Remember1969: Who Won? Deals of History: 1972- 1974

 

Mets Trades through the years:  Who won?

Notes:   Today's segment is tripled up because there were only 12 trades total from November 1971 through October 1974.

There were some interesting deals - the continuation of losing players from the 1969 World Championship team, and the final few pieces for the 1973 run. 

 November 1973 through October 1974

Notes:   Not too much noteworthy this year, although I did like Jim McAndrew as a 10 year old kid back in 1969.   He was one of my first baseball cards that year as I learned about the team through them, along with the nightly radio broadcast via the Binghamton satellite station. 

(1)  New York Mets traded Jim McAndrew to the San Diego Padres for Steve Simpson  (Dec 20, 1973)

(2)  New York Mets traded Brian Ostrosser to the Cleveland Indians for Dwain Anderson  (Jun 21, 1974)

 Trivia:   Neither Simpson nor Anderson ever played with the Mets after the trades.    Ostrosser was a shortstop that played in 4 games, had 5 plate appearances, 5 at bats, and no hits, runs, or walks.  Oh yeah, he struck out in 40% of his at-bats and he never played in a game that was won by the Mets - his career record in games played in was 0-4.     That is a tough luck career.   

I had never heard of Steve Simpson, as he never played for the Mets, but I read where he died of a heart attack at age 41 back in 1989.   Way too young. 

November 1972 through October 1973

 Notes:  Trading Frisella and Gentry was tough on me as a young kid, but getting Millan and Stone was a huge win for the Mets, directly helping get to the World Series that fall.    Trading Agee wasn't any easier on me at the time.   I'm not sure I understood the whole trade thing.    My Dad was never traded from his job at IBM for anybody at GE and the teachers we had always seemed to come back every year.   How confusing. 

(1)  New York Mets traded Danny Frisella and Gary Gentry to the Atlanta Braves for Felix Millan and George Stone  (Nov 1, 1972)

(2)  New York Mets traded Tommie Agee to the Houston Astros for Rich Chiles and Buddy Harris  (Nov 27, 1972)

(3)  New York Mets traded Brent Strom and Bob Rauch to the Cleveland Indians for Phil Hennigan (Nov 27, 1972)

(4) New York Mets traded Dave Marshall to the San Diego Padres for Al Severinsen  (Nov 30, 1972)

(5)  New York Mets traded Bill Sudakis to the Texas Rangers for Bill McNulty  (Mar 28, 1973)

 Trivia:   Speaking of dying too young, Frisella had just turned 30 and Tommie Agee was not yet 60 when he passed away.    We seem to be back far enough where about half the players of that time are now gone.   

November 1971 through October 1972

 (1)  New York Mets traded Art Shamsky, Rich Folkers, Jim Bibby and Charlie Hudson to the St. Louis Cardinals for Jim Beauchamp, Harry Parker, Chuck Taylor and Chip Coulter  (Oct 18, 1971)

(2)  New York Mets traded Arsenio Diaz, Curtis Brown, Billy Carthel and Don Koonce to the Montreal Expos for Jim Gosger  (Dec 03, 1971)

(3)  New York Mets traded Nolan Ryan, Leroy Stanton, Francisco Estrada and Don Rose to the California Angels for Jim Fregosi  (Dec 10, 1971)

(4)  New York Mets traded Tim Foli, Mike Jorgensen and Ken Singleton to the Montreal Expos for Rusty Staub  (Apr 06, 1972)

(5)  New York Mets traded Charlie Williams to the San Francisco Giants for Willie Mays  (May 11, 1972)

Trivia:  Nolan Ryan hold many pitching records and led the league in quite a few categories in many years he pitched, but the one stat he never led the league in his 27 years of pitching was wins.  He did lead the league in losses one year, but never wins.  

I never realized Leroy Stanton had as good a career as he did.   While not one of the great players, he nevertheless had 77 homers among his 628 hits.   He put together a solid .699 OBP over 2575 major league at-bats.   

Yes, In one of Tom's articles this week he called the Staub/Singleton trade a draw.   Actually, Singleton had 39.3 WAR after he was traded from the Mets and Staub accumulated just 6.8 WAR in his 9 years in New York.   Yikes.  

I remember the trade that brought Willie to the Mets, but I don't remember his .402 OBP in 242 plate appearances in 1972 after the trade at the age of 41.  Not many guys can boast an OBP of .848 even once in their career, let alone after 40.   Unfortunately, that OBP dropped off by about a hundred points in 1973 in about the same number of plate appearances.