FanPost

25 for 25: Mets

I am actually a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but over the past few months I've been working on a roster for each franchise in the National League, composed of players over the last 25 years. The way this works is that I pick one player from each season and I have to fill out an entire roster (2 catchers, 2 infielders at each position, 6 total outfielders, 5 starting pitchers, 4 relievers). I can't take more than one player for each year, I have to take one player each season even in the bad years, and I can't use the same player for multiple positions. If a player played the majority of his games at one position, I can't use that season for another position even if he's played it before. And I used basically minimums of 60 innings or 250 PA's (prorated for strike seasons).

The interesting part with this are the decisions that have to be made, whether it is, "Dang there are some really nice outfielder seasons to choose from, who gets left out?", or, "Does this team even have two decent catchers in a 25-year span?", or, "This guy had so many great years - which one do I choose?" Sometimes a great year gets left out, sometimes a fluke, partial season gets tabbed for the team.

I actually posted the entire National League East on the SB Nation site Viva El Birdos (I will post the other divisions later), as well as an extended version for the Cardinals from 1910 to 1934 and (eventually) a post just like this at all of the other NL sites. You're welcome to pick apart my choices and make suggestions of your own. I'm looking forward to hearing from everybody.

C – Gary Carter (1986), Mike Piazza (2001)

1B – Keith Hernandez (1987), John Olerud (1998)

2B – Edgardo Alfonzo (2000), Luis Castillo (2009)

3B – Howard Johnson (1989), David Wright (2007)

SS – Jose Vizcaino (1995), Jose Reyes (2008)

OF – Darryl Strawberry (1988), Bobby Bonilla (1993), Bernard Gilkey (1996), Roger Cedeno (1999), Cliff Floyd (2005), Carlos Beltran (2006)

SP – Dwight Gooden (1985), Frank Viola (1990), David Cone (1991), Sid Fernandez (1992), Bret Saberhagen (1994)

RP – John Franco (1997), Armando Benitez (2002), David Weathers (2003), Braden Looper (2004)

Notable exceptions: Todd Hundley (1996), Dave Magadan (1990), Jose Valentin (2006), Kevin Elster (1989), Lenny Dykstra (1986), Kevin McReynolds (1988), Lance Johnson (1996), Al Leiter (1998), Mike Hampton (2000), Tom Glavine (2004), Pedro Martinez (2005), Johan Santana (2008), Jesse Orosco (1986), Randy Myers (1988)

This FanPost was contributed by a member of the community and was not subject to any vetting or approval process.