With the ninth pick in the first round of the 1981 June amateur draft the Texas Rangers selected a 6'3" power right-handed pitcher out of Yale named Ron Darling. Twelve rounds and 306 picks later the Mets selected Lenny Dykstra out of Garden Grove High School in California. Five feet, ten inches and 167 pounds, Dykstra established himself in the minor leagues as someone who played much bigger than his size, and he carried that attitude and reputation into the big leagues.

Year	Team	Lg	Age	Lvl	AB	XBH	BB	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
1981	Shelby	SAL	18	A	157	9	37	15	5	.261	.400	.331
1982	Shelby	SAL	19	A	413	23	95	77	11	.291	.425	.378
1983	Lynchburg	Caro	20	A+	525	46	107	105	23	.358	.472	.503
1984	Jackson	Tex	21	AA	501	38	73	53	17	.275	.372	.389
1985	Tidewater	IL	22	AAA	229	15	31	26	6	.310	.392	.410

As an eighteen-year-old, Dykstra joined the Shelby Mets of the Sally League mid-season and made an immediate impact. Despite being younger than most of his competition, Dykstra posted a respectable .261 batting average to go along with 37 walks and 15 stolen bases in just 157 at-bats. Considering his age relative to the league, his plate discipline was very highly-developed, a trait that can often portend future success against stronger opposition.

Dykstra displayed very little in the way of power in the early going, and that would remain largely true throughout his baseball career. He returned to Shelby in 1982 and did his best to prove that his short time in pro ball the prior year was no flash in the pan. He drew 95 walks and swiped 77 bags in 88 attempts over a full season of A-ball, posting a gaudy .425 on-base percentage to go along with an underwhelming .378 slugging percentage.

As a 20-year-old the following season he was promoted to High-A Lynchburg of the Carolina League and showed a devastating combination of patience and speed that would make Rickey Henderson proud. Dykstra drew 107 walks and stole 105 bases (in 128 attempts, an 82% success rate), and posted an astounding .358/.472/.503 batting line. The season would prove to be an outlier in the power department when considering his entire minor league career. The following year he slugged just .389 at Double-A Jackson, though his .372 on-base percentage was still very strong.

He began the 1985 season with Triple-A Tidewater, showing a strong walk rate and little extra-base ability. When infielder Ron Gardenhire was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a pulled hamstring on May 2, the Mets called Dykstra up to take his place on the big league roster. While Mookie Wilson rested a sore right shoulder, Dykstra started three straight games in center for the Mets, picking up five hits in his first twelve at-bats including a homerun in his second big league plate appearance (he struck out in his first).

Dykstra's first big league stint lasted barely a week, as he was promptly returned to Tidewater when the Mets recalled Sid Fernandez on May 11. Dykstra spent the next month in Triple-A before again being summoned by the Mets -- this time for good -- when they sent struggling starter Calvin Schiraldi back to the minors.

Dykstra appeared in 85 games with the Mets in 1985, platooning with Wilson in center field. Facing mostly right-handed pitchers, Dykstra hit a nothing-special .254/.338/.331 over 273 plate appearances. The Mets won 98 games that season, falling just three games shy of the Cardinals for NL East supremacy.

Year	Age	PA	XBH	BB	AVG	OBP	SLG	EQA	WARP3	VORP
1985	22	273	13	30	.254	.338	.331	.270	3.2	4.6
1986	23	498	42	58	.295	.377	.445	.308	8.3	32.7
1987	24	479	50	40	.285	.352	.455	.290	6.0	24.3
1988	25	466	30	30	.270	.321	.385	.281	6.0	16.5
1988	26	192	16	23	.270	.362	.415	.311	2.9	13.6

When Spring arrived in 1986, Dykstra was preparing to split time again in center when Wilson was struck in the eye with a ball during a routine baserunning drill. Dykstra got most of the playing time in Wilson's absence, though he was still benched against tough lefties in favor of Kevin Mitchell. For his part, Dykstra saw Wilson's injury as an opportunity.

"Two days ago I was looking at Wilson being ready to play at the start of the season. Now they're counting on me to do the job. Not to pinch-hit or pinch-run or get in the game every fourth day."

[...]

"Last year, I was watching the guys on TV in the minor leagues. Then I was the rookie. Well, that's gone. I feel for Mookie, but I'm not going to lay back. I'll go twice as hard and force [manager] Davey [Johnson] to make a decision when Mookie comes back".

-- New York Times, 5/6/1986

Dykstra made good on his word, putting together a tremendous season at the plate and hitting .295/.377/.445 as the Mets coasted to their first NL East title in thirteen years. Dykstra's 32.7 VORP was the second-highest among National League centerfielders, trailing only future Met -- and then-Padre -- Kevin McReynolds.

Dykstra was even better during the Mets' 1986 postseason run, hitting .304/.360/.565 in the NLCS against the Astros, including a game-winning two-run homer off Dave Smith in the second game of the series. Of the home run, Dykstra said:

"The last time I hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth to win a game I was playing my Strat-o-matic baseball game, rolling dice against my brother Kevin".

-- New York Times, 10/12/1986

Dykstra also played a pivotal role in the Mets' ninth inning rally in Game 6, leading off the frame with a triple and eventually scoring the first of three runs that would tie the game and send it to extras. Seven innings later, Dykstra scored Wally Backman with a single that gave the Mets a 7-4 lead in the top of the sixteenth. What seemed like a tack-on run at the time turned out to be the game-winner after Jesse Orosco allowed two Astros to score in the bottom of the sixteenth before striking out Kevin Bass to send the Mets to the World Series.

Dykstra continued his torrent hitting in the World Series, batting .296/.345/.519 in 27 at-bats, including a leadoff homerun in a must-win Game 3 and a second put-away blast that extended the Mets' lead to 5-0 in Game 4. He also contributed a pinch-hit single and a run in a three-run seventh inning of Game 7 that propelled the Mets to the series victory.

With a terrific season under his belt and a World Series ring on his finger, Dykstra arrived at spring training in 1987 as the Mets' starting center fielder and a raise in salary from $92,500 to $202,500. A rough spring left his starting aspirations in doubt, though, and Davey Johnson made it known that Dykstra's hold on center field was becoming tenuous. Johnson put Dykstra on notice:

"What I was really saying is that Lenny oughta get his stuff together. Maybe he was thinking about all the banquets and worrying about selling too many posters."

-- New York Times, 3/29/1987

Mookie Wilson did get a bunch of starts against lefties in 1987, but Dykstra shouldered most of the load in center. His production fell off a bit from his '86 numbers, but he still hit a solid .285/.352/.455 and was again one of the better hitters at his position in the National League. The Mets finished with 92 wins, sixteen less than the previous year and three fewer than the NL East Champion Cardinals.

Dykstra bulked up during that offseason and showed up for training camp in 1988 with an extra twenty pounds added to his 5'10" frame. The irony is that his training diligence didn't impress his manager, but rather infuriated him. Further, Dykstra actually had his worst full season in the power department, collecting just 30 extra-base hits (eight homeruns) and slugging a wimpy .385. Though his regular season was less than stellar, Dykstra turned it on in the NLCS against the Dodgers, hitting .429/.600/.857 in 14 at-bats.

Dykstra won his salary arbitration case prior to the 1989 season and was awarded a $575,000 contract, a hefty raise from the $305,000 he made in 1988. Despite the raise, Dykstra had grown frustrated with the center field time-share he was still involved in with Mookie Wilson. After voicing his concerns to management, Dykstra asked to be traded so that he could become a full-time starter elsewhere. The Mets had trade discussions with the Yankees in spring training that would have ultimately shipped Dykstra to the Bronx, but nothing ever materialized from those conversations.

Dykstra hit pretty well to start the 1989 season, batting .270/.362/.415 through June 18. That day would turn out to be Dykstra's last as a Met, as he was sent packing to Philadelphia along with Roger McDowell in exchange for center fielder Juan Samuel. Dykstra was excited about the change of scenery:

"For me, this isn't that sad. This is the time for me to make a move. I'm 26 and I've been here nearly five years. Maybe it's time to show I can hit those left-handed pitchers."

-- New York Times, 6/19/1989

The trade would turn out to be a bad one for the Mets, as Samuel hit an incomprehensible .228/.299/.300 in 333 at-bats over the remainder of the 1989 season before getting traded again, this time to the Dodgers for Alejandro Pena and Mike Marshall.

Dykstra was thrice an All Star for the Phillies, finishing in the Top-10 in MVP voting twice, including a second-place finish in 1993 when he hit .305/.420/.482 for the National League pennant-winners. Injuries cut his career short, as he appeared in just 40 games as a 33-year-old in 1996 and retired two years later after a couple of unsuccessful comeback attempts.

Always a fan-favorite at Shea, Dykstra's reputation has recently taken a hit following his inclusion in the Mitchell Report, which alleged that he had used anabolic steroids during his Major League career. If steroids indeed helped Dykstra add muscle following the 1987 season, Met fans can find some solace in the fact that his best years in Flushing actually came before he began his workout regimen. Regardless, Dykstra was terrific for one season as a Met and very good in two others, and he was a key component in the team's World Series Championship in 1986.

Long live "Nails".

Sources

Lenny Dykstra at Baseball-Reference.com
Lenny Dykstra at Baseball Prospectus
Lenny Dykstra at The Baseball Cube
Lenny Dykstra at Fan Graphs

After spending sixteen mostly-splendid seasons pitching for the Braves, a stretch that included two Cy Young awards, five top-three finishes and eight All-Star appearances, 36-year-old Tom Glavine was a free agent looking for one last big-money deal to get him to 300 wins and baseball immortality. After a dramatic courtship and intense competition from the Phillies and Braves, the Mets and their persistent owner Fred Wilpon had landed their prized free agent target. Glavine was officially a Met, signing a complicated three-year, $35 million deal on December 5, 2002.

Even after inking with the Mets Glavine had mixed emotions about the deal:

"It's almost surreal that it happened. I never thought I would play for someone else. I thought I would play my whole career with the Braves. I held out hope that things would work out, but they didn't. There's a lot of emotions. It's a tough time.

In the end, there was just something telling me in my gut that New York was the right choice."

--New York Daily News (12/6/02)

Year  Age    IP   ERA    H   HR  BB   SO  ERA+  WARP3  SNLVAR
-------------------------------------------------------------
2003   37  183.1  4.52  205  21  66   82   94    4.3     4.2
2004   38  212.1  3.60  204  20  70  109  119    7.3     4.9
2005   39  211.1  3.53  227  12  61  105  118    6.8     5.4
2006   40  198.0  3.82  202  22  62  131  113    5.6     5.0
2007   41  131.2  4.51  139  18  44   60   91    3.4     3.0

Glavine came aboard to anchor a veteran rotation that featured Al Leiter, Steve Trachsel, David Cone (in his second tour of duty with the Mets) and youngster Jae Seo, and to help the Mets rebound from their first losing season since 1996. Glavine's Met career began inauspiciously as he got roughed up in his very first start. In front of a Shea Stadium crowd of 53,586 Glavine allowed five runs on eight hits and four walks in just 3.2 innings in a game the Mets would eventually lose 15-2 (Cub centerfielder Corey Patterson belted two homeruns and drove in seven runs; Mike Bacsik allowed nine runs in two innings of relief for the Mets). Glavine did well to put his disastrous Opening Day start behind him by allowing just two runs in eighteen innings covering his next three starts. He was 5-3 with a 3.41 ERA through his first ten starts while the Mets struggled to a 19-25 record overall. From that point until the end of the season Glavine was occasionally brilliant but generally terrible, posting a 4-11 record to go with a 5.10 ERA over his last 22 starts of 2003. The Mets finished with a 66-95 record, good for last place in the National League East and 34.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves. Needless to say this wasn't what the Mets had in mind when they signed Tom Glavine to be the ace of their pitching staff.

Glavine's second season with the Mets went far better than his first, pitching to a 2.66 ERA and an All-Star appearance in the first half. His 5.06 ERA and 43-to-37 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the second half was eerily reminiscent of the way he tailed off in 2003, but he finished with a solid 3.60 ERA for the season, 19% better than the league. As a team the Mets were still lousy, going 71-91 and finishing fourth in the division, a result that contributed to the firing of Art Howe as the team's manager and the demotion of general manager Jim Duquette to assistant duties. Howe would be replaced by first-time manager Willie Randolph and Duquette was usurped by former Met executive Omar Minaya, happily released from front office purgatory in Montreal.

In 2005 the Mets reloaded via free agency, adding superstars Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran to a team that already featured up-and-coming stars David Wright and Jose Reyes. The presence of Martinez in particular took some pressure off of Glavine as he was no longer looked upon to be the ace of the starting rotation. For Glavine, the changes made for a much more competitive team which in turn pushed him closer to his ultimate personal goal, three hundred career victories. He came to the Mets just 58 wins shy of the milestone but accumulated just twenty victories in his first two seasons in Queens after averaging better than seventeen wins per season in his last twelve years with the Braves.

Now the Mets' bona fide #2 starter, Glavine came out and pitched about as well in 2005 as he had in 2004: His innings pitched, ERA, strikeouts and ERA+ were all virtually identical. He put thirteen more wins into his portfolio and the Mets as a team showed plenty of improvement, finishing better than .500 for the first time in three years.

Glavine continued to chew up innings in 2006 and made his second All-Star appearance in a Mets uniform. His 5.95 K/9 ratio was the best it had been since he struck out 6.16 batters per nine innings back in 1998 and his 2.11 strikeout-to-walk ratio was his highest since 2000. He went 15-7 on the season and helped the Mets reach the postseason for the first time in six years. Glavine was terrific in the playoffs, shutting out the Dodgers for six innings in the second game of the LDS and allowing just three earned runs in eleven innings in two LCS starts. The Mets eventually lost the NLCS to the Cardinals in seven games, but that had more to do with the Mets' lack of hitting than anything else.

The 2006 offseason brought free agency for Glavine again. After entertaining a return to Atlanta he eventually signed a one-year deal to return to the Mets.

"I can't tell you how good it makes me feel that they gave me the respect they gave me and the time they gave. I don't care what you do in life, there's a value to feeling you're appreciated and wanted somewhere. The Mets certainly made me feel that way and treated me that way. I'm not saying the Braves didn't have an interest in me. They said they did. But, in the end, nothing ever materialized.

That pull to come back to New York was a very strong pull. In the end, it's where we felt like we needed to be."

--New York Daily News (12/2/06)

What would 2007 hold? To be continued...

Sources

Tom Glavine at Baseball-Reference.com
Tom Glavine at Baseball Prospectus
Tom Glavine at Fan Graphs

Walter Wayne Backman was selected by the Mets in the first round -- sixteenth overall -- of the 1977 amateur draft out of Aloha High School in Aloha, OR. As a 17-year-old he was assigned to Little Falls of the New York Penn League and was dominant at the plate, hitting .325/.395/.451 in 255 at-bats. He earned a promotion to Lynchburg of the Carolina League in 1978 and continued to show impressive on-base skills, though his power dipped below .400 where it would remain for the duration of his professional career.

Year  Team         Lg   Age  Lvl   AB  XBH  BB  AVG/OBP/SLG
-----------------------------------------------------------
1977  LittleFlls   NYPL  17  A-   255   18  28  325/395/451
1978  Lynchburg    Caro  18  A+   494   31  74  302/396/395
1979  Jackson      Tex   19  AA   404   18  35  282/344/349
1980  Tidewater    IL    20  AAA  400   21  87  293/421/363
1981  Tidewater    IL    21  AAA   59    4  10  153/281/237

Backman moved up to Double-A Jackson in 1979 where his walk rate declined a little and his power declined a lot. He picked up just eighteen extra-base hits in more than 400 at-bats, but he was still young for the league and was clearly on the fast track to the bigs. He reached the top of the minor league ladder in 1980, starting that season in Triple-A Tidewater. His plate discipline was outstanding, drawing 87 walks in 400 at-bats and posting a gaudy .421 on-base percentage. His power was virtually non-existent, but his on-base skills were terrific, especially for a scrappy middle infielder.

The Mets were impressed with Backman, and called the 20-year-old up to The Show when rosters expanded in September 1980. Backman rewarded their faith by hitting .323/.396/.355 in 110 plate appearances with the big club.

After spending much of the spring fighting for attention, Backman began the 1981 season in the majors as a reserve infielder. He stuck around for the first two months of the season, starting just five games and appearing mostly as a pinch hitter or late-inning defensive replacement for second-baseman Doug Flynn. Backman was optioned back to Tidewater on June 8 to make room for an extra pitcher on the active roster.

Four days later the MLB Players' Association voted unanimously to stop showing up to work altogether, beginning a work stoppage that would last until August 10 and ultimately wipe out 713 big league games. This shouldn't have mattered to Backman, who was no longer earning a Major League paycheck. However, Backman was irked by the Mets' handling of his roster status and went on a strike of his own, much to the surprise of the Mets. Backman was frustrated with the minimal playing time he saw with the Mets, particularly with his lack of action at shortstop. Backman took a few days to clear his head before eventually rejoining the Tides on June 20.

Backman played out the season at Triple-A Tidewater, hitting a meager .153/.281/.237 in 59 at-bats. Doug Flynn was traded to the Rangers following the 1981 season, opening a hole at second base that Backman was only too eager to fill. He appeared in 96 of the team's first 113 games, starting most of them and hitting .272/.387/.372, a line that was very consistent with his recent minor league performances. He hit for decent average, had very good on-base ability, but brought nothing to the table power-wise. In a league that reached base at a .327 clip, Backman's skillset had plenty of value.

Unfortunately for Backman, his bicycle-riding skills didn't compare to his on-base skills, as he fractured his left clavicle during a bike ride with his wife, Margie, following the Mets' game on August 13, 1982. Backman would spend the remainder of the season on the disabled list. When he returned to camp the following spring he found himself in a battle for the starting second base job with Brian Giles, who took over full-time after Backman's injury. The competition boiled down to your classic bat vs glove conundrum: Backman could hit but was something of a liability with the glove; Giles was a solid defender but didn't hit much, posting a .210/.270/.312 line in Backman's absence in 1982.

Giles would win the starting job out of camp, with Backman reluctantly playing the role of backup and late-inning pinch hitter. Backman struggled with the inconsistent playing time, hitting just .129/.182/.129 in 34 plate appearances through May 13. Four days later the Mets sent him back to Triple-A Tidewater to get some more playing time. Backman knew the drill, and he pulled no punches:

"I'll go and play hard, but at the end of this season, I hope the Mets trade me or release me so I can make a deal with some other team. I really need to get away from this organization. There's no place for me here."

-- New York Times (5/18/83)

To Backman's credit, he took his demotion seriously, hitting .316/.422/.371 in 361 at-bats and helping the Tides to the International League Championship. When training camp opened in late winter of 1984, Backman again found himself in a dogfight for the starting job at second. The incumbent Giles might have had a leg up in the competition, but Backman had the inside track for the position, even if he didn't realize it at the time. His manager at Triple-A in 1983 was a big proponent of on-base percentage, and he recognized that a player with Backman's speed and plate discipline would be extremely valuable at the top of the order. So, when Davey Johnson was promoted to manage the big club in 1984, he knew exactly who he wanted playing second and batting leadoff for him.

Johnson acknowledged Backman's defensive shortcomings, but overall he liked what he was getting:

"He's not the smoothest or prettiest thing at second base, but he's not afraid to get dirty. He still has to learn to make the play and get out of the runner's way, like a matador. And, at bat, he'd put his chin on home plate if he thought he could get hit by the ball and get on base."

-- New York Times (2/23/84)

Year  Age   PA     XBH  BB  AVG/OBP/SLG   EQA  WARP3   VORP
--------------------------------------------------------
1980   20  110    2  11  323/396/355  .283    1.0    5.8
1981   21   42    2   4  278/350/333  .271    0.5    1.6
1982   22  312   18  49  272/387/372  .287    3.4   14.4
1983   23   45    1   2  167/205/214  .140   -0.4   -4.1
1984   24  499   22  56  280/360/339  .279    5.4   21.4
1985   25  574   30  36  273/320/344  .257    5.0    9.4
1986   26  440   21  36  320/376/385  .287    4.3   23.0
1987   27  335    7  25  250/307/287  .228    0.6   -3.4
1988   28  347   12  41  303/388/344  .294    4.6   18.1

Given a full season to strut his stuff at the big league level in 1984, Backman did what he always had: he hit for average, he drew a bunch of walks, and he stole some bases (32 to be exact). He had just 22 extra-base hits in 436 at-bats, but he was a disruptive force at the top of the lineup, frequently reaching base so guys like Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry could knock him in. After losing ninety games or more in six of the previous seven seasons (the seventh of which was the strike-shortened 1981 campaign), the Mets won 90 games in 1984, and Backman was a big part of it. 1985 brought the Mets their highest win total -- 98 -- since their championship season of 1969. It was a mixed year for Backman, though. He went to spring training for the first time not worrying about fighting for a job, and he finished the season with 574 plate appearances, more than he had in any previous professional season. Unfortunately, his walk rate was the lowest of his career and his final batting line of .273/.320/.344 amounted to an OPS that was 12% below the league average. The rest of the lineup hit, though, and the Mets fought the Cardinals for the NL East crown into the last week of the season before ultimately falling three games short.

Despite his disappointing 1985 season, Backman sought a raise the following winter, from $200,000 to $425,000. The Mets countered with $325,000, and the two sides went all the way to arbitration, where the arbitrator ruled in the Mets' favor. Things didn't get any better for Backman once camp broke, because his one season of job security became a distant memory when the team acquired Tim Teufel from the Twins on January 16, 1986, in exchange for Billy Beane, Bill Latham, and Joe Klink. Teufel had started at second base for Minnesota the previous two seasons, and the Mets saw him as a right-handed platoon partner for Backman, a switch-hitter who was often overmatched from the right side of the plate.

Johnson eventually split Backman and Teufel's playing time according to a fairly strict platoon, with the former seeing mostly righties and the latter starting almost exclusively against lefties. It worked out well for Backman, who hit .320/.376/.385 in a league that hit .258/.327/.389. Meanwhile, Teufel hit right around the league average at .247/.324/.369. The Mets ran away with the NL East title, and Backman saw plenty of action once the postseason got under way.

In the NLCS against the Astros, Backman started at second base in four of the first five games, but he played a key role in the sixth and final game of the series, a game that he began on the bench. He drew an intentional walk as a pinch hitter for Teufel in the ninth inning and stayed in the game until its completion following the sixteenth inning. He drove in the Mets' fourth run of the game, a go-ahead RBI single that scored Darryl Strawberry from second in the top of the fourteenth. Houston tied the game in the bottom of the inning on an improbable solo shot by light-hitting Billy Hatcher.

Backman wasn't finished, as he would work out a walk from Jeff Calhoun in the top of the 16th. He eventually came around to score the Mets' third run of the inning -- ultimately, the game's winning run -- on a Lenny Dykstra single. Jesse Orosco allowed the Astros to come as close as 7-6 in the bottom of the sixteenth before striking out Kevin Bass to send the Mets to the World Series. Backman would hit .333 with a .429 on-base percentage in the World Series, scoring four runs and helping the Mets to their first championship since 1969.

Despite a terrific offensive season in 1986, Backman and the Mets appeared headed for arbitration again. Backman asked for $600,000, the Mets countered with $500,000. The two sides eventually avoided the process by agreeing to a three-year, $1.95 million deal with individual salaries of $550,000, $650,000 and $750,000 for the 1987-1989 seasons.

With his shiny new contract in tow, Backman hit the field in 1987 and had arguably the worst season of his career. He appeared in 124 games, batting .250/.307/.287 in a league that hit .263/.332/.410. He spent a couple of weeks on the disabled list in June with a left hamstring pull and missed the season's final eighteen games with a severely sprained right wrist.

Backman returned to the team healthy in 1988 and had a fine bounceback year. He hit .303/.388/.344, leading the team's regulars in batting average and on-base percentage (backup first baseman Dave Magadan's .393 OBP bested Backman's slightly). Once again he split time with Teufel at second base, though Teufel's .234/.306/.352 batting line was nothing to write home about. However, Backman fought the injury bug again, missing fourteen games in late August and early September with a right hamstring pull. The Mets made the playoffs again, losing a gut-wrenching seven-game series to the Dodgers that saw Backman hit .273/.333/.318 in 22 at-bats.

Despite a good season with the bat in 1988, Backman found himself on the short end of a numbers game, with young middle infielders Gregg Jefferies and Keith Miller pushing him from below. Backman knew his time share at second base would only continue to dwindle and, seeing no better alternative, asked the Mets to trade him. On December 7, 1988 they did just that, shipping Backman to the Twins for a trio of minor leaguers who would never have as much as a cup of coffee in the big leagues. Despite seemingly getting what he wanted, Backman didn't take the news lightly:

"That's all I ever wanted, to be an everyday player. But it's an empty feeling: 10 or 12 seasons in the Mets' organization. It might bust me up in a couple of days. This was my family for 12 years.

It's funny, you're nothing one year, the way I was after 1987, the first bad year I had. They couldn't have given me away a year ago. Now, I have a good year and I'm gone."

-- New York Times (12/7/88)

Backman stuck around for five seasons after being dealt from the Mets, playing for four different teams in those five years. He posted a solid .292/.374/.397 line for Pittsburgh in 1990, good enough for a 117 OPS+. His production dropped off fairly precipitously after that and Backman was out of the league after appearing in just ten games for the Mariners in 1993.

The Mets didn't really know what to do with Backman early in his career, but he stuck around long enough to make significant contributions to two playoff teams. Too, without his key at-bats in Game 6 of the NLCS the Mets might have had to face Mike Scott in a decisive Game 7. Backman was never a phenomenal player, and his lack of power left him entrenched at the top of the lineup. Fortunately for him as well as the Mets, Backman could hit for average and had a firm grasp of the plate, working out enough walks to provide plenty of value to the teams he played for.

Sources

Wally Backman at Baseball-Reference.com
Wally Backman at Baseball Prospectus
Wally Backman at The Baseball Cube
Wally Backman at Fan Graphs

In 2000, the Mets snagged the National League Wild Card and rode their playoff appearance all the way to the World Series where they eventually lost to some other team in five games. That offseason brought the defection of two-fifths of their starting rotation, as Mike Hampton fled to Colorado and Bobby Jones was allowed to leave for San Diego. The Mets filled Hampton's slot with free agent Kevin Appier and then signed another free agent, Steve Trachsel, to a two-year, $7 million deal to replace Jones.

At the time, Trachsel was just a year younger than Jones, and was coming off of a two-year stretch that saw him go 16-33 with the Cubs, Devil Rays and Blue Jays. General manager Steve Phillips cited pedestrian run support for Trachsel's underwhelming won-lost record, which was certainly a contributing factor (Trachsel's run support was the sixth worst in baseball over the previous five seasons). In a conference call to discuss the signing, Trachsel added the following:

"If you make 35 starts and pitch every fifth day, your record is going to reflect your team's won-lost record"

-- New York Times (12/12/00)

Trachsel's comments contradicted the conventional baseball axiom that some pitchers simply "know how to win", but his history as an innings-eater -- he had pitched at least 200 innings in each of the prior five seasons -- was the primary reason the Mets brought him in to be their fifth starter.

Year  Age    IP   ERA    H   HR  BB   SO  ERA+  WARP3  SNLVAR
-------------------------------------------------------------
2001   30  173.2  4.46  168  28  47  144   92    3.6     4.0
2002   31  173.2  3.37  170  16  69  105  116    4.7     4.2
2003   32  204.2  3.78  204  26  65  111  112    6.4     6.0
2004   33  202.2  4.00  203  25  83  117  107    5.1     4.1
2005   34   37.0  4.14   37   6  12   24  101    0.5     0.7
2006   35  164.2  4.97  185  23  78   79   87    3.0     2.9

Trachsel's career in Queens got off to a rocky start as he lost six of his first seven decisions. His struggles culminated with his start on May 17 at Shea against the Padres, when he was pulled from the game after allowing seven runs in 2.1 innings, including four homeruns in the third inning alone. His ERA as a Met was 8.24, and manager Bobby Valentine wasted no time laying into his pitcher.

"He can't pitch like that, that's for sure. He explicitly has a plan, he's told what to do, how to organize that plan, and he goes out and doesn't execute. That's unacceptable."

-- New York Times (5/18/01)

To his credit, Trachsel made no effort to sugarcoat his performance:

"I screwed up. I screwed up really bad."

-- New York Times (5/18/01)

Trachsel was given a choice: pitch mop-up relief, or spend a couple of weeks in Triple-A Norfolk working on his command. As a five-year veteran of the league Trachsel had the right to refuse a minor league assignment. However, faced with the possibility of relegation to spot starter/long-relief specialist, he reluctantly accepted his temporary demotion. Trachsel worked with coaches Rick Waits, Al Jackson and Ray Rippelmayer to improve his fluidity and pace on the mound. He also followed Valentine's advice by dumping his cutter and working on not tipping his splitter. Trachsel wound up missing three turns in the rotation while he was in Norfolk, but he pitched effectively in the minors, winning two of his three starts and allowing just six earned runs in 19.1 innings, good for a 2.79 ERA.

Trachsel returned to the big league rotation on June 8 in Tampa Bay and picked up the loss, but from that day through the end of the 2001 season he was a markedly different pitcher. He went 10-7 with a 3.35 ERA and a terrific 3.06 strikeout-to-walk ratio (116 strikeouts to 34 walks) over 134.1 innings. His 7.46 strikeouts-per-game was a career high and his 2.44 walks-per-game a career low. His overall numbers were skewed by his dismal first six weeks, but after his humbling stint in Triple-A he had himself a splendid season on the mound.

Statistically, 2002 was a very interesting year for Trachsel. Overall, his peripheral stats were considerably worse than 2001. Despite pitching the exact same 173.2 innings, his strikeouts decreased to 105 (from 144) and his walks increased to 69 (from 47). However, while his strikeout and walk rates regressed he significantly improved his homerun rate from 1.45 per nine innings to just 0.83 per nine. Somehow, it all added up to an reduction in ERA of more than a full run. He spent a couple of weeks on the disabled list in July with a strained trapezius but was otherwise a picture of health in his second season with the Mets.

Trachsel's strikeout and walk rates changed little in 2003, but his homerun rate fluctuated wildly for the second straight season. His 2002 looks like an outlier in retrospect as he gave up 26 long balls in 2003 after surrendering just 16 the prior year. Trachsel wasn't just giving up more homeruns; his homerun-per-flyball rate (the frequency with which flyballs became homeruns) only slightly increased from 8.8% to 9.8%. The biggest difference was with respect to his overall flyball rate. In 2002, Trachsel induced flyballs on 32.8% of opposing batters. In 2003 that number spiked to 40.5%, a dramatic increase which was primarily responsible for his increase in homeruns allowed. (Note: Shea Stadium's park factor increased from 95 to 99 during that stretch, which likely contributed something to Trachsel's homerun binge).

The result was an ERA increase of almost a half-run, though his 3.78 ERA over 204.2 innings still had plenty of value, punctuated by his Mets' career high WARP of 6.4 wins above replacement. He managed to win 16 games for a terrible Mets' team that won just 66 overall.

Trachsel threw another 200+ innings of above-average ball in 2004, posting an ERA that was 7% better than the league. He went 12-13 while his team went 71-91 overall in the last season of the train wreck that was otherwise known as Art Howe's tenure as the team's manager.

Trachsel, who had missed just three starts due to injury in his first four seasons with the Mets, had his back examined in March of 2005 after complaining of stiffness. The diagnosis was a herniated disc, and the subsequent surgery sidelined Trachsel until the end of August. He made just six starts after his return for an improved Mets' team that finished 83-79 and seven games back of first-place Atlanta.

In 2006, Trachsel's last with the Mets, the right-hander went 15-8 despite posting an ERA worse than the league for the first time in five seasons. Despite rapidly-declining peripherals, Trachsel's record echoed his prescient comments from six years earlier when he first signed with the Mets: he won largely because the Mets were a good team. The ERA was his lowest since 1999 when he posted a 5.56 mark with the Cubs. The divergence of Trachsel's performance from his won-lost record was never clearer than in the postseason that year, where he made two starts and never lasted through the fourth inning. He allowed two runs in 3.1 innings in an LDS game against the Dodgers that the Mets would eventually win, and was utterly useless in an inning of work against the Cardinals in an LCS game which saw him allow five runs before leaving the game after a Preston Wilson line drive pegged him in the right thigh. It was Trachsel's last appearance in a Mets' uniform and the low point in his career in orange-and-blue.

Trachsel left New York following the 2006 season, signing a free agent deal with the Baltimore Orioles after former Met Kris Benson tore his rotator cuff. Trachsel's success with the Mets was often a mystery: his rate stats -- strikeouts, walks, homeruns -- were never impressive, but he consistently outperformed his expected ERAs and, other than his injury-plagued 2005, he chewed up innings at the back of the rotation. He was a pretty darned good pitcher for three and one-half seasons and, though he left under less-than-ideal circumstances, he was an important part of the Mets' starting rotation for more than a half-decade.

Sources

Steve Trachsel at Baseball-Reference.com
Steve Trachsel at Baseball Prospectus
Steve Trachsel at The Baseball Cube
Steve Trachsel at Fan Graphs

John "The Hammer" Milner was selected by the Mets in the 14th round (#301 overall) of the 1968 draft out of South Fulton High School in East Point, Georgia. He reported to Marion of the Appalachian League where he hit .321 and slugged .419 as an eighteen-year-old. He was promoted to High-A Visalia to begin the 1969 season and was dominating, batting .326 and slugging .511 before earning a late-season promotion to Pompano Beach, where he continued to destroy High-A pitching.

Year  Team         Lg   Age  Lvl   AB  XBH  BB  AVG/OBP/SLG
-----------------------------------------------------------
1968  Marion       App   18  Rk   234   20  --  321/---/419
1969  Visalia      Calif 19  A+   393   39  --  326/---/511
1969  Pom. Beach   FSL   19  A+    65    8  --  354/---/600
1970  Memphis      Tex   20  AA   461   47  --  297/---/503
1971  Tidewater    IL    21  AAA  497   51  --  290/---/479

Milner spent one season apiece at Double-A Memphis and Triple-A Tidewater, hitting for solid average and power at both stops, before getting called up to the Mets for a cup of coffee at the end of the 1971 season. He made his big league debut on September 15, 1971, grounding out as a pinch hitter in a 6-2 loss to the Cubs. He appeared in nine games over the final two weeks of the season, collecting two hits in eighteen at-bats, mostly as a pinch hitter.

Milner reported to spring training with the Mets in 1972 and was named "rookie of the spring" after hitting .296 with three homeruns and 11 RBI. He began the season in a part-time role and was booed mercilessly by the Shea faithful each time he appeared as a pinch hitter in lieu of Willie Mays. Milner took over in left field on a fairly-regular basis in the middle of May and finished the season batting .238/.340/.423. The average wasn't great, but he showed good discipline at the plate and whacked 17 homeruns en route to a third-place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting (teammate John Matlack won the award).

Year  Age   PA  XBH  BB  AVG/OBP/SLG   EQA  WARP3   VORP
--------------------------------------------------------
1971   21   18    1   0  167/167/222  .105    0.1   -1.9
1972   22  423   31  51  238/340/423  .287    3.8   10.6
1973   23  519   38  62  239/329/432  .279    2.7   12.7
1974   24  576   39  66  252/337/408  .279    4.9   19.0
1975   25  255   18  33  191/302/336  .243    1.2   -5.1
1976   26  511   44  65  271/362/447  .298    5.4   21.9
1977   27  453   35  61  255/353/415  .282    4.1   13.4

Milner shifted from left field to first base to start the 1973 season and wound up splitting time between the two positions with Ed Kranepool. He was hitting .327/.453/.635 on April 26 when he pulled his right hamstring stretching for a low throw. He landed on the disabled list three days later and would eventually miss 16 games before returning as a pinch hitter on May 15. He performed pinch hitting duties for his first four games back before returning to the starting lineup. Hamstring injuries have a way of lingering, and Milner hit just .228/.312/.406 after his return, a tremendous dropoff from his torrid start. He ultimately played in 129 games that season, clubbing 23 homeruns and drawing 62 walks.

The Mets went all the way to the World Series in 1973, and Milner certainly played a part in their amazin' run. He didn't pick up a single extra-base hit in the NLCS against the Reds or in the World Series against the Athletics, but he collected eleven singles and drew ten walks to bat .250 and post an on-base percentage of .389.

Milner returned to first base in 1974 and spent the whole season there, clubbing 20 homeruns and showing good patience at the plate. The Mets followed up their World Series run by losing 90 games in 1974, including a ">4-3 loss to the Cardinals on September 11 that lasted more than seven hours and in which Milner -- and eight other ballplayers -- played all 25 innings.

Milner got off to a rough start in 1975, finishing April hitting just .167/.333/.278. He had battled shin splints and a bruised right hand during spring training and spent the majority of the season just trying to find his groove. He appeared in only 91 games that year, batting a paltry .191/.302/.336, and relinquishing regular outfield duties to Rusty Staub, Del Unser and Dave Kingman, while Mets Kranepool took the majority of the starts at first base. It was a season Milner would just as soon forget, and he did just that at the start of the 1976 season, hitting .500/.589/.795 through his first fourteen games.

Milner's season hit a bump at the end of April when he pulled a thigh muscle that would cost him twelve games. He went on to have the best season of his career, though he hit just .248/.336/.413 after returning from the injury. He returned in 1977 for his sixth -- and final -- season with the Mets, hitting .255/.353/.415 for yet another lousy Mets team. Following the season, Milner was dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a four team, eleven player trade that also involved the Rangers and the Braves that netted the Mets outfielders Willie Montanez and Tom Grieve (father of future big leaguer Ben Grieve) and Ken Henderson. The deal also cost the Mets Matlack, who would have his best season as a pro the following year in Texas.

Tragically, Milner died of cancer in 2000 near his home in Atlanta, GA, at the far-too-young age of 50. He led the Mets in homeruns during his first three full seasons, and led the team in OPS in 1976 with a mark of .809, 36% better than the league. He had some pop in his bat and he knew how to take a walk, and he was a fine hitter in five of his six seasons at Shea.

Sources

John Milner at Baseball-Reference.com
John Milner at Baseball Prospectus
John Milner at The Baseball Cube

Afer helping to lead the Mets to the 2000 World Series, Mike Hampton fled to the Rockies as a free agent, citing Colorado's better schools as his primary motive for leaving. As compensation for the loss of Hampton, the Mets were awarded Colorado's first round pick in the 2001 amateur draft along with a "sandwich" pick that would be used between the first and second rounds. With their first pick, eighteenth overall, the Mets selected Aaron Heilman. With their sandwich pick they chose David Wright out of Hickory High School in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Year  Team         Lg   Age  Lvl   AB  XBH  BB  AVG/OBP/SLG
-----------------------------------------------------------
2001  Kingsport    App   18  Rk   120   11  16  300/391/458
2002  Capital City SAL   19  A    496   43  76  266/367/401
2003  St. Lucie    FSL   20  A+   466   56  72  270/369/459
2004  Binghamton   East  21  AA   223   37  39  363/467/619
2004  Norfolk      IL    21  AAA  114   16  16  298/388/579

Wright signed within a month of being drafted and reported to Kingsport of the Appalachian League, showing good discipline and decent pop in his first taste of professional ball. He began the 2002 season with Capital City of the South Atlantic League and struggled a bit with his average. His power dropped off a bit from the limited action he saw in the prior year, but much of that can be attributed to the dip in average. He displayed outstanding plate discipline for a nineteen-year-old, walking 76 times in 496 at-bats. Many players never develop that kind of strike zone judgement, so Wright's mastery so early on was a great indicator of future success.

Wright continued his climb through the Mets' farm system with a promotion to High-A St. Lucie in 2003. He maintained his batting average and terrific discipline and saw a nice bump in his power production, improving his extra-base hit rate from 8.6% to 12%. That he was two years younger than his competition at every level made his development even more impressive. But even Wright's steady rise up the Mets' organizational ladder couldn't have prepared the front office for what would happen next.

Wright advanced to Double-A Binghamton as a 21-year-old and immediately established himself as a dominating force; a man playing against little boys. In 223 at-bats Wright tore up Eastern League pitching to the tune of a .363/.467/.619 batting line. He hit for average, he hit for power, he drew walks. After easing him through one season apiece at three different minor league levels, the Mets wasted no time in promoting Wright to Triple-A Norfolk, just a stone's throw from his childhood home.

Wright spent all of 31 games in Triple-A before making his inexorable debut at Shea Stadium on July 21, 2004.

Year  Age   PA  XBH  BB  AVG/OBP/SLG   EQA  WARP3   VORP
--------------------------------------------------------
2004   21  283   32  14  293/332/525  .289    2.2   17.2
2005   22  657   70  72  306/388/523  .310    9.5   57.2
2006   23  661   71  66  311/381/531  .307   10.2   54.3

Wright went hitless in four plate appearances in his first big league game, but bounced back to go 2-for-4 in his encore, lining a one-out, fifth-inning double to left off of Zach Day. He would come around to score on a Jose Reyes groundout in a game the Mets would eventually lose 4-1. After thirty games Wright was hitting .300/.328/.533, and still just 21-years-old he was establishing himself as one of the bright young stars of the game. He wound up leading the team in both batting average and slugging percentage, and trailed only Cliff Floyd in on-base percentage among starters. The only thing Wright didn't do particularly well in his rookie year was draw walks. In the minor leagues he had always drawn at least one walk per ten at-bats, but in his first exposure to Major League pitching he collected only fourteen in 263 at-bats.

Wright only got better in his sophomore campaign, appearing in 160 games and improving his batting average to .306 while exhibiting considerably improved plate discipline. Wright can be forgiven for being a bit anxious in his first go-round, but he adjusted very well in walking 72 times and bumping his on-base percentage up to .388, besting runner-up Floyd by 30 points. He even picked up a few MVP votes, finishing 19th in the balloting.

Wright began the 2006 season on fire, batting .316/.386/.575 in the first half with 39 walks and 45 extra-base hits. Wright's power surge led to an All Star Game selection and an invitation to its annual homerun derby, during which he admirably finished second to Philadelphia's Ryan Howard. Subsequent to the derby, Wright struggled in the second half to reproduce the power he demonstrated in the first. Some blame the so-called homerun derby jinx, though Howard had no such trouble as he mashed his way to a league-high 58 homeruns. Wright did well to maintain his batting and on-base rates despite the reduced power production, and his persistence paid off as his September slugging percentage spiked up to .551 after two down months.

It's hard to say what is yet to come for David Wright. His first two-plus years with the Mets have been as good as any in the team's history, and he is only now entering his age-24 season. If he continues to hit the way he has to this point, his position on this list in the coming years will assuredly rocket northward.

Sources

David Wright at Baseball-Reference.com
David Wright at Baseball Prospectus
David Wright at The Baseball Cube

Robert Joseph Jones (Bobby J.) was originally drafted out of Fresno High School (Tom Seaver's alma mater) by the Oakland Athletics in the 35th round (905th overall). He chose college over the A's, and was selected by the Mets as a first-rounder three years later in 1991. He was assigned to Columbia of the South Atlantic League and was dominant in limited action against mostly younger competition.

Year  Team         Lg   Age  Lvl   IP    ERA   H/9   BB/9  SO/9
---------------------------------------------------------------
1991  Columbia     SAL   21  A     24.1  1.85  7.40  1.11 12.95
1992  Binghamton   East  22  AA   158.0  1.88  6.72  2.45  8.15
1993  Norfolk      IL    23  AAA  166.0  3.63  8.08  1.73  6.83

Jones advanced to Double-A Binghamton in 1992 and was fairly overpowering there as well. He struck out more than eight batters per game and walked fewer than two-and-a-half. Jones progressed naturally to Triple-A Norfolk in 1993 as a 23-year-old, where his walk rate improved but his strikeout rate began to dip. His earned run average almost doubled against tougher competition, but the Mets felt he had learned all he was going to in the minor leagues and called him up in the middle of August to replace the recently-disabled Bret Saberhagen.

Jones made his big league debut on August 14, 1993, and picked up a victory against the Phillies. He allowed seven hits and five runs (one earned) over six innings, but was supported by two homeruns and four runs batted in by second-baseman Tim Bogar. Jones started nine games in August and September, going 2-4 with a 3.65 ERA, including ten innings of shutout ball in his final start (Jones earned a no-decision but the Mets won 1-0 on an RBI double by Jeff Kent to drive in Eddie Murray).

Year  Age    IP   ERA    H   HR  BB   SO  ERA+  WARP3  SNLVAR
-------------------------------------------------------------
1993   23   61.2  3.65   61   6  22   35  108    0.5     1.1
1994   24  160.0  3.15  157  10  56   80  133    4.4     3.7
1995   25  195.2  4.19  209  20  53  127  100    2.5     3.5
1996   26  195.2  4.42  219  26  46  116   89    3.1     4.0
1997   27  193.1  3.63  177  24  63  125  111    4.2     5.4
1998   28  195.1  4.05  192  23  53  115  103    3.6     4.1
1999   29   59.1  5.61   69   3  11   31   78    0.6     0.7
2000   30  154.2  5.06  171  25  49   85   86    1.9     3.3

Jones was very effective in 24 starts with the Mets in 1994, going 12-7 and sporting an ERA 33% better than the league. He averaged just one strikeout every two innings, but he kept his walk and homerun rates down and featured a 12-6 sloooow curve that kept opposing hitters off-balance. His season -- and everyone else's -- was cut short on August 12 as a result of the players' association strike that would eventually lead to the cancellation of the World Series. Jones's 3.15 ERA was good for seventh in the National League, and it might have been even better were it not for extremely pronounced home/road splits (4.25 ERA at Shea Stadium, 1.77 ERA on the road). After making his first opening day start in 1995, Jones began a stretch of four seasons of remarkable consistency which saw him function effectively as a LAIM (League Average Innings Muncher). From 1995 until 1998, Jones started no fewer than 30 games in a season and no more than 31; he threw no fewer than 193.1 innings but no more than 195.2; he allowed no more than 26 homeruns but no fewer than 20; he recorded no more than 127 strikeouts but no fewer than 115; he walked no fewer than 46 batters but no more than 63. His earned run average ranged from a high of 4.42 (11% worse than the league) to a low of 3.3 (11% better than the league).

Jones began the 1999 season with three straight wins, allowing zero, one, and two runs respectively. He followed that up with three no-decisions, allowing three, five, and three runs respectively. Then things fell apart as he lost the subsequent three starts after allowing eight, seven, and five runs respectively, lasting just 2.2 innings in the latter. Jones complained after the game of having "dead arm" and said that his pitching shoulder had been bothering him for a few days. The injury was labeled "shoulder tendonitis", and Jones was expected to miss at least one start. Reality failed to converge with expectation, and Jones was placed on the disabled list a few days later with a right shoulder strain.

A week after hitting the disabled list, Jones underwent an MRI that revealed a strained rotator cuff, not shoulder tendonitis as was originally diagnosed. Expected to miss a couple of weeks, Jones eventually missed more than two-and-a-half months before returning for a rehab assignment in the second week of August. He made three starts at Double-A Binghamton and another two at Triple-A Norfolk before heading back to the big club in September. He made three relief appearances down the stretch but was ultimately left off of the Mets' postseason roster that year.

The bullpen work was just a blip, as Jones was assured by General Manager Steve Phillips that he would return to the rotation in 2000. After playing two games in the Tokyodome in Japan to begin the season the Mets returned home to play the Padres. Jones made the team's "real" opening day start and was battered around, allowing four runs and six hits in just 2.2 innings. He allowed seven more runs (six earned) over four innings in his next start and the head-scratching began in earnest. In his third start, Jones strained his calf muscle in the first inning and left without retiring a batter. He would land on the 15-day disabled list and make two rehab starts at Norfolk before rejoining the team a month later.

After eight starts Jones had an ERA of 10.19 and, seeing no other option, the Mets asked Jones to accept an assignment to Norfolk to work on some things. As a player with five years of big league experience, Jones had the right to refuse such an assignment. The Mets assured him that the demotion was just a tune-up and that after a couple of starts he would be back with the big club. Jones accepted the assignment, made two minor league starts, and returned a little more than a week later. Jones went 10-4 the rest of the way with a 4.05 ERA and the Mets cruised into the playoffs as the National League Wild Card winner, slated to square off against the Giants in the Divisional Series.

The Mets and Giants split the first two games in San Francisco and the Mets took a 2-1 series lead in Game 3 on the strength of Benny Agbayani's 13th inning walk-off homerun. That set the stage for Jones in Game 4, and what followed was arguably the best postseason pitching performance in the history of the franchise. An unlikely hero, Jones dominated the Giants from start to finish, hurling a one-hit complete game shutout to give the Mets the series victory. Jones allowed just the one hit -- a 5th inning double to Jeff Kent -- and a lone walk to J.T. Snow in the same frame; he retired the Giants in order in every other inning. The win carried the Mets into the League Championship Series to face the Cardinals.

Jones made two more starts that postseason, neither impressive. He allowed six runs in four innings in Game 4 of the LCS, a game the Mets would eventually win 10-6. He started -- and lost -- Game 4 of the World Series against the Yankees, allowing three earned runs in five innings.

Jones would leave as a free agent following the 2000 season, signing with the Padres and pitching poorly for two years before calling it quits. Jones was an effective workhorse for a half-dozen of his eight seasons in New York, and he started more games in the nineties than any other Mets' pitcher. While his overall value with the club rests with his ability to eat innings, his legacy will always be Game 4 of the 2000 LDS

Sources

Bobby Jones at Baseball-Reference.com
Bobby Jones at Baseball Prospectus
Bobby Jones at The Baseball Cube

Looking for bullpen help in the summer of 1975, the Mets took a flier on journeyman starter-cum-reliever Skip Lockwood when they purchased his contract from the Oakland A's Tuscon affiliate and assigned him to Triple-A Tidewater. A week later, on August 5, Lockwood made his Mets' debut by pitching in both games of a double-header loss to the Expos (the Mets lost both games by scores of 7-0). Lockwood would pick up his first victory as a Met on August 11 against the Padres by hurling five scoreless innings in relief of starter George Stone.

Year  Age    IP    ERA      H   HR  BB   SO  ERA+  WARP3
-----------------------------------------------------
1975   28   48.1  1.49   28   3  25   61  232    2.4
1976   29   94.1  2.67   62   6  34  108  123    5.7
1977   30  104.0  3.38   87   5  31   84  111    4.4
1978   31   90.2  3.57   78  10  31   73   98    4.5
1979   32   42.1  1.49   33   3  14   42  246    3.9

Lockwood finished the 1975 season strong, allowing just six walks and two earned runs while striking out 26 batters over his final 17.2 innings. His emergence as a dependable relief arm helped solidify a bullpen that was anchored by closer Bob Apodaca.

Lockwood became the Mets' primary closer in 1976 and didn't disappoint, hurling more than 94 innings in relief and striking out better than a batter per inning. He finished the year with 19 saves and an ERA almost 25% better than the league. The 19 saves were good for second in the league, and he might have had even more excepting that the Mets' starting rotation led the league with 53 complete games. His quick success with the Mets -- and the new economic climate of free agency in baseball -- landed Lockwood a three-year deal with the team in January of 1977.

Lockwood returned as the closer in 1977 and recorded 20 saves in 104 innings, all out of the bullpen. His ERA increased by more than two-thirds of a run over his 1976 performance and his strikeout rate fell below one-per-inning for the first time as a Met. His walk rate stayed consistently low, but fewer strikeouts meant more balls in play and subsequently more baserunners who could come around to score.

After the Mets traded Tom Seaver in June of 1977 Lockwood became the Mets' player representative, and he expressed a prescient sentiment in those early years of free agency:

"What makes players unhappy? Envy or jealousy? Well, maybe, but if you go through your whole life comparing yourself to other people you're in trouble. There's always a guy with more money, a bigger car, a better house. It's gotten to be a problem now because salaries are out in the open, they're published. But once, they were private -- the clubs didn't want players to know about salaries. Now, guys wonder: Is Willie Montanez worth $350,000 a year to the Mets? Is he more valuable than Jerry Koosman? On the Yankees, Graig Nettles may get half what Reggie Jackson gets, though he's been there longer. A guy may feel, why should he make it when we've been working our backs off for years?"

-- New York Times (3/5/78)

Lockwood had his worst season as a Met in 1978, finishing with 15 saves but a 3.57 ERA that was 2% below the league average. The longball became a problem for him for the first time, too, as he allowed ten homeruns in just over 90 innings pitched. Still, he kept his free passes down and his hit rate was solid, so he managed to remain quite useful to the team.

In 1979, his final year with the Mets, Lockwood returned to form. He struck out 42 batters in 42.1 innings while allowing just 14 walks and three homeruns. His 1.49 ERA was identical to his 1975 mark and was 146% better than the league. Things turned sour on June 6 when Lockwood's pitching shoulder stiffened up after throwing two innings in a 5-3 win against the Reds. Team physician Dr. James C. Parkes diagnosed the injury as "stiffness in the back of the shoulder" and recommended heat and massage. Lockwood was expected to miss just a few games but ended up on the shelf for the duration of the season.

Lockwood would sign a free agent deal with the Red Sox following the 1979 season and appeared in 24 games, posting a 5.32 ERA and recording just eleven strikeouts to seventeen walks in 45.2 innings. That was it for Lockwood, who was released by the Sox the following April and wouldn't pitch again in the big leagues.

Skip Lockwood was another in a long line of fine Mets' closers, helping to bridge the gap between Tug McGraw of the early seventies and Jesse Orosco of the early-to-mid eighties. He was good-to-great in each of his five seasons with the Mets, compiling a 2.80 ERA, good for the third best mark in franchise history among pitchers with at least 350 innings logged. His 65 saves are the seventh most in franchise history.

Sources

Skip Lockwood at Baseball-Reference.com
Skip Lockwood at Baseball Prospectus

Originally selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the second round of the 1970 amateur draft, Joel Youngblood was traded to the Mets by the Cardinals on June 15, 1977, in exchange for middle infielder Mike Phillips. The acquisition was mostly an afterthought on a day in which the Mets shockingly unloaded Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman, though it turned out to be a nice little trade for that particular last place team. In an interesting side-note, Youngblood's arrival marked the end of Joe Torre's playing career, as he removed himself from the active roster to make room for Youngblood and became "manager Joe Torre" instead of "player-manager Joe Torre".

Year  Age   PA  XBH  BB  AVG/OBP/SLG   EQA  WARP3   VORP
--------------------------------------------------------
1977   25  197   12  13  253/301/324  .226    1.1   -3.2
1978   26  287   27  16  252/294/436  .270    2.9    9.3
1979   27  665   58  60  275/346/436  .281    6.4   17.6
1980   28  577   36  52  276/340/381  .270    5.9   10.4
1981   29  161   16  12  350/398/531  .324    3.3   14.8
1982   30  216   15   8  257/302/361  .240    0.5   -2.1

Youngblood did little to distinguish himself from the utility player chaff in his first partial season with the Mets in 1977, hitting for very little power and showing unimpressive strike zone judgment, as he walked just thirteen times while whiffing forty times in 197 trips to the plate. He was also just one-for-four in stolen base attempts, so even when he reached base he occasionally did a lousy job of staying there.

Youngblood returned with the Mets in 1978, appearing in 113 games all over the diamond. He played fifty games in the outfield (7, 14 and 33 games in left field, center field and right field, respectively), 39 games at second base, nine games at third and one game at short. Early in the season he was used mostly as a pinch hitter/pinch runner and a late-inning defensive replacement, but he started 41 games from August through October. His batting average and plate discipline didn't improve much in sporadic action, but his slugging percentage improved by more than 100 points as he collected seven homeruns, twelve doubles and eight triples.

After losing his salary arbitration case in February of 1979 (he asked for $91,000 but settled for the Mets' offer of $78,000, still a substantial raise from the $44,000 he earned in 1978), Youngblood headed into the season as a possible candidate for a starting outfielder spot. With Lee Mazzilli entrenched in center field and Steve Henderson starting in left, Youngblood was fighting for playing time in right. He began the regular season on the bench, but when regular right fielder Elliott Maddox jammed his left foot against the outfield wall in an April 12 game against the Phillies, a window of opportunity opened for Youngblood.

Youngblood hit .287/.363/.482 as the regular right fielder from April 15 through July 31, at which point he switched to left field to replace the injured Henderson. He would play the majority of the remainder of the season in left field, but struggled quite a bit at the plate, hitting just .252/.320/.685 the rest of the way. Overall his season was quite productive, though the lack of consistency -- he played one half at an all star level and the other at replacement level -- was definitely discouraging.

Youngblood signed a three-year deal for around $900,000 prior to the 1980 season, a year that saw the Mets experiment with Mazzilli at first base, shifting Youngblood to center early on. He would eventually switch back to right field full time when the Mazzilli experiment ended, and appeared in 21 games at third base and another six at second. He maintained the solid batting and on-base rates he established in 1979, but his power stroke all but disappeared as he managed just 36 extra-base hits all season.

Tired of jumping from position-to-position and eager to shed the "supersub" title which had been affixed to him, Youngblood arrived early to spring camp in 1981 and informed still-manager Joe Torre that he would like to play strictly in the outfield. Torre was non-committal, but when the regular season rolled around Youngblood saw no infield action whatsoever. The outfield suited Youngblood just fine, as he recovered nicely from a brutal April to hit .396/.430/.625 in May before injuring his left knee sliding into third base in a June 6 game at the Astrodome. He was leading the league in hitting with a .359 average, but was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a ligament sprain and was expected to miss two-to-three weeks. Six days later marked the beginning of the 1981 players' strike, a work stoppage that was good for the players in general but bad for Youngblood specifically.

Play resumed on August 9 with the All Star Game, with Youngblood the Mets' sole representative. Despite making his first and only all star appearance, Youngblood had no assurances that he would even have a starting job with the Mets once the break was over. Ellis Valentine had taken over in right field when Youngblood hit the disabled list, and despite uninspiring results at the plate, Youngblood fell victim to his own versatility, as the Mets didn't feel inclined to give him a starting outfield job straight away. He did appear in five games in left field before re-injuring his left knee on August 14 in a game against the Phillies. Expected to only miss a few games, Youngblood was placed on the 15-day disabled list five days later and would wind up missing the remainder of the season.

Youngblood asked for a trade following the 1981 season, and there was some speculation in spring training prior to the 1982 season that he might be shipped to Toronto in exchange for starting pitcher Dave Steib. That deal never materialized, and Youngblood began the year as the Mets' Jack-of-all-trades once again. He was hitting .257/.302/.361 on August 4 when he was shipped to the Expos for Tom Gorman, and wound up making history by becoming the first player to record a hit for two different teams in two different cities on the same day.

Youngblood would finish the season with Montreal before signing with the San Francisco Giants and playing mostly part-time there for six seasons. He finished his career in 1989 as a role-player with the Reds. With the Mets, Youngblood was a nice player for a few years and a great player for one half-season, and there is no telling how he would have finished that 1981 season were it not cut short by injury and labor strife.

Sources

Joel Youngblood at Baseball-Reference.com
Joel Youngblood at Baseball Prospectus

No new profile today; these guys are very time-consuming, usually taking from a two-to-four hours for each. There's quite a bit of research involved, though that's where a lot of the enjoyment comes from. I was born in 1978, so a lot of these guys played before I was born or during my wee years. Much of this information is new to me, and these profiles are my way of connecting with Mets' history. Some thoughts:

• One thing I realized pretty early on is that if one hundred Mets fans compiled their own Top 50 lists, the variation from list-to-list would be comically voluminous. I supposed that's why these lists are so much fun: everyone has their own opinion of where this guy fits in or that guy, and I encourage you to compile your own lists and rank them according to whatever is important to you.
• I only considered a player's contributions with the Mets. Willie Mays and Nolan Ryan were wonderful ballplayers, but neither was particularly spectacular in orange-and-blue. They get zero credit in my book for their accomplishments in other uniforms.
• The list is understandably thin towards the bottom. The Mets have been in existence for 45 seasons, many of which were awful. Coming up with fifty outstanding players given that lifetime and the Mets' history of baseball ineptitude is a fool's game.
• For a few seconds I considered making this a Top 100 list. Do you know who was #100? Ty Wigginton. And so goes the story of the Top 50 Mets.
• If I decide to update this list a few years from now, a number of active Mets would likely make that list who didn't this time around.
• Longevity and cumulative value are strongly considered in the final rankings. This is a Mets list after all, so durability and commitment are rewarded comparably to short stints of excellence. I decided not to make this a "Mets 50 Best Single Seasons" list.
• I have already had some requests to profile players who ultimately didn't make the list, so when I'm done I will be open to suggestions if anyone hasn't had their fill by that point.
• One of my goals for this list was to provide some interesting and new content to fill the long winter months, and I hope to have the whole list wrapped up before opening day.

That's it for now. I hope to have #43 up for Thursday and possibly #42 on Friday.