24
2013
20+ Years Of Musical Chairs In Right Field Since Strawberry Left
An article by 
This was originally posted two years ago on January 11, 2011, and was written by the brilliant Ed Leyro. With all the fuss about the Mets outfield these days, I thought this was a nice reminder that at least where right field is concerned, it’s been 22 years and we still haven’t found a suitable replacement for Darryl Strawberry. So grab a hot cup of your favorite brew, pull up a chair, forget about the cold and blustery weather, and enjoy another edition of MMO Flashback.
* * * * * * * *
Ask any Mets fan who the greatest rightfielder in franchise history is and before you get to the word “franchise”, you’ll get your answer – Darryl Strawberry. Now ask them who the best rightfielder is after the Straw Man and you’ll hear crickets.
It’s no surprise that no one can name the second best rightfielder in Mets history. After all, since Darryl planted his Strawberry Patch and claimed the position for his own, the Mets have auditioned a plethora of candidates for the job and none of them has been able to make the position his own.
Here’s a trivia question for you. Since Darryl played his last game as a Met in 1990, who has started the most games in right field for the team? Whatever answer you say, you’re probably wrong. The correct answer is… wait for it… Jeromy Burnitz!
Burnitz had two short stints with the Mets. He played for the Mets briefly in 1993 (86 games) and 1994 (45 games), but never made much of a splash. He showed some promise in 1993 by hitting 13 home runs in 263 at-bats, but his uppercut to end all uppercuts (except his own) led to many strikeouts and a poor batting average. He paid the price for those home runs by hitting .243 during his rookie season. He fared worse in the strike-shortened 1994 season, hitting three home runs and striking out 45 times in 143 at-bats. (Meanwhile, his replacement in right field, Joe Orsulak, struck out 21 times in 292 at-bats in 1994.)
The Mets gave up on the man they thought would replace Strawberry as their left-handed power-hitting rightfielder after the 1994 season, trading him to the Cleveland Indians for pitchers Paul Byrd, Jerry DiPoto and Dave Mlicki (whose claim to fame is the 1997 shutout of the Yankees). The three pitchers combined for a total of 38 wins during their time with the Mets. Burnitz did a little better than that after leaving New York.
Once Cleveland traded Burnitz to the Brewers in 1996, his career took off. In his first full season in Milwaukee, Burnitz hit 27 HR and drove in 85 runs. The 27 homers were two more than he had hit over his first four big league seasons combined. He then had a stellar 1997 season for the Brewers, collecting 38 HR and 125 RBI. The RBI total is higher than any Met has achieved in nearly half a century of the franchise’s existence (Mike Piazza had 124 RBI in 1999, a mark equaled by David Wright in 2008).
From 1997-2001, Burnitz averaged 33 HR and 102 RBI per season for Milwaukee, which made him a top target for the Mets in 2002. The Mets re-acquired the man they gave up on nearly a decade earlier to team up with fellow new acquisitions Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar in the hopes of pushing the Mets back to the top of the NL East. Let’s just say that once Jeromy returned to New York, his career crashed and burn-itzed.
Jeromy Burnitz played one and a half seasons for the Mets after his return to New York in 2002. The one-time sure bet for a 100 RBI season was only able to drive in 99 runs in his year and a half with the team. However, his tendency to strike out did not abandon him the way his other skills did, as he fanned a total of 190 times in 2002 and the first half of 2003.
Despite his two short unsuccessful stints in New York, Burnitz’s 290 starts in right field are the most since Darryl Strawberry left the Mets after the 1990 season to play for his hometown Dodgers. By comparison, David Wright has started 297 games at third base over the past two seasons. That’s seven more games than any Mets player has started in right field over the past 20 years! And David Wright actually spent time on the disabled list in 2009 after suffering a direct hit from Matt Cain’s head-seeking missile, yet he still started more games at third base over the past two years than any player has started in right field in 20 years.
Third base used to be the musical chairs position for the Mets. Through the end of the 2010 season, a total of 142 men had played at least one game at the hot corner. Third base has been replaced by right field as the position where long-term careers go to die. From 1962-2010, a total of 197 men have played at least one game in right field. If Carlos Beltran moves over to right field in 2011 (which he should), he would become the 198th Met to be player #9 on your scorecard.
Of those 197 men to play right field, only Darryl Strawberry (1,062 games) and Rusty Staub (535 games) have started more than 500 games at the position. Right field has been such a revolving door for players that the 290 starts made by Jeromy Burnitz in right field make him fifth on the all-time Mets leaderboard.
Finally, in the twenty seasons since Darryl Strawberry signed with the Dodgers, the Mets have used 102 players in right field, or more than half of the men who have played the position in franchise history. Now it’s Angel Pagan’s turn to be the Mets’ rightfielder. (Or is it Carlos Beltran?) Given the recent history in right field, neither Pagan nor Beltran will probably keep the position for long.
Most successful teams have stability in their everyday lineup. Since Darryl Strawberry last played for the Mets in 1990, right field has been anything but stable. Isn’t it time the Mets found someone they can feel comfortable with as their rightfielder? After all, twenty years is an awful long time to be conducting tryouts for the job.
About the Author: Ed Leyro
Ed Leyro was hatched in the Bronx, but spent most of his youth in Queens at Shea Stadium. Apparently, all that time spent at Mets games paid off as Ed met his wife (The Coop) for the first time at Citi Field during its inaugural season. Guess the 2009 season was good for something after all. In addition to his work at Mets Merized Online, Ed also owns, operates and is head janitor at Studious Metsimus, where he shares blogging duties with Joey Beartran. For those not in the know, Joey is a teddy bear dressed in a Mets hoodie. Clearly, Studious Metsimus is not your typical Mets blog.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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Since the article was written, the count went up some. In the past two seasons you can add Kirk, Baxter, Duda, Hairston, and Valdy.
Pretty pathetic if you ask me. Why cant our scouts ever find even an above average RF in the draft or internationally? Makes u wonder who are these scouts the Mets have been employing all these years. I know its not easy to unearth and develop star players but DAMN 22 YEARS?!?!?! Even a broken clock is right twice a day and we cant even do that. Smh
Look at middle infielders…it is the same thing. Over the last 20 years, how many major league middle IFs did the Mets produce? 4 maybe. And that include Anderson Hernandez who isnt exactly an AS.
Pitching and SS are the only positions where we any success with homegrown player. Never had a homegrown catcher with any type of success.
What?
- Wally Backman did very well and helped the Mets win games for a long time
- Cleon Jones was a home grown LFer and I don’t think I have to tell you about his resume
- Same can be said for Mookie Wilson & Lenny Dykstra. They were home grown. Why don’t the Mets get credit for developing 2 CFers at the same time? Or they are not mega-superstars and that’s what these guys are looking for?
- What about Edgardo Alfonso? You overlooked the best home grown second baseman the Mets ever developed
- Mets may not be good at developing home grown catchers but Todd Hundley wasn’t so bad but i can’t get to crazy over him cuz we know what helped him hit 40 HRs
This homegrown thing is way overblown. Sure everybody loves to have home grown players but if you con consistently put a winner out on the field year after year the intangibles change and vary year after year so much that if you’re a good executive and with a little luck where it counts the most – ON THE BALLFIELD – you have a chance to put a winner out there all the time even if you don’t always have a good homegrown player at that position.
The catcher thing with the Mets is so overblown that you never know. If the Mets had developed a decent catcher before the times they got Gary Carter and Mike Piazza it possibly could have prevented them from making those moves and Mets history would have LESS post season appearance not more.
So i don’t get all caught up in the “we haven developed our own catcher or RFer” garbage.
Winning cures all the Mets had their chances to start their own little dynasties and they lost the big games. Now everybody and their mother has looked back and come up, years later, with all these second guess-based reasons as to why the Mets haven’t been more successful.
They had their chances and blew up. All you can do is keep trying, keep building your farm, keep making trades, KEEP signing free agents and hope the Mets have smart people who make those decisions. And smart people who don’t give up and throw in the towel just because they feel they may not have a shot to make more money if they just work a little harder to try and field a competitive team.
oh and Ike Davis WILL be a stud so there’s your home grown first baseman
- and Ruben Tejada may not become a superstar but he’s become a better hitter than i thought he would and has become a nice major league STARTING player that can play 2B or SS for any team in the post season. He can handle it.
“Never had a homegrown catcher with any type of success.”
Not necessarily true…..Todd Hundley was homegrown and was successful 2xAllstar with us
Interesting question about middle infielders produced by the Mets (and I’m cheating a bit as some of these guys played a bit of 3d base). Rey Ordonez, Edgardo Alfonzo, Jose Reyes, Miguel Tejada, Anderson Hernandez, Daniel Murphy, Ty Wiggington.
Murphy came up as a 3B and I believe Wigginton also.
And I think you mean Reuben Tejada not Miguel.
I do mean Reuben, mental block sometimes. I didn’t count Kent, Mora or Keppinger as they were drafted elsewhere.
Who’s the Yankees last home grown RFer?
According to my research on google and unless i missed something it’s Hank Bauer. And that’s about 50 years ago.
I think they’ve done quite well in acquiring other players for that position since so this complaining about not having a homegrown RFer or catcher is just whining to me. It doesn’t mean much at all.
I’m really asking but didn’t Murcer play RF in 69 and again in the 70′s?
You mean homegrown RF just in general or that played with the team a certain amount of time?
I was thinking impact that’s why i knew Reggie Jackson played RF for Yank during their 70s success. That’s why i didn’t list Ed Kranepool in my short list of homegrown Mets, I knew there HAD to be other Yankee RFers but if I couldn’t remember them right off the top of my head or see them in any of the research of Yankee best or all time or home grown RFers I didn’t worry about it too much.
Had to play for time for reasonable amount of time and make impact relatively speaking
Right fielder Jay Buhner came up with Yanks and had nice career.
Yeah, a nice career with Seattle.
Yeah it’s Murcer… his first year as a starter for the Yankees he was their RF in 69.
is this time to sing “strawberry field forever”?
It’s always time to sing Strawberry Fields Forever.
As for this article, the Mets just haven’t been good at developing AND keeping talent. Even Straw, who we couldn’t, replace did not stay. This is the sad reality of our franchise, Wright is the first one not named Kranepool that has the chance to come up and stay for his career.
Well, at least they are well stocked with pitchers now and its been a long time since you could say that.
Gotta love that “Extremely Violent Swing” of Jeromy Burnitz lol…Its safe to say he NEVER got cheated lol…
He is the Anti-christ to Sabr-freaks…he will swing at the 1st pitch,2nd pitch,3rd pitch and continue til he K’s hits a bomb or pops up to the clouds lol…
I remember me and my brother just used to pray he made contact….Thank goodness Keith Hernandez wasnt calling Mets games when Burnitz was here taking Uppercut swings to the Moon…