All-Dodged-Bullet Met team

[Centerfield]

Spinning off edgy's post in the Sammy Sosa thread. The All-Dodged Bullet Met team are those players we nearly acquired and are thankful that the deals never materialized.

1.
2.
3.
4. Sammy Sosa - RF
5.
6.
7.
8. Norihiro Nakamura - 3B


P:

RP:

Bench:

[Guest Edgy DC]

I guess Juan Gonzalez belongs in there. Does Mike Hampton count?

[MFS62]

1B - Willie Mays Aikens (for Craig Swan. Linda DeRoulet stopped the deal because she was going to sell the club, and wanted to leave that decision to the next management team.)

Later

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Good one! The only near-miss I've been able to think of is Barry Larkin, and in retrospect, that deal wouldn't have been so bad.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think the evidence at hand suggests the Swan/Aikens non-deal would have swung the Mets way had it been consummated.

[metirish]

Did Steve Phillips nearly have a deal for Griffey Jr a few years back?, if yes then I'm glad we didn't get him.

[DocTee]

How 'bout Man Ram (still hoping it doesn't happen)

[patchyfogg]

I remember a potential Dave Winfield for Dave Kingman trade. Or, would that go in the "That's 1 Bullet They Should Have Taken" thread?

[Guest Edgy DC]

I assume that was during Kingman's first tenure? I know Kong's second tenure happened as Plan B after the Mets failed to sign Winnie.

[Willets Point]

[patchyfogg]

Edgy DC wrote: I assume that was during Kingman's first tenure? I know Kong's second tenure happened as Plan B after the Mets failed to sign Winnie.

Yes, that was during Kong I.

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: I think the evidence at hand suggests the Swan/Aikens non-deal would have swung the Mets way had it been consummated.

I don't remamber what year that was, but the performance of both of them fell off the table pretty quickly.
Aikens went from .302-23-72 in '83 to .205-11-26 in '84.

Swan went from 11-7, 3.35 in '82 to 2-8, 5.51 in '83.

Yes, you're right, depending on the timing, the Mets would have received a good player, but for only one additional year.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah but DeRoulet turned over the reins to Doubleday/Wilpon before the 1980 season.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

That deal would have been either during or just after the 1979 season.

[patchyfogg]

MFS62 wrote: ="Edgy DC"]I think the evidence at hand suggests the Swan/Aikens non-deal would have swung the Mets way had it been consummated. I don't remamber what year that was, but the performance of both of them fell off the table pretty quickly. Aikens went from .302-23-72 in '83 to .205-11-26 in '84. Swan went from 11-7, 3.35 in '82 to 2-8, 5.51 in '83. Yes, you're right, depending on the timing, the Mets would have received a good player, but for only one additional year. Later

I guess we can pinpoint the exact year that Willie discovered the white stuff, then.

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: Yeah but DeRoulet turned over the reins to Doubleday/Wilpon before the 1980 season.

Then you were correct. Aikens was pretty consistent up until '84, but Swan had some good, but also some injury-plagued stretches in the early 80's.

Later

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

Don Sutton for Tom Seaver comes to mind

Sutton was Sutton, but still, probably would have performed the way Tom Glavine did, and probably would have had the same relationship with fans/media.

Come to think if it, there are alot of simillarities between Sutton and Glavine, i.e. never the dominate guy on their respective staffs, hung around for the milestones, ect

Steve

[Guest abogdan]

Alfonso Soriano.

Were the Mets in on Jose Contreras at all?

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I don;t think the Mets cared to play in the Contraras war. I never believed they had eyes for Juan Gonzalez, either.

Larkin got hurt shortly after his trade wouldn't go down. Maybe his health is better on a on-grass-playing contender. I think someone with his ability at shortstop, as opposed to the lame and hurting guys we used, is enough to have turned that cursed World Series into a 5-game affair in our favor, so he's not a really a dodged bullet.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I sure thought they were serious about Gonzalez in 2002. I recall them going to about 10 million (or more) and he wouldn't come back to them with a yes or no and Doubleday, of all people, made a public "take it or leave it" statement.

Maybe I'm making too much of it in memory. That 2001-2 offseason was kooky.

[nymr83]

Any deal that involved trading away David Wright is a huge bullet dodged.
the rumored Soriano for Reyes deal would have sucked (not that i'm incredibly high on Reyes but man do i hate Soriano)
put Ramon Hernandez on the list...if he'd gotten even as much as the Mets offered they'd have come to regret it.

[Frayed Knot]

Nymr83 wrote: Any deal that involved trading away David Wright is a huge bullet dodged.

'Cept I don't think there have been any.

]the rumored Soriano for Reyes deal would have sucked

Agreed, although I suspect this was more fan/media speculation than actual talk between the teams.
And that's part of the problem with this exercise; deciding what was actual and what is made-up fantasy.

]put Ramon Hernandez on the list...if he'd gotten even as much as the Mets offered they'd have come to regret it.

We'll need to see how the next few years of his career goes before we pronounce this one a dodged bullet, not to mention how the progress goes for LoDuca and those who were dealt for him..

[smg58]

We'll have to see if not getting Soriano or Hernandez turn out to be dodged bullets. As for "Chef," I wouldn't have traded Cameron for him last summer, but given the choice between getting either him or Nady...

It's tough to remember what deals didn't happen very far back. I do think missing out on re-signing Hampton should count. Gonzalez certainly does, as does Griffey. Sosa is pretty obvious. I shudder to think what they'd have done with Wright if they signed Nakamura.

Nobody's mentioned A-Rod yet?

[Willets Point]

'Cuz if A-Rod played for the Mets we'd all love him. Most of us would still take him now (holding our nose, but appreciating the bat).

[Guest SI Metman]

A-Rod wasn't a dodged bullet. That was the equivalent of dodging a hot chick who is chasing you down. He won MVP's during this contract.

[Frayed Knot]

ARod wasn't a dodged bullet, although the price tag was.

I believe that deal would have been a bad one for whatever team signed him, and this notion that exists among some Met fans that he so loved the idea of coming here that he would have cut his price tag by $100mil or so to be a fantasy.

[Valadius]

Griffey was a dodged bullet for sure. Had we gotten Griffey, we never would have made the World Series in 2000. The trade for Griffey that Griffey turned down was:

Roger Cedeno
Octavio Dotel
Armando Benitez

for

Ken Griffey Jr.

Had we made that deal, we would've had a hobbled Griffey, no closer, and no Mike Hampton and Derek Bell. We definitely dodged a bullet with Griffey.