Quiz: Best Players to Start Their MLB Careers as Mets

[Edgy MD]

2025 Championship Ring Recipient-to-Be Michael Conforto.

[Gwreck]

Both Conforto (16.9) and Myers (15.3) fell short of this list.

 

[th]Name[/th]	[th]WAR[/th]
[td]Tom Seaver[/td]	[td]109.9[/td]
[td]Nolan Ryan[/td]	[td]81.3[/td]
[td]Jerry Koosman[/td]	[td]53.7[/td]
[td]Dwight Gooden[/td]	[td]53.0[/td]
[td]David Wright[/td]	[td]49.1[/td]
[td]Jacob deGrom[/td]	[td]47.9[/td]
[td]Amos Otis[/td]	[td]42.8[/td]
[td]Lenny Dykstra[/td]	[td]42.4[/td]
[td]Darryl Strawberry[/td]	[td]42.2[/td]
[td]Ken Singleton[/td]	[td]41.8[/td]
[td]Zack Wheeler[/td]	[td]40.2[/td]
[td]Jon Matlack[/td]	[td]39.4[/td]
[td]Jose Reyes[/td]	[td]37.0[/td]
[td]Ron Hunt[/td]	[td]32.7[/td]
[td]Kevin Mitchell[/td]	[td]29.2[/td]
[td]Kevin Tapani[/td]	[td]29.2[/td]
[td][/td]	[td]28.8[/td]
[td]Melvin Mora[/td]	[td]28.3[/td]
[td][/td]	[td]26.1[/td]
[td]Pete Alonso[/td]	[td]23.3[/td]
[td]Jesse Orosco[/td]	[td]23.2[/td]
[td]Jeff McNeil[/td]	[td]23.0[/td]
[td]Mike Scott[/td]	[td]22.7[/td]
[td]Mookie Wilson[/td]	[td]22.4[/td]
[td]Marco Scutaro[/td]	[td]22.1[/td]
[td]Rick Aguilera[/td]	[td]21.9[/td]
[td]Tug McGraw[/td]	[td]21.8[/td]
[td]Dave Magadan[/td]	[td]21.1[/td]
[td]Daniel Murphy[/td]	[td]20.8[/td]
[td]Buddy Harrelson[/td]	[td]20.3[/td]

 

Short of 20 career WAR

-Jeromy Burnitz 19.9

-Jeff Reardon, 18.6

-Cleon Jones, 18.0

-Michael Conforto, 16.9

-Lee Mazzilli, 15.3

-Randy Myers, 15.3

-Octavio Dotel, 15.0

-Hubie Brooks, 13.0

-Jim Hickman, 13.0

-Jason Isringhausen, 13.0

-Lucas Duda, 7.6

-Tim Foli, 5.7

Did not start career with Mets

Justin Turner

AJ Burnett

John Stearns

Randy Jones

[Edgy MD]

Cool. Brandon Nimmo.

[stevejrogers]

So clearly I'm on Gwreck's ignore list because I've guessed the last two multiple times now.

Brandon Nimmo

Edgardo Alfonzo

This is bigotry and discrimination.

 

Take it to the Red Light Forum then.

Edgardo Alfonzo

How is blocking someone you’d rather not see on your internet device screen, anywhere (here, other social media platforms, etc) a form of discrimination and bigotry?

[stevejrogers]

I'm a victim here. Reported to the SPLC.

 

Dude, someone is just tired of your ****.

How is this different than blocking trolls on X, Truth Social, BlueSky, etc?

[Gwreck]

That’s our list, thanks for playing, please collect your prizes from the concierge…

 

[th]Name[/th]	[th]WAR[/th]
[td]Tom Seaver[/td]	[td]109.9[/td]
[td]Nolan Ryan[/td]	[td]81.3[/td]
[td]Jerry Koosman[/td]	[td]53.7[/td]
[td]Dwight Gooden[/td]	[td]53.0[/td]
[td]David Wright[/td]	[td]49.1[/td]
[td]Jacob deGrom[/td]	[td]47.9[/td]
[td]Amos Otis[/td]	[td]42.8[/td]
[td]Lenny Dykstra[/td]	[td]42.4[/td]
[td]Darryl Strawberry[/td]	[td]42.2[/td]
[td]Ken Singleton[/td]	[td]41.8[/td]
[td]Zack Wheeler[/td]	[td]40.2[/td]
[td]Jon Matlack[/td]	[td]39.4[/td]
[td]Jose Reyes[/td]	[td]37.0[/td]
[td]Ron Hunt[/td]	[td]32.7[/td]
[td]Kevin Mitchell[/td]	[td]29.2[/td]
[td]Kevin Tapani[/td]	[td]29.2[/td]
[td]Edgardo Alfonzo[/td]	[td]28.8[/td]
[td]Melvin Mora[/td]	[td]28.3[/td]
[td]Brandon Nimmo[/td]	[td]26.1[/td]
[td]Pete Alonso[/td]	[td]23.3[/td]
[td]Jesse Orosco[/td]	[td]23.2[/td]
[td]Jeff McNeil[/td]	[td]23.0[/td]
[td]Mike Scott[/td]	[td]22.7[/td]
[td]Mookie Wilson[/td]	[td]22.4[/td]
[td]Marco Scutaro[/td]	[td]22.1[/td]
[td]Rick Aguilera[/td]	[td]21.9[/td]
[td]Tug McGraw[/td]	[td]21.8[/td]
[td]Dave Magadan[/td]	[td]21.1[/td]
[td]Daniel Murphy[/td]	[td]20.8[/td]
[td]Buddy Harrelson[/td]	[td]20.3[/td]

 

Short of 20 career WAR

-Jeromy Burnitz 19.9

-Jeff Reardon, 18.6

-Cleon Jones, 18.0

-Michael Conforto, 16.9

-Lee Mazzilli, 15.3

-Randy Myers, 15.3

-Octavio Dotel, 15.0

-Hubie Brooks, 13.0

-Jim Hickman, 13.0

-Jason Isringhausen, 13.0

-Lucas Duda, 7.6

-Tim Foli, 5.7

Did not start career with Mets

Justin Turner

AJ Burnett

John Stearns

Randy Jones

[Frayed Knot]

I was surprised that Willie Randolph had higher WAR than yogi Berra . (The other contest)

 

Couple of things:

- Yogi played 18 seasons but Willie played 19 and, not being a catcher, sat out less often so racked up more than 1,000 extra PAs compared to Lawrence Peter Berra. That all matters because WAR is a cumulative stat.

- Randolph was also a 2nd baseman so has a better chance of accumulating Defensive WAR while Yogi's was almost entirely offense (in offensive WAR alone Yogi holds a 2-point edge). Evaluating catcher defense is a slippery thing to quantify even today and was, I'm sure, much tougher without modern tools to project what it might have been back in the '40s & '50s.

- Randolph also racked up an impressive .373 career OBA, drawing walks at a Keith Hernandez like rate for his career. Batting 8th (or 9th)* often helped (as it would have for Buddy Harrelson) but, still, that's a well above average rate which is a key component in WAR. Yogi's BB rate was better than I thought (slightly below average) but he was too much of a free swinger (a notorious bad ball hitter) to ever get his rates very high so he loses some ground there.

* Randolph hit 8th or 9th in the lineup approx 11% of the time.

So all that is apparently enough to make up for the sizable gap in power: Isolated Power** = .075 for Randolph; Berra = .197; league avg tends towards .150

I'd still rather have Yogi on my squad, but Willie had himself a very nice career. Neither went on to be very impressive managers.

** essentially one's Slugging Avg with singles removed

[MFS62]

Thanks, and I would have rather had a Yogi in his prime instead of Randolph, too.

Later