The Mets all-time Kryptonite starting lineup

The New York Mets have had a lot of big name players, a lot of hugely talented players, suit up for them in the orange and blue. And it was exciting to see them come…but…then…it became frustrating, and sometimes painful, to actually see them in a Mets uniform…and then we were thankful to see them go.

These players were all way better while wearing another uniform, and while sometimes you wish that they would be acquired by your team, it becomes the classic “be careful what you wish for” situation. And, well, sometimes things just don’t pan out.

The New York Mets had one of the best batteries to ever play the game…one for the ages. …two of the all-time greats. But they were both getting up there in age. And, actually, they were both a member of the team at the same time…in 1965. But it was a bit too late.

The Mets had a group of infielders that any team would love to put on the field. Before these players came to the Mets, they were All Stars…they were the star of their team. But with the Mets…something went bad. And there were some pretty damn good outfielders as well. Again...stars...stars that dimmed quickly once they put on a Mets uniform.

Pitcher Warren Spahn

Warren Spahn finished his career as the winningest left handed pitcher of all time-time. He may have been a bit long in the tooth, but there was no reason to think that he would be such a disaster with the Mets, since he really didn’t begin his ascent until much later in his career.

Spahn had won over 350 games before he came to the Mets with a career ERA of 3.05. He had tossed 374 complete games…63 of them shutouts.

But he was already 44 years old when he donned a Mets uniform and, well, it didn’t go well. Spahn would pitch in 20 games, 19 of them starts, and go 4-12 with a 4.36 ERA before he was unceremoniously released. However, before you go and think how bad he was, consider that the two leading pitchers on that 1965 team were Jack Fisher, who went 8-24 with a 3.94 ERA and Al Jackson, who went 8-20 with a 4.34 ERA. The Mets team ERA was 4.06 enroute to a 50-112 record.

As such, his time with the Mets made Spahn realize that his skills had greatly diminished. And it probably would not have changed the Mets fortunes anyway, right?

Catcher Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra had retired as a Yankees player following the 1963 season and took over as their manager, leading them to the 1964 World Series. However, after losing to the Cardinals in the Series, the Yankees fired him.

Berra made his way crosstown – to reunite with former Yankees manager Casey Stengel, where he was hired as a player-coach. Yogi had last played two seasons earlier, but the Mets were hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. Who are we kidding? It was for no other purpose than to draw fans…just like they had done the first three years of their existence. Bring in former stars, whose teams no longer wanted them.

Yogi had compiled some very impressive stats, including some 358 home runs. And the guy virtually never struck out. But even given his reputation as a great “bad ball hitter” who could hit anything that emerged from the pitchers’ hand, Yogi clearly had nothing left in the tank. Yogi got into all of four games, with nine plate appearances, and mustered two singles.

Following an at bat in early May, Berra officially retired as a player, like Spahn, citing his greatly diminished skills…specifically…his reduced bat speed. He was three days shy of turning 40 years old.

First baseman Mo Vaughn

Mo Vaughn was one of the most feared hitters in baseball. He established himself as a .300 hitter during his eight seasons with the Boston Red Sox and averaged 35 homers with 114 RBI, with a .394 OBP while with the Sox. He was “Big Papi” before there was a Big Papi in Boston.

Vaughn would move on to the California Angels where his batting average would dip a bit, but he would hit 33 and 36 homers in the two seasons he was in Anaheim.

After sitting out the entire 2001 season with an injury, the Mets acquired him from the Angels, hoping that he still could produce the same kinds of numbers he put up with the Sox and the Angels.

But Vaughn was no longer the player he once was. He managed to play 139 games in 2002 and hit .259 with 26 homers with 72 RBI. The following year, he was just brutal. In 27 games the big guy couldn’t even get over the Mendoza Line…hitting a mere .190

He lost his stroke, his power, and it wasn’t long before he lost the starting first base job to…remember this name…Jason Phillips.

Second baseman Carlos Baerga

Carlos Baerga was a three-time All Star and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner as a member of the Cleveland Indians. The Mets thought they were picking the Indians pocket when they dumped Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson on them to get Baerga and shortstop Jose Vizcaino. Mets all know that it was the Indians who picked the Mets pocket, not the other way arround.

At the time, at worst, it looked like it might be an even trade. Baerga could was a switch hitter, with some power, and had a really good glove. Who wouldn’t want an All Star to be added to their lineup?

But after averaging .299 and adding an average of 15-20 homers per season in Cleveland, his star quickly dimmed during his two-plus seasons with the Mets. He hit for a .267 average and didn’t break double figures in the long ball category. He didn’t have any range at second base. He just wasn’t very good. And he was still on the younger side of 30 years old.

Apparently coming to the Mets didn’t do him any good. Heck, it didn’t to the Mets any good because not only did we have to live with his diminished skills, we had to watch Kent do…well…let’s not even go there.

Shortstop Shawon Dunston

Shawon Dunston was one of the most talented baseball players you would ever see. He was the first selection of the 1982 draft by the Chicago Cubs out of Thomas Jefferson High School in New York.

Dunston could hit. He could hit with power. He had great speed. And he had a great arm…a GREAT arm. He was one of those guys who you would love to watch.

Eventually, he would team with Ryne Sandberg to be one of the most potent second base-shortstop combinations in the National League…although Sandberg would tend to put up the better numbers and garner the majority of the attention. And rightfully so. Because as special as Dunston was, Sandberg was even more special.

By the time the Mets had gotten Dunston, he had already been traded from the Cubs to the Pittsburgh Pirates. And that would make you wonder right there…trading someone with that kind of talent to a division rival? Apparently the Cubs had had enough of whatever was going on with him that prevented him from fully reaching his potential. He was already 34 years old and had spent 12 seasons at Wrigley. And he also ended up making stops in Cleveland and San Francisco.

 But the Mets needed some depth during their playoff run in 1999 and took a flyer on the then 36=year-old Dunston. He would spend more time as an outfielder and made his way into 42 games.

He was not adept at outfield play, and what was worse, when he made appearances at shortstop, he looked lost. He had no range, couldn’t get to a lot of balls, and, although his arm strength was still there, it was erratic. You didn’t want to sit behind first base. Yes, he hit 344 in only 93 at bats…but he was clearly done.

Left fielder Jason Bay

Jason Bay…ah…this poor guy. He was on the rise…making a name for himself as a superstar…a productive middle of the lineup stronghold. He spent six-plus seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and averaged around 30 HR and 100 RBI over a five year span, before being sent to the Red Sox in a deadline trade.

In his one full season in Boston in 2009, he had career highs with 36 home runs and 119 RBI. The Mets, craving a big power hitting bat, signed Bay to a huge free agent contract.

The Green Monster at Fenway made it even easier for a guy like Bay. The deep outfield and wacky dimensions at Citifield made it monumentally difficult to duplicate any of his past production. David Wright experienced the same dilemma. But for Bay, it was exponentially worse.

Bay played hard, and may have even been trying to make up for what he wasn’t able to do. He dove for balls in the outfield and ran into the very walls that he couldn’t hit over…he ran himself into injury after injury.

As a result, one of the most productive hitters in baseball for seven consecutive seasons, was a complete and utter bust. In his three seasons in a Mets uniform he only played in 288 games (123 of them in 2011) and hit a total…a TOTAL of 26 homers during that time.

You had to feel embarrassed for the guy. He tried so hard and but also fell so hard.

Centerfielder Willie Mays

Willie Mays has always been thought of as THE best all-around baseball player of all-time. He was the absolute classic five-tool player. There wasn’t anything he could not do. There is no descriptive word that would effectively describe just how good he was.

Let’s get this straight…how good he was with the New York and, then, San Francisco Giants.

Mays had a great career. He probably would have had even better numbers had he not had to play so many games at Candlestick Park. But that is a moot point. And it doesn’t take away from how good he was.

But if we really want to talk about embarrassment, his time with the Mets was an injustice to him and his legacy. Mays was still productive, albeit slightly down, in 1971. He was still a danger to be reckoned with. But when the Mets got him a year later, he was a mere shell of himself. He was no longer able to play centerfield with the grace he always showed. His bat speed was obviously no longer there. And he struggled.

He was convinced to stay on for the 1973 season and got off to a dreadful start. But with so many younger starters sidelined with injuries, he was forced into duty and began coming around down the stretch and got hot along with the rest of the team…helping get the Mets to the World Series.

However, it was in that 1973 World Series that the great, the immortal, Willie Mays, was shown to have lost all of his abilities…the abilities that made him revered by fans, the media, his peers. For anyone who loved watching him…it was painful.

Earlier in the year, on Willie Mays Day, he gave a speech where he said, “Willie, it’s time to say good-bye to baseball…” and, unfortunately, he didn’t leave the stage on a high note.

Right fielder Duke Snider

Duke Snider was one of the great triumvirate of New York centerfielders, along with Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. It was always…Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. And the arguments about who was actually better would be classic.

Snider was known as the Duke of Flatbush. And when the Mets needed another drawing card, they brought Snider back to New York City to join some of his former teammates, and cross-town rivals, with the upstart New York Mets.

The Duke had already carved out a Hall of Fame career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, hitting .300 with a .384 OBP and clubbing 389 home runs. But he was already 36 years old when he came home to play for the Mets.

Snider would no longer handle centerfield and pretty much relegated to right field. In 129 games, he hit a career low of .243 with only 14 homers and 45 RBI.

Clearly, he wasn’t the player he was with Dodgers, although he WAS selected as an All Star in his lone season in a Mets uniform.

Utility player Juan Samuel

Juan Samuel is the final player to be addressed…and probably the strangest situation to be acknowledged. He is being referenced as a utility player here, but he actually came to the Mets to be a centerfielder.

And that is laughable because the Mets have had centerfielders by the names of Richie Ashburn, Duke Snider, and Willie Mays…all HALL OF FAME centerfielders.

Some other guys have patrolled centerfield for the Mets…guys like…let’s see…Tommie Agee, Amos Otis, Lee Mazzilli, Mookie Wilson, Carlos Beltran…all played centerfield for the Mets.

Oh…there was another one…Lenny Dykstra. Dykstra was actually sent to the Philadelphia Phillies (along with Roger McDowell) to get this All Star second baseman. SECOND BASEMAN…to play CENTERFIELD.

Now why in the world would they want to do that? But, then, why would they try Jim Fregosi at third base?

Now Samuel was, granted, an All Star second baseman. He was a guy who had SOME power…but not enough for a guy to strike out 150 times a season in an era when that was not exactly the norm. But he could hit. He was considered a superior offensive player. His stats were fairly comparable to Carlos Baerga’s stats.

In his six-plus seasons with the Phillies, he averaged .259, hit 100 HR and drove in 413 runs. He also led the NL in strikeouts for four consecutive seasons.

So now think about this. What was the rationale? Well…that doesn’t even matter. Because if anyone thought it was painful to watch Willie Mays flounder in centerfield…an immortal who was loved by so many…think of how profoundly upsetting it was to see Samuel, someone who was acquired for a Mets fan favorite, fall all over himself trying to play centerfield. It was awful.

And, he was just as awful at the plate…hitting just .228 with 3 HR and 28 RBI in 86 games as a Met. His short time as a Met would turn out to be the worst season of his career. Is it any wonder?