All of you know one of our MMO elite, Ed Leyro. Ed always provides some incredible insight — along with a touch of humor — into his well researched posts for both MetsMerized and his own website Studious Metsimus. Anyone who knows him or has ever read one of his posts, knows the amount of time and thought he puts into every sentence, making sure to perfectly articulate what he is trying to convey, always pulling it off successfully.

There was no better example of this than on a March 19th post in which Ed posed the question “What Will The Mets Produce Next: A No-Hitter Or A 20-Game Winner?“. Ed hinted at the fact that a no-no would come prior to a 20-game winner. Turns out he was right, but I don’t think even he could have guessed that both of these feats would come this season!

The five pitchers who won 20 games in a single season for the Mets all experienced great success in the major leagues.  Tom Seaver won 311 games in the big leagues en route to receiving the highest percentage of votes of any Hall of Fame inductee.  Fellow 1969 World Series champion Jerry Koosman finished his career with 222 victories.  Dwight Gooden, David Cone and Frank Viola also had long and successful careers in the major leagues, with Gooden and Cone both winning 194 games and Viola finishing his career with 176 victories.

In addition, four of the five 20-game winners for the Mets also won the Cy Young Award at some point in their careers, with the lone exception being Jerry Koosman, who came tantalizingly close in 1976 when he finished second in the vote to Padres’ pitcher (and future Met) Randy Jones.

Here’s the kicker.  Although none of the five pitchers ever pitched a no-hitter while in a Mets uniform, three of them (Seaver, Gooden, Cone) accomplished the feat after leaving the Mets, and David Cone took it one step further, pitching a perfect game against the Montreal Expos in 1999 as a member of the New York Yankees.

Tom Seaver never did it as a Met.  Neither did Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, David Cone or Frank Viola.  In fact, no Mets pitcher has ever pitched a no-hitter.  But dozens of Mets hurlers have tossed one-hitters, and not all of them were pitched by All-Stars or future Hall of Famers.  In fact, many of them were pitchers who didn’t even win 100 games in the major leagues.

What will Mets’ pitchers accomplish next?  Will it be a no-hitter?  Or will it be a 20-win season?  It wouldn’t surprise me if it was the former rather than the latter.

I remember thoroughly enjoying this post when it originally came out and after Santana tossed the first no-hitter in franchise history, I considered posting an article like this at that point, but based on the win totals Dickey was amounting, I elected to hold off. Now that both feats have been achieved, the second of which Ed was in attendance for, today seemed like an appropriate time.

Anyway, keep an eye on these Leyro predictions, who knows what else may be in his crystal ball.