Author: Barry Duchan

Jon Matlack, the Mets’ Underrated Lefty

Jon Matlack’s career record of 125-126 may be as mediocre as you can get, but Matlack was a much, much better than average major league pitcher. In fact, he was one of the very finest lefthanded pitchers ever developed by the Mets’ organization. His other career marks – a 3.18 lifetime ERA (better than Steve Carlton, who was considered the best lefty of his generation), 97...

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Amazin’ Memories: Steve Henderson Delivered Some Thrills for the Mets

Steve Henderson came to the Mets with the burden of being one of the key players coming over from the Reds in the 1977 Tom Seaver trade. In addition, since the Mets had just traded Dave Kingman to San Diego, Henderson was expected to eventually replace him in the middle of the Mets’ lineup. This was an awful lot of pressure for a kid who had never spent a day in the major leagues, but Henderson...

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Bing Devine Brought the Mets A Championship and “The Franchise”

As we continue to wait out the Sandy Alderson era for a return to former Mets glory, here’s a little something about another Mets GM who helped engineer the first championship in franchise history in 1969. I’m talking, of course, about the great Bing Devine. Devine’s tenure as General Manager of the Mets spanned the years 1965 to 1967 in between stints with the St. Louis...

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Turn Back The Clock: Mets’ 1971 Off-Season

With all the talk about possibly packaging young players in a trade to fill the Mets’ obvious needs for 2015, I was reminded of the 1971/72 offseason. In 1970 and 1971, the Mets had identical 83-79 records as the Pirates won the division both years. Still, there was reason to be optimistic that the Mets could rise to the top again in 1972. By 1971, the Mets brought several players to the big...

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What Will The Mets Do This Off-Season?

Well, it looks like another sub-.500 season is close to the end, and we can expect Alderson and Collins back, so it’s time to look at what the off-season might have in store for the Mets. I think we can eliminate “spend big and acquire two or three major stars”, but it’s still somewhat of a mystery what the Amazins will do. Here are a few possibilities.  1. Minor Tinkering Only: With Matt Harvey...

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