April 13, 1967
Tom Seaver Made His Major League Debut in a Simpler Time
After Just One Full Year in the Minors
HEY, BEFORE I START MY MESSAGE:
“Yesterday, all my trouble seems so far away, now it looks as though they’re here to stay, oh, I believe in yesterday.” Paul McCartney.
The Mets led six to nada after three innings yesterday, working around some stormy weather. Then a half inning later they trailed 9–6. Funny, that. Shoulda kept raining.
As usual, the offense went into a coma, and the final score was 11-6.
Long, strange season it has been.
The Mets missed a huge opportunity to pick up a game on Philly.
And the one part of the game I did watch was when Juan Soto got up with two on and the Mets trailing 9-6 in the fifth. He got the count to 3-2 and then swung at three straight pitches way out of the strike zone, the third of which was a rally-killing strikeout. He now has just 36 RBIs on his 29 HRs, a tough trick to pull off.
Today….It looks like all those troubles are here to stay.
On to my regularly scheduled message:
The Mets got fortunate in 1966. They got the great Tom Seaver in the January 1966 draft. (Actually, the Braves drafted him, but the Mets ended up with him.
Any reader, please feel free to fill in the details.
Back then, baseball was different. No highly paid players. No free agency.
When a guy was ready, he was ready. Period.
Ed Kranepool had 300 PAs before he turned 19.
Seaver in 1966 was signed, and then assigned straight to AAA, where he went 12-12, with a nice 3.13 ERA and 1.19 WHIP, and almost a K per inning. Nice. Impressive, even, to do that well at the top minor leaguer level straight out of Fresno.
In March 1967, he was deemed ready by the reigning powers, and so he was…
He won NL rookie of the year.
He made $13,500 that year, by the way.
Yes…
The Franchise had just one year in the minors before his HOF career began.
Baseball these days is just so very friggin’ different.
Starting veteran pitchers are paid by multiple Brinks truck deliveries, whether they pitch much or not, and there IS free agency, so, like a commodity, key prospect pitcher call-ups have to be oh-so-carefully managed so as to not negatively impact a franchise’s value.
Free agency-focused proper call-up timing can reduce a team’s future salaries and luxury taxes by tens of millions these days, you see.
High finance.
Feet dragging and rationalizations thus, easily and often, replace promotions.
Let me say this straight up:
If this were still 1967, in my humble opinion, Jonah Tong, Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean would have been pitching in the majors long ago.
Tong Terrific couldn’t even get promoted to AAA until this week…SMH…
In 2025 parlance, it is called “product management”, you see.
Tong, excluding his first two Siberian starts of 2025 in AA, has had a 1.12 ERA; allowed 4 hits per 9 innings; and struck out roughly 15 per 9 innings. Best Mets minor league pitching performance ever.
- “NOPE, NOT QUITE READY FOR AAA”, they’ve effectively told us.
In 1967, he would already have been in the Mets rotation.
Sproat? Last 39 innings, 5 earned runs in 6 starts in AAA.
- “NOPE, NOT QUITE READY FOR THE MAJORS”, they’ve basically told us.
McLean? 109 innings, 120 hits, 8-5, 2.46.
- “NOPE, NOT QUITE READY FOR THE MAJORS”, they’ve basically told us.
(Desperate times have forced the Mets’ hand, though. With Montas pitching so poorly, McLean was needed, and will make his Mets debut on Saturday.
Simply put:
They have not been telling us the truth.
They are perhaps fibbing to us a wee tad, in fact, due to modern day baseball’s high finance considerations which they want the casual fan, the 90% majority of Mets fans, to not focus on or grasp.
The truth is, these are 3 pitchers who “need” to be delayed to extend their time until free agency. Unless circumstances in Queens become dire. (It got dire enough to summon McLean now).
“If we promoted them to the Mets now, how much more might it cost us long-term when they get to free agency a year sooner?”
If they were given Sodium Pentothal, Stearns and his cohort would tell you all three have been more than ready to start for the NY Mets right now.
But this is “Baseball 2025”, not “Baseball 1967”.
In today’s game, if those three fireballers simply were marginal pitchers, they’d be called up much sooner, under the managerial assumption that said marginal guys most likely won’t make as far in their careers as free agency, so the long-term financial reasons to delay promotion to the big leagues are far less significant, if not non-existent.
The marginal guys’ only issue of concern to management is to not to have all their minor league options burned up prematurely.
Be a less talented pitcher, and essentially, you get called up much sooner.
Different time in baseball in 2025. Different game.
I liked low-finance 1967 better.
Once upon a time, in the fairly-low-finance late 1980s, Messrs. Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz each got called up very young. Each scuffled badly for a short while. But each is now a Hall of Famer.
They didn’t fall apart by being called up “too soon”, by scuffling a bit.
Talent-wise, are the Mets’ 3 armed prospects as high-end capable long-term as those 3 HOFs were?
Likely not.
But the fact I didn’t immediately say, “no way”, re-emphasizes that the Mets’ tremendous trio are greatly talented and are being jerked around.
And I hate that.
You should hate it, too. Why?
They’ve been ready.
Yes, MLB hitter opposition is better, tougher.
Yes, MLB game pressure is greater.
But those three? I say they’re ready. Already. Now. Right Now.
You can put THAT in the 2025 books.
Before I go….
Saw this on Facebook - a reminder of a very different and better low finance time:
12 comments:
Peterson and Garrett combined for 104 pitches
Sure, David was hemorrhaging but I just don't think if you kept him in to pitch that many pitches... something a year long starter should be able to do... he alone would have given up nine runs
Thanks, I missed that. I saw it was 6-0, turned it on and Braves had loaded the bags with none out, said uh-oh, and shut it off. When I turned it back on, I saw Soto’s bad K with 2 on and 2 out. He wanted a 3 run shot there so badly. Too badly.
Brutal loss so now what David?
Gary, David will be riding to the rescue at any moment. Maybe he will tell us Jose Siri is starting a minor league assignment. Now that would be thrilling.
David Stearns is currently in Korea
He doesn't want any part of this either
Very disrespectful that he is openly scouting players in Japan while Pete was breaking HR record. Not a good look.
Yes, he was pressing.
Where is Carlos Beltran these days?
Works for the Mets
He might have left right after that game
Maybe his next job is Korean GM
McLean a Tong killed it Saturday. Combined 11 innings, zero runs, 17 Ks. The new era has begun. McLean did it in the majors. Tong proved he is READY.
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