Monday Mets Trivia or Line Up Quiz

[Guest cooby]

After an exhaustive search of the UMDB, I have come up with two Mets players who have started at least one game batting in every spot in the batting order (1 through 9)

Can you name them?

[seawolf17]

Ooh... good question, coob. Here are my assumptions:

1) He probably played during the interleague era, where the DH would allow a position player to bat ninth.
2) He would have to have a little speed to bat leadoff, a little power for the middle of the order, but also be a bit player, because Mike Piazza and Jose Reyes aren't batting ninth.

So my guesses are:
Benny Agbayani
Jay Payton

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Roger Cedeno
Jay Payton

[Guest cooby]

Good guesses all; Agbayani is correct.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Shinjo?

[Guest cooby]

Hmmph. I do an exhaustive search and it takes you folks 22 minutes.

Nice job!

[Guest Edgy DC]

How do you get to start first through ninth?

Display, at different times, a broad array of a surfeit of offensive skills, and a defeceit of offensive skills. Benny, Shinjo, and Timo fit that definition to a T. I guessed Shinjo over Timo because I remembered him batting fourth (but not third), but I don't recall an emergency that ever put Timo in the cleanup slot.

[Guest cooby]

Payton, Perez and Cedeno were good guesses too because Payton started at every position but ninth, Timo and Cedeno at every position except fourth.

I'm thinking there are more than just the three of them though, with eighth slots

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Hmmm.

Maybe through the magic of SQL I can find out who has started in all of the first 8 lineup slots.

I'll have to think about that one.

[seawolf17]

Is there a way you can find out who's started the most games at each batting slot? That would be a fun quiz.

[Guest cooby]

Now, that would be an exhaustive search

[Guest Edgy DC]

My guess:

First: Mookie
Second: Harrelson. No, Taveras.
Third: Keef
Fourth: Piazza
Fifth: Jones. Milner. Strawberry. Somebody black. Strawberry.
Sixth: McReynolds
Seventh: Ummm. Garrett. No, Payton. Garrett, definitely Garrett.
Eighth: Ordonez
Ninth: Seaver

[Elster88]

McReynolds got the majority of his ABs at the fifth slot.

Methinks, or mehopes, that Reyes might have the most leadoff starts one day.
_____________________________
This post had the designation 158) Mark Carreon

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

How about this:

Everybody place your guesses. At the moment, I'm unable to tell who's right and who's wrong, but sooner or later I will.

Keep in mind that I only have box score data through the middle of the 2005 season. So the totals will be off, but not by much. Piazza's the only long-timer who has a chance at being affected by the few missing games, and it wouldn't be a large impact, if any.

[seawolf17]

Heck, I'll guess too, since it was my idea.

1: Mookie
2: Harrelson
3: Hernandez
4: Strawberry
5: McReynolds
6: Hundley
7: Grote (I have no idea where he batted in the lineup, but he was around a long time)
8: Elster
9: Seaver

[Guest Edgy DC]

Two entries?!

Lame-o!

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Sorry. This is such a great quiz it deserves its own thread. Occurs to me as I make my guesses that some guys could possibly occupy more than one slot. That's my edge in this competition.

1. Mookie
2. Harrelson
3. Hernandez
4. Strawberry
5. Staub
6. Kranepool
7. Harrelson
8. Harrelson
EDIT: 9. SEAVER

[Guest Edgy DC]

It occurs to me that your lineup would suck.

[seawolf17]

Not to mention that Buddy would be exhausted from all that batting.

[Guest Edgy DC]

He also left out number nine.

The bonus tie-breaker should be which non-pitcher has started in the nine-hole the most.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Okay, I have answers. I won't post them just yet, unless we think this thread has run its course.

Here are some clues, though.

There are no repeaters in the list. (Unless you count only non-pitchers in the 9-hole. The leader in that category is also the overall leader in the 8-hole.)

If we were to make a starting lineup of the nine winners, we'd have two first-basemen and two catchers.

There are no primary left fielders or third basemen. We could put either of the catchers at third base, and one of the first basemen in left field; they actually played those positions as Mets.

Since there's no suspense about the 9 slot, I'll post the top 20. Keep in mind that these totals do include post-season games, and are only complete through the middle of the 2005 season. (Thanks, USA Today, for switching your box score format on me!)

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

NINTH
Tom Seaver 402
Jerry Koosman 352
Dwight Gooden 308
Sid Fernandez 252
Ron Darling 246
Al Leiter 204
Jon Matlack 203
Bobby Jones 186
Craig Swan 184
David Cone 171
Al Jackson 138
Rick Reed 136
Jack Fisher 133
Gary Gentry 123
Steve Trachsel 116
Pat Zachry 113
Bob Ojeda 112
Jim McAndrew 105
Ed Lynch 98
Pete Falcone 86

[Elster88]

1: Mookster
2: Buddy
3: Keith
4: Piazz
5: Mac
6: No Clue (Payton?)
7: No Clue (Payton?)
8: Ordonez (guessed b/c of Yancy's clue)
9: (nonpitcher) Ordonez (guessed b/c of Yancy's clue)
9: (pitcher) Seaver
_____________________________
This post had the designation 157) Alex Ochoa

[Guest Edgy DC]

OK, clearly I'm RIGHT about the eight slot. And I'll safely guess that Rey is non-pitching answer for nine.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Elster has five correct guesses.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Edgy has four right. Seawolf has five, Johnny Dickshot 4.

Nobody guessed the 2, 5, or 6 spot correctly. (5, to me, was the biggest surprise.)

Since everyone got numbers 1 and 3, I'll post the top 20:

LEADOFF
Mookie Wilson 688
Bud Harrelson 517
Lenny Dykstra 391
Tommie Agee 357
Vince Coleman 218
Wayne Garrett 215
Lance Johnson 214
Roger Cede�o 200
Lenny Randle 200
Lee Mazzilli 197
Wally Backman 168
Rickey Henderson 153
Frank Taveras 133
Jose Reyes 127
Ron Hunt 112
Bobby Klaus 101
Roberto Alomar 95
Keith Miller 94
Richie Ashburn 92
Gregg Jefferies 90


THIRD
Keith Hernandez 824
Cleon Jones 405
John Olerud 385
Lee Mazzilli 316
Mike Piazza 303
John Milner 223
Howard Johnson 213
Rusty Staub 192
Bernard Gilkey 186
Edgardo Alfonzo 185
Ed Kranepool 176
Steve Henderson 172
Gregg Jefferies 165
Eddie Murray 157
Tommie Agee 140
Dave Magadan 128
Ron Hunt 119
Joe Christopher 98
George Foster 93
Cliff Floyd 92

[HahnSolo]

Are we allowed partial guesses? Wally Backman in the 2-hole?

On edit: Oh, what the hell....
Mookie
Wally
Keith
Piazza
Straw
Hundley
Kranepool
Ordonez
Seaver

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Hahn has four correct.

None of his correct guesses are new, though. They've all been entered previously. In other words, he got Mookie, Keith, Seaver, and our number 8 winner, Rey Ord��ez :

EIGHTH
Rey Ord��ez 847
Doug Flynn 590
Bud Harrelson 453
Rafael Santana 415
Jerry Grote 414
Kevin Elster 360
Al Weis 163
Chris Cannizzaro 154
Ron Gardenhire 153
Ted Martinez 139
Todd Hundley 135
Roy McMillan 131
Duffy Dyer 116
Charlie O'Brien 110
Jose Oquendo 106
Al Moran 103
Joe McEwing 100
Tim Bogar 88
Ryan Thompson 87
Dick Schofield 70


NINTH (in DH games)
Rey Ord��ez 21
Jose Reyes 8
Roger Cede�o 8
Luis Lopez 7
Vance Wilson 5
Victor Diaz 4
Alberto Castillo 4
Jason Phillips 4
Rafael Santana 3
Melvin Mora 3
Joe McEwing 3




Here's what we know so far:

1. Mookie Wilson cf
2.
3. Keith Hernandez 1b
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Rey Ord��ez ss
9. Tom Seaver p

Based on the clue I gave above, you can figure out which positions are still unfilled.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Oh, and we do have at least one correct guess out there for 4 and 7. Nobody's gotten 2, 5, or 6 yet.

[Guest Edgy DC]

So, faw must be Straw.