Remember 1969: Who Won? Deals of Mets History: 1991

 

Mets Trades through the years:  Who won?

November 1990 through October 1991

 Notes:   This year was the conclusion of the tear apart of the 1986 Championship team.  This week will be a sad week of memories for many of us.  

There were only four trades in 1991, and none of them were what I call winners. 

The damage: 

(1)  New York Mets traded Bob Ojeda and Greg Hansell to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Hubie Brooks (Dec 15, 1990)

(2)  New York Mets traded Tim Teufel to the San Diego Padres for Garry Templeton  (May 31, 1991)

(3)  New York Mets traded Ron Darling and Mike Thomas to the Montreal Expos for Tim Burke  (Jul 15, 1991)

(4)  New York Mets traded Alejandro Pena to the Atlanta Braves for Tony Castillo and Joe Roa  (Aug 28, 1991)

 Trivia:     Although there were only four major league trades in 1991, I believe this was the first year that every player involved in the MLB trades actually played in the majors at some point.   There are usually minor league throw-ins.   

As I go through these players, I am seeing some interesting things.  I am compiling a lot of notes to back up my growing dislike of the WAR stat.   

As an example, Mike Thomas (famous for being traded with Ron Darling) eventually got his cup of coffee with Milwaukee in 1995 and was in exactly 1 game throwing 1 and a third innings, facing 4 batters.   He gave up two hits, a walk, and retired the other four for a WHIP of 2.250, allowing no one to score.

Joe Roa pitched in 120 games across 6 seasons with 266 innings and a 9-16 record to go with his 4.94 ERA and 1.1511 WHIP.     

Joe Roa accumulated 2 tenths of a WAR for all that work while Thomas got half of that - 0.1 - for his MLB career perfect ERA.    I guess if Thomas had gone on to pitch 120 games like Roa did, he would have accumulated 12 career WAR.   A shame he wasn't able to keep going.