The 3 most criminally underrated New York Mets in team history

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.

2) Doug Sisk

Sisk was a part of a host of young arms coming up through the organization. He had been a successful collegiate pitcher and continued his good fortune in the Mets minor league system as a starter. Once he arrived in New York, Sisk was moved to the bullpen to take advantage of his hard sinker.

They say that it only takes one misfortune, one bad game, to see it all go awry. And unfortunately for Sisk, that happened during the 1984 season. Mind you, he was having a really good year. And then it all fell apart.

The Mets had been clinging to first place, just ahead of the Chicago Cubs. Sisk entered a tie ballgame in the eighth inning. He walked the first batter he faced. Then he threw a wild pitch advancing the runner. The next two batters singled. And for the icing on the cake, he misplayed the next batter’s bunt into an error. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the reaction of the Shea Stadium crowd.

It didn’t matter that Sisk had been great all season. The fans booed him unmercifully. He would end up soon after on the disabled list. He would return and be effective as he was before, even finishing the season with a 2.09 ERA. But the damage was already done. The fans began referring to him as Doug Risk.

And that was pretty much unfair. With the exception of a couple of bad streaks, the biggest of which was in 1985, he was not all that bad. Certainly not bad enough to deserve the intense ire he received from Mets fans. That ’85 season bad streak was a result of a bad elbow which ended up requiring surgery. And by the time he returned, Roger McDowell was entrenched as the right handed closer.

Sisk’s record during his six years with the Mets was 17-16 with 33 saves and a very respectable 3.10 ERA. And he was a part of the great pitching staff of the 1986 World Championship team. However, while Sisk did not yield many home runs thanks to his sinker – he only allowed 11 HR in 263 appearances, he did yield a lot of baserunners. His career WHIP with the Mets was 1.470.

So it gives a sense of why the fans would get agida every time he entered the game. It got to the point that Davey Johnson was only using Sisk in low leverage situations and mop up duty.  And which is why Sisk got agida and eventually asked for a trade.