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UltiMET of the Millennium Madness: 2005-2009

One of the franchise’s all-time greats, whose number will one day be retired by the franchise, headlines this region

By Vasilis Drimalitis
Houston Astros v New York Mets Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images

We just spent the better part of three weeks reliving some horrific memories from our New York Mets fandom as we voted on the biggest villain in franchise history (congratulations again to Fred and Jeff Wilpon. It was a truly well-deserved win.) We got tired of dwelling on the bad, so we thought it was time to turn our attention to better memories. As a result, we brainstormed some ideas over at Amazin’ Avenue HQ on how to participate in something far more pleasant. The idea of doing a bracket for all-time Mets seemed pretty obvious but also a little bit played out, so we instead turned our sights to focusing on recent players.

Introducing the UltiMET of the Millennium Madness tournament! Over the next three weeks, we will see who really was the best player to don the orange and blue since the year 2000 began. We came up with 68 players who have left a mark (big and small) on the team, and we’ll have the Amazin’ Avenue community vote to see who moves on each time.

For simplicity and for neatness, we broke down the brackets into four five-year spans: 2000-2004, 2005-2009, 2010-2014, and 2015-2019. Conveniently, this translated roughly to the Mike Piazza era, the early David Wright era, the later David Wright/early Citi Field era, and the Jacob deGrom/2015 NL Champions era. As a general rule, we tried to focus on players whose impact was felt within those years, so if a player made their mark mostly in 1997-1999, you may not see them in the 2000 bracket. We tried to stick players within the time frame where they made the most impact, but took some liberties in places in order to ensure we didn’t leave off players we wanted to see in the tournament.

The 2005-2009 era gave us the most dominant team of the millennium, but one that sadly failed to grab the National League Pennant, and followed that up with two collapses down the stretch (no more on that; this is supposed to be about happy memories). Despite that, this was overall a solid stretch for the club, as they posted winning records for four straight seasons. They ended this five-year run with 83, 97, 88, 89, and 70 wins.

This era also brought us the best homegrown position player in team history: David Wright. Not enough can be said about the impact Wright had on the franchise. Because of the nature of his demise later in his career, people often forget just how good Wright really was. From 2005-2008, he hit .311/.394/.534 with 116 home runs, a 142 wRC+, and a 25.9 fWAR in 634 games. His 151 wRC+ and 8.4 fWAR in 2007 remain career highs, and it’s one could easily make the argument that, had the team not fallen apart, he would have been the first MVP in franchise history. Wright will face off against Fernando Tatis, who defeated Ramon Castro in the vote-in round.

Carlos Beltran came in right behind Wright with the number two spot in the region. While he is unfairly remembered for one at-bat, he made four All Star Game appearances and proved to be worth every penny of his big contract. From 2006-2008 alone, Beltran slashed .278/.372/.537 with 101 home runs, a 133 wRC+ and a 20.1 fWAR in 445 games. He finished fourth in the 2006 NL MVP voting and won three straight Gold Glove awards for his work in center field. He will take on another outfielder, Angel Pagan, in the first round.

First round voting will remain open until Thursday, April 16!

Poll

1 vs. 16: David Wright vs. Fernando Tatis

This poll is closed

  • 99%
    David Wright
    (278 votes)
  • 0%
    Fernando Tatis
    (2 votes)
280 votes total Vote Now

Poll

8 vs. 9: Paul Lo Duca vs. Endy Chavez

This poll is closed

  • 30%
    Paul Lo Duca
    (85 votes)
  • 69%
    Endy Chavez
    (195 votes)
280 votes total Vote Now

Poll

5 vs. 12: Pedro Martinez vs. Mike Pelfrey

This poll is closed

  • 92%
    Pedro Martinez
    (257 votes)
  • 7%
    Mike Pelfrey
    (21 votes)
278 votes total Vote Now

Poll

4 vs. 13: Billy Wagner vs. Pedro Feliciano

This poll is closed

  • 80%
    Billy Wagner
    (224 votes)
  • 19%
    Pedro Feliciano
    (54 votes)
278 votes total Vote Now

Poll

6 vs. 11: Carlos Delgado vs. John Maine

This poll is closed

  • 84%
    Carlos Delgado
    (236 votes)
  • 15%
    John Maine
    (43 votes)
279 votes total Vote Now

Poll

3 vs. 14: Jose Reyes vs. Joe Smith

This poll is closed

  • 92%
    Jose Reyes
    (260 votes)
  • 7%
    Joe Smith
    (20 votes)
280 votes total Vote Now

Poll

7 vs. 10: Cliff Floyd vs. Oliver Perez

This poll is closed

  • 87%
    Cliff Floyd
    (243 votes)
  • 12%
    Oliver Perez
    (36 votes)
279 votes total Vote Now

Poll

2 vs. 15: Carlos Beltran vs. Angel Pagan

This poll is closed

  • 95%
    Carlos Beltran
    (269 votes)
  • 4%
    Angel Pagan
    (12 votes)
281 votes total Vote Now

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