomplished with the bat had he been manning a lower wear and tear position like first base.  600 HRs?  1,800 RBIs?  What a hitter he was.

Jose Reyes played his age 20 through 26 years in that decade.  In those 7 seasons, after his 2 break-in seasons in which he had only 494 at bats, he had a physically healthy 4 year stretch where amazingly he scored 453 runs, had 65 triples, and stole 258 bases.  

Sadly, 2009 was an injury filled campaign that saw him play in just 36 games, so those first 7 years were essentially like 5 full years.

Over the 5 year full time equivalent, he scored 551 runs and scored 310, 162 doubles, 71 triples, 61 HRs and 290 steals.  He looked like a world beater.  But after a fine rebound 2010 and a batting title in 2011 he was allowed to walk due to concerns (well-founded) about his ability to stay healthy.

Carlos Beltran squeezed in 5 seasons (2005-09) in that decade and 677 games.  Hs last 4 of those seasons he had slugging percentages on .500 or better.   In the 5 seasons, 127 HRs, 445 RBIs and 3 seasons with 112 or more RBIs.  

In his injured season, with a painful leg injury, he still hit .325 until he broke down.  He also swiped 94 bases in those 5 years, getting out down just 15 times.

Carlos Delgado was superb as a slugger for 3 years from 2006-08, then had a short, career-ending season in 2009. In those 3 full years, he had 100 HRs and 317 RBIs.  Plenty of doubles, too.  

In 2009, in just 94 at bats, he was hitting .298 with 4 HRs and 23 RBIs, with his last game suddenly arriving on May 10 2009, when his hip freaked - he ended up needing hip surgery for a labrum tear.  Never played in the majors again.  

His Mets split for the 3+ seasons from age 34-37 was a fine .267/.351/.506.  In his whole career, he hit 473 HRs, with 1,512 RBIs...some might consider that great, even if not Hall of Fame great.

David Wright?  

This particular decade was his Hall of Fame decade - except he found out, like Doc Gooden did, that you almost invariably need two sensational decades to make the Hall of Fame.

He played 69 games as a rookie and 847 overall from 2004-09, about 5.5 seasons.  In that period, over 5.5 seasons, he averaged 40 doubles, 26 HRs, 102 RBIs, and 22 of 28 in steals and .308.  His 2009 power numbers were neutered by the new gargantuan Citifield dimensions, and he end up 2009 with just 10 HRs and probably 20 balls caught that would have been doubles or homers in a normal park.   

Sensational Wright.


OK, but before we vote, who else was good with the stick in that decade?

Daniel Murphy?  Nope, his first full year was 2009.  But he showed enough in a short 2008 and in 2009 to make us think he could be very good. 

Cliff Floyd?  Had a nice 4 seasons, 2003-06, hitting .268/.354/.478 in 468 games, and 32 of 38 in steals.  Basically, he played the equivalent of 3 full seasons, and his average stats over 3 full year equivalents worked out to 31 doubles, 27 HRs and 91 RBIs.  That would have made him the best of the 1960's or 1970s, but only 6th best in this decade.

OK, time to vote.  In a very clustered field of stats, I vote:

1) Wright
2) Reyes
3) Beltran
4) Piazza 
5) Delgado

I left no space between the lines, because it was THATclose.