Tom Brennan - A Potpourri of Oddball and Interesting Mets Facts

 

Playing a game with a simple baseball can produce some oddball and amazing things.

You can always find oddball and interesting facts about Mets former and current players if you look hard enough.

Like, say, Robbie Cano.

His father's name is Jose Cano, so I wonder if some folks call him "Joe Cano, dontcha know"?

But that's not the oddball fact.

Robbie oddly was once sort of a speed merchant, stealing 19 of 23 bases in his age 18 and 19 minor league seasons.

He then rested up and stole just 23 of 52 over the next 8 years, but then I guess he then got interested in stealing again, stealing 28 of 36 over the next 4 years, but then presumably he again got tired of thievery, stealing just 3 of 10 over the next 3 seasons, and then stopped trying altogether…zero of zero in steals over his last 3 years.

Rickey Henderson thefts-wise he is not.   We can only hope Cano is nearly as good in his twilight years as Ricky was in his one year with the Mets at age 40 when, in 121 games, he hit an astounding .315/.423/.466 (stole 37 bases, too).

Lance Johnson had by far and away the most hits by any Met in a season, with 227 in 1996, (23 more than # 2 Jose Reyes had one season) but amazingly isn't in the top 10 of the Mets' all time "on base in a season" list.  To be 10th (269, shared by Keith Hernandez and Jose Reyes), Lance would have had to walk more - which he didn't.  John Olerud in fact is the only man in Mets' history to crack 300 in a season, having reached 309 one season.  

In On Base Plus Slugging, Mike Piazza is the only Met to crack 1.000 with his gaudy 1.012 one season.  Olerud gave it a run but stalled at .998.  I'll take .998 from any 2022 Met, I don't know about you.  

John from Albany's favorite Edgardo Alfonso had the 6th best all time season in that regard for the Mets at .967, better than David Wright (.963) ever reached in a season.  Not bad to come out ahead of one Captain America.

Felix Millan had 24 sac bunts one season.  The Mets as a team in 2021 had 34, which to me was a surprisingly high total, but Millan got within 10 of that all by himself.  Millan in 1975, BTW, set the Mets' season hit record with a paltry 191, a record which astonishingly was the Mets' highest total in the team's first 34 seasons until Lance Johnson's magic in 1996 shattered Millan's record by 36 hits. For perspective, 36 hits were more hits than Millan had in any single month in 1975.  

Millan's low "hits in a season" record for so many years is more pronounced when one considers that hit king Pete Rose had 10 seasons with 200+ hits and 12 seasons with more than 191 hits. 

(Did ya ever say "Pete Rose sat on a tack, Pete rose" as a kid?)

Aaron Loup was just 15-22 before 2021, but went 6-0 last year, and he and his agent are glad for his oddball outlier season.  If he now regresses, he will regress wealthily.  

Jeurys Familia was 9-4, 3.90 in 2021.  Anthony Young was 5-35, 3.82 in his Mets career.  And Roger Craig was 15-46, 4.14 as a Met.  So the latter 2 hurlers were 20-81 as Mets, despite having roughly the same ERA as Familia did going 9-4 last season.

Compared to the 9-4, 3.90 Familia, Craig was just 5-22 in 1963 despite a 3.78 ERA but completed nearly half (14 of his 31) starts.  The Mets meanwhile had just 2 complete games in 2021, but won 72 more games than Craig in the process.  It just ain't fair, I tell ya.

Jerry Koosman remarkably won 21 games in 1976, then lost 20 in 1977, went just 11-35 in 1977 and 1978, then won 20 again in 1979,  With a strong hitting team, though, hard luck Jerry might have had four straight 20 win seasons instead.

Jim Hickman was nicknamed Gentleman Jim.  He hit like a gentleman as a Met, with a gentle bat with a .241/.306/.392 slash line over 5 seasons.  He was no gentleman for the Cubs in 1970, though, when he turned into a one-year Jammin' Jimmy Beast and hit .315/.419/.582 with 115 RBIs, twice the number of RBIs in his best season as a Met.  Ain't that always the way?  

Ever notice that the Mets have other hitters who hit like gentlemen while with the Mets and like beasts elsewhere?  Kevin Mitchell noticed, when he won an MVP one year as an ex-Mets slugger, something no Mets hitter has ever been able to accomplish.  That applies to pitching too, just ask Paul Sewald, who was 1-15 with the Mets, but 10-3 with the Mariners in 2021.

Unless you're a scab, of course, which, if you're like me, you had many of while growing up.  John Franco's not-so-favorite scab, Rick Reed, was Greg Maddux Light as a Mets scab-turned-veteran, going 59-36 in his excellent Mets tenure, but just 34-40 elsewhere.   His .621 Mets' career win % was second only to Doc Gooden's .649.  

Gooden remarkably got there by going an unconscious and perhaps never replicated 38-5 in one multi-season stretch from late 1984 to early 1986.  

Anyway, scabs of the Reed variety are good.  Keep band aids and Bactine (ouch) spray handy, however.  

Two time Cy Young winner and Mets career ERA leader (2.50) Jacob deGrom is just 77-53 (.592), a lower win % than Reed as a Met and just the 6th best win % by a Mets pitcher all-time, due to an extreme and persistent lack of run and pen support. 

Roger Maris hit 61 HRs in 1961. The Mets proudly matched him when they hit 61 in 1980. It takes a village.  

Remarkably, 53-HR Pete Alonso reminded me, the Mets’ fellow expansionists Astros squad hit just a dreadful  49 out in 1979.  1986 was a whole different deal for both teams, though.

The Mets often have their one main closer for a season, for better or worse. In the two years they won a World Series, though, it was interestingly enough a 50-50  hydra-headed closer set-up. 

In 1969, finesse relievers Ron Taylor and Tug McGraw had 13 and 12 saves, respectively, while combining to go 18-7. In 1986, Roger MacDowell and Jesse Orosco went 22-15 with 22 and 21 saves, respectively.  So, in 1986, the Roger/Jesse duo had either a decision or a save in 80 of the team’s 162 games!  Somehow, Orosco’s arm did not fall off, and he pitched 17 more seasons.

Also, Koosman was involved in the trade to get Jesse Orosco. The 2 combined to pitch in 43 seasons, and despite some overlap, amazingly extended from 1968 when I was a HS sophomore thru 2003, when I turned 50.

Speaking of McGraw, he and Nolan Ryan combined to go an abysmal 2-10 in 1966 with an ERA above 5.50. They did pretty well after that, though, dontcha think? 

And despite pitching parts of 5 seasons with the Mets, Ryan fanned more hitters afterwards, while an ex-Met, than any other pitcher in baseball history ever fanned, period.

Here's one for ya - Tylor Megill has won all of 13 games as a pro, majors AND minors. Less than 260 pro innings.  Yet he stands right now as the Mets' 4th or 5th starter.  I think that is quite amazing.  Me?  I think he'll win 13 more in 2022.

Oddball and interesting - the list frankly is never-ending.  

So, oddly, I'll end here.

You can add your favorites here if you'd like.  If you choose not to, though, I won't find it odd.