Zack Wheeler Joins A Special Strikeout Club

We already knew Zack Wheeler was special.  Betcha didn't know how special.  (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

On Friday night, Zack Wheeler struck out seven Atlanta Braves in six innings en route to his 11th victory of the season.  In doing so, he upped his career strikeout total to 264, passing Matt Harvey by three.  It is worth noting that Wheeler has not yet made 50 starts in the big leagues, as Friday's seven-strikeout effort came in his 48th start at the major league level.

While it is true that several Mets pitchers have struck out more than 264 batters in their first 50 starts with the team, for many of them, those weren't their first 50 starts in the big leagues.  For example, Sid Fernandez had 297 Ks in his first 50 starts as a Met, but his first start in the big show came in 1983 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Similarly, Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana both had over 300 strikeouts in their first 50 starts with the Mets (332 and 310, respectively), but of course, neither pitcher began their career in New York.

By posting 264 strikeouts before his 50th career start (with all starts coming as a New York Met), Wheeler has joined some exclusive company.  Here is the list of all pitchers in Mets history who recorded 250 or more strikeouts in their first 50 starts (or fewer, in some cases).  We are only considering those pitchers who made each of their first 50 starts as a member of the New York Mets, so a pitcher like David Cone - who made his major league debut with the Kansas City Royals in 1986 pitching exclusively in relief - can be included on the list, since each of his first 50 big league starts came in a Mets uniform.  Also, we are only looking at strikeouts recorded in starts.  Strikeout totals compiled in relief appearances (as well as innings pitched in relief) are not included in the chart below.

Pitcher	No. of Starts	Innings Pitched	Strikeouts
Dwight Gooden	50	364.2	418
David Cone	50	356.0	297
Jerry Koosman	50	372.0	270
Zack Wheeler	48	280.1	264
Matt Harvey	36	237.2	261
Tom Seaver	50	382.1	251

Zack Wheeler has become just the sixth pitcher in Mets history to fan 250 or more batters within his first 50 big league starts.  And look at the other names on the list.  You have the three winningest pitchers in franchise history in Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden and Jerry Koosman.  You have David Cone, who was traded away before his 30th birthday, but still managed to become the team's all-time leader in strikeouts per nine innings and is also one of just four pitchers to make at least 100 starts for the team and finish his career with a .600+ winning percentage.  (The others are Gooden, Seaver and Rick Reed.)  And of course, you have Matt Harvey.  Barring any setbacks from Tommy John surgery, the 2013 All-Star Game starting pitcher should become just the second pitcher in team history to record 300 or more strikeouts within his first 50 starts in the majors.  He needs just 39 strikeouts in his next 14 starts to become Doctor K's understudy in that department.

Now, as great as Wheeler has been in getting those whiffs, he has tended to throw a lot of pitches to get said Ks.  Gooden, Cone, Koosman and Seaver all averaged at least seven innings per start in their first 50 big league starts, while Harvey is just under six and two-thirds innings per start.  Even if Wheeler pitches complete games in both his 49th and 50th career starts, he will still be under 300 innings pitched.  That's less than six innings per start.

Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Jerry Koosman and David Cone are among the best pitchers in club history.  Prior to his injury, Matt Harvey appeared to be on his way to joining them.  Zack Wheeler still needs to work on his command before he can be considered one of the best pitchers to ever don a Mets uniform.  But for now, he is becoming one of the best strikeout pitchers the club has ever seen.  And by joining Seaver, Gooden, Koosman, Cone and Harvey, he's certainly in a class that very few Mets starting pitchers have had the privilege to be a part of.
 

Curtis Granderson and the Not-So-Sweet Sixteen

Curtis Granderson looks spooked at the plate.  Could the ghost of Jason Bay be haunting him?

On Wednesday, Curtis Granderson delivered two hits in the Mets' 5-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs, giving him 1,201 for his career.  It was not the first time this season Granderson hit the 1,200 mark in a lifetime offensive category.  However, the other category wasn't exactly something to be proud of, as on May 6, Granderson struck out for the 1,200th time in his career.

Entering tonight's series finale against the Cubs, Granderson is the owner of 1,231 strikeouts and 1,201 hits.  How rare is it for a player to have more strikeouts than hits when he has that many of both?  Well, the first player to end his career with more strikeouts than hits when he had at least 1,200 of both didn't play his last game in the majors until 1986.  And since this player (a former Met) retired, just 16 other players - including Granderson - have joined him.

Here are a list of those players, which include Curtis Granderson and the other not-so-sweet sixteen.  This list includes a Hall of Famer, a few All-Stars and probably more current and former Mets than you would like.

Player	Final Year	Career Strikeouts	Career Hits	Career HR	Career RBI
Dave Kingman	1986	1,816	1,575	442	1,210
Reggie Jackson	1987	2,597	2,584	563	1,702
Jesse Barfield	1992	1,234	1,219	241	716
Cecil Fielder	1998	1,316	1,313	319	1,008
Jay Buhner	2001	1,406	1,273	310	965
Jose Canseco	2001	1,942	1,877	462	1,407
Dean Palmer	2003	1,332	1,229	275	849
Greg Vaughn	2003	1,513	1,475	355	1,072
Richie Sexson	2008	1,313	1,286	306	943
Troy Glaus	2010	1,377	1,375	320	950
Pat Burrell	2011	1,564	1,393	292	976
Mike Cameron	2011	1,901	1,700	278	968
Jim Thome	2012	2,548	2,328	612	1,699
Jason Bay	2013	1,216	1,200	222	754
Adam Dunn	Still Active	2,280	1,574	449	1,128
Ryan Howard	Still Active	1,474	1,226	322	1,003
Curtis Granderson	Still Active	1,231	1,201	223	633

Notice that just about everyone on the list was a middle-of-the-order power hitter.  But Granderson hit at the top of the order for much of his career and has surpassed 25 homers in a season just three times, hence his low RBI total.

Also notice that four of the 17 players (Kingman, Cameron, Bay, Granderson) called Shea Stadium and Citi Field home for parts of their careers.  It could have been seven out of 20, had Darryl Strawberry (1,352 strikeouts, 1,401 hits), Jeromy Burnitz (1,376 strikeouts, 1,447 hits) and Jose Valentin (1,294 strikeouts, 1,348 hits) struck out just a little more in their respective careers.  But just like the hitters who actually did make the list, Strawberry, Burnitz and Valentin were cleanup-type power hitters (Valentin had five straight years of 25+ homers from 2000 to 2004), something Granderson is not.

If Curtis Granderson were a prototypical power hitter, perhaps his high strikeout rate would be more acceptable.  Likewise, if Granderson had more seasons of elite home run totals, his low hit count could be forgiven.  But Granderson is not Dave Kingman, Reggie Jackson, Jose Canseco or Jim Thome.  He's not even Jesse Barfield or Pat Burrell, for that matter.  The closest player he resembles on the list above is - here's that name again - Jason Bay.

Although he tried his best to fulfill the lofty expectations that go with a lucrative four-year contract, Jason Bay fizzled quickly as a Met.  During his time in New York, Bay had more strikeouts (258) than hits (231), despite having fewer strikeouts (896) than hits (927) before coming to the Big Apple.  He also hit 26 or more homers in five of the six seasons before his first year in New York.  Then he hit a grand total of 26 homers in three years as a Met.  Because of his low home run totals and high strikeout rate, Bay found himself in the dreaded New York doghouse - the same place Granderson appears to be heading.

Curtis Granderson is a nice guy.  But being nice doesn't get you anything in New York if you're paid to hit home runs, then proceed to strike out ten times for every long ball you hit.  (Granderson has hit six home runs in 2014, while striking out 64 times.)  We saw it before with Jason Bay.  We don't need to see it again with Curtis Granderson.

There are 151 players in major league history who collected at least 1,200 hits and 1,200 strikeouts.  Of those players, only 17 had more strikeouts than hits.  Curtis Granderson is one of those players.  And if he doesn't want to go down the road taken by Jason Bay before him, he'll need to get himself off this list pronto.

How Do They Do It? ... How Do They Do It? ... Mirrors!

Hot Foot from 1986 Mets: A Year to Remember from The Wright Stache on Vimeo.


In 1986, the New York Mets steamrolled their way through the National League East en route to a World Series victory.  After the season, the Mets produced a VHS tape (for all you kids out there, a VHS tape was a rectangular prism that was inserted into a bulky machine called a video cassette recorder - or VCR for short - for video playback) featuring highlights of their historic campaign.

One memorable segment in the "1986 Mets - A Year To Remember" video cassette features Roger McDowell and Howard Johnson sharing the secrets of how to make a perfect hotfoot - a practical joke that usually ended up with a teammate or coach's shoe catching fire.  (This practice has since been discontinued because current Mets trainer Ray Ramirez has enough problems on his hands messing up other treatments of injuries.  If you were a Met, would you trust him with a fire extinguisher?)

When McDowell rolls a wad of gum onto the hotfoot to use as an adhesive, Johnson asks him, "How does he do it?  How does he do it?", referring to McDowell's gum-rolling technique.  Without missing a beat or taking the sticky gum out of his mouth, McDowell candidly says, "Mirrors".

Twenty-eight years after Mets fans were educated on the McDowellian way to make a hotfoot, the current generation of Metropolitan boosters are asking how the 2014 squad are doing it this year.  Mirrors must certainly be involved.  After all, how else can this team be 13-10 with the following things not going as planned?

• Jenrry Mejia is the only starting pitcher with a winning record.  Dillon Gee has a 1-1 record, while the other three starters (Zack Wheeler, Jonathon Niese, Bartolo Colon) are all one game under .500.

• Four different relief pitchers have recorded a save for the Mets.  And none of those "closers" is named Bobby Parnell, who was the the Mets' ninth-inning man on Opening Day.

• The only Met hitting above .290 is Juan Lagares, who hasn't played in nearly two weeks.  Four of the eight regulars in the lineup (Eric Young Jr., Travis d'Arnaud, Ruben Tejada, Curtis Granderson) are hitting .225 or lower.  Of those four, d'Arnaud has the highest slugging percentage at .295, which doesn't even qualify as a good on-base percentage.

• New York is one of six teams in baseball to have as many as four pitchers with one or more blown saves, as Bobby Parnell, Jose Valverde, Scott Rice and Gonzalez Germen have all coughed up late-inning leads.  Four of the other five teams on this list do not have winning records and are all either in last place or within one game of the cellar.

• The Mets have played ten games in which their hitters combined to strike out at least ten times.  They are one of eight teams who can claim this.  But somehow, they've gone 7-3 in those high-strikeout games.  None of the other seven teams is above .500 in their 10+ strikeout games.

Curtis Granderson has a low batting average and a high strikeout rate, but he also has a high walk-off celebration rate.

No one is confusing the 2014 Mets with their 1986 counterparts.  The '86 team was supposed to be good, coming off back-to-back 90+ win campaigns.  This year's model, on the other hand, is trying not to post the franchise's sixth consecutive losing season.

Two years before becoming world champions, the 1984 Mets went 90-72 despite allowing 24 more runs than they scored.  This year's team has been outscored by three runs, yet they have a 13-10 record.  Only five other teams in baseball (Detroit, Oakland, Texas, Atlanta, Milwaukee) can claim a higher winning percentage than the .565 mark posted by the Mets.

Are these Mets trying to become the second coming of the 1984 team?  Will they make Sandy Alderson look like a prophet by reaching 90 victories, just like the '84 squad did?

Roger McDowell might have used mirrors to create the perfect hotfoot, but the 1986 club needed no such help to win the way everyone expected them to.  The 2014 Mets are clearly using something to rack up win after win.  It's not pine tar (that's the Yankee way) and it's certainly not because they're loaded with All-Stars.  But there's certainly something special coming together at Citi Field in 2014.  And if the team continues to win the way they have over the past three weeks, they just might mirror the squad that brought life back to Flushing thirty years ago.

Byrd Was The Word

Marlon Byrd was signed by the Mets as a reclamation project - one who had been an All-Star as recently as 2010 and a 20-HR hitter the year before.  He was brought in as one of a plethora of outfielders competing for a starting job in the Mets' makeshift outfield.  Byrd started out well, batting .268 with 10 RBIs in his first 11 games, including a game-ending two-run single on April 7 against the Marlins.

Over the first two weeks of the season, Marlon Byrd and the ubiquitous "Byrd is the Word" tweets, headlines and photos such as the one below were bringing smiles to the faces of the dozens of Mets fans in attendance at Citi Field.  That was then.  This is now.  And with the way he's been playing recently, Byrd is no longer the word.

What was once "is", is now "was".  (That makes sense, right?)

Including today's game at Marlins Park, Byrd has struck out 25 times in 74 at-bats over the season's first month.  In addition, the Mets' part-time rightfielder has whiffed in each of his last 12 games.  This includes two pinch-hitting appearances, which of course, both resulted in strikeouts.  Byrd has been in the starting lineup 17 times in the Mets' first 25 games.  He has struck out at least once in all but two of those starts.

It's true that many players throughout all of baseball have recently developed a penchant for striking out (entering today's action, no less than 16 players have fanned 30 or more times), but Byrd had never been a human windmill prior to this season.

In his first 11 seasons in the big leagues, Byrd has struck out 722 times in 4,234 plate appearances.  Byrd has never struck out 100 times in a season despite reaching 450 plate appearances in six of his first 11 campaigns.

Prior to the 2013 season, Byrd had struck out in as many as eight consecutive games twice.  In August 2007, Byrd whiffed in eight straight games for Texas, and in June 2009, Byrd repeated the feat with the Rangers.  But just like his time in Arlington, those eight-game strikeout streaks are history.

Byrd has now struck out at least once in 12 consecutive games for the Mets.  In those dozen contests, the rightfielder has hit .220 (9-for-41) with one home run and five RBIs (which includes today's run-scoring single).  He has nearly twice as many strikeouts (16) as he has hits during the two-week K-fest.

Marlon Byrd is now 35 years old, and his best days are clearly behind him.  But he did get off to a fast start and was never much of a strikeout hitter prior to this season.  Entering today, a total of 40 players had struck out at least 25 times this season.  Of those 40, only Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Aaron Hicks and Tyler Flowers had accomplished these lofty strikeout totals in fewer than 75 at-bats.  You can now add Marlon Byrd to that list.

The Mets have a ragtag group of players all vying for time in the outfield.  Marlon Byrd is one of those players.  But if Byrd continues to strike out at his current pace, he will find himself spending more time on the bench and less time in right field.  The way things are going, that might be the only way to keep him from recording his first 100-strikeout season.