Saturday, July 31, 2004
Ghost of Juan Samuel?
I’m too young to have lived through the Mets dealing away Nolan Ryan, so for myself, and a lot of other Met fans in their 20's and 30's, "Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell for Juan Samuel" is the standard by which bad Mets trades are measured. On June 18th of 1989, a stagnant Mets club, struggling in vain to regain their place atop the National League East, swapped away the popular center fielder, quirky, albeit effective reliever, and some other guy named Tom Edens, for second baseman-turned-outfielder Juan Samuel. In just over half a season with the Mets, Samuel batted .228, driving in 28 runs. Samuel, already unpopular with the fans for replacing Dykstra, didn’t make any friends by publicly revealing his distaste for New York City. (I suppose it’s no Philadelphia.) Samuel was traded away after the season for the immortal Mike Marshall and Alejandro Pena.
Conversely, Dykstra went on to lead the league in both hits and on base percentage the following season. He led the league in walks, hits, times on base, and runs in 1993. Over his seven full years in Philadelphia, Dykstra would be named to three All-Star teams and twice finish in the top 10 in the vote for MVP. The Dykstra trade of 1989 set the stage for some long summers in Queens over the next decade. My favorite Met of all-time, Mookie Wilson, was dealt away six weeks later. Gary Carter was released after the season, and Keith Hernandez signed on for a brief and forgettable stint with Cleveland shortly thereafter. The Mets, in an effort to move on, failed to replace the heart of their team, but succeeded in becoming a regular Letterman joke throughout the 90's.
I bring this up because I’m almost sure that the Mets made an equally dubious deal yesterday afternoon when they traded away Ty Wigginton for Kris Benson. Wigginton was one of my favorite Mets for many of the same reasons as Dykstra: they both played hard. I know it sounds like a cliche, because virtually everybody needs to play hard to be successful enough to become a professional, but Wigginton has that same quality as Dykstra, that intangible that suggests to everybody watching, that this is a guy playing beyond his God-given talent level. For some reason, I like it when professional athletes humor us by acting like they care as much as we do.
He doesn’t have the physical tools of some of the game’s great players, but he had managed to become the steadiest hitter in the Mets lineup. While other guys with his raw talent are well into the Atlantic League stage of their careers, Wigginton is hitting his stride in the show, hitting game winning homers to sweep the Yankees, and playing his way toward millions of dollars. This season, he is earning 316,000 dollars, which is indeed a handsome reward for playing a game for a living, but is rather insignificant when compared to the 17 million the Mets are paying Mo Vaughn to stay at home.
Beyond the intensity, the fact that both men are from Southern California, and both could be described as "weird looking", the numbers draw some strong parallels between Dykstra and Wigginton. Although Dykstra had considerably more service time then Wigginton when dealt away from the Mets, they were both 26 years of age on the day of their respective trades. Dykstra’s career batting average with the Mets was .278. He had hit 30 home runs, his on base percentage was .350, and his slugging percentage was .413. Although he has played only 288 games to Dykstra’s 544 prior to his trade, Ty Wigginton already has 29 home runs, with a .440 slugging percentage. Despite the fact that his .270 career batting average is eight points lower than Dykstra’s, he is hitting .285 in just his second full season, combine this with his decline in strikeouts, (this season he has struck out 48 times, which puts him on pace to finish well below his 124 strikeouts last season), and a strong case could be made that his batting average, as well as his .327 on base percentage will rise to a number similar to that of Dykstra.
Frankly, I’m a little surprised the Mets are buyers, rather than sellers this season. Seven games out, and four under .500, I find it more sensible to try and ship off a veteran on the wrong side of 35 rather than Wigginton and the prospects that were traded in the subsequent deal for Victor Zambrano. Perhaps Kris Benson will not be as bad as Juan Samuel. Despite the fact that he is widely regarded as a talented starter, I am always wary of a guy who will be 30 years old and still has a losing record for his career. I’m also not too sure about a man named Kristin, a fine name for my sister, but an unusual choice for a gentleman. The biggest winner in this deal is Kris Benson’s agent, who will now land what should be an extravagant deal from the Mets, who are now almost certain to overpay in order to save face. Whether Ty Wigginton will ever have the breakout season that transformed Lenny Dykstra from scrappy platoon player to All Star, remains to be seen, but I feel strongly that he is capable of such a feat. Even if he never turns into as good a ballplayer as Dykstra, if he ever gets a book deal, I’m sure it will be a better read than, "Nails".
The statistics used for this post can be found at the following sites:
http://www.ultimatemets.com/profile.php?PlayerCode=0376
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/salaries?team=nym
http://snap.stats.com/premium/sfa/stats/playerstats.asp?id=6930
http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dykstle01.shtml
Conversely, Dykstra went on to lead the league in both hits and on base percentage the following season. He led the league in walks, hits, times on base, and runs in 1993. Over his seven full years in Philadelphia, Dykstra would be named to three All-Star teams and twice finish in the top 10 in the vote for MVP. The Dykstra trade of 1989 set the stage for some long summers in Queens over the next decade. My favorite Met of all-time, Mookie Wilson, was dealt away six weeks later. Gary Carter was released after the season, and Keith Hernandez signed on for a brief and forgettable stint with Cleveland shortly thereafter. The Mets, in an effort to move on, failed to replace the heart of their team, but succeeded in becoming a regular Letterman joke throughout the 90's.
I bring this up because I’m almost sure that the Mets made an equally dubious deal yesterday afternoon when they traded away Ty Wigginton for Kris Benson. Wigginton was one of my favorite Mets for many of the same reasons as Dykstra: they both played hard. I know it sounds like a cliche, because virtually everybody needs to play hard to be successful enough to become a professional, but Wigginton has that same quality as Dykstra, that intangible that suggests to everybody watching, that this is a guy playing beyond his God-given talent level. For some reason, I like it when professional athletes humor us by acting like they care as much as we do.
He doesn’t have the physical tools of some of the game’s great players, but he had managed to become the steadiest hitter in the Mets lineup. While other guys with his raw talent are well into the Atlantic League stage of their careers, Wigginton is hitting his stride in the show, hitting game winning homers to sweep the Yankees, and playing his way toward millions of dollars. This season, he is earning 316,000 dollars, which is indeed a handsome reward for playing a game for a living, but is rather insignificant when compared to the 17 million the Mets are paying Mo Vaughn to stay at home.
Beyond the intensity, the fact that both men are from Southern California, and both could be described as "weird looking", the numbers draw some strong parallels between Dykstra and Wigginton. Although Dykstra had considerably more service time then Wigginton when dealt away from the Mets, they were both 26 years of age on the day of their respective trades. Dykstra’s career batting average with the Mets was .278. He had hit 30 home runs, his on base percentage was .350, and his slugging percentage was .413. Although he has played only 288 games to Dykstra’s 544 prior to his trade, Ty Wigginton already has 29 home runs, with a .440 slugging percentage. Despite the fact that his .270 career batting average is eight points lower than Dykstra’s, he is hitting .285 in just his second full season, combine this with his decline in strikeouts, (this season he has struck out 48 times, which puts him on pace to finish well below his 124 strikeouts last season), and a strong case could be made that his batting average, as well as his .327 on base percentage will rise to a number similar to that of Dykstra.
Frankly, I’m a little surprised the Mets are buyers, rather than sellers this season. Seven games out, and four under .500, I find it more sensible to try and ship off a veteran on the wrong side of 35 rather than Wigginton and the prospects that were traded in the subsequent deal for Victor Zambrano. Perhaps Kris Benson will not be as bad as Juan Samuel. Despite the fact that he is widely regarded as a talented starter, I am always wary of a guy who will be 30 years old and still has a losing record for his career. I’m also not too sure about a man named Kristin, a fine name for my sister, but an unusual choice for a gentleman. The biggest winner in this deal is Kris Benson’s agent, who will now land what should be an extravagant deal from the Mets, who are now almost certain to overpay in order to save face. Whether Ty Wigginton will ever have the breakout season that transformed Lenny Dykstra from scrappy platoon player to All Star, remains to be seen, but I feel strongly that he is capable of such a feat. Even if he never turns into as good a ballplayer as Dykstra, if he ever gets a book deal, I’m sure it will be a better read than, "Nails".
The statistics used for this post can be found at the following sites:
http://www.ultimatemets.com/profile.php?PlayerCode=0376
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/salaries?team=nym
http://snap.stats.com/premium/sfa/stats/playerstats.asp?id=6930
http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dykstle01.shtml
# posted by J. Hoose @ 1:38 PM 
Friday, July 30, 2004
Mercy Killing
When I was five years old, we got a Golden Retriever. I grew up with that dog. There were a lot of good times throughout the years, but dogs get old, and then sick. Eventually, he could no longer walk. By the time we had finally gathered up the nerve to put him down, it was too late, he was already gone. He had been with us for fifteen years, but when he was suffering, and it was finally time to say goodbye, we couldn’t grant him an end to his misery, a dignified departure from our lives.
When I was ten, the Mets acquired John Franco in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds. The deal was a bit of a head scratcher, as they were trading away their own, younger, hard throwing closer, Randy Myers, for the Brooklyn-born lefty, but Franco, who grew up a Mets fan, immediately established himself as a team leader and a fan favorite in Queens, saving 63 games in his first two seasons with the club. Although never the dominant closer in the game, Franco was always one of the games better relievers. At a position where players have a very limited shelf life, Franco was durable. No lefty had ever saved 300 games in a career, Franco has 424 career saves. John Franco also knew how to adapt, reinventing himself as a changeup pitcher once his fastball had slowed in the mid-1990's. Somehow, he managed to save 161 games between 1994 and 1998, despite throwing anything that remotely resembled a quality pitch. He saved a lot of games for some awful Mets clubs in the 90's, and although he was crafty, Franco could get lit up from time to time. His career save percentage is just under 81%, which is not exactly automatic. (Mariano Rivera and Troy Percival have percentages near 87% and 86%, respectively). So when an injury sidelined Franco in the 1999 season, many fans welcomed the emergence of Armando Benitez as the team’s new closer. Franco was relegated to setup duty, yet continued to contribute, even earning the win in relief in the series-clinching, Game 4 of the 1999 NLDS, the first playoff appearance of his 16 year career.
I turned twenty five years old this week and John Franco is still pitching for the Mets, or trying to, anyway. He’s racked up just two wins against seven losses this season, with a 5.73 earned run average. He’s given up 24 earned runs and 37 hits in 37 and 2/3 innings. He’s been throwing batting practice out there. After 15 years, it’s time to say goodbye. As the Mets continue their fade from the NL East Race, moves need to be made with the future in mind. It’s time for the Mets to do for Franco what we failed to do for our dog: end the suffering. Let him go work as the pitching coach for the Brooklyn Cyclones, or make him a "roving instructor" in the organization, or bury him under that tomato garden he planted in the bullpen, it doesn’t really matter, as long as he no longer pitches for the Mets. I know any such appointment is often an insult to an old athlete, but it’s an insult for everyone involved to keep sending Franco out there to get booed off the mound. <BACK TO HOOSE COUNTRY
Statistics acquired from:
http://snap.stats.com/premium/sfa/stats/playerstats.asp?id=3308
When I was ten, the Mets acquired John Franco in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds. The deal was a bit of a head scratcher, as they were trading away their own, younger, hard throwing closer, Randy Myers, for the Brooklyn-born lefty, but Franco, who grew up a Mets fan, immediately established himself as a team leader and a fan favorite in Queens, saving 63 games in his first two seasons with the club. Although never the dominant closer in the game, Franco was always one of the games better relievers. At a position where players have a very limited shelf life, Franco was durable. No lefty had ever saved 300 games in a career, Franco has 424 career saves. John Franco also knew how to adapt, reinventing himself as a changeup pitcher once his fastball had slowed in the mid-1990's. Somehow, he managed to save 161 games between 1994 and 1998, despite throwing anything that remotely resembled a quality pitch. He saved a lot of games for some awful Mets clubs in the 90's, and although he was crafty, Franco could get lit up from time to time. His career save percentage is just under 81%, which is not exactly automatic. (Mariano Rivera and Troy Percival have percentages near 87% and 86%, respectively). So when an injury sidelined Franco in the 1999 season, many fans welcomed the emergence of Armando Benitez as the team’s new closer. Franco was relegated to setup duty, yet continued to contribute, even earning the win in relief in the series-clinching, Game 4 of the 1999 NLDS, the first playoff appearance of his 16 year career.
I turned twenty five years old this week and John Franco is still pitching for the Mets, or trying to, anyway. He’s racked up just two wins against seven losses this season, with a 5.73 earned run average. He’s given up 24 earned runs and 37 hits in 37 and 2/3 innings. He’s been throwing batting practice out there. After 15 years, it’s time to say goodbye. As the Mets continue their fade from the NL East Race, moves need to be made with the future in mind. It’s time for the Mets to do for Franco what we failed to do for our dog: end the suffering. Let him go work as the pitching coach for the Brooklyn Cyclones, or make him a "roving instructor" in the organization, or bury him under that tomato garden he planted in the bullpen, it doesn’t really matter, as long as he no longer pitches for the Mets. I know any such appointment is often an insult to an old athlete, but it’s an insult for everyone involved to keep sending Franco out there to get booed off the mound. <BACK TO HOOSE COUNTRY
Statistics acquired from:
http://snap.stats.com/premium/sfa/stats/playerstats.asp?id=3308
# posted by J. Hoose @ 1:37 AM
