November 1989
through October 1990
As far as trades go, in what started in 1987 and ran through 1991, the Mets continued dismantling their championship and powerhouse teams from '86 through '88. Actually, it probably isn't fair to say they were actively trading 1986 players in 1990 as the only key player from the championship year dealt now was Doug Sisk. Randy Myers got into a handful of games in '86, but was a young rookie at the time.
The Mets probably won the Myers for Franco trade as Franco was a bullpen anchor from 1990 through 2004. Myers went on to save 291 games after being traded away, actually besting Franco's 276 with the Mets.
As with many years, several of the players the Mets obtained in 1990 were very near the end of their careers. Mike Marshall, Tom Herr and Dan Schatzeter all had some ML sucess before arriving in New York, and none with the Mets.
(1) New York Mets
traded John Mitchell and Joaquin Contreras to the Baltimore Orioles for Keith Hughes and Cesar Mejia (Dec 05, 1989)
(2) New York Mets traded Randy Myers and Kip Gross to the Cincinnati Reds for John Franco and Don Brown (Dec 06, 1989)
(3) New York Mets traded Juan Samuel to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Mike Marshall and Alejandro Pena (Dec 20, 1989)
(4) New York Mets traded Brian Givens to the Seattle Mariners for Mario Diaz (Jun 19, 1990)
(5) New York Mets traded Doug Sisk to the Atlanta Braves for Tony Valle (Jul 22, 1990)
(6) New York Mets traded Mike Marshall to the Boston Red Sox for Greg Hansell, Paul Williams and Ed Perozo (Jul 27, 1990)
(7) New York Mets traded Julio Machado and Kevin Brown to the Milwaukee Brewers for Charlie O’Brien and Kevin Carmody (Aug 30, 1990)
(8) New York Mets traded Nikco Riesgo and Rocky Elli to the Philadelphia Phillies for Tom Herr (Aug 30, 1990)
(9) New York Mets traded Archie Corbin to the Kansas City Royals for Pat Tabler (Aug 30, 1990)
(10) New York Mets traded Steve LaRose and Nicky Davis to the Houston Astros for Dan Schatzeder (Sep 10, 1990)
Trivia: Mario Diaz, the first guy named Diaz that the Mets traded with the Mariners to obtain, came over mid-year 1990, played in only 16 games and is one of the few (he is possibly the only) players on the Mets to have a lower on base percentage than batting average.
Mike Marshall became the second player with his name to play for both the Dodgers and the Mets.
Mario Diaz goes 3 for 22 as a Met, then .270 for the rest of his career. Of course.
ReplyDeleteWow R69, that Diaz OBP stat really raised my eyebrows. It turns out that in 1990, he had one more plate appearance than at-bats, and that was a sacrifice fly. With no walks and no HBPs he achieved a statistical anomaly.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of statistics, I know you are not a fan of the WAR metric. In 1990 for the Mets, he had a -0.1 WAR which doesn't seem that bad. Yet with a .136 batting average and even worse OBP, you have to wonder how he could have been considered "as good" as a replacement.
Funny, Rocky Elli, who I never heard of, was born the same day and year as one of my brothers. 91 minor league decisions, never made the majors.
ReplyDeleteKeith Hernandez and Gary Carter were both let go after the 1989 season.
ReplyDeleteBob W
Yeah, they traded a bunch of guys that I had either never heard of or forgotten about that year. We are past the time of the Binghamton Mets now, so there are fewer minor leaguers that I remember.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that is one of the issues I have with WAR - sample size. The guy had 22 at-bats (23 PA). You can't get too far from 0 without playing much.
ReplyDeleteObviously you cannot accumulate a lot of WAR without playing much, but you can accumulate 0.1 WAR with one inning pitched or with 300 at bats.
More coming on this topic at some point.