THE SCHAEFER METS PLAYER OF THE YEAR, 2008

[Benjamin Grimm]

APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AUG	SEP

THE SCHAEFER METS PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2008

For the first time in the four-year history of the revived Schaefer Mets Player of the Year award, we have a winner whose name is not David Wright. Our winner is first-year Met JOHAN SANTANA. Santana led the Mets in many pitching categories: Innings (234.1), wins (16), ERA (2.53), strikeouts (206), complete games (3) and shutouts (2). He tied for the team lead in starts (with Oliver Perez) with 34. His ERA and innings were enough to also lead the National League in both categories. Santana's final appearance, a shutout against the Marlins, clinched the Schaefer award for the pitcher who, entering the game, was only about 2 points ahead of David Wright and 3 ahead of Carlos Beltran. (Unfortunately, the performace wasn't enough to clinch a more important distinction: an NL playoff berth.)



The Schaefer Mets Pitcher of the Year, needless to say, is also JOHAN SANTANA. Santana finished more than 30 points ahead of Mike Pelfrey and more than 47 points ahead of Oliver Perez.



In 2008 we also started awarding Schaefer to top relief pitchers. Or, perhaps more accurately, to the relief pitcher who was least bad the most often. This year's initial winner of the Schaefer Relief Pitcher of the Year is AARON HEILMAN. Aaron pitched more innings (76) than any other Mets reliever in 2008, although he finished third in games behind Pedro Feliciano (86) and Joe Smith (82). He was 3-8 with a 5.21 ERA and 3 saves.









Season-to-date totals for 2008
Through game of September 28, 2008

Rank	Name	Points
1	Johan Santana	121.37
2	David Wright	113.52
3	Carlos Beltran	112.44
4	Carlos Delgado	106.02
5	José Reyes	92.79
6	Mike Pelfrey	90.01
7	Oliver Perez	74.27
8	John Maine	52.02
9	Ryan Church	45.92
10	Damion Easley	39.57
11	Fernando Tatis	39.22
12	Aaron Heilman	34.50
13	Pedro Martinez	32.61
14	Brian Schneider	32.01
15	Luis Castillo	27.04
16	Duaner Sanchez	26.77
17	Joe Smith	26.41
18	Billy Wagner	26.06
19	Scott Schoeneweis	25.83
20	Daniel Murphy	22.70
21	Ramon Castro	19.89
22	Pedro Feliciano	19.37
23	Endy Chavez	18.72
24	Claudio Vargas	13.98
25	Nelson Figueroa	13.72
26	Angel Pagan	13.44
27	Brian Stokes	12.90
28	Nick Evans	11.57
29	Jorge Sosa	9.06
30	Moises Alou	8.69
31	Luis Ayala	8.39
32	Marlon Anderson	7.76
33	Carlos Muniz	7.12
34	Robinson Cancel	6.03
35	Raul Casanova	5.88
36	Jon Niese	5.31
37	Argenis Reyes	4.22
38	Ramon Martinez	3.77
39	Matt Wise	2.25
40	Trot Nixon	1.97
41	Tony Armas	1.88
42	Bobby Parnell	1.86
43	Ricardo Rincon	1.64
44	Brandon Knight	1.51
45	Brady Clark	0.70
46	Andy Phillips	0.44
47	Eddie Kunz	0.38
48	Gustavo Molina	0.02

Edited October 2, 2008 by Guest

[Guest AG/DC]

That's some bitter Schaefer for Aaron.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

L-O-V-E the card back. And I totally agree with the winner for the first time I think.

Congrats to Johan, I will send a six-pack onto him posthaste.

We should also make a small contrinutiuon in his name to his favorite charity

[metirish]

Congrats to Santana.


Great work throughout the season as always Ben Grim.


oh and yeah , the card is awesome.

[Benjamin Grimm]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: L-O-V-E the card back.

Thanks! I've done so many of these cards, and I found myself sometimes trying to picture what the flip side would look like. I finally decided to indulge myself and find out.

[Guest sharpie]

Kudos to Johan.

Kind of surprising that Heilman won the reliever prize by such a wide margin.

[Guest themetfairy]

BG - thank you for all of your hard work on this project. I find it enjoyable and instrutctive, and I think that others do as well.

[soupcan]

Excellent job Grimmie.

I also think the back of the card is awesome.

[HahnSolo]

Kudos for all the great work, and kudos for the awesome looking cards.

Kudos also to everybody who votes game in and game out to keep this going, unlike me. '09 resolutions have to include one about my voting more in this.

[metsmarathon]

m.e.t.b.o.t. and i are ashamed to have been relatively unable to participate in the schaeffer awarding process since about may. m.e.t.b.o.t. especially, what with it being his entire reason for existence.

i doubt that our collective opinions would've changed things much, but it'd be interesting to see who we'd both have as our respective top relievers. in all likliehood, we'd be right there with santana/wright.

in fact, i've gotta wind that little fella up and catch us both up so we can participate in the ranking project.

[Gwreck]

Thoughts:

1. Thanks BG! Very nicely done. Hard work is much appreciated.

2. Surprised at the big dropoff between Delgado and Reyes.

3. Heilman makes sense when you consider how many times he pitched multiple innings in relief (my quick count was 16 of his outings went over 1 inning). Of those 16, he was charged with runs in only 3 of those outings.

Plus, one of those 3 outings was the 15-inning game against the Cardinals where he pitched 3 scoreless before giving up the HR in the 4th inning, pitching as the last man out of the 'pen -- hence Aaron got beer in that game, too.

I figure that those > 1 inning outings certainly added up the points for him.

[Centerfield]

Congrats Johan and Aaron. And as always, great job Ben. Love the cards.

[smg58]

The fact that Heilman was our consensus most valuable reliever, with the year that he had, says everything about our pen that you really need to know.

Subjectively speaking, I don't think there was any doubt that Johan was the most valuable Met, so I'm not surprised that the voting ultimately reflected that.

[G-Fafif]

Congrats Johan (and Aaron, I suppose). Thanks BG for dazzling us with both the fronts of these cards and everything that added up onto their proverbial (and actual) backs.

[Frayed Knot]

Egg-Zellent stuff.

We could hash out an argument about how middle relievers seem to rate more highly than
closers but we pretty much had that discussion last year.

Overall, I think PotG "correctly" nailed the top few on the list and that our more subjective
consensus will match up pretty well.

[Guest AG/DC]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: L-O-V-E the card back. And I totally agree with the winner for the first time I think. Congrats to Johan, I will send a six-pack onto him posthaste. We should also make a small contrinutiuon in his name to his favorite charity

If anybody is in the marketing game, or perhaps has inside connections with the beverage industry, they could perhaps give the Pabst marketing people a call and suggest a partnership. Folks scome to our site and vote, we tally and, at the end of the year, they make a donation. One of us poses on-field with some Pabst personnel or even gets to rip down a number.

[Zvon]

A little late here ,sorry.
The Schaefer Player Of The Game is one of the many things I really enjoy while taking dips here in the Pool.

Santana deserved the award.
Aaron?......what smg58 said^.
I cheer for both.

Your efforts are always much appreciated Ben.
And as everyone said, the cards are fantastic.
They really do bring me back to the past in a nostalgic way.

I'm especially impressed by the Santana card back and how you matched
the cardboard grainy look in the photo portrait.
A tip of my hat>