The 3 most criminally underrated New York Mets in team history

New York Mets
New York Mets / Focus On Sport/GettyImages
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New York Mets fans are extremely passionate. They will shower you with cheers and chant your name when you perform well and they like you. If you let them down, or they simply dislike you for whatever reason, you will pay the price. Here are three Mets players who were really almost criminally underrated and jeered by Mets fans.

1) Sid Fernandez

Regardless of the heartache Dwight Gooden gave the New York Mets organization, and the fans, he is forever loved as Doctor K. Ron Darling won a lot of games as a Met, but he was not the dominant ace that he might have been on any other staff and, yet, fans adore Ronny…especially as a broadcaster. David Cone…oh Coney…he had a few good seasons as a Met but saved his best performances for the Yankees. The fans crave bring Frankie Viola back to the club as a coach and revere him…yet he had but one good season after being acquired in a trade that cost the Mets Rick Aguilera.

And then there was Sid Fernandez. All the reasons for including Sid as a member of the Mets all-time starting five was well-documented in a prior story. https://risingapple.com/posts/ny-mets-all-time-starting-rotation-sid-fernandez

Regardless of the kind of numbers Sid put up…fans would not include him in the conversation with all of the others. In fact, you would often hear him being referred to as “Fat Sid” and that is hugely unfair. In fact, El Sid was the most consistent of the Mets starters, while also the most quiet compared to his teammates.

Speaking of comparisons…how’s this for reference?

Seasons: Gooden 11; Fernandez 10; Darling 9; Cone 7; Viola 3

Wins: Gooden 157; Darling 99; Fernandez 98; Cone 81; Viola 38

ERA: Gooden 3.10; Cone 3.11; Fernandez 3.14; Viola 3.31; Darling 3.50

WHIP: Fernandez 1.113; Gooden 1.175; Cone 1.192; Darling 1.228; Viola 1.240

Strikeouts: Gooden 1,875; Fernandez 1,449; Cone 1.172; Darling 1,148; Viola 387

Complete Games: Gooden 67; Cone 34; Darling 25; Fernandez 23; Viola 12

Shutouts: Gooden 23; Cone 15; Darling 10; Fernandez 9; Viola 4

Fernandez certainly earned much more respect than he received during his Mets playing days.