skyking162

I have a guest post up over at MetsGeek, a popular New York Mets blog. I used the historical fielding data available for the past fifty year to peruse the history of Met fielding. The short story? They’re a perennially awful organization. Want a more interesting story? Here you go:

In 1988, the Mets reached their nadir of -111 runs thanks to such impressive performances as Mookie Wilson (-17) and Lenny Dykstra (-7) in center field, Kevin McReynolds in left field (-29), and Darryl Strawberry in right field (-30). Even the immortal Keith Hernandez was merely average over at first base and didn’t play enough to keep Dave Magadan’s -5 run glove on the bench. The best two fielders were Tim Teufel at second base (+4 runs) and Kevin Elster at shortstop (+7 runs).

What’s amazing about that -111 number is that the ‘88 Mets won 100 games and sported a 2.91 ERA, only allowing 532 runs in 160 games. If not the fielders, who gets the credit for that level of performance? Well, a rotation of Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Bob Ojeda, and David Cone is a great start. Then add in Shea Stadium, which suppressed run scoring by 13%, and an NL run-scoring environment of 4.15 runs per game (as opposed to today’s 4.90). If the team had fielded just a league-average defense, the Mets’ team ERA could have been .70 runs lower, at 2.21—a disgustingly anemic number. Who needs defense when you’ve got an historically great rotation?

Was there something quirky about the ‘88 Mets I don’t know about? Is there some reason fielders can look really bad when the pitching is outstanding? McReynold’s and Strawberry’s seasons rate disturbingly awful. Anyway, head on over and give it a read and leave some fun comments for the Mets’ fans.

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