People have been asking us all winter what we’ve been doing to pass the time during the MLB lockout. I’ll tell you what we do here at MMO — we come up with ideas that not only help us stay busy, but will help you all stay busy, too.
Talking about the best teams and/or players in New York Mets history is always a good debate to have — especially during the cold winter months — but what if we created our own teams with players from different eras? That’d be fun, right? Well, we thought it was, and we think you’ll agree. We’ve created eight different Mets teams, all of which consist of a catcher, first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, three outfielders, two starting pitchers, one relief pitcher, and a manager. We took the top eight at each position (as well as the top 24 for outfielders and top 16 for starting pitchers) with the goal of splitting them up across eight teams and making them as evenly matched as possible.
We used four players twice, given their multi-positionality: Edgardo Alfonzo (2B/3B), Jeff McNeil (2B/OF), John Milner (1B/OF) and Dave Magadan (1B/3B).
What we’ll be doing over the next eight days is introducing each of the squads and taking a look at their perceived strengths and weaknesses. Once that’s complete, the fun will start with some good ol’ fashioned Twitter polls so you can decide which ones would be victorious if they faced one another. We’ll open up the voting on February 8th, so mark your calendars accordingly.
The Squad: Team 1
OK, I’ll stop stalling and introduce the first of MMO’s Great 8 Mets teams. Check them out below.
Catcher: Jerry Grote
First Base: John Olerud
Second Base: Jeff Kent
Shortstop: Asdrúbal Cabrera
Third Base: Bobby Bonilla
Outfielders: Carlos Beltrán, Art Shamsky, Brandon Nimmo
Starting Pitchers: Tom Seaver, Bob Ojeda
Relief Pitcher: Roger McDowell
Manager: Jerry Manuel
Not a bad way to kick this off.
Strengths
Phew, where do we begin? I suppose a good place to start is the fact that this squad has two of the franchise’s best players at their respective positions in Beltrán and Seaver. If someone had to pick any hurler in history to build a team around while in their prime, you have to believe Seaver would be a popular answer, right? Yea, I think so, too. For The Franchise’s case, it’s also helpful to have Grote behind the dish calling the game for him, too.
I’d be remiss to not mention that in Olerud and Nimmo, this team also has the two best players in franchise history regarding on-base percentage. Having these dudes on base so often would be beneficial for others to drive them home, like Kent, Bonilla (during his first tenure in New York, people), and Beltrán.
Once the runs come pouring in, it’s good to have someone dependable like McDowell ready to close the door. During his four full seasons with the Mets, he posted an ERA below 3.00 twice, and missed doing it a third time by a slim margin (3.02 ERA in 1986). He racked up at least 85 innings in each of these four seasons, going over 100 frames twice. He probably wouldn’t have to toe the slab nearly that often with Seaver and Ojeda taking the ball to start, but it’s good to know there’s a reliever capable of doing so if necessary.
Weaknesses
There are a lot of things to like about this team, but what are some potential weaknesses? One thing that jumps out to me is some holes on defense. While having Kent and Olerud on the right side of the infield is solid, as well as Beltrán out in center, having Bonilla and Cabrera on the left side of second base probably isn’t optimal.
Another area that could be a problem — when compared to the other seven teams — is Jerry Manuel. Sure, he’s ninth all-time in franchise history with 204 wins over two-plus years as manager, but he never put together a full winning season while in charge. The bulk of his success came in 2008 after taking over for Willie Randolph, steering the Mets to a 55-38 record the rest of the way. He followed that with a 70-92 record in 2009 and a 79-83 mark in 2010 before getting the axe. Manuel was obviously a victim of his situation a little — I wouldn’t have wanted to manage that 2009 club — but when looking at the other managers in this competition, I’d rather have someone else steering the ship.
So what do you think, Mets fans? How is this club looking? What are the potential strengths and weaknesses? We’ll be rolling out Team No. 2 on Tuesday.
