GaryMrMets
08-20-2002, 12:16 AM
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Mets trades: The 15 Worst
July 31, 2002
With the trading deadline upon us, we wonder: what were the Mets' worst trades ever? Howard Blatt, author of "Amazin' Met Memories" (see cover, below right), has his own idea of the 15 most memorable (for all the wrong reasons) Met deals.
1. Sent P Nolan Ryan, P Don Rose, OF Leroy Stanton and C Francisco Estrada to the California Angels for SS Jim Fregosi, Dec. 10, 1971
Nolan Ryan didn't really hint at a Hall of Fame future as a Texan out of his element in New York-because of recurring blisters that made him go through a deli's supply of pickle brine and the military commitments that jerked him in and out of the rotation. In need of tougher skin on more than just his finger, the shy Ryan was learning to pitch on a major league level.
Yes, Ryan was only 29-38 as a Met from 1966 through 1971, but the fastball was there, rising in the strike zone, and the curve was a work in progress. So it's fair to ask: How do you deal a pitcher with this kind of stuff before his 25th birthday? Well, you don't. But Nolan was history before he became history or even pitched the first of his periodic no-hitters. While Met fans cringed, Ryan spent the next 22 years winning 295 more games and running his strikeout total to 5,714.
Mets GM Bob Scheffing decided to give up on Nolan when the pitcher lost 10 of his last 12 decisions to finish at 10-14 in 1971.
"We've had him three full years and, although he is a hell of a prospect he hasn't done it for us. How long can you wait? I can't rate him in the same category with Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman or Gary Gentry (whom California GM Harry Dalton had asked for instead of Ryan)," said Scheffing.
To make matters worse, the Mets agreed to sweeten the pot for shortstop Jim Fregosi, who didn't even play the position they needed to fill-their black hole, third base. They threw in three decent prospects-Leroy Stanton had hit .324 with 23 homers and 101 RBI in Triple-A in 1971 and would hit 27 homers in a season for Seattle in 1977-along with Ryan.
Their return? An overweight Fregosi, coming off a .233, five-homer season. He had averaged about 50 RBI per year over his career and wouldn't come close to that for the Mets. Ryan won 19 games with a 2.28 ERA and an AL-leading 329 Ks in 1972 while the immobile Fregosi was injured in the spring and hit .232 with 32 RBI in his Met debut. The following year he was unable to win the job from the guy he was supposed to replace, Wayne Garrett, and was sent to Texas in July 1973.
Years later, Mets board chairman M. Donald Grant tried to shift the onus for the deal to the sportswriters who were clamoring for the team to make some move at the time. "I told you to make a deal," responded a writer. "But not that one."
2. Sent OF Amos Otis and P Bob Johnson to the Kansas City Royals for 3B Joe Foy, Dec. 3, 1969
Why take a promising young hitter and athlete with the defensive skills to be an outstanding center fielder and project him as a rookie big league starter at a position he had never played? The Mets did it with Amos Otis in 1969, naming him their third baseman in that spring-as if all the positions were interchangeable and as if hitting major league pitching for the first time wasn't going to be enough of a challenge.
When the bell rang, Otis played like he hated third base and hit like he didn't belong in the majors. He disappeared back into the minors while Wayne Garrett and Ed Charles contributed to the miracle. Otis hit .325 for Tidewater but his major league line was .151 with four RBI in 93 at-bats. Then the 23-year-old-who had been labelled an "untouchable" in trade talks with the Braves a year earlier, at the time Joe Torre was moved to St. Louis for Orlando Cepeda-was deemed touchable. The Mets still needed a third baseman. What else was new?
Otis wound up with a .277 career average with 193 homers, 341 steals and 1,007 RBI, playing 14 of the next 15 seasons in Kansas City. A three-time Gold Glove winner, Famous Amos had a .991 career fielding percentage and 126 outfield assists. Johnson went 8-13 for the weak Royals in 1970, but Otis kept producing like the Energizer Bunny.
Joe Foy's contributions were so meager they served to launch yet another third-base shopping spre-a hunt that resulted in the "How about Jim Fregosi?" stroke of genius. Foy, a 37-steal, 71-RBI man for the Royals in 1969, committed 18 errors and hit .236 for the Mets in 1970, finally losing his spot to-who else?-Garrett.
The Mets came to regret not heeding the 1968 warning sign of Foy's drunkenness arrest, which earned him a fine and suspension from the Red Sox. Besieged by "personal problems," Foy managed six homers, 37 RBI and 22 steals in '70. He was demoted and later was drafted by Washington in December 1970, playing 41 games with the Senators before disappearing from the majors forever.
3. Sent OF Len Dykstra, P Roger McDowell and P Tom Edens to the Philadelphia Phillies for OF-2B Juan Samuel, June 18, 1989
Lenny Dykstra, always a little guy who wanted to be the same size as his heart, let his 1986 World Series homers go to his head and bulked up from weight lifting (and the likely ingestion of steroids instead of Wheaties). The gritty center fielder exhausted manager Davey Johnson's patience with his upper-cut swing while other leadoff men maximized their speed by hitting down on the ball.
Roger McDowell, 1-5 in 1989 at the time of the deal, never seemed to have the same swagger for the Mets after that Terry Pendleton homer broke his back in September 1987.
But why Juan Samuel?
At the time of the deal, Sammy was looking like a second baseman out of water as the Phillies' 1989 experiment in center-field terror. The Mets still had Mookie Wilson, an honest-to-goodness center fielder with as many top-of-the-order skills as the strikeout-prone Samuel. But GM Joe McIlvaine felt certain that Samuel would make a huge impact on the club with his bat.
Juan hit .228 for the Mets with three homers, 28 RBI, 17 extra-base hits and 75 strikeouts in 333 at-bats. His on-base percentage was .299 for them. His three errors in the outfield as a Met didn't tell the whole story of how uncomfortable he looked there. By 1990, Samuel was gone and the Mets, refusing to learn their lesson about infielders becoming center fielders in the majors, tried Howard Johnson and Keith Miller there with cover-your-eyes results. Mantle, Mays and Snider, these guys weren't.
Dykstra hit .325, stole 33 bases, scored 106 runs and drove in 60 runs in 1990. In his last season before his self-destructive streak and injuries reduced him, Lenny carried the 1993 Phillies to a pennant, with 19 homers, 66 RBI, 143 runs, 37 steals and a .305 average. McDowell went 3-3 with 19 saves and a 1.11 ERA after the trade in 1989, then saved 25 more for the Phillies before being dealt to the Dodgers in 1991.
4. Sent 2B Jeff Kent and SS Jose Vizcaino to the Cleveland Indians for 2B Carlos Baerga and SS Alvaro Espinoza, July 29, 1996
After a 39-game pit stop in Cleveland, Jeff Kent gave the Blue Jays, the Mets and the Indians major cause to regret giving up on him. Quite simply, he became the most productive second baseman in the game in San Francisco.
Kent only hinted at having team-carrying potential when he hit 21 homers and drove in 80 runs for the Mets in 1990. But, for the Giants, in five amazing seasons from 1997 through 2001, Kent has been Superman. He has rung up 138 homers and 581 RBI. He even improved from a liability at second base into a defensive asset and was the 2000 NL MVP after hitting .334 with 350 total bases, an on-base percentage of .424 and a slugging mark of .596.
Meanwhile, in New York, Carlos Baerga's career continued in a free fall so precipitous that it is hard to explain as the result of a few added pounds or too many nights of la vida loca. The two-time Silver Slugger winner grounded into 42 double plays in two-plus seasons as a Met, a measure of both his hitting futility and glacial movement down the line. For the Mets, he had 18 homers and 116 RBI in 1,061 at-bats over two-plus years-after having 21 and 114 for Cleveland in 1993 alone. In 1996, after coming over, Baerga hit .193 with a .301 slugging percentage.
The switch-hitter gave up hitting right-handed altogether after a long run of utter ineptitude. When his woeful hitting made him a candidate for a utility infielder's role, Carlos couldn't do that, either: his only position was second base. After 55 more major league appearances following his last year as a Met, in 1998, he was officially finished.
Alvaro Espinoza was a blip on the Mets' radar screen. But Jose Vizcaino is still around. The Viz reminded everyone what a nice little player he is-still far superior to the postmenopausal Baerga-when he put the Mets to death for the Yankees in Game 1 of the 2000 World Series.
5. Sent P Mike Scott to the Houston Astros for OF Danny Heep, Dec. 10, 1982
In fairness, how could the Mets have guessed that the Mike Scott who had a fastball and a pickoff move and little else going for him while going 14-27 for them from 1979 through 1982 would become the close-to-unhittable split-finger master Mike Scott?
Mets trades: The 15 Worst
July 31, 2002
With the trading deadline upon us, we wonder: what were the Mets' worst trades ever? Howard Blatt, author of "Amazin' Met Memories" (see cover, below right), has his own idea of the 15 most memorable (for all the wrong reasons) Met deals.
1. Sent P Nolan Ryan, P Don Rose, OF Leroy Stanton and C Francisco Estrada to the California Angels for SS Jim Fregosi, Dec. 10, 1971
Nolan Ryan didn't really hint at a Hall of Fame future as a Texan out of his element in New York-because of recurring blisters that made him go through a deli's supply of pickle brine and the military commitments that jerked him in and out of the rotation. In need of tougher skin on more than just his finger, the shy Ryan was learning to pitch on a major league level.
Yes, Ryan was only 29-38 as a Met from 1966 through 1971, but the fastball was there, rising in the strike zone, and the curve was a work in progress. So it's fair to ask: How do you deal a pitcher with this kind of stuff before his 25th birthday? Well, you don't. But Nolan was history before he became history or even pitched the first of his periodic no-hitters. While Met fans cringed, Ryan spent the next 22 years winning 295 more games and running his strikeout total to 5,714.
Mets GM Bob Scheffing decided to give up on Nolan when the pitcher lost 10 of his last 12 decisions to finish at 10-14 in 1971.
"We've had him three full years and, although he is a hell of a prospect he hasn't done it for us. How long can you wait? I can't rate him in the same category with Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman or Gary Gentry (whom California GM Harry Dalton had asked for instead of Ryan)," said Scheffing.
To make matters worse, the Mets agreed to sweeten the pot for shortstop Jim Fregosi, who didn't even play the position they needed to fill-their black hole, third base. They threw in three decent prospects-Leroy Stanton had hit .324 with 23 homers and 101 RBI in Triple-A in 1971 and would hit 27 homers in a season for Seattle in 1977-along with Ryan.
Their return? An overweight Fregosi, coming off a .233, five-homer season. He had averaged about 50 RBI per year over his career and wouldn't come close to that for the Mets. Ryan won 19 games with a 2.28 ERA and an AL-leading 329 Ks in 1972 while the immobile Fregosi was injured in the spring and hit .232 with 32 RBI in his Met debut. The following year he was unable to win the job from the guy he was supposed to replace, Wayne Garrett, and was sent to Texas in July 1973.
Years later, Mets board chairman M. Donald Grant tried to shift the onus for the deal to the sportswriters who were clamoring for the team to make some move at the time. "I told you to make a deal," responded a writer. "But not that one."
2. Sent OF Amos Otis and P Bob Johnson to the Kansas City Royals for 3B Joe Foy, Dec. 3, 1969
Why take a promising young hitter and athlete with the defensive skills to be an outstanding center fielder and project him as a rookie big league starter at a position he had never played? The Mets did it with Amos Otis in 1969, naming him their third baseman in that spring-as if all the positions were interchangeable and as if hitting major league pitching for the first time wasn't going to be enough of a challenge.
When the bell rang, Otis played like he hated third base and hit like he didn't belong in the majors. He disappeared back into the minors while Wayne Garrett and Ed Charles contributed to the miracle. Otis hit .325 for Tidewater but his major league line was .151 with four RBI in 93 at-bats. Then the 23-year-old-who had been labelled an "untouchable" in trade talks with the Braves a year earlier, at the time Joe Torre was moved to St. Louis for Orlando Cepeda-was deemed touchable. The Mets still needed a third baseman. What else was new?
Otis wound up with a .277 career average with 193 homers, 341 steals and 1,007 RBI, playing 14 of the next 15 seasons in Kansas City. A three-time Gold Glove winner, Famous Amos had a .991 career fielding percentage and 126 outfield assists. Johnson went 8-13 for the weak Royals in 1970, but Otis kept producing like the Energizer Bunny.
Joe Foy's contributions were so meager they served to launch yet another third-base shopping spre-a hunt that resulted in the "How about Jim Fregosi?" stroke of genius. Foy, a 37-steal, 71-RBI man for the Royals in 1969, committed 18 errors and hit .236 for the Mets in 1970, finally losing his spot to-who else?-Garrett.
The Mets came to regret not heeding the 1968 warning sign of Foy's drunkenness arrest, which earned him a fine and suspension from the Red Sox. Besieged by "personal problems," Foy managed six homers, 37 RBI and 22 steals in '70. He was demoted and later was drafted by Washington in December 1970, playing 41 games with the Senators before disappearing from the majors forever.
3. Sent OF Len Dykstra, P Roger McDowell and P Tom Edens to the Philadelphia Phillies for OF-2B Juan Samuel, June 18, 1989
Lenny Dykstra, always a little guy who wanted to be the same size as his heart, let his 1986 World Series homers go to his head and bulked up from weight lifting (and the likely ingestion of steroids instead of Wheaties). The gritty center fielder exhausted manager Davey Johnson's patience with his upper-cut swing while other leadoff men maximized their speed by hitting down on the ball.
Roger McDowell, 1-5 in 1989 at the time of the deal, never seemed to have the same swagger for the Mets after that Terry Pendleton homer broke his back in September 1987.
But why Juan Samuel?
At the time of the deal, Sammy was looking like a second baseman out of water as the Phillies' 1989 experiment in center-field terror. The Mets still had Mookie Wilson, an honest-to-goodness center fielder with as many top-of-the-order skills as the strikeout-prone Samuel. But GM Joe McIlvaine felt certain that Samuel would make a huge impact on the club with his bat.
Juan hit .228 for the Mets with three homers, 28 RBI, 17 extra-base hits and 75 strikeouts in 333 at-bats. His on-base percentage was .299 for them. His three errors in the outfield as a Met didn't tell the whole story of how uncomfortable he looked there. By 1990, Samuel was gone and the Mets, refusing to learn their lesson about infielders becoming center fielders in the majors, tried Howard Johnson and Keith Miller there with cover-your-eyes results. Mantle, Mays and Snider, these guys weren't.
Dykstra hit .325, stole 33 bases, scored 106 runs and drove in 60 runs in 1990. In his last season before his self-destructive streak and injuries reduced him, Lenny carried the 1993 Phillies to a pennant, with 19 homers, 66 RBI, 143 runs, 37 steals and a .305 average. McDowell went 3-3 with 19 saves and a 1.11 ERA after the trade in 1989, then saved 25 more for the Phillies before being dealt to the Dodgers in 1991.
4. Sent 2B Jeff Kent and SS Jose Vizcaino to the Cleveland Indians for 2B Carlos Baerga and SS Alvaro Espinoza, July 29, 1996
After a 39-game pit stop in Cleveland, Jeff Kent gave the Blue Jays, the Mets and the Indians major cause to regret giving up on him. Quite simply, he became the most productive second baseman in the game in San Francisco.
Kent only hinted at having team-carrying potential when he hit 21 homers and drove in 80 runs for the Mets in 1990. But, for the Giants, in five amazing seasons from 1997 through 2001, Kent has been Superman. He has rung up 138 homers and 581 RBI. He even improved from a liability at second base into a defensive asset and was the 2000 NL MVP after hitting .334 with 350 total bases, an on-base percentage of .424 and a slugging mark of .596.
Meanwhile, in New York, Carlos Baerga's career continued in a free fall so precipitous that it is hard to explain as the result of a few added pounds or too many nights of la vida loca. The two-time Silver Slugger winner grounded into 42 double plays in two-plus seasons as a Met, a measure of both his hitting futility and glacial movement down the line. For the Mets, he had 18 homers and 116 RBI in 1,061 at-bats over two-plus years-after having 21 and 114 for Cleveland in 1993 alone. In 1996, after coming over, Baerga hit .193 with a .301 slugging percentage.
The switch-hitter gave up hitting right-handed altogether after a long run of utter ineptitude. When his woeful hitting made him a candidate for a utility infielder's role, Carlos couldn't do that, either: his only position was second base. After 55 more major league appearances following his last year as a Met, in 1998, he was officially finished.
Alvaro Espinoza was a blip on the Mets' radar screen. But Jose Vizcaino is still around. The Viz reminded everyone what a nice little player he is-still far superior to the postmenopausal Baerga-when he put the Mets to death for the Yankees in Game 1 of the 2000 World Series.
5. Sent P Mike Scott to the Houston Astros for OF Danny Heep, Dec. 10, 1982
In fairness, how could the Mets have guessed that the Mike Scott who had a fastball and a pickoff move and little else going for him while going 14-27 for them from 1979 through 1982 would become the close-to-unhittable split-finger master Mike Scott?