Matt Harvey Could Make History, and Not In a Good Way

Looks like an Unhappy Harvey Day.  (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Matt Harvey's fall from All-Star Game starting pitcher to oft-injured, in-game batting practice pitcher has been well documented.  A year after going 4-10 with a 4.86 ERA and 1.468 WHIP, Harvey has somehow gotten worse.  Much, much worse.  In fact, if he doesn't show any kind of progress in his final few starts, he stands to make Mets history, and it's not the kind of history any pitcher would ever want to be associated with.

In 16 starts this season, Harvey has seen his ERA and WHIP go up to 6.14 and 1.574, respectively.  Should Harvey fail to lower his ERA under 6.00 before the end of the campaign, he would join an exclusive club.  How exclusive would it be?  Let's just say no one has been allowed to enter it yet.

Thanks to the baseball-reference.com Play Index, Pete Schourek and Matt Harvey can be mentioned in the same sentence.

Prior to Harvey's 2017 campaign, Pete Schourek was the Mets pitcher who came closest to posting an ERA north of 6.00 with at least 16 starts.  But Schourek's 5.96 ERA in 1993 was crafted as both a starter and reliever.  In Schourek's eighteen starts, he posted a 5.47 ERA, compared to the embarrassing 7.86 ERA he had in 23 relief appearances for the last Mets team to reach triple digits in losses.

Now if we only consider those Mets hurlers who made all of their appearances in a starting role, the closest one to Harvey is a another former ace whose career in New York was beleaguered by injuries.

What is it with guys named Pete or the Spanish equivalent of Pete and high ERAs?  Is Harvey secretly a Pete in disguise?

Harvey is not the only Mets starter this season to suffer from injuries, poor performance or a combination of the two.  Zack Wheeler had a 5.21 ERA in 17 starts before injuries curtailed his season.  Robert Gsellman is the owner of an unsightly 5.58 ERA in 19 starts and three relief appearances.  And had Steven Matz's season not come to a close after just 13 starts, he'd be in line to join Harvey in the Mile High ERA club (Matz finished the year with a 6.08 ERA).

But as awful as Mets pitchers have been this year, no pitcher in the 56-year history of the franchise who made as many as 16 starts has ever finished a season with an ERA higher than 6.00.  That may change when the curtain falls on the 2017 baseball season in a couple of weeks.  And a former Dark Knight could be facing some dark nights of his own during the off-season as he reflects upon his historically bad campaign.

 

Stars The Mets Drafted But Couldn't Sign (Part One)

In a recent piece, I discussed the possibility of Jonathon Niese being the third-best homegrown left-handed starting pitcher in Mets history, after Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack.  Niese ranks in the team's top three in each of the following categories for homegrown lefty pitchers - starts, wins, ERA, WHIP, strikeouts and strikeout-to-walk ratio.  The other two players in the top three for those categories are Koosman and Matlack.

Of course, although Niese's numbers have improved from year to year, he might be No. 3 only because the Mets have not had much success drafting and developing left-handed starting pitchers, as can be seen by the inclusion of such non-legends as Eric Hillman, Pete Schourek and Bill Pulsipher in the team's top five in various categories.  Even promising left-handed starters like Jason Jacome (drafted by the Mets in 1991; made his debut for the team in 1994) couldn't maintain any early success they had in the big leagues.

Jacome made eight starts for the Mets in 1994 and pitched very well, going 4-3 with a 2.67 ERA in 54 innings, averaging nearly seven innings per start.  But the young southpaw couldn't duplicate his rookie success in his sophomore season.  Jacome went 0-4 with a 10.29 ERA in 1995, throwing only 21 innings in five starts for the Mets.  His slow start caused the Mets to give up on his once-promising potential.  In July, Jacome was traded to the Kansas City Royals for three players, including Derek Wallace, whose sole claim to fame with the Mets came on September 13, 1996, when he became the first pitcher in team history to strike out four batters in one inning.  Jacome would go on to win six more games in the majors with the Royals and Indians before bouncing around the minor league systems of the Diamondbacks, Astros, Cardinals and Giants.

Simply stated, the Mets have fared poorly when it comes to drafting and developing left-handed starters.  But that's not the point of this blog post.  What I'd like to discuss is something I came across when doing my research on the Jonathon Niese piece, particularly something I uncovered when looking back at who the Mets have drafted since 1965.

Did you know Roger Clemens was originally drafted by the Mets, but chose not to sign because he wanted to become a Texas Longhorn?  Did you also know that '80s nemesis John Tudor was also drafted by New York but said "no thanks" when he was asked for his signature on the dotted line?  They're not the only ones who said no to the Mets before saying yes somewhere else.

The following are a select group of players who were originally drafted by the Mets, but did not sign with the team, finding success elsewhere while the Mets and their fans were left shaking their heads at what might have been:

Ron Cey

The man lovingly known as the Penguin was originally drafted by the Mets out of high school in 1966, but chose not to sign and instead enrolled at Washington State University.  Two years later, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers, making his major league debut for them in 1971.  Cey became part of the famous infield that also included Steve Garvey at first, Davey Lopes at second and Bill Russell at shortstop.  Along with Cey at third base, the quartet played eight and a half seasons together, the longest of any infield in major league history.

Over his 17-year career spent with the Dodgers, Cubs and A's, Cey launched 316 HR and had 1,139 RBI.  Cey was also selected to six All-Star teams and played in four World Series while in Los Angeles, winning his only World Series ring as a member of the 1981 Dodgers.

In 1984, Cey helped the Cubs reach the postseason for the first time in 39 years by collecting 25 HR and 97 RBI for the long-suffering franchise.  Cey had more RBIs against the Mets that year (13) than he had against any other National League squad, as the Cubs held off the team that originally drafted Cey 28 years earlier for their first-ever NL East title.

Burt Hooton

Like Cey, Burt Hooton also spent the majority of his career with the Dodgers and Cubs, but he played for the two teams in reverse, making his major league debut with the Cubs, before spending the majority of his career with the Dodgers.  Also like Cey, Hooton was originally drafted by the Mets, but did not sign with the team that drafted him in 1968.  Instead, he increased his draft value by going 35-3 at the University of Texas at Austin before being drafted by the Cubs in 1971.  Hooton didn't do much with the Cubs, going 34-44 from 1971 to 1975.  But his stock went way up once he was traded to the Dodgers in May 1975.

In ten seasons with the Dodgers, Hooton went 112-84 with a 3.14 ERA.  Hooton pitched in three World Series for Los Angeles (1977, 1978, 1981), with the latter year being his best in the postseason.  In five October starts that year, Hooton went 4-1 with a 0.82 ERA.  Hooton did not give up an earned run against the Expos in the 1981 NLCS, earning him the MVP award for that series.  Hooton was also the winning pitcher for the Dodgers in the sixth and deciding game of the 1981 World Series, which gave the Dodgers their first championship since 1965.

Hooton finished his career with the Texas Rangers in 1985, which was fine with Mets fans.  After all, over his long career in the big leagues, Hooton wore more games against the Mets (21) than any other team he faced.  In 43 appearances (37 starts) against the team that couldn't get him to sign in 1968, Hooton went 21-14 with a 2.62 ERA, holding the Mets to a .218 batting average against him, his lowest mark against any team he faced.

John Tudor

John Tudor was drafted by the Mets in 1975 but did not sign with New York.  Instead, he hung around for the January 1976 secondary draft, where he was picked by the Boston Red Sox.  Tudor had several good seasons for the Red Sox, despite Fenway Park being notoriously unkind to left-handed pitchers.  From 1979 to 1983, Tudor went 39-32 with a 3.96 ERA for Boston.  He was then traded to the Pirates for Mike Easler and won 12 games for Pittsburgh in 1984.  After one season in the Steel City, Tudor was then flipped to St. Louis for George Hendrick.  It was in St. Louis that Tudor experienced his best seasons in the majors.

In 1985, John Tudor had arguably the best season by a Cardinals pitcher since Bob Gibson in 1968.  Tudor finished the year with a 21-8 record and a 1.93 ERA.  He also led the league in WHIP (0.938), while holding opposing batters to a .209 batting average.  Furthermore, Tudor led the league with 10 complete game shutouts in 1985.  No pitcher has reached double digits in shutouts since then.  But Tudor finished second to Dwight Gooden in the Cy Young Award vote, as Doc won the pitching Triple Crown in 1985.  Tudor got the last laugh, however, as his Cardinals team edged out the Mets for the division title in 1985.  The Cardinals went on to win the NL pennant, but were denied a World Series title when umpire Don Denkinger blew a call at first base in Game 6.  Tudor then lost Game 7 (after winning Games 1 and 4) to the Royals, giving Kansas City their first and only World Series championship.

Tudor returned to the World Series in 1987, going 10-2 in an injury-plagued regular season and finally won a World Series ring in 1988 as a member of the Dodgers.  Tudor had been involved in a mid-season trade with Los Angeles that sent Pedro Guerrero to St. Louis (the third time Tudor had been traded for a veteran slugger, following the Mike Easler trade and the George Hendrick deal).  After one more injury-plagued season in L.A. in 1989, Tudor became a free agent and returned to St. Louis, where he went 12-4 with a 2.40 ERA in his final season in the big leagues.  Tudor finished his career with a .705 career winning percentage with the Cardinals and a 2.52 ERA.  Both numbers place Tudor in the top three all-time in Cardinals history.  As good as his ERA was against the rest of the league, it was even better against the Mets, as Tudor finished his career with a 2.41 ERA vs. New York in 22 starts.

Roger Clemens

Mets fans will always hate Roger Clemens for a number of reasons.  Whether it was his headhunting incident with Mike Piazza in 2000 or his inability to determine the difference between a broken bat shard and a baseball in that year's Fall Classic ("I thought it was the ball"), there was never any love lost between those who root for the Mets and Clemens.  But perhaps those same fans would have loved him had he chosen to sign with the Mets after they drafted him out of San Jacinto College in 1981.  But he didn't, choosing to go to the University of Texas before signing with the Boston Red Sox two years later.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Roger Clemens struck out more batters than any other Red Sox pitcher and his 192 wins in Boston tie him with Cy Young (the man, not the award named after him) for most in club history.  Speaking of Cy Young, Clemens won his award a record seven times, winning it thrice in Boston, twice in Toronto, once as a Yankee and once as an Astro.

The baseball history books might have looked completely different had the Mets been able to sign Clemens in 1981, but looking back, would we really want that negative publicity surrounding Clemens for his subsequent "alleged" steroid use?  I'd much rather remember Clemens for all the home runs Piazza hit off him, the homer Shawn Estes hit off him in 2002 after the Mets pitcher failed to plunk Clemens in an earlier inning, and most importantly, I'm quite fond of the memory of a clean-shaven Clemens waiting to celebrate a World Series title in 1986 that never happened.  Looks like Roger Clemens never got over '86.

Rafael Palmeiro

The Mets couldn't sign Roger Clemens in 1981, who was accused of taking steroids but never tested positive for them.  One year later, they tried to sign another player who would end up becoming linked to performance enhancing drugs.  However, unlike Clemens, this player eventually did test positive for steroid use.  That player was Rafael Palmeiro, who said thanks but no thanks to the Mets in 1982 before signing with the Cubs one year later.

Rafael Palmeiro wasn't much of a power hitter when he was called up by the Cubs in 1986, but he did hit his second career homer against Dwight Gooden in the game that clinched the Mets the National League East title on September 17.  After two-plus seasons in Chicago in which he only managed to hit 25 HR, the Cuban-born Palmeiro was traded along with Jamie "I'm Never Retiring" Moyer to the Texas Rangers.  It was in Texas that Palmeiro's power fully developed.  Whether it was artificially assisted is another question.

In each of his first three seasons in Arlington, Palmeiro's extra-base hit total increased rapidly.  Palmeiro went from 35 extra-base hits in 1989 to 55 extra-base hits in 1990 to 78 extra-base hits in 1991.  In the latter year, Palmeiro hit 26 HR and led the majors with 49 doubles.  But that was just the beginning.  From 1995 to 2003, Palmeiro hit at least 38 HR in every season, after only topping 30 HR once in his first nine seasons in the majors.  Then in 2005, after wagging his finger before Congress claiming that he had never done steroids - period - MLB drug tests proved otherwise, putting an exclamation point on his career.  Palmeiro finished his career with 3,020 hits, 569 HR and 1,835 RBIs, but no support for the Hall of Fame.


(To read the second part of this lengthier-than-expected blog post, where we reveal the next five stars the Mets drafted but couldn't sign, please click here.)

Top 3 Lefty Homegrown Starters: Koosman, Matlack ... Niese?

On Friday night, Jonathon Niese made his 30th and final start of the season for the Mets, holding the Braves to one run in seven innings to collect his career-high 13th win.  Niese also held Chipper Jones hitless in three at-bats on the night the Braves were celebrating the future Hall of Famer's career in Atlanta.  This was nothing new for Niese, as he held Jones to a .174 career batting average against him (4-for-23), with half of those hits coming before Niese became a regular in the Mets' starting rotation.

Since Niese joined the staff for good in 2010, Jones has batted 21 times against the Mets' southpaw and has only reached base twice for a .095 on-base percentage.  Niese has also never walked Jones in 24 career plate appearances.  That's not a typo, as every Niese-Jones confrontation has ended without the home plate umpire telling Jones to take his base.

Jonathon Niese's ability to retire Chipper Jones is one that eluded many Mets pitchers over the years.  But Jones is not the only batter who has struggled against Niese.  In fact, as Niese has matured from a 21-year-old rookie pitching at Shea Stadium in 2008 to one of the most reliable arms on the staff as a 25-year-old, many hitters have gone back to the dugout shaking their heads after failing to reach base against him.

In 2012, Niese enjoyed his finest season to date, establishing career highs across the board.  Niese achieved personal bests in wins (13), ERA (3.40), WHIP (1.17), innings pitched (190⅓), strikeouts (155), batting average against (.241), walks per nine innings (2.3) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.2).  At age 25, Niese has been a Met for all or parts of five seasons, making his way up the franchise's all-time pitching leaderboards with every start he makes.

Those leaderboards are loaded with names like Seaver, Gooden, Darling, Cone, etc.  What do all of those pitchers have in common?  They were all right-handed starters.  Similarly, left-handed starting pitchers Sid Fernandez, Al Leiter and (ahem) Tom Glavine are also all over the Mets' all-time leaderboards for pitchers but none of them came up through the Mets' farm system and all of them made their major league debuts pitching for another team.

If not for Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack, the Mets' all-time pitching leaderboards would be bereft of homegrown southpaws.  So if Koosman and Matlack are the two best homegrown left-handed starters in franchise history, then who would be third?  Believe it or not, that third member might just be Jonathon Niese.  Don't believe it?  Let's look at where Niese ranks among all other homegrown left-handed starting pitchers in Mets history who had a minimum of 20 starts and made at least half of his appearances in a starting role.

Starts:

Jerry Koosman

1. Jerry Koosman - 346 
2. Jon Matlack - 199
3. Jonathon Niese - 94
4. Pete Schourek - 47
5. Eric Hillman - 36

Wins:

Jon Matlack

1. Jerry Koosman - 140
2. Jon Matlack - 82
3. Jonathon Niese - 35
4. Pete Schourek - 16
5. Bill Pulsipher - 5

ERA:

Jonathon Niese

1. Jon Matlack - 3.03
2. Jerry Koosman - 3.09
3. Jonathon Niese - 4.06
4. Bill Pulsipher - 4.63
5. Pete Schourek - 4.65

WHIP:

Eric Hillman

1. Jon Matlack - 1.195
2. Jerry Koosman - 1.219
3. Jonathon Niese - 1.360
4. Eric Hillman - 1.422
5. Bill Pulsipher - 1.442

Strikeouts:

Pete Schourek

1. Jerry Koosman - 1,799
2. Jon Matlack - 1,023
3. Jonathon Niese - 470
4. Pete Schourek - 199
5. Bill Pulsipher - 101

K/BB Ratio:

Bill Pulsipher

1. Jonathon Niese - 2.73
2. Jon Matlack - 2.44
3. Jerry Koosman - 2.19
4. Eric Hilman - 2.13
5. Bill Pulsipher - 1.80

Did you notice anything interesting about each top five list?  In each list, the top three pitchers were always Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack and Jonathon Niese, although not necessarily in that order.  Also, when players such as Pete Schourek, Bill Pulsipher and Eric Hillman start cracking all-time top five lists for the Mets, it's fairly obvious that the Mets haven't had much success drafting, developing and calling up left-handed starters.

Say what you what about Jonathon Niese.  Say he's only a middle-of-the-rotation starter.  Say he hasn't fully realized his potential.  Say all of that, but then don't forget to say that he's also one of the best homegrown left-handed starting pitchers in team history.  And with the improvement he continues to show year after year, we may have to remove the word "left-handed" from the previous sentence before long.  Not bad for a southpaw who has yet to reach his 26th birthday.

What Will The Mets Produce Next: A No-Hitter or A 20-Game Winner?

What do the Mets have a better chance of producing?  A no-hitter or a 20-game winner?  On the surface, the question appears to have a simple answer.

Considering that the Mets have had five different pitchers produce a total of eight 20-win seasons (Tom Seaver accomplished the feat four times, while Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, David Cone and Frank Viola each did it once), yet they've never pitched a no-hitter, it would seem that the 20-game winner would be the obvious choice.

But what would appear to be the clear-cut favorite of two things sometimes isn't, as I'm sure fans of the 1988 Mets (boo, Dodgers) and 2006 Mets (boo, Cardinals) can attest.

The five pitchers who won 20 games in a single season for the Mets all experienced great success in the major leagues.  Tom Seaver won 311 games in the big leagues en route to receiving the highest percentage of votes of any Hall of Fame inductee.  Fellow 1969 World Series champion Jerry Koosman finished his career with 222 victories.  Dwight Gooden, David Cone and Frank Viola also had long and successful careers in the major leagues, with Gooden and Cone both winning 194 games and Viola finishing his career with 176 victories.

In addition, four of the five 20-game winners for the Mets also won the Cy Young Award at some point in their careers, with the lone exception being Jerry Koosman, who came tantalizingly close in 1976 when he finished second in the vote to Padres' pitcher (and future Met) Randy Jones.

Here's the kicker.  Although none of the five pitchers ever pitched a no-hitter while in a Mets uniform, three of them (Seaver, Gooden, Cone) accomplished the feat after leaving the Mets, and David Cone took it one step further, pitching a perfect game against the Montreal Expos in 1999 as a member of the New York Yankees.

Tom Seaver never did it as a Met.  Neither did Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, David Cone or Frank Viola.  In fact, no Mets pitcher has ever pitched a no-hitter.  But dozens of Mets hurlers have tossed one-hitters, and not all of them were pitched by All-Stars or future Hall of Famers.  In fact, many of them were pitchers who didn't even win 100 games in the major leagues.

Of course, Tom Seaver leads the list of most one-hitters fired by Mets pitchers with five.  David Cone pitched two complete-game one-hitters as a Met and combined with Jeff Innis on a third.  Dwight Gooden pitched a one-hitter for the Mets during his rookie season, but never pitched another one in a Mets uniform.  Meanwhile, Jerry Koosman and Frank Viola never pitched a one-hitter for the Mets.
 
But Jack Hamilton did.  So did Terry Leach, Pete Schourek, Bobby Jones, Aaron Heilman, Jonathon Niese and R.A. Dickey.  What do all of those pitchers have in common?  None of them won 100 games over their major league careers.  Even Shawn Estes, who won four games as a Met, was able to pitch a one-hitter for the team.  (He could pitch a one-hitter, but he couldn't hit one pitcher.  Ah, the Roger Clemens jokes never get old, do they?)

Both Aaron Shawn Estes and George Thomas Seaver were known by their middle names and they both pitched one-hitters for the Mets.  But Seaver would've hit Roger Clemens if he had the chance.

Want some more?  Gary Gentry pitched two one-hitters as a Met, but only won 46 games in the majors.  John Maine also pitched two one-hitters in New York (with one being of the rain-shortened variety), yet he only won 41 games over his career (so far).  Even the underrated and never quite appreciated Steve Trachsel authored two one-hitters during the 2003 campaign.

A total of 35 one-hitters have been pitched in club annals.  More than half of them (18) have come after 1990.  Why is that year so important?  Because that was the last time the Mets had a 20-game winner.

Since Frank Viola's 20-win season in 1990, no Met pitcher has reached that level of pitching excellence.  In fact, the closest any pitcher has come was in 1998 when Al Leiter won 17 games for the Mets.

For a pitcher to win 20 games, he has to be consistently good over the course of an entire season.  It also helps to have a good bullpen.  Johan Santana went 16-7 for the 2008 Mets, but the bullpen blew seven games in which he left with the lead, costing him a potential 20-win season.  Meanwhile, to pitch a no-hitter, a pitcher only needs to have one game in which he harnesses all of his "stuff" against opposing hitters.

It's rare for a so-so pitcher to win 20 games.  None of the five pitchers who accomplished the feat for the Mets would be considered "so-so".  In fact, Seaver, Koosman, Gooden, Cone and Viola combined to make the All-Star team a total of 19 times as members of the Mets.

But considering how guys like Terry Leach, Pete Schourek and Aaron Heilman all came within one safety of becoming the first Met to pitch a no-hitter, it goes to show that players with nondescript careers can occasionally show flashes of brilliance.

All one needs to pitch a no-hitter is a nine-inning flash of brilliance.  For a pitcher to win 20 games in a season, he'll need a couple hundred innings of brilliance (and a good bullpen).  John Maine won only 39 games in five seasons as a Met, but came within one Paul Hoover dribbler of pitching a no-hitter.  Jonathon Niese has barely cracked 20 wins over his entire major league career, yet he came within a Chris Denorfia double of pitching a perfect game.  Even Pete Schourek and Shawn Estes, who won 20 games COMBINED over their Mets careers, have one-hitters to their credit.

It's true that the Mets have gone 50 years without a no-hitter, but perhaps we'll see one before we see another 20-game winner in a Mets uniform.  It's been 22 years since Frank Viola became to last Met to record 20 wins in a season.  Since then, there have been 18 occasions in which the Mets have come within one hit of recording the team's first no-hitter.  Common sense and superstition might suggest that the Mets will have another 20-game winner before they record their first no-hitter.  But considering how close the Mets have come to pitching a no-hitter on several occasions over the past two-plus decades, while not having a pitcher even sniff a 20-win season over the same time period might suggest otherwise.

What will Mets' pitchers accomplish next?  Will it be a no-hitter?  Or will it be a 20-win season?  It wouldn't surprise me if it was the former rather than the latter.

Don't Trade Jonathon Niese!

On Friday, a story broke about the possibility of trading Jonathon Niese to the Colorado Rockies for outfielder Seth Smith.  Fortunately, that trade will not become a reality, as earlier today, Jerry Crasnick of espn.com and Baseball America tweeted that the Mets have no interest in sending Niese to Colorado for Smith.

Of course, looking at Jerry Crasnick's tweet on the topic suggests the Mets wouldn't trade Niese to Colorado in a package involving Smith.  It doesn't say the Mets wouldn't trade him to the Rockies in a Smith-less deal.

Trading Niese at all right now would be foolish.  A player like Seth Smith, who will turn 30 before the 2012 season ends, does not give the Mets the production at an outfield position they need.  Since becoming an everyday player in 2009, Smith has averaged 24 doubles, 16 HR and 55 RBI per season, while hitting .275 with a .346 on-base percentage.  He has also played an average of 138 games a year over the past three seasons.

By comparison, Lucas Duda has played in 129 games in the major leagues since his first call-up in 2010.  In those 129 games (which are nine fewer than Smith has averaged per season since 2009), Duda has combined to hit .273 with a .347 on-base percentage, picking up 27 doubles, 14 HR and 63 RBI along the way.  Seems like the same player, doesn't it?  The only difference is that Duda is giving the Mets Seth Smith-type numbers at age 25, before entering the prime of his career, while Smith has already entered his peak years and has been achieving his numbers in a hitters' park.  Duda has played half of his games at cavernous Citi Field.

Although Niese has spent time on the disabled list in 2010 and 2011, he has still averaged 28 starts per season over the past two years.  Before getting hurt, he made great strides in 2011.  Niese increased his strikeout rate (7.7 K/9 IP in 2010, 7.9 K/9 IP in 2011) while showing better command of his pitches (3.2 BB/9 IP in 2010, 2.5 BB/9 IP in 2011).  He also did a better job of keeping the ball in the park, reducing his home runs allowed from 20 in 2010 to 14 in 2011.

Jonathon Niese is the type of pitcher the Mets have given up on too soon in the past.  Rick Aguilera did fairly well (37-27, 3.58 ERA) in his four and a half seasons in New York.  Kevin Tapani was also a promising prospect in the Mets organization.  Both pitchers were traded to Minnesota while they were still in their twenties.  Aguilera went on to become the Twins' all-time saves leader (recently surpassed by Joe Nathan and Tapani won 143 games in a 13-year career in the big leagues.

Even a player like Pete Schourek, whom the Mets gave up on after three seasons in New York, went on to surprise the non-believers.  In 1994, he went 7-2 for the Cincinnati Reds, who claimed him off waivers.  He followed that up by going 18-5 in 1995, leading the Reds to a division title and finishing second to Greg Maddux for the National League Cy Young Award.

It's been quite some time since the Mets have let a homegrown pitcher develop in the big leagues.  Not since Bobby Jones has the organization produced a pitcher that had some success in the major leagues as a member of the Mets.  Unfortunately, Jones last pitched for the Mets over a decade ago.  The team has failed to develop and keep one of its own pitchers ever since, choosing to fill its starting rotation with free agent acquisitions and players acquired via the trade market.  The one recent exception has been Mike Pelfrey, and he's only become the first Mets pitcher to give up more hits than innings pitched in six different seasons.

Jonathon Niese has the potential to become the next great homegrown pitcher for the Mets.  He also has the potential to be traded to a player of Seth Smith's caliber.  After so many failures with trading away young pitching talent too soon, shouldn't the Mets give Niese a chance? 

J-Niese Got A Gun

Born on the same day the Mets won their second World Series title, Jonathon Niese pitched like a champion tonight against the San Diego Padres, allowing only one man to reach base all game (a double to Chris Denorfia to lead off the third inning).

Niese became the 34th pitcher in Mets history to throw a one-hitter, joining greats such as Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden. On the other hand, he also joined not-so-greats Pete Schourek, Shawn Estes and Aaron F. Heilman on the Mets one-hitter list.

Whether he'll follow in the golden footsteps of Ryan, Seaver and Gooden or the muddy tracks left behind by Schourek, Estes and Heilman is yet to be determined, but one thing's for sure. Jonathon Niese has pitched brilliantly since returning from the disabled list last Saturday.

In addition to being effective in keeping men off base, he's also been very economical with his pitches. In his first start back from the DL on Saturday, he threw 90 pitches in seven innings and was only removed because of an understandable pitch count.

Tonight, Niese only needed 108 pitches to pitch his complete game gem. After eight innings, Niese had thrown 99 pitches. He could have been removed by Jerry Manuel, who had Francisco Rodriguez warming up in the bullpen. But as the crowd called for their 23-year old southpaw to come out of the dugout for the ninth inning, the bullpen door remained shut. It was then that we knew Jonathon Niese was coming out there to finish what he started. And what a finish it was. He retired Lance Zawadski, pinch hitter Nick Hundley and Jerry Hairston, Jr. on only nine pitches, capping off a nearly perfect night, when Chris Denorfia's third inning double was the only blemish in Jon Niese's performance.

The Mets have still never had a no-hitter in franchise history. But they got really close to a perfect game tonight. Jonathon Niese retired the final 21 batters to face him and at the same time might have given the Mets hope that they have a third quality starter on their staff after Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana.

Niese has now pitched two beautiful games since coming off the disabled list last week. He also shut down the Phillies back in late April before getting hurt. With multiple successful outings this season, this homegrown talent appears to be taking the right track to a successful career with the Mets.

Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden all pitched one-hitters for the Mets. They were also all homegrown talents. More importantly, they all own Mets World Series rings. So far, Jonathon Niese can claim the one-hitter and homegrown talent to his name. There's one more thing to shoot for. With more outings like tonight, the Mets know that if they are to get themselves another ring, Jonathon Niese might be a key contributor towards that goal. How amazin' is that!