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 Alfonso (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 6
Strengths
Prime Gary Carter is a great option behind the plate with his 11 All-Star selections and career bWAR over 70. Possibly the best hitter on this team, depending on what time frame you’re looking at. Dave Magadan is also a strength at first base if he can repeat his great 1990 season that landed him 22nd in MVP voting. Same goes for Tommie Agee if he can replicate his 1969-1970 production. Offensively, the outfield is solid, though nothing terribly special.
Infield defense is a strength simply due to the fact that they have defensive whiz Rey Ordóñez manning shortstop. Jon Matlack and Noah Syndergaard is a fantastic one-two punch in the rotation, bringing an interesting contrast between contact pitching and power pitching. Jesse Orosco is also a reliable option out of the bullpen.
Weaknesses
Ed Kranepool and his career sub-.700 OPS isn’t exactly the most ideal situation at first base, where you genuinely want a strong power hitter. Ordóñez and his career .600 OPS aren’t great either, even for an elite defensive shortstop. His best offensive season with the Mets was a .636 OPS in 1999.
The corner outfield defense also leaves a lot to be desired. But overall, this is a pretty solid team.
Past Teams
