Tom Brennan - 13 ISN'T ALWAYS UNLUCKY FOR THE METS

  13 is that superstitious number.   WHOOOO!

What good can come from 13?

Well, if I get paid on the 13th, I spend it, thank you very much.  Although I try to never have less than 13 bucks in my wallet once I'm done spending.  I could come up with 13 more quips, but I won't.

I took a look at 13th round Mets selections back to 1970 and found a surprising number of 13th rounders with some MLB success:

Lenny Dykstra - 1981 - they really "nailed" that one. 1,298 career hits, although only 30% or so of those with the Mets.  Did his best ballin' with the Phillies, including one incredible season where he racked up an astonishing 143 runs.  Compare to Carlos Beltran's all time Mets' season record of 127.

Rob Gsellman - 2013.  The only active 13th round Mets selection who reached the majors.  Rob's compiled a 20-15, 4.67 ERA record, with 14 saves.  Great (if at times erratic) value in that pick, with hopefully more to come.

Matt Bowman - 2012. 7-13, 4.02 career in 181 IP with the Mets and Cardinals.

Rick Ownbey - 1980. 3-11 with a 4.11 ERA and a love for 7-11.

Jeff Innis - 1983 - 10-20, despite a 3.05 ERA as a Met over 7 seasons and 288 outings.  Throw like that for a top team and you're 20-10 instead.

Boy, Bowman, Ownbey, and Innis combine for a 20-44 record despite an ERA collectively in the high 3's proving it is often better to be lucky than good.

Terry Bross - 1987.  The tall fella can always tell friends that his Mets' career ERA was 1.80.  Just don't tell them that it was over 10 innings.

Darin Erstad - 1992.  He sadly did not sign that year, was a later 1st round pick for the Angels, and compiled 1,697 non-Mets hits, including a .355 season in the year 2000. 

Daniel Murphy - 2006.  They only got unlucky when they let him go.  Similar to Erstad with the bat, he totaled 1,572 career hits, and .296.  Hit .347 one season as a non-Met.  A 4 leaf clover career for the leprechaun.

PJ Conlon - 2015.  More luck o' the Irish.  This leprechaun has just 7.2 MLB innings and an 8.22 ERA in 2018 to his credit.  Still just 27 years young, you Irish lovers.

Carlos Muniz - 2003 - 26 innings and a 1-1 record with the Mets.  Why couldn't he be a Carlos Zambrano, though, some might ask.

Looking ahead, the Mets still hope for big things with 13th rounder in 2019, Blake McIntosh.  The error-less lefty hitting CF in 24 games is remarkably still not quite 20, despite missing all of 2020 because - well you know the answer to that.  The 6'4" McIntosh, you see, started his career just as he turned 18.  May he be their biggest 13th rounder ever?  He's considering changing his name to Kelenic so Mets fans will pay attention to him.

Of course, how could I not bring this up again?  The best 13th rounder the Mets didn't take? 1999's Albert Pujols. Instead, in round 12 that year, their last pick before Pujols was selected, they picked RHP Paul Viole, a kid from nearby Englewood, NJ whose last pro season with St. Lucie in 2002 was 3-9, 5.99, making him 4-14 career at St. Lucie.  

Tough choice...I no doubt would have picked Viole, too, of that much I'm sure.  I imagine you would have, too.  Because the pick was just so darned obvious.  You can, you see, just never have too much pitching.  Even if the pitching never gets closer to Queens that Englewood, NJ.

Of course, by the end of 2002, Pujols in his 2 MLB seasons to that point had a very undesirable (to Mets' owners) 87 doubles, 71 HRs, and 257 RBIs.  Pish, pish.  

Thankfully, Steve Cohen finally took away the WIlpons' keys so they could no longer drive, because for decades, they sure drove me nuts.  Nuts.  That much I can tell you.