Well, the other day, I did my top 10 favorite Mets relievers of all time.
So many relievers over the years, I wonder how many the Mets have used in relief since 1962. Must be about somewhere close to 750 dudes who've relieved for the Mets, just as a guess.
First basemen, though, are not so voluminous, so I limited it to my top 5 first basemen rather than 10.
Here's mine:
1) Keith Hernandez - great competitive hitter, utterly superior fielder, fiery leader for the best several year streth this franchise has ever had.
2) Pete Alonso - one mind-boggling 53 HR season, in my mind, was not enough to unseat Keith from # 1 - yet.
3) John Olerud - exuding a Jimmy Stewart persona, his well above .300 average during his short tenure as a Met included a Mets' all time best season average of .354. In his 3 seasons, he was .315/.425/.501, with 291 RBIs and a stellar glove.
4) Carlos Delgado - in his 4 Mets years, he sported a .502 slugging %.
5) Lucas Duda - some may say, what, no Ed Kranepool?
But Eddie in his much longer Mets career was just .261/.316/.377, while Lucas in 750 Mets games was .246/.343/.457, with 146 doubles, 128 HRs and 378 RBIs.
Muddying it up a bit, roughly 40% of those Mets games were as a starting outfielder, DH, or PH, but he was primarily a 1B as a Met.
Muddying it up a bit, roughly 40% of those Mets games were as a starting outfielder, DH, or PH, but he was primarily a 1B as a Met.
For me, Duda's 80 points higher slugging % and 27 points higher in OBP give him an edge over the Krane.
That said, Eddie was a great pinch hitter for several years.
I just wonder how Kranepool would have done in this era with its emphasis on strength increase. If Eddie had worked out then like Alonso works out now, we may have seen a whole different Kranepool. Alonso only has 65 fewer HRs, through one year, than Krane had in his 18 seasons.
Sorry, to me, first base is a power position.
Sadly, I always felt Duda fell well short of his potential as a Met and was just too passive on first pitch strikes. Career-wise, when he got to 2 strikes in any count, spanning 55% of his career at bats, he hit .159/.247/.281. Awful.
He should have been much more aggressive early in counts and screwed the bases on balls.
My first-ever Macks Mets article was on exactly this topic.
I wonder what Lucas Duda would have hit like if he had Dave Kingman's hitting brain in his body.
Speaking of Kingman, he had 340 games as a Mets first baseman, roughly, but lot of those were later in his career when his average was lower. Still, he almost gave Duda a run for his money for that 5th spot, and would have come out ahead of Duda if he'd also had 760 games at 1B. And Dave was primarily an OF.
Sorry, to me, first base is a power position.
Sadly, I always felt Duda fell well short of his potential as a Met and was just too passive on first pitch strikes. Career-wise, when he got to 2 strikes in any count, spanning 55% of his career at bats, he hit .159/.247/.281. Awful.
He should have been much more aggressive early in counts and screwed the bases on balls.
My first-ever Macks Mets article was on exactly this topic.
I wonder what Lucas Duda would have hit like if he had Dave Kingman's hitting brain in his body.
Speaking of Kingman, he had 340 games as a Mets first baseman, roughly, but lot of those were later in his career when his average was lower. Still, he almost gave Duda a run for his money for that 5th spot, and would have come out ahead of Duda if he'd also had 760 games at 1B. And Dave was primarily an OF.
Honorable mention: Ike Davis, Willie Montanez.
How about you guys?
14 comments:
Tom - good stuff. If you had gone all the way to 10 1st Basemen I take it Kranepool, Montanez and Davis would have made your list. What about the other two spots? Would you include Kingman who played there 81-83? Not me, worst defensive 1B I ever saw.
How about John Milner, Gil Hodges, or Rico Brogna? Todd Zeile also got some big hits in the 2000 post season. Donn Clendenon?
John, John Milner and Rico Brogna would have made it. Every tool chest needs a Hammer.
Dave Magadan had 418 games at 1B for the Mets. Very low power for a 1B, but a good hitter otherwise.
I agree. Loved John Milner and Brogna.
Remember with Ed Kranepool - when we had Eddie, the Giants had Willie McCovey. Huge difference.
It's a sad club history if Lucas Duda is in your top five.
Great point.
Tom -
It is simply too early to rank Alonso again of Olerud.
Milner is almost exactly Duda with 1/2 the K-rate, plus a glove and a throwing arm. So there's that.
Eddie: Saw him play HS ball and the next spring he's starting in LF at the PG next to Duke Snider. Fantasy ball.
Milner was better in those respects, substantially lower in extra base hits.
Than Duda, that is.
I agree, Keith Hernandez is the best 1st-baseman in Met history, He was also the best fielding 1st-baseman in Met history.
I agree with Mack when he said it is simply too early to rank Alonso again of Olerud.
Duda was also very streaky. Seems like he would hit ten homers in one week then take a month before hitting another. Also, Duda broke John Olerud's and Ron Hunt's Mets Hit by pitch record of 13 in 2015 with 14 HBP later broken by Brandon Nimmo with 22 HBP in 2018. (FYI - Both Pete and Jeff McNeil were hit 21 times in 2019!)
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