Eddie was a small part of that 80 games below .500 "lovable" squad in 1962
Mets fans have a special fondness for mediocrity.
Ever since 1962.
Stunning to me was the low career WAR number of one former Mets player who is talked about often and thought of fondly by Mets fans:
ED KRANEPOOL
18 years - all as a Met - and 4.3 WAR. Just 4.3 WAR.
Maybe it was just a Baseballreference.com misprint.
Slow, steady Eddie.
Perhaps we liked him because we felt he was no more athletic than, or perhaps less athletic than, we ourselves were, yet he lasted 18 years as a Met.
And accumulated (if that is the right word) 4.3 WAR.
Just 4.3 WAR. In 18 years.
I imagine Babe Ruth may have had a month somewhere along the way with more WAR.
By comparison, pint-sized Bud Harrelson racked up 20.3 WAR.
The Hammer, John Milner, racked up 12.5 WAR in just two-thirds of the plate appearances that Eddie the K had in his lengthy career.
We loved Buddy - built like Twiggy, but he sure could field and bunt.
Kranepool was a likable guy - but he was a prime example of what has been wrong with the Mets for 6 decades.
Willie Mays, as a Giant, had 154.5 career WAR. The Met's top WAR 4, Wright, Straw, Beltran and Alfonso, totaled 146.5 WAR as Mets, 8 fewer than Willie the Jint.
Meanwhile, some guys like Gregg Jefferies are despised and ridiculed by many Mets fans, but had 20 career WAR, vs. beloved Eddie's whopping 4 WAR.
Far too often, we've celebrated mediocrity.
Embraced mediocrity.
Settled for mediocrity.
We deserve better, each and every season, from now on.
I much prefer...lovable WINNERS.
P.S.
As a side note, the aforementioned John Milner was a solid player until the age of 30. In this day and age, perhaps he gets a pretty lucrative multi-year contract at age 29. That would have been a big mistake.
At age 31 and 32, he had just 7 HRs, 28 RBIs in 188 at bats while hitting .220, and that age 32 season? It was the end of his career.
Beware the dangers of long term contracts. Guys get old. Don't pay them like they're elite.
I know, some folks dislike the wins above replacement stat. One told me, "WAR, what's it good for, absolutely nothing, listen to me."
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder what Kranepool's career might have been like if he hit the gym and did workouts like Pete Alonso. Eddie the non-lawyer may never have passed the bar, but it sure looked to me like he passed by many barbells without stopping.
Yanks' 50th highest hitter in terms of WAR, just during Yankee playing time, was Wade Boggs at 18.3. That would have slotted him at 12th all time as a Met. Kranepool played a8 years and missed the Mets' offensive top WAR 50.
ReplyDeleteMets' all time offensive WAR leader David Wright had 5 less career WAR than the 54 that Willie Randolph had as a Yankee. Embarrassing.
Off to church - have a great day. I'm anti-WAR, anyway. Blessed are the peacemakers. Peace and out.
ReplyDeleteComment to your heart's content - I'll check back in tomorrow.
We simply need to go to "War" more often with better players. The Joel Sherman article today in the post lists the best young players in the 3 major sports and guess what: none are Mets and surprisingly that's not a surprise so Stevie needs to change that and by the way 3 are Braves of course.
ReplyDeleteI agree as I think we all do about long term contract's and I will never understand 10 for 341 as I'll hopefully be 85 when that beast is over and we have maybe 3 WS title's ....O.K. I'll settle for 2. So Mr. Superstar make me eat my words.
ReplyDeleteI am accumulating a lot of players WAR numbers and will try to write a piece on that. I did not get to Kranepool's page yet, but that surprises me a bit.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how to calculate the bWAR or how much fielding and baserunning comes into the equation, but Krane's WAR just seems headscratching at best.
It is time to come up with a new measurement system.
The first ones that raised my eyebrows were back during the Hall of Fame ballot discussions. Compare Andruw Jones and Torii Hunter. Look at their stats and tell me why Jones gets 40% and Hunter get 5%.
Something is wrong with this system.
Isn't time to retire Eddie's number?
ReplyDeleteGary, next year, Alvarez and Vientos will be in that "top 20 under 25". One can hope, anyway.
ReplyDeleteBill, I am not a WAR expert, but for Eddie K to not be in the Mets' all time top 50 WAR just for non-pitchers is stunning.
ReplyDeleteRay, you can have that retirement ceremony. I wish Eddie well. Thankfully, he was mostly mediocre pre-1969. He did hit a HR against Baltimore in 1969, going 1 for 4 in that series. He was, though, 0 for 3 against Oakland in 1973. 7 at bats in two WS? Not many for a guy who was 24 and 28 years old at those times. He did manage 84 regular season RBIs and 12 HRs in 716 ABs in those seasons.