One Season Wonders: Lance Johnson

The 1995 Mets were only two years removed from the team's first 100-loss season since 1967.  But they were one of the surprise teams in the National League, finishing in a second-place tie in the NL East with a 69-75 record in the strike-shortened season.  The future looked bright for the Mets, especially with Generation K, their highly touted trio of homegrown pitchers, about to make a splash.

However, one thing was missing for the Mets going into the 1996 season.  In 1995, the Mets traded their leadoff hitter, Brett Butler, to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the stretch run.  That left the Mets with a musical chairs situation in the leadoff spot, with Damon Buford, Joe Orsulak and Alex Ochoa trying to be the last person to sit on the leadoff seat.

Neither Buford, Orsulak or Ochoa figured to be the team's leadoff hitter in 1996, especially with general manager Joe McIlvane openly shopping for one.  Two months after the conclusion of the 1995 season, the Mets found their man in Chicago.  And he provided the team with the best season a leadoff hitter had ever produced to date.

"Leading off and playing center field, No. 1, Mook -- correction -- Lance Johnson!"

Kenneth Lance Johnson was not a young player when the Mets signed him.  At 32, he was entering a time in his life when speedsters tend to lose a step or two.  But the Mets decided to take a chance on Johnson after he had reached career highs in at-bats (607), hits (186), runs scored (98), home runs (10) and RBI (57), while batting .306 with 12 triples and 40 stolen bases in his final year with the White Sox.

Despite the fact that the Texas Rangers offered Johnson a three-year deal with a fourth-year option, guaranteeing him $8.35 million, the centerfielder chose to take his talents eastward, signing with the Mets for two years and $5.7 million.  Johnson settled on the Mets after talking to Bobby Bonilla, Daryl Boston and Mookie Wilson, all former Mets and good friends.

The Mets now had their leadoff hitter in place, but Johnson was a centerfielder.  Their Opening Day starter from the previous year, Brett Butler, had been the team's leftfielder.  That was also the position played by Damon Buford and Joe Orsulak.  One month after the Mets acquired Johnson, they orchestrated a trade for leftfielder Bernard Gilkey.

With the outfield set, the addition of a defensive wunderkind at short in Rey Ordoñez, and Generation K on the way, the Mets were ready to take the 1996 season by storm.  They didn't wait very long to make a positive impression on the fans, and Lance Johnson had a lot to do with it.

On April 1, before a packed house at Shea Stadium, the season opened ominously for the Mets, who fell behind early to the Cardinals by six runs.  But the Mets began to chip away at the lead and by the seventh inning, the Cardinals' lead had been halved.  After an exciting conclusion to the top of the seventh, where a perfect relay from Gilkey to Ordoñez helped nail Royce Clayton at the plate to keep the score 6-3, the Mets rallied for four runs in the bottom of the inning.  Smack dab in the middle of the rally was Lance Johnson.  The Mets' new centerfielder used his speed to generate a run, plating Ordoñez with an infield hit, then scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Rico Brogna.  Johnson's run proved to be the difference in the 7-6 Mets' victory.

Although Johnson helped contribute to the Mets' Opening Day victory, he didn't start the season very well.  One month after the season opener, Johnson had a decent batting average (.272), but was only reaching base at a .286 clip, drawing three walks in the season's first month.  The Mets expected more from their leadoff hitter, and beginning with the second game of a doubleheader against the Montreal Expos on May 1, Johnson gave the Mets exactly what they wanted and more.

Photo by David G. Whitham

Over a six-game stretch from May 1 to May 7, Johnson batted .500 (14-for-28), scoring five runs and driving in another.  He also collected his seventh triple of the season, after hitting six in the season's first month.  The season was barely a month old and Johnson was already only three triples short of Mookie Wilson's single-season franchise record for three-base hits.  Before the season was half over, that record would be history.

On June 16, Johnson picked up his 11th triple of the season against the St. Louis Cardinals, breaking Mookie Wilson's club record that he set in 1984.  For Johnson, the moment was extra-special because it was the Cardinals who originally drafted him in 1984 before trading him to the White Sox just months after he played for St. Louis in the 1987 World Series.

By the All-Star Break, Johnson was already having an historic season for the Mets.  Through his first 87 games, One-Dog (as he was affectionately referred to by his teammates) was hitting .322 with 16 doubles, 13 triples and five home runs.  He also had 40 RBI out of the leadoff spot, which was an unusually high number for a No. 1 hitter.  What was not unusual for a leadoff hitter was his 65 runs scored and 28 stolen bases.

For his efforts, Johnson was selected to his first All-Star team, joining catcher Todd Hundley to become the first Mets' teammates in five years to represent the club in the Midsummer Classic.  Due to an injury to Padres' outfielder Tony Gwynn, Johnson started the All-Star Game and surprised everyone by playing the entire game, going 3-for-4 with two singles, a double, a run scored and a stolen base in the 6-0 National League victory.

Johnson continued to hit after the All-Star Break.  In his first 32 games after the break, Johnson had 12 multi-hit games and stole 14 bases.  However, the team, who had remained within a few games of the .500 mark for most of the season, was starting to feel the dog days of August, especially the young pitching staff.  Generation K had become Generation K.O., as Jason Isringhausen's ERA was climbing near 5.00 and Paul Wilson's ERA had already gone north of that mark.

By August 18, the Mets had fallen 20 games behind the first-place Braves.  One week later, manager Dallas Green was gone, replaced by Bobby Valentine.  Despite the poor play on the field and the upheaval in the clubhouse, Lance Johnson continued to shine.

Beginning with his 2-for-4 performance on August 14, Johnson hit .399 over the team's final 41 games.  In addition, the centerfielder scored 35 runs and drove in 20 more during the final quarter of the season.  Mostly everyone else wilted in the summer heat (save for Gilkey and Hundley), but Johnson just got better.  Despite not being a big on-base percentage player or a slugger, Johnson had an impressive 1.004 OPS over the last month and a half of the season, reaching base at a .426 clip and producing a .578 slugging percentage (13 doubles, six triples, two home runs in 173 at-bats).  The Mets finished the season with a disappointing 71-91 record, but Johnson's season was anything but disappointing.

For the season, Lance Johnson hit .333.  At the time, it was the second-highest batting average in team history (Cleon Jones hit .340 in 1969).  Johnson also became the second Met to play in 160 games (Felix Millan played 162 games in 1975) and the second to reach the 50-steal plateau (Mookie Wilson stole 58 bases in 1982 and 54 bases in 1983).  But there were a number of offensive categories in which Johnson was second to none.

In 1996, Johnson set the Mets' single-season record for at-bats (682), runs scored (117), hits (227), total bases (327), multi-hit games (75), singles (166) and triples (21).  He also had the rare distinction of having more stolen bases (50) than strikeouts (40).  To this day, Johnson still holds the single-season franchise records for hits, multi-hit games, singles and triples.

Following Johnson's record-setting campaign, the Mets rewarded him with a two-year contract extension worth $10 million, keeping him under the team's control until 1999.  But Johnson was also a year older, and a year closer to breaking down.  The 33-year-old Johnson started the 1997 season where he left off in 1996, hitting .309 with five stolen bases over the Mets' first 13 games.  But shin splints knocked Johnson out of the lineup on May 1 and he missed six weeks of action, returning to the Mets just in time to see Dave Mlicki shut out the Yankees in the first regular season Subway Series game on June 16.

By early August, Johnson was still hitting above .300, but he was hitting mostly singles.  His 17 extra-base hits (ten doubles, six triples, one home run) were a far cry from his 1996 production, when he finished the year with 61 extra-base hits.  Johnson also wasn't running as much, stealing 15 bases in 25 attempts.  His 60% success rate was well below his 77% career rate.  Despite Johnson's regression, the Mets were overachieving and competing in the National League wild card race.  However, the team was leading the league in blown saves and needed to improve their bullpen if they wanted to have a realistic shot at making the playoffs.

On August 8, the Mets made a deal to improve their bullpen, but the cost was steep, as they had to part ways with Lance Johnson.  In a six-player deal with the Chicago Cubs, the Mets sent Johnson, starting pitcher Mark Clark and backup shortstop Manny Alexander to the Windy City for centerfielder Brian McRae, closer Mel Rojas and set-up man Turk Wendell.  Although McRae went on to record a 20-20 season with the Mets in 1998 (21 HR, 20 SB), he never quite replaced Lance Johnson in center.  Meanwhile, Mel Rojas went on to become one of the most hated relievers in Mets' history.  However, Turk Wendell became one of the most successful middle relievers in team history, and was a key player in the Mets' postseason runs in 1999 and 2000.

The injuries that sidelined Johnson during the 1997 season continued to keep him off the field for extended periods of time over the next three years.  As a member of the Cubs in 1998 and 1999, Johnson missed a total of 145 games.  He then played 18 games for the Yankees in 2000 before being released on June 6, just four months before he would have gotten the chance to play against the Mets in the World Series.  Although Johnson was only 36 years old, he would never play in the major leagues again.

Although his career was cut short by injuries, Lance Johnson still had plenty to smile about.

Lance Johnson became an everyday player in 1990 as a member of the Chicago White Sox.  Over the next six seasons, he was one of the best leadoff hitters in the game not named Rickey Henderson, batting .289 and averaging 12 triples and 34 stolen bases per year from 1990 to 1995.  Then he became a Met in 1996 and obliterated his six-year averages.  But injuries and a subsequent trade in 1997 curtailed his career, ending it at a relatively young age.

The Mets did not play well as a team in 1996, finishing 20 games below .500.  But Lance Johnson did all he could to make the season a memorable one for Mets fans.  Mookie Wilson captured the fans' hearts with his speed and smile in the 1980s.  Two decades later, Jose Reyes did the same.  The Mets did not have many players like that in the 1990s, but for one season, they did.

Lance Johnson was Mookie Wilson after the fan-favorite retired and he was Jose Reyes before anyone knew who Reyes was.  But without his one magnificent season in 1996, perhaps no Mets fan would have known who Lance Johnson was.  It's amazin' what one wonderful season can do to a player.


Note: One Season Wonders is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets who had one and only one memorable season in New York.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:
 
January 2, 2012: Bernard Gilkey
January 9, 2012: Terry Leach 
January 16, 2012: George Stone
January 23, 2012: Roger Cedeño
January 30, 2012: Frank Viola
February 6, 2012: Joe Christopher 
February 13, 2012: Dave Magadan 
February 20, 2012: Pedro Martinez
February 27, 2012: Bret Saberhagen 
March 5, 2012: Robin Ventura 
March 12, 2012: Willie Montañez

For The Mets, The Big Three-Oh Is The Big Oh-No!

When David Wright takes the field on Opening Day, he will begin his ninth season as a Met.  At age 29, Wright is the veteran of the team, having been with the Mets since July 2004.  The Mets' third baseman is also entering the final year of his six-year, $55 million contract, meaning that there is no guarantee that Wright will still be a Met at age 30.

That got me wondering.  Do you know which player was the last homegrown Met to still be playing for the team on his 30th birthday?  I do, but I'm not going to share the answer just yet.  I have to look at some other teams first.

Over the past decade, every team in baseball has had at least one player who was originally drafted and/or signed by that team, came up through their minor league system and was on that team's payroll until after he turned the big three-oh.  Let's run down the teams alphabetically, along with that team's last homegrown player who blew out thirty candles without ever knowing another professional franchise.

• Arizona Diamondbacks: Brandon Webb - drafted in 2000, was with the team until 2010 (age 31).
• Atlanta Braves: Chipper Jones - drafted in 1990, is still with the team (age 39).
• Baltimore Orioles: Brian Roberts - drafted in 1999, is still with the team (age 34).
• Boston Red Sox: Jonathan Papelbon - drafted in 2003, was with the team until 2011 (age 30).
• Chicago Cubs: Carlos Zambrano - signed in 1997, was with the team until 2011 (age 30).
• Chicago White Sox: Mark Buehrle - drafted in 1998, was with the team until 2011 (age 32).
• Cincinnati Reds: Ryan Hanigan - signed in 2002, is still with the team (age 31).
• Cleveland Indians: Victor Martinez - signed in 1996, was with the team until 2009 (age 30).
• Colorado Rockies: Todd Helton - drafted in 1995, is still with the team (age 38).
• Detroit Tigers: Brandon Inge - drafted in 1998, is still with the team (age 34).
• Florida Marlins: Luis Castillo - signed in 1992, was with the team until 2005 (age 30).
• Houston Astros: Lance Berkman - drafted in 1997, was with the team until 2010 (age 34).
• Kansas City Royals: David DeJesus - drafted in 2000, was with the team until 2010 (age 30).
• Los Angeles Angels: Reggie Willits - drafted in 2003, was with the team until 2011 (age 30).
• Los Angeles Dodgers: Hong-Chih Kuo - signed in 1999, was with the team until 2011 (age 30).
• Milwaukee Brewers: Ben Sheets - drafted in 1999, was with the team until 2008 (age 30).
• Minnesota Twins: Justin Morneau - drafted in 1999, is still with the team (age 30).
• New York Yankees: Mariano Rivera - signed in 1990, is still with the team (age 42).
• Oakland Athletics: Eric Chavez - drafted in 1996, was with the team until 2010 (age 32).
• Philadelphia Phillies: Jimmy Rollins - drafted in 1996, is still with the team (age 33).
• Pittsburgh Pirates: Ryan Doumit - drafted in 1999, was with the team until 2011 (age 30).
• San Diego Padres: Tony Gwynn - drafted in 1981, was with the team until 2001 (age 41).
• San Francisco Giants: Pedro Feliz - signed in 1994, was with the team until 2007 (age 32).
• Seattle Mariners: Willie Bloomquist - drafted in 1999, was with the team until 2008 (age 30).
• St. Louis Cardinals: Skip Schumaker - drafted in 2001, is still with the team (age 32).
• Tampa Bay Rays: James Shields - drafted in 2000, is still with the team (age 30).
• Texas Rangers: C.J. Wilson - drafted in 2001, was with the team until 2011 (age 30).
• Toronto Blue Jays: Casey Janssen - drafted in 2004, is still with the team (age 30).
• Washington Nationals: Brian Schneider - drafted in 1995, was with the team until 2007 (age 30).

As you can see, every team in the majors has had a homegrown player stay with the team until his 30th birthday (and in some cases, well after his 30th birthday) in the 21st century.  In addition, there are three players about to turn 30 who are still employed by the team that originally drafted them.

Corey Hart (drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2000) will turn 30 on March 24.  Brian Wilson (drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2003) will beat Hart to the punch by eight days, as the Giants' closer turns 30 on March 16.  If Tim Stauffer (drafted by the San Diego Padres in 2003) is still a Friar on June 2, he will replace Tony Gwynn as the most recent homegrown Padres player to still be with the team at age 30.

Should Stauffer replace Gwynn on this list in June, that would leave the Florida/Miami Marlins as the only team to not have a homegrown player make it to age 30 in the past five years.  Actually, that's not entirely accurate.  There's one team that hasn't had a homegrown 30-year-old since before Luis Castillo was the last Marlin to accomplish the feat.  Of course, I'm talking about the New York Mets.

In 1993, Vance Wilson was drafted by the Mets in the 44th round of the amateur draft.  He made his major league debut six years later and remained with the team until 2004, playing his final game for the Mets at the age of 31.  As unlikely as it would seem, Vance Wilson was the last homegrown Met to still be with the team on his 30th birthday.

Vance Wilson (shown here as a 31-year-old in 2004) not only tagged opposing baserunners, but he also tagged the title of last homegrown Met to stay with the team into his thirties.

If David Wright is still a Met in 2013, he will be the first Met in almost a decade to be drafted by the team and remain with the club until he turned 30.  In recent years, the Mets have had a number of veteran players on the team.  Unfortunately, those veterans have been the products of other organizations.  The Mets haven't produced many successful major leaguers over the past ten seasons, and when they have, they've either traded them away or allowed them to leave via free agency.

On June 2, San Diego's Tim Stauffer will turn 30 years old.  By then, he could be the third new member of the homegrown age 30 club, joining Milwaukee's Corey Hart and San Francisco's Brian Wilson.  If David Wright doesn't join this club in December when he turns 30, it could be a long time before the Mets produce another homegrown player to stay with the team until his 30th birthday.  (Mike Pelfrey won't turn 30 until 2014.  He'll probably be mentioned in 30 trade rumors before then.)

Jose Reyes played his final game for the Mets before the age of 30.  So did Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry.  Some people look forward to turning 30.  For players originally drafted by the Mets, it's something they can look forward to doing in another team's uniform.

The Cut Seen 'Round The World

With a few weeks remaining before pitchers and catchers report to Late Winter Training, I was hoping to catch some baseball news on the MLB Network at 6 PM last night.  After an offseason filled with NL East teams making moves to help their teams (Phillies signed Jonathan Papelbon, Nationals acquired Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson, Marlins picked up a player or twelve), I was hoping to get some Mets news on the baseball cable network.  Instead, I got this:

That's right, Mets fans.  The MLB Network was showing a live broadcast of Jose Reyes getting his hair cut.  Now, granted, he is donating his locks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who will in turn auction them off on eBay, but did we really need to see it on live TV?

Did the MLB Network not have anything else to report?  Were they all out of countdown shows?  Didn't they want to show Hot Stove or Clubhouse Confidential for the umpteenth time?  That's what I was tuning in for.

No.  They thought it would make for good television to have Jose Reyes comply with Marlins' team policy by getting his hair cut.  Other players, such as Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi, have gotten their long locks shorn when they moved to a team that forbade them.  Furthermore, numerous athletes have donated their hair to charitable foundations in the past as well.

But I guess anytime a star athlete takes his talents to Miami, a big television event has to come out of it.  First, it was LeBron James and "The Decision".  Now, it's Jose Reyes and "The Haircut".  What's next?  A guest spot on CSI: Miami?  Will Jose Reyes be the next killer to torment the officers of Miami Metro on Dexter?

Personally, I'm waiting for Reyes to take Guy Fieri on a tour of his favorite new restaurants in Miami, looking for the perfect mofongo or mangú on a special episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Hey, if Don Larsen - the author of the only perfect game in World Series history - could appear on Triple D, why can't Reyes?

Blue background.  Orange cape.  So nice of MLB to remind us that Jose Reyes is no longer a Met.

I commend Jose Reyes on using his hair for a good cause.  That's not the point of my rant.  The point is, why did the MLB Network feel that baseball fans needed to see this on live television?  Did they have a post-cut interview with the guy hired to sweep the floor?  Was there an over-under on how many dreads would be cut?

Those are just some of the silly questions I can think of regarding this live show.  The silliest question of all is probably why the programming directors at MLB thought this would make for compelling television.  The Cut Seen 'Round The World should have been cut from our television sets.  Even the dozens of Marlins fans would have to agree with that.

The Perfect Way For The Mets To Stick It To The Marlins

As all Mets fans know, the Marlins have been a thorn in the team's side since 2007.  First, Tom Glavine was able to retire only one more batter than I did in the 2007 regular season finale, completing the Mets' collapse.  One year later, the Marlins wouldn't get off the field after they once again eliminated the Mets (and Shea Stadium) in Game No. 162.  Three years after that, they stuck it to the Mets again, this time by signing Jose Reyes to a six-year deal worth $106 million, or about $106 million more than Fred Wilpon has stored away in his souvenir Sandy Koufax piggy bank.

In fact, if you really want to get technical about it, the Marlins have been one-upping the Mets since 1997, when they replaced the Mets as the fastest expansion team to win a World Series.  (The Marlins have since been knocked off that perch by the fourth-year Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001.)

But other than the Mets celebrating their 2006 NL East title in front of their home fans while the Marlins watched in the road dugout, they haven't really done anything that would be considered negative to the Marlins.  Are they upset that the Mets took Mike Piazza and Carlos Delgado from them?  Did Fred Wilpon insult Marlins' owner Jeffrey Loria's mother because he found out Loria grew up as a Yankee fan during the era in which the Brooklyn Dodgers kept losing to them in the World Series?

The time has come for the Mets to stand up to the Marlins once and for all.  And I know just how they can do it.

Earlier today, it was reported that Bud Selig expects two extra wild-card teams to be in place for this season, rather than the 2013 campaign.  Therefore, with five teams now qualifying for the playoffs in the National League instead of the usual four, the Marlins have reasonable expectations that they will be one of those five teams.

More than likely, the Phillies will win the NL East for the sixth consecutive season.  But the Atlanta Braves are coming off an epic late-season collapse.  The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers both lost their top power hitters (Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder) to free agency.  With all those windows being opened in the National League, the Miami Marlins are poised to break through and crash the playoff party for the first time since Art Howe was supposedly managing the Mets.

Like many other teams competing for the wild card spots, the Marlins might not play a potential clinching game until the final series of the season.  And who, pray tell, will the Marlins be playing on October 1, 2 and 3 in front of their dozens of fans at their brand spanking-new ballpark?

The New York Mets.

Wouldn't it be something if the Marlins needed to win their final series of the season and the newly-signed (and former Met) Heath Bell blew a save or two to the Mets?  Or how about if Jose Reyes, representing the tying run in the bottom of the ninth was caught stealing to end a game?  What if the Marlins' new ace, Mark Buehrle, only lasted a third of an inning in the regular season finale, as the Mets battered him for run after run in the opening frame?  Would that be devastating to them?

It's been too long since the Marlins have been a thorn in the Mets' side.  Ever since Steve Trachsel's arm and Jose Valentin's bat took them down in the 2006 division clincher, the artists formerly known as the Florida Marlins have been giving the Mets and their fans recurring nightmares.

Hey, we all know the Marlins are just one poor finish away from conducting their once-a-decade fire sale.  Why not speed up the inevitable and give them a chance to do it this year?  The Marlins have been sticking it to the Mets every chance they've gotten since 2007.  It's time for the Mets to stick it right back to them in 2012.  Ya gotta believe.

Loyalty And Leaderboards

Former Yankee catcher Jorge Posada officially announced his retirement from baseball today.  He left the game after playing exclusively for the Yankees since his promotion to the major leagues in 1995.

Those aren't sentences I usually begin a blog post with.  After all, this is Studious Metsimus, which the last time I checked, focused on Mets-related news.  But I couldn't help but notice something about Posada's career numbers with the Yankees, especially when compared to some of the Mets' all-time greats.

Jorge Posada collected 6,092 at-bats over his 17-year career.  In those at-bats, he picked up 1,664 hits, of which 379 were doubles and 275 were home runs.  Posada also walked 936 times, scored 900 runs and piled up 1,065 RBIs.  He's nowhere near the Yankee team leaders in any of those categories, nor does he rank among the top five hitting catchers of all-time, as players like Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez, Johnny Bench, Ted Simmons, Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella were all better hitters than Posada.  So why am I making such a big deal about this?

Because Jorge Posada would be the Mets' all-time leader in hits, doubles, home runs, walks, runs scored and RBIs if he had played his entire career in Flushing.

As hard as it is for me to admit it, Jorge Posada was a better hitter than Ed Kranepool.

Jorge Posada surpassed 150 hits in a season only once (2007), a figure that has been achieved by many Mets.  One might argue that Posada's hit total would be lower than most hitters because of all his time spent as a catcher.  To those people, I submit the fact that Mike Piazza, also a catcher, reached the 150-hit plateau three times as a Met and eight times in his career.  Posada also hit 30 or more doubles four times, reached 30 home runs once, walked 100 times once, drove in 100 runs once and never scored 100 runs in any of 17 seasons.  Several Mets players have reached those numbers multiple times, except for walks, where John Olerud is the only Met to walk 100 times in a season.

Had Jorge Posada played his entire career as a Met and produced the same numbers, he'd be considered the greatest offensive player in Mets history and would be counting down the days till his number joined Nos. 37, 14 and 41 on the left field wall at Citi Field.  Instead, he is just one of many Yankees who had very good careers in pinstripes.  Is this a testament to the fact that the Yankees have been Slugger Central over the past century or have the Mets just done poorly developing and keeping their offensive stars?

There's a reason why Tom Seaver is referred to as "The Franchise".  It's not because he's the sole player in the Hall of Fame with a Mets cap on his plaque.   It's because the Mets have a tough time producing elite players, and when they do, they end up trading them or letting them walk via free agency.  Tom Seaver was an elite player with the Mets for 11 years.  Since 1983, when Seaver played his last game as a Met, the only player developed in the Mets' minor league system who spent over a decade in Flushing was Dwight Gooden.  The only hitters originally drafted by the Mets who played over a decade in New York were Ed Kranepool, Cleon Jones, Bud Harrelson and Ron Hodges.  That's not exactly a Murderer's Row we're talking about there.

Perhaps one day the Mets will develop a player in their minor league system, watch him become an All-Star in Flushing and keep him around for a while.  Jose Reyes could have been that player.  David Wright could still be that player if the Mets don't decide to keep their pennies to themselves.  Jorge Posada was that type of player for the Yankees.  Had he been a Met, he'd be atop the team's all-time leaderboard in a plethora of categories.  See what a little loyalty can do for you?

Miami Unsound Machine: Carlos Zambrano Is A Marlin

The Miami Marlins are at it again.  Earlier today, the Marlins traded starting pitcher Chris Volstad to the Chicago Cubs for the human geyser, Carlos Zambrano.  Zambrano will etch his name on the long list of new players who will be calling South Beach home until the Marlins conduct their latest fire sale.

Chicago will eat $15.5 million of Zambrano's salary in 2012, leaving the Marlins to foot the bill for the remaining $2.5 million.  The Marlins needed the Cubs to take on most of his salary so they can use the savings to make repairs to all parts of their new stadium that Zambrano will eventually destroy after his first meltdown.

At first glance, it appears to be a good deal for the Marlins.  They were able to unload Chris Volstad, who was 5-13 for the team formerly known as Florida in 2011.  It was a disappointing season for Volstad, especially on the heels of a 12-9 season in 2010.  The 25-year-old has been in the major leagues since 2008 but has never pitched more than 175 innings in a season.  The same cannot be said for Zambrano.

Carlos Zambrano has had a winning record in each of the last nine seasons, going 120-71 (.628 winning percentage) since 2003.  Over those nine seasons, El Toro has averaged 190 innings pitched per year, surpassing 200 innings five times.  In 2011, Zambrano only pitched 145.2 innings, but that was mostly due to the fact that the Cubs suspended him for the final month of the season.

So why will this deal fall apart for Miami?  Because Carlos Zambrano makes Dennis Rodman look sane.

Other than fellow new acquisition Mark Buehrle, most of the Marlins' pitching staff is young and easily impressionable.  Is Carlos Zambrano going to be a mentor or just mental to them?  Do the Marlins have a long reliever for the games in which Zambrano loses his control on the mound (Big Z has led the league in walks twice and hit batsmen once) and then loses his control in the dugout (he famously confronted several of his teammates there in 2010)?

Also, who's going to replace Jose Reyes in the lineup when Zambrano blindly throws a Gatorade cooler in a fit of anger and hits the former Met in his fragile hamstrings?  Zambrano may be good friends with his new manager (fellow Venezuelan Ozzie Guillen), but can the Marlins handle making excuses for both of them when they lose their cool?

 Carlos Zambrano shows off his best smile for the camera.

Theo Epstein made a great deal today for the Cubs, ridding the team of its clubhouse cancer by finding the one club who was willing to take him off their hands.  The Marlins are signing and trading for anyone with a pulse right now and when Zambrano gets steamed, no one has a higher pulse rate.

Perhaps Zambrano will be a perfect fit in Miami (doubt it).  Perhaps this deal will even help the Mets in the long run.  After all, Volstad is now out of the NL East after posting a 3.35 ERA in eight career starts against the Mets, while having an ERA over 4.00 against every other team he's made a minimum of five starts against.

Miami already has volatile weather practically every afternoon during the summer.  Now they'll be experiencing a different kind of storm every fifth day when Carlos Zambrano takes the mound.  Hide your kids, hide your $106 million shortstop, because Carlos Zambrano is taking out everybody who gets in his way.  Let the countdown begin to his first Miami meltdown.

Joey's Small Bites: Mets Re-Sign Scott Hairston

Greetings and a happy new year to everyone!  This is Joey Beartran and I'm here to give you some small bites on what's going on with the Mets these days.

If you recall, last April I had the opportunity to take the field with a member of the Mets before the first Saturday night game of the season.  I was hoping to meet either Jose Reyes or Carlos Beltran since I was named after both of them.  But then I saw the starting lineup and feared I'd get Chin-lung Hu.

I didn't get to take the field with my namesakes or the man named after two body parts and a question.  Instead I got to meet the starting leftfielder for the night.  I wanted it to be Jason Bay so we could discuss the finer things in life, like Canadian bacon, poutine and Tim Horton's.

Unfortunately, Bay was on the disabled list to start the season so I got his replacement du jour.  That's right, my friends.  I got to meet Scott Hairston.

Scott Hairston was in awe that the world's preeminent bear blogger was taking the field with him.  Either that or he was checking out my colleague's wife.  (Photo by Sharon Chapman)

Hairston was very polite and seemed happy to see us keeping his position warm for him.  He even gave me a high five before we ran off the field to head for our seats.  Although he didn't do very well in the game (0-for-3, 2 Ks, HBP, one run scored), I still enjoyed my first meeting with him and rooted openly for him during the season.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I was overjoyed when word came out that the Mets had re-signed Hairston for the 2012 season.  At first, I was a little skeptical about the news.  After all, the Mets aren't signing anyone these days.  They're leaving that for the other teams in the NL East.

But then I checked Twitter and scanned through Jon Heyman's tweets and found confirmation of the news (because everything Heyman tweets is true, right?):

scott hairston will get $1.1M from mets in '12, give or take a few pennies
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) January 5, 2012

So one of the Mets' key bench players will be returning to Citi Field in 2012 at a bargain basement price of $1.1 million (or less than 10% of what they paid Oliver Perez not to pitch for the Mets in 2011).

Although Hairston only hit .235 last year, he excelled at producing extra-base hits.  Of his 31 hits, 16 went for extra bases (eight doubles, one triple, seven home runs), giving him a .470 slugging percentage.  In addition, Hairston picked up 24 RBI in 149 plate appearances.  His rate of one RBI every 6.2 plate appearances was better than Carlos Beltran (6.3 PA/RBI), David Wright (7.3 PA/RBI) and Lucas Duda (6.9 PA/RBI).  Jason Bay?  He drove in a run every 8.9 plate appearances in 2011 and will be paid approximately 15 times the amount Hairston will be earning in 2012.

Scott Hairston hit three of his seven home runs as a pinch-hitter in 2011, leading all Mets in that department, despite the fact that he didn't play after August 23 because of injury.  No other Met hit more than one pinch-hit homer in 2011.

The Mets didn't hit for much power in 2011.  For the second time in the three-year history of Citi Field, no Met hit more than 15 HR.  The team's leading home run hitter (Carlos Beltran) played the final two months of the season as a member of the San Francisco Giants.  Scott Hairston was one of the few players on the team who could actually hit the ball out of the ballpark with some regularity.  Therefore, I believe it's a good thing that he's returning to Citi Field in 2012, especially with the walls being lowered and moved in.

A healthy Scott Hairston will provide the Mets with a legitimate home run threat on the bench, as well as a utility player who can play in the infield and outfield when needed.  The Mets might not be big spenders this offseason, but at least they're keeping their inexpensive talent.

Jose Reyes is gone.  So is Carlos Beltran.  Maybe I should change my name from Joey Beartran to Scotty Bearston.  At least that way I know I'll have my namesake around in 2012.

Studious Metsimus Presents The Happy/Crappy Recap For 2011

We've reached the end of another year.  It was a year in which the Mets missed the playoffs for the 43rd time in 50 seasons.  It was also a year in which New York finished in last or next-to-last place in the division/league for the 25th time.  You don't need Antonio Alfonseca to tell you that the Mets have accomplished that feat in half of their seasons.

The year began with Johan Santana supposedly being out until August, but it was never specified in what year he would make that late-summer return.  Mike Pelfrey was supposed to fill in for Santana as the Mets' ace.  He pitched more like Ace Ventura.  Jason Bay was supposed to prove that 2010 was a fluke.  Mission not accomplished.

On the bright side, Oliver Perez didn't get to throw ball four for the Mets in 2011 and Luis Castillo didn't get to hobble his way around Citi Field in search of a glove that didn't drop crucial Subway Series pop-ups.

The year was happy.  The year was crappy.  But how happy and crappy was the 2011 season for the Mets?  That's what this post is all about.  Let's start with what went right.

Terry Collins was not the fans' first choice to be Mets' manager in 2011.  Fans who wanted to see Wally Backman as the skipper of the Mets got their wish, sort of, as the former spark plug was promoted from Brooklyn to manage the AA-Binghamton Mets.  Collins did not get off to a fast start, to say the least, as the Mets lost 13 of their first 18 games.  However, he quickly got his players back on track and by late July, the Mets were four games over .500 and had fans thinking about meaningful games in September.  The ride didn't last for the full 162-game journey, but it showed that Collins could handle this team and gave fans hope for better things to come.

It was expected that the Mets were going to trade Carlos Beltran at some point during the 2011 season.  But Beltran had not played an injury-free season since the Mets said sayonara to Shea.  The odds of getting anything of value in return for Beltran did not appear to be great as the season got underway.  But something funny happened on the way to the trade deadline.  Beltran played.  And played.  And played.  Not only did he play, he played well, hitting around .300 for most of the season and leading the team in home runs and RBI.  The highlight of Beltran's season came on May 12, when he hit three home runs in a game against the Rockies at Coors Field.  That caught the eye of the offensively-challenged San Francisco Giants, who parted with their top pitching prospect in July to acquire Beltran.  Carlos Beltran was not going to be a Met in 2012, but Zack Wheeler might make an appearance at Citi Field within the next year or two.  Who would have thought the Mets could acquire such a top prospect for a player who was one injury away from not being worth a bag of baseballs and a used jock strap?

Like Beltran, Jose Reyes had also spent more time checking himself into the DL Hotel than on the field prior to 2011.  Reyes still made two trips to the disabled list in 2011, but when he was on the field, he was brilliant.  For most of the season, Reyes was leading the league in multi-hit games, triples, runs scored and one other category.  It was a category that no Met had ever led after Game No. 162 prior to this season.  Notice my use of past tense in the previous sentence.  By collecting a hit in his final at-bat, Reyes finished the season with a .337 batting average, becoming the first Met to win a batting title.  And I can't think of a better segueway into the crappy part of our season recap.

"Now batting for the Miami Marlins, number 7, Jose Reyes."  Admit it.  You never thought Reyes would ever play for a team other than the Mets, let alone a division rival - a division rival that Reyes watched from the Shea Stadium dugout as they eliminated his former team from postseason contention in consecutive seasons.   The departure of Reyes marked the biggest free agent defection of a homegrown player since Darryl Strawberry switched coasts following the 1990 season.  Back then, the Mets responded to the Straw Man's departure by finishing with a losing record for the next six seasons.  That doesn't bode well for the 2012 Mets.

The injury recovery time prognosticator at Citi Field failed again in 2011.  David Wright was only supposed to miss a few weeks with his injured back.  He ended up taking a two-and-a-half month paid vacation.  Ike Davis was day-to-day when David Wright danced the forbidden dance with him near the Coors Field pitching mound.  We're still waiting for Ike's return.  Johan Santana?  Apparently, his injury is causing major league baseball to consider changing the 15-day-DL to the 15-month-DL.  Ever since moving into Citi Field, no one has been immune to the injury bug.  Expect Mr. Met to go on the DL in 2012.

Hey, buddy.  Can you spare a dime?  How about a couple hundred million dimes?  That's what the Wilpons are probably asking right now, as the Mets' financial woes continue to get worse and worse.  As a result, Sandy Alderson hasn't been able to pursue big ticket free agents, while his division rivals have not hesitated to add star power.  The Phillies signed closer Jonathan Papelbon.  The Nationals traded for starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez.  The Marlins got whoever they wanted not named Pujols.  Season ticket holders get special perks.  Potential minority owners will get their own set of perks.  The only perks fans really want are spelled with a W, an I and an N, and the Wilpons seem more interested in spelling "NO SALE" than a much shorter word like "WIN".

Well, there you you have it, my friends.  It was another year full of happy moments as well as crappy moments.  There were times to cheer, times to boo and times to complain about there not being more chicken nacho stands at Citi Field (although that might have been more Joey doing the complaining than me).

As always, we'd like to thank you, our faithful readers, for making it a blast to write about our favorite team, whether they make us smile or make us hide our heads under paper bags.  Your continued support, as always, is very much appreciated.

We'd also like to thank our fellow bloggers, from Greg Prince and Jason Fry at Faith and Fear In Flushing, to Joe D at Mets Merized Online and the ever-wise John Coppinger (a.k.a. Metstradamus), your sites have inspired us at Studious Metsimus to be better bloggers.  We can't thank you enough for your contributions to the Mets blogosphere, but we sure can try!

Other blogs worth reading include Remembering Shea, Kiner's Korner, The Real Dirty Mets, Mets 360, On The Black, MetsBlog, Random Mets Thoughts, Kranepool Society and The Daily Stache, to name a few.  (But there are many other outstanding Mets blogs out there!)

Oh, yeah.  There's one more blog I forgot to mention.  Perhaps you've heard of A Gal For All Seasons (and if not, shame on you - but if you click on the link above, all will be forgiven).  The author of that site inspires the Studious Metsimus crew more than any other blogger in the Mets blogosphere, and I'm not just saying that because she's my wife.  Really.  I'm not kidding.  Ya Gotta Believe (me).  Let's just say that she's the reason the Studious Metsimus team will always have happy recaps, even if one of us asks for a $106 million box of chocolates.

From all of us to you and yours, we hope you have a happy and healthy New Year.  Then again, as long as we remain fans of the Mets and not players on the Mets, we shouldn't have a problem with health issues.  Let's Go Mets!

Photo by Jason Bornstein (Remembering Shea).  He brings out the blue and orange in all of us.

What If The Mets Had Followed The Minayan Calendar?

Today is December 21, 2011.  According to those who follow the Mayan Calendar, that means the world is supposed to end exactly one year from today, on December 21, 2012.  For some Mets fans, however, the world came to an end on the day it was revealed the Wilpons had less money than this guy.

Still, there are some Mets fans who believe they will see better days before they see the end of days.  After all, the Mets from the late '70s, despite needing magic to come back (and a GM named Frank Cashen), eventually did see better days in the mid '80s.

But let's just say for argument's sake that the end of the world was coming in one year.  And let's also say that the reason for its coming was because Omar Minaya was never fired.  What if the Mets had not subscribed to the Mayan Calendar, but instead believed in the Minayan Calendar?

We recently pretended to ask Omar Minaya himself a few questions about what he would have done to the current Mets had he still been employed by the team.  The answers he made up were quite surprising to say the least!

Studious Metsimus:  Seeing that no one stood out at second base in 2011, what do you plan to do to give some stability to the position?

Omar Minaya:  I'd re-sign Luis Castillo to a three-year, $20 million deal.  Hey, Dan Uggla got five years and $62 million from Atlanta.  All he did was hit .233 and watch as the Braves collapsed in September.  With Castillo, we'd get a player who has experience with late-season collapses and can hit for a higher average than Uggla.  So what if Uggla had a 33-game hitting streak last year.  Castillo topped that, hitting in 35 straight games in 2002.  Did it happen as a Met?  No.  But it could.  So that being said, I think Castillo would be the perfect choice for the Mets.  We can sign him and commit two fewer years and $42 million less than the Braves gave to Uggla.  I'd say that's a bargain.


Studious Metsimus:  Last year, R.A. Dickey led all Mets starters with a 3.28 ERA, but only won eight of 21 decisions.  The team leader in wins (Dillon Gee) had a fine start, but faltered as his innings piled up.  What would you do to bolster the starting rotation in 2012?

Omar Minaya:  I'd like to get a top notch starter, perhaps one who recently won a Cy Young Award.  Remember 1989?  That was the year the Mets traded Rick Aguilera, Kevin Tapani, David West, Tim Drummond and Jack Savage to Minnesota for former Cy Young Award winner Frank Viola.  If memory serves me correctly, Viola won 20 games for the Mets the following season.  No Met has won more than 18 games in a season since then.  Drummond and Savage combined to win three games in the major leagues.  West finished 31-38 in ten major league seasons.  I don't recall what Aguilera and Tapani did, but judging how the other three pitchers did after being traded to Minnesota, I'd assume they probably didn't do too well, you know what I'm sayin'?  Therefore, I suggest trading Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia to the Chicago White Sox for Jake Peavy.  Peavy won the National League Cy Young Award in 2007 as a member of the San Diego Padres and is only under contract for one more year, with a team option for 2013.  Yeah, he's going to make $17 million in 2012 and he only won seven games in both 2010 and 2011, but that shows he's consistent.  We can't go wrong with this deal!


Studious Metsimus:  What about your bench?  As things currently stand, the Mets could use a little help in that department.

Omar Minaya:  Help is on the way in the form of Julio Franco!  This signing would serve two purposes.  First, he would come off the bench as our top pinch-hitter and would serve as a backup to Ike Davis at first base in case David Wright decides to play footsie with Ike near the pitcher's mound again.  Second, with all the talk of Jamie Moyer attempting to return to the major leagues at age 49, it would just be another way for the Phillies to take the spotlight away from the Mets again.  Julio Franco should ALWAYS be the oldest player in the major leagues.  Not Jamie Moyer.  Not anyone else.  Plus, should Terry Collins fail, I could always have Franco be player/manager.  I'd be a fool not to sign Julio Franco!


Studious Metsimus:  I'm contractually obligated to ask you this question, so I apologize in advance if this brings up painful memories.  Oliver Perez.  Are you going to bring him back to pitch for the Mets?

Omar Minaya:  No apologies necessary.  And Mets fans, you don't have to worry.  I'm not bringing back Oliver Perez to pitch for the Mets.  That being said, I am going to sign him as our new pitching coach.  Look, Dan Warthen has been the Mets' pitching coach since the team played at Shea Stadium.  That's way too long for a man who wasn't even a good pitcher during his time in the major leagues.  Did you know that over his career, Warthen walked 198 batters in 307 innings?  That comes out to 5.8 walks per nine innings.  It's also almost a walk higher than Oliver Perez's career rate (5.1 BB/9 IP).  That's the man the Mets entrusted to teach their pitchers how to throw strikes consistently?  I'd rather take my chances with Ollie.  At least he could throw a strike every once in a while.


Studious Metsimus:  Here's a tough question.  Mets fans are still bitter over the loss of Jose Reyes.  What would you do to offset the departure of one of the most beloved players in franchise history?

Omar Minaya:  That's an easy one.  Obviously, with Reyes staying in the division, we're going to see him quite a bit and I'm sure he's going to try to run wild on the bases when he plays us.  We're going to need someone who can punch him out whenever he tries to steal a base, that's for sure.  Therefore, I'm going to trade for Miguel Olivo.  Olivo has always been good at throwing out baserunners, but in case Reyes tries to show us up on the bases, Olivo can literally punch him out.  Surely, you remember the John Maine game of the 2007 season.  Most people remember it for the near no-hitter that kept the Mets alive in the race for the division title.  I remember it because of Miguel Olivo.  Since that game, I've wanted Olivo on my team.  I'm not letting this chance pass me by.


Studious Metsimus:  Finally, I'd like to ask you one more question.  It's a topic we've discussed recently on this blog, regarding statues at Citi Field.  If you could immortalize a former Mets player with a bronze statue, which player would that be and why?

Omar Minaya:  Come on!  Are you serious?  Who's the most beloved Met of all-time?  Do you even have to think about it?  Clearly, it's Joe McEwing!  When I was languishing in Montreal as their GM hoping I'd get the call from the Mets, I watched Super Joe show off his skills on the field regularly.  I'd never seen anyone hit Randy Johnson so well in my life.  In fact, he was so good against the Big Unit that he had fifteen more at-bats against him than any other pitcher he faced in the major leagues.  In 44 at-bats against Johnson, McEwing batted .250 with five doubles and one home run.  Trust me, that's actually pretty good, as Johnson held opponents to a .221 batting average over his two decades in the majors.  The Mets already have VIP entrances for Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges and Tom Seaver.  They also have their retired numbers up on the left field wall.  Erecting a statue to honor any of them would be overkill.  Therefore, I vote for a Joe McEwing statue.  It's the least I could do to make up for releasing him prior to the 2005 season, you know what I'm saying?

We know what you're saying, Omar.  That being said, what exactly did you just say?

Joey's Soapbox: My Connection To Jose Reyes

Greetings, Mets fans.  This is Joey Beartran reporting, although I have to say that I am too distraught to get up on my soapbox today.  As you already know, Jose Reyes has traded in his orange and blue duds for a Miami Marlins' Skittles-colored jersey.  It's a day I never expected to see, and one that I'm having a tough time accepting.

It's not because I'm upset that Reyes remained in the NL East, where the Mets will see him for 18 games per season.  It's also not because the Mets lost their leadoff hitter and shortstop, replacing him at those positions with Angel Pagan and Ruben Tejada, respectively.

My tough time accepting the loss of Jose Reyes goes back to the day I was born.  Please allow me to explain.

I'll always be connected to Jose, and not just through an internet connection.

On June 20, 2004, my future colleague at Studious Metsimus saw me sitting up on a display in the Mets Team Store located behind home plate at Shea Stadium.  I was dressed in the gray Mets hoodie you're used to seeing me in, surrounded by... nothing ... I was the last Mets bear of my kind in the Team Store.  From my vantage point, I could see outside the windows of the store, but I couldn't see the field, even with my proximity to home plate.  Therefore, I had yet to see Jose Reyes play.

It was Father's Day and my future colleague decided I should come out from behind the window and see my first Mets game in person.  So he paid $25 for the right to take me off the display (I don't come cheap) and we went up to our seats in the mezzanine.

That weekend was special for other reasons in addition to it being my first Mets game after my "birth".  On Friday, June 18, the Mets held a ceremony to honor Mike Piazza for becoming the all-time leader in home runs by a catcher.  The following night, June 19, was Jose Reyes' first appearance for the Mets after spending the first two-plus months of the season on the disabled list.  I wanted to see Reyes so badly, being that I was not "alive" for his rookie season in 2003.

Do you know how much of a fan of Reyes I was?  I told my colleague once we left the Team Store on June 20 that my name was Jose (even though we all know it's Joey).  Reyes did not lead off for the Mets that day.  That honor went to Kaz Matsui, who was also playing shortstop for the Mets at the time, with Reyes manning second base.

The game between the Mets and the Tigers was scoreless through three and a half innings.  Jeremy Bonderman was pitching beautifully for the Tigers, taking a no-hitter into the bottom of the fourth.  Then Jose Reyes came to bat to lead off the inning and everything changed, both for me and the Mets.

Reyes worked a seven-pitch walk to start the inning.  After Bonderman struck out Mike Piazza and Cliff Floyd, he faced the dangerous Richard Hidalgo.  Hidalgo had just been acquired by the Mets from the Astros prior to the weekend series against Detroit and was familiarizing himself with Shea Stadium.  Prior to his fourth inning at-bat, Hidalgo had gotten off to an 0-for-8 start as a Met.  But in none of those eight at-bats did Hidalgo come up with Reyes on base.  That was not the case in this at-bat.

With Reyes bouncing back and forth off first base, Bonderman started to become frazzled.  He threw several times to first baseman Carlos Peña with Reyes getting back safely each time.  Finally, after throwing a strike to Hidalgo, Bonderman grooved a pitch that Hidalgo hit over the fence for his first home run as a Met.  Without question, it was Reyes' nerve-jangling dance off first base that caused Bonderman to change his approach on the mound.  I had just seen firsthand what a dynamic player Reyes was, how he could change a game by getting into the mind of the opposing pitcher.

 I idolized Jose Reyes so much that I'd slide into second base head-first like he would.

It was the beginning of a love affair with Jose Reyes that took me to the highest highs (the 2006 playoffs) and the lowest lows (any of his ten million trips to the disabled list).  Ever since Father's Day 2004, I followed everything Reyes did.  I cheered when he moved back to shortstop after Art Howe's ill-advised decision to move him to second base in 2004 failed miserably.  I cringed when Jerry Manuel tried to bat him third in the lineup in April and May 2010.  I was confused when Jose took himself out of the lineup after collecting a bunt base hit in the team's final game of the 2011 season, then elated when he won the batting title later that night.

But alas, that bunt hit was the last time I'd see him in a Mets uniform.  It would be the last time anyone would see him wearing the only major league uniform he had ever worn.

Jose Reyes is now a Miami Marlin.  It doesn't seem right, does it?  I didn't know who the Mets' shortstop was before Reyes played his first game in 2003 or who wore No. 7 last before it became synonymous with Reyes.  It didn't matter to me that Rey Sanchez manned the position prior to Jose's debut or that Jason Phillips wore No. 7 for 11 games in 2002.  It was all about Jose Reyes for me.

Now he's gone.

I named myself Jose after my "birth" because I wanted to be like No. 7 on the Mets.  He was the future of the team but he was right there in front of me in the present.  He was flashy, energetic and he played with such a love of the game, it was hard not to love him.

I will still be a fan of Jose Reyes.  After all, it's hard to give up on something once you've had a connection with it for your entire lifetime.  But that connection will never be the same for me.  It won't be the same when I see Ruben Tejada start a double play.  Whenever Angel Pagan wipes dirt off his pants after stealing a base or legging out a triple, no one will start singing "Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose".

It'll be quite difficult for me at Citi Field in 2012.  As always, I'll root for the name on the front of the jersey instead of the one on the back.  But when the Marlins come to town and I see the name "REYES" on the back of their leadoff hitter's jersey, a mountain of memories will flood my mind.

Jose Reyes and I will always have a special bond, going back to the day we first met on June 20, 2004.  The Mets won that game against the Tigers, but I feel like I won by getting to see him play for as long as I did.  Guess that's a connection that'll never break.

Song Parody: It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Reyes Today

Everyone is talking about Jose Reyes' departure from the Mets today.  From this piece at Kiner's Korner to this one at A Gal For All Seasons to this other one at Mets Merized Online, bloggers from all over Mets-ropolis are waxing nostalgic about the Mets' former shortstop.

Former shortstop.  Those are words reserved for Rey Ordoñez, Mike Bordick and Kaz Matsui.  They're not words we ever thought we'd use for Jose Reyes.  But now it's a reality.  Jose Reyes is no longer a Met.

Usually, the purpose of a song parody is to poke fun at something Mets-related, hence why I've written more parodies on Oliver Perez than anyone else.  But today, I'd like to bring it down a notch.  Two decades ago, when Jose Reyes was still in grade school in the Dominican Republic, Boyz II Men had a hit with their poignant ballad, "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday".  That song couldn't be more appropriate for the way many Mets fans feel about this sad day.

So let's pause for a moment to reflect on our former shortstop (sigh...former...) as we sing "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Reyes Today":

How do I say goodbye to who we had?
The shortstop who smiled and laughed
Will not be back.

I thought he'd be here forever
But Jose has gone away.
It's so hard to say goodbye to Reyes today.

I don't know who will show at once-filled Citi Field.
All I know is that we've been
Always behind you.

If we're competitive tomorrow
I hope it's worth losing Jose.
It's so hard to say goodbye to Reyes today.

And I'll take the speedy memories
His beaming smile and his energy.
It's so hard to say goodbye to Reyes today.

And I'll take the speedy memories
(Take with me those memories)
His beaming smile and energy.
It's so hard to say goodbye to Reyes today...

Broken News: The Two Hours Before Midnight Massacre

Welcome to the latest edition of Broken News, where someone else breaks the news and then we break it some more.  Broken News might be the perfect title for what I'm about to say because fans of Jose Reyes feel like their hearts have been broken this morning.

A little over two hours before midnight, it was revealed that Jose Reyes decided to accept the Marlins' latest contract offer of six years and $106 million to leave the only team he'd ever known.  I'll let that sink in before I continue...

 Sigh...

...I know.  It'll never sink in.  Soon he will take his physical, pass it and appear before the Miami media (which probably outnumber the true Marlins fans in South Florida - the ones who still proudly wear their Charlie Hough Marlins jerseys to games).

Gone will be the legs that produced 1,300 hits, 99 triples, 370 stolen bases and the only batting title in franchise history.  Replacing him at shortstop will be Ruben Tejada, who shows promise defensively and is very good at working the count.  That being said, this is the equivalent of replacing Tom Seaver in the rotation with Pat Zachry, who was also a promising young player in 1977 coming off a Rookie of the Year campaign with the Reds.  Pat Zachry was no Tom Seaver.  He was barely better than Nino Espinosa, but Nino rocked his afro better.  Ruben Tejada might not be able to rock anything, other than an occasional double or two that might hit the moved-in walls at Citi Field on three hops.

None of this is Ruben Tejada's fault and fans should not expect him to replace Jose Reyes' production on the field.  Similarly, no one should boo Angel Pagan if he's not the leadoff hitter Reyes was.  However, those two players will probably be heckled when they go through a slump, prompting the 7 Line to create "Bring Back Reyes" T-shirts and placards for display at an empty Citi Field.  (Note to the 7 Line:  If you do create "Bring Back Reyes" shirts, can I have one for free for giving you the idea?)

The Marlins are giving Jose Reyes $106 million for the next six years.  That's more than the Mets are willing to commit to every player on their roster in 2012.  The average annual value of nearly $18 million is more than the $15 million the Marlins spent on their entire 25-man roster in 2006, which coincidentally was the last (and only) time Jose Reyes played in the postseason.

 Double sigh...

You might say that $106 million is too much to pay for a player who'd been on the disabled list in each of the last three seasons.  You might also say that six years is too much for a player whose game depends on his legs, especially one who will still be earning $18 million annually when he's in his mid-thirties.

But one thing is for sure.  Jose Reyes was a dynamic player, one who could change a game like no other player on the Mets could.  The Marlins noticed that and were willing to take a risk, one that might bite then in the end, but for now makes them a far better team than the one that finished in last place in the NL East in 2011.

The Mets never had a chance.  And the way things look now, they're not going to have a chance in the NL East for years to come.  Last night, the current generation of Mets fans lived through their version of the Midnight Massacre.  If the Marlins ripped the fans' hearts out in 2007 and 2008, then they took their souls last night when they acquired Jose Reyes.

It's always been hard to be a Mets fan in this town.  It just became harder.

Where Are The 2006 Mets Now?

Don't let the title mislead you.  This post is not meant to inform you on what members of the Mets' last playoff team are up to.  On the contrary, it's meant to show you why that team might not have been as good as we thought they were at the time.

A total of 49 players suited up for the Mets in 2006.  As of this writing, only four of those players played for the Mets in 2011.  Those players were Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Mike Pelfrey.  However, Carlos Beltran was traded to the San Francisco Giants in July and Jose Reyes might have played his last game as a Met, leaving Wright and Pelfrey as the only two members of the '06 NL East champions who stand to be Mets in 2012.

Let's put it this way.  If Wright and Pelfrey are the only players left come Opening Day 2012, that'd mean the 2006 Mets would have the same number of players on the 2012 team as they have on the DL.  That doesn't stand for disabled list.  That stands for deceased list, as Jose Lima (four starts in '06) and Geremi Gonzalez (three starts in '06) are no longer with us.

The potential for having only two players left out of 49 a mere five years after that team steamrolled their way through the 2006 regular season is unusual in baseball, even in this day and age when free agents leave their teams frequently.  The 1996 Yankees, a team that won a World Series ten years before the Mets failed to get to one, had more players left on their 2011 roster (Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera) than the Mets might have next April on Opening Day from their 2006 team.

But contrary to what it appears to be, this post is not about the few players left on the team from the 2006 roster.  It's not just that most of the players from 2006 are no longer members of the Mets.  It's that these players are no longer in major league baseball, period.

Of the 49 players who played for the 2006 squad, only 14 played in the major leagues in 2011.  Of those 14 players, two of them finished the season in the minor leagues (Aaron F. Heilman, Lastings Milledge) and another (Chris Woodward) collected only ten at-bats in the majors after spending the majority of the season playing at the Triple-A level.

It would take longer for you to read the list of 35 players from the 2006 Mets who did not make an appearance at the major league level in 2011 than it did for Steve Trachsel to deliver a pitch to home plate when there were runners on base, but we're going to do it anyway.  Here they are, in alphabetical order, with their current whereabouts and/or statuses.

• Brian Bannister (retired)
• Chad Bradford (retired)
• Carlos Delgado (retired)
• Victor Diaz (out of majors since 2007; played in Mexico in 2011)
• Mike Difelice (out of majors since 2008; managed Kingsport Mets in 2009 and 2010)
• Pedro Feliciano (signed two-year deal w/Yankees in 2011; might never pitch for them due to injuries)
• Cliff Floyd (out of majors since 2009; broadcaster for FOX Sports Florida)
• Bartolome Fortunato (out of majors since 2006; played in Canada in 2011)
• Julio Franco (waiting for Omar Minaya's call from San Diego)
• Tom Glavine (retired in non-devastating fashion)
• Geremi Gonzalez (R.I.P.)
• Shawn Green (retired; on book signing tours for his new book)
• Anderson Hernandez (played w/Astros' AAA team in 2011)
• Orlando Hernandez (played w/Nationals' AA team in 2010, left the team to walk the Earth)
• Roberto Hernandez (retired)
• Jorge Julio (out of majors since 2009; bouncing around in Pittsburgh's minor league organization)
• Ricky Ledee (retired)
• Jose Lima (R.I.P.)
• Paul Lo Duca (out of majors since 2008; serves as a horse racing analyst)
• John Maine (left Rockies' AAA team in 2011; might be walking the Earth with Orlando Hernandez)
• Eli Marrero (out of majors since 2006; serves as batting coach for Reds' rookie affiliate)
• Pedro Martinez (retired 10 minutes ago)
• Kaz Matsui (out of majors since 2010; played in Nippon Professional Baseball league in 2011)
• Henry Owens (out of majors since 2007; suspended for HGH in 2009 and hasn't played since)
• Oliver Perez (played w/Nationals' AA team in 2011; not good enough to make AAA team)
• Royce Ring (played w/Mariners and Red Sox AAA teams in 2011)
• Duaner Sanchez (out of majors since 2009; played in Mexico and Independent League in 2010)
• Alay Soler (retired)
• Kelly Stinnett (retired)
• Steve Trachsel (retired)
• Michael Tucker (out of majors since 2006; played for various independent teams since 2009)
• Jose Valentin (out of majors since 2007; player-owner for Santurce Crabbers in Puerto Rican league)
• Billy Wagner (retired)
• Dave Williams (out of majors since 2007; last played professionally w/Nationals' AAA team in 2009)
• Victor Zambrano (don't ask)

Aaron F. Heilman and Lastings Milledge both ended their seasons at the minor league level in 2011.  Chris Woodward was lucky to get a late September call-up.  That leaves only 11 players from the 2006 Mets who played exclusively in the major leagues in 2011.  One of those 11 players (Ramon Castro) only played in 23 games with the White Sox in 2011, missing the majority of the season due to a right hand fracture.

That leaves only Heath Bell, Carlos Beltran, Endy Chavez, Philip Humber, Guillermo Mota, Xavier Nady, Darren Oliver, Mike Pelfrey, Jose Reyes and David Wright as the only players from the 2006 NL East champions to play exclusively in the majors only five years after they were teammates on the Mets.

Most of the players from 2006 are either retired, dead or Victor Zambrano.  It's also stunning to note that a large number of players who were good enough to be part of a division winner in 2006 were no longer worthy of playing in the major leagues just five years later.

If you recall, both Pedro Martinez and Orlando "The Dookie" Hernandez were scratched from the postseason roster in 2006 because of injuries.  Neither pitched well after 2006 (we don't recognize Pedro's renaissance with the Phillies in 2009 because that would be saying something positive about a member of the Phillies, which is taboo here).

Also, for those who blame Beltran for the Mets' failure to advance to the World Series in 2006, let me remind you that he wasn't the only Met to strike out with the bat on his shoulders in the ninth inning of Game 7.  Before Beltran, Cliff Floyd took strike three as a pinch-hitter with the tying runs on base and nobody out.  That's the same Cliff Floyd who was too hurt to start any of the games in the NLCS after Game 1.

The 2006 Mets steamrolled their way through the 162-game regular season.  But that team was full of players who were either one injury away from ending their careers or no-names who had no business being in the majors.  What do you know?  Only five years later, a great number of those players have suffered career-altering injuries or haven't sniffed the major leagues since Shea Stadium was still around.

A winning team needs a mix of veterans to guide the kids along.  But the 2006 Mets depended too much on veterans.  Now, those veterans are no longer around, succumbing to injuries and Father Time.  That has forced players who are still kids themselves (see Reyes, Jose and Wright, David) to be the team leaders.  Given those facts, is anyone surprised that the Mets have now trudged their way through three consecutive losing seasons?