Tom Brennan - I FORGOT ALL ABOUT FORMER MET RAY SADECKI

When I think of the early 1970s Mets, in terms of lefties, I always think of lefties Jerry Koosman, Tug McGraw, and Jon Matlack.

Thanks to John From Albany's daily blog posts, which include former Mets' birthdays, I was reminded that Ray Sadecki was another lefty pitcher on those early 1970s Mets teams.

All it took, in a very favorable December 1969 trade, to get Sadecki (and a decent back up OF in Dave Marshall) was  the mediocre duo of Jim Gosger and Bob Heise.

Amazingly, Sadecki (who won 20 games as a 23 year old for the Cardinals) was traded to the Giants a few years later for the great slugger Orlando Cepeda.  Despite those 20 wins, he got no Cy Young award first place votes, as those went to Dean Chance (17), Larry Jackson (2) and Sandy Koufax (1).

Before that 20 win season, Sadecki, remarkably, was already 39-37 and as a major leaguer through his age 22 season.  By comparison, Jerry Koosman had just 2 decisions before his age 25 season.  Dwight Gooden was the youthful standard setter, going a staggering 73-26 through his age 22 season.

Sadecki in 1968 and 1969 for the Giants went 17-26 despite 9 shutouts and fanning 206 in one of those seasons.  That no doubt prepared him to pitch for the Mets and their stingy offense.

Ray pitched for the Mets from 1970 through 1974 and went 30-25, 3.36 in 600 Mets innings, with 62 starts, 13 complete games, 3 shutouts, and a save.  Not shabby.  He had one fine Mets World Series appearance in 1973, and went 4.2 IP in relief, allowing 1 run and fanning 6.

He ended up his career at 135-131, 3.78 in 2,500 career innings spanning 18 seasons.  

Good memories awakened in my mind regarding this former Met.

P.S. 

In their careers with the Mets, Koosman had 346 starts and Matlack had 203 starts.  Which had the most shutouts as a Met?  

Answer?  A tie, both had 26.  

I had forgotten how impressive Matlack was in that regard as a Met.  Astonishingly with that miserable hitting Mets team, his 26 shutouts and a Mets' 3.03 career ERA got him to just 82-81 as a Met.  Jake has experienced similar non-support.  May those days of non-support for Jake be ending dramatically for the better in 2021.