Broken News: Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

Welcome to another edition of Broken News, where someone else breaks the news and then we break it again.  In today's installment, we're going to look back at Friday night's game between the Mets and Giants, otherwise known as the game in which the bottom of the third inning turned into a matchup between the Gas-House Gorillas and the Tea Totallers.  (Go watch classic Bugs Bunny clips if you don't know what I mean.)

In the third, the Mets sent 15 men to the plate and scored a dozen runs, breaking the franchise record for tallies in a single frame.  Yoenis Céspedes put the icing on the inning by giving his regards to Giants reliever Mike Broadway, lining a grand slam to score the Mets' ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth runs of the frame.  Earlier in the third, Céspedes had driven in two runs with another hit.  His six RBI set a club record for a player in one inning.

The Mets basically did a conga line around the bases in the third, scoring half a dozen runs off starter Jake Peavy and another half dozen against Broadway to set a team mark with 12 runs in one inning, breaking the old record of 11, which was accomplished in 2006 in an inning where the Mets clubbed two grand slams.

I attended Friday night's game and got to witness the third inning in person.  It was the 13th grand slam hit by a Mets player that I've had the pleasure of seeing at Shea Stadium and Citi Field.  I've also had the honor of being at Citi Field for eight of the 12 walk-off homers hit in the park's history, including all six game-ending blasts since 2013 and the only two walk-off grand slams ever hit there.  I've been in the right place at the right time for many of these exciting finishes, which reminds me of the first times I ever saw a grand slam and a walk-off homer.

If you're a long-time reader, then you know about the first walk-off homer I ever saw in person.  It happened in 1996, when Rico Brogna accomplished the feat against the Chicago Cubs in the same game where Mark Grace punched me in the face.  But there were also fisticuffs in the game where I witnessed my first-ever grand slam, and it involved a mighty mite and a future Hall of Famer.

On May 14, 1994, the Mets and Braves hooked up for a Saturday matinee at Shea Stadium.  I got to my seat a little late for first pitch, but realized that I had a celebrity sitting next to me in my field level seat.  It was none other than MTV personality Dan Cortese.  That's right, the bandana enthusiast from MTV Sports and Rock n' Jock fame was my next-seat neighbor for the festivities.  Because I like to rock with the cool kids.

My seat mate for the game in which I witnessed my first grand slam in person.  (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images)

The Mets took a 3-0 lead into the fifth inning and had two outs and no one on base.  It did not appear as if the Mets would be able to extend their lead against Braves starting pitcher John Smoltz in the frame.  But then Smoltz allowed singles to Bobby Bonilla and Jeff Kent and followed that up with a wild pitch that moved Kent into scoring position behind Bonilla, who was already at third.  Smoltz then intentionally walked David Segui to load the bases for Ryan Thompson.  On a 1-2 pitch, Thompson blasted a long home run off Smoltz to give the Mets a 7-0 lead and me my first in-person grand slam hit by a Met.  That brought up Brooklyn-born John Cangelosi to the plate and he made sure to let Smoltz know that he still had a lot of Brooklyn in him.

On the first pitch following Thompson's grand slam, Smoltz nailed Cangelosi in the back.  It was the second consecutive inning Smoltz had hit Cangelosi in the John-on-John crime, as he was plunked by the Braves starter in the fourth inning as well.  Bruised, but not battered, the diminutive Brooklynite then charged at Smoltz, who had seven inches and sixty pounds on the Mets left fielder, and a bench-clearing brawl ensued.  There is no truth to the rumor that I had to hold back Dan Cortese from joining the fracas, but he was throwing air punches in his seat as if he were mentally trying to show Mets players who were 200 feet away from us how to defend themselves against the big bad boys from Atlanta.

After the dust had settled and Smoltz and Cangelosi had been tossed, the game continued without incident and the Mets went on to record an 11-4 victory.  An interesting side note that was overshadowed by the boxing match was that Mauro Gozzo recorded the win for the Mets in the game, a win that was made possible by Thompson's grand slam.  Gozzo was originally drafted by the Mets in 1984, but was traded to Kansas City in 1987 in the deal that brought David Cone to New York.  Five years later, Cone was traded to Toronto for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson - the same Ryan Thompson who helped Gozzo defeat the Braves.  (Gozzo had returned to the Mets as a free agent following the 1992 campaign.)

Since Citi Field opened in 2009, I've had a better than 50-50 chance to be in attendance whenever a grand slam or walk-off home run has been hit by a Mets player, including the grand slam by Yoenis Céspedes on Friday night.  It's gotten to the point where I've kind of gotten used to seeing slams and walk-offs.  But prior to 1994, I had never seen either type of blast in person.  Then Ryan Thompson ended my grand slam drought in 1994, followed by Rico Brogna's walk-off blast two years later.  Both firsts were accompanied by fists.  (Only one was accompanied by Dan Cortese.)  At least both were also accompanied by Mets victories.

This Is How Close The Mets Are To Being Crazy Good

Matt Harvey smiles as he realizes just how good this team could be very soon.  (Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

On Friday, Jonathon Niese allowed three runs in six innings of work in a game that was eventually lost by the Mets, 7-2.  The game marked just the sixth time all season that the Mets lost when their starting pitcher was credited with a quality start (six or more innings pitched, no more than three earned runs allowed).  By contrast, the Mets have won 27 times in games where the starter recorded a quality start.  That gives the team a 27-6 record in quality starts and a lowly 3-20 mark when the starting pitcher failed to give a quality performance.

To put this in layman's terms, the Mets have won over 80% of the time when their starting staff has kept them in games.  But once the starter falls apart, it becomes nearly impossible for the offense to bail him out.

I wanted to know how important quality starts have been for the Mets in determining where the team has finished in the season's final standings, so I did some research on the topic.  My findings were not only stunning, but proved just how close the Mets currently are to being one of the top teams in the league, as long as the offense doesn't let them down.

First, I wanted to see how many Mets teams have recorded 100 or more quality starts in a single season.  There were a dozen such teams, as shown by the chart below.

Of the 12 teams to reach triple digits in quality starts, nine finished with winning records and four reached the postseason, including both World Championship teams and all three 100-win squads.  The three teams that posted 100 or more quality starts, but still finished below .500 did so in 1968, 1974 and 2012.

Clearly, all three of those sub-.500 teams had excellent pitching, as evidenced by the overwhelming numbers of quality starts.  But one other thing they had in common was their anemic offense.

The 1968 campaign was known as "The Year of the Pitcher", as hurlers such as Bob Gibson (1.12 ERA; the lowest mark in the modern era of baseball) and Denny McLain (31 wins; the last pitcher to win 30 or more games) posted career years on the mound.  But as much as hitters struggled against pitchers in 1968, no team fared worse at the plate than the New York Mets.

In the final season before the leagues split up into divisions, the Mets finished dead last in the National League in team batting average (.228), on-base percentage (.281) and slugging percentage (.315), scoring just 473 runs - which remains the fewest tallies in club history in a non-strike shortened campaign.

Similarly, the 1974 club made most of the pitchers they faced look like Sandy Koufax on the mound.  The Mets finished the year in last place or next-to-last place in nearly every offensive category, including hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and of course, runs scored.  The pitcher who suffered the most for the Mets in 1974 was Jon Matlack, who incredibly tossed seven shutouts and posted a 2.41 ERA, but only managed a 13-15 won-loss record.  More than half of his wins in 1974 came in those seven shutouts, meaning that once he allowed a single run, his team's chances of winning went down the drain.

The third club with 100 quality starts that failed to post a winning record did it fairly recently.  In 2012, the Mets had the National League Cy Young Award winner in R.A. Dickey, who led the league in complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and strikeouts, as well as recording quality starts in 27 of his 33 starts.  They also had a staff that included Johan Santana, who pitched the team's first and only no-hitter, and Jonathon Niese, who quietly had the best season of his career, going 13-9 with a 3.40 ERA and 22 quality starts.  In addition, the 2012 campaign saw the debut of Matt Harvey, who dazzled in his ten late-season starts (2.73 ERA, 70 Ks in 59.1 IP).  Of course, none of that could help the team achieve a winning record.  While it's true that the bullpen was part of the reason for the team's failure to have many happy recaps, the offense didn't help much either.  The team batted .249 and finished outside of the league's top ten in home runs, stolen bases, runs scored, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Now let's take a look at the teams that posted the highest winning percentages in games where a starting pitcher recorded a quality start.

Once again, the teams that took advantage of quality starts were among the best in franchise history.  Eight of the top ten teams won 88 or more games and six of those eight teams made the playoffs.  The two teams that didn't win at least 88 games were the 1994 Mets, who never finished their 162-game schedule due to the players strike and this year's club, who are on pace for just under 87 victories.

The 1994 squad had a wonderful one-two tandem atop the rotation in Bret Saberhagen and Bobby Jones.  The two right-handers combined to go 26-11 with a 2.93 ERA, accounting for nearly half of the team's 55 victories.  However, the team's offense sputtered for most of the abbreviated season finishing at or near the bottom of the league in hits, doubles, triples, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.  New York also had no speed to speak of, as bench player John Cangelosi led the team with five stolen bases.  Also, making contact wasn't exactly the team's forte, as the Mets led the league in strikeouts and were next-to-last in walks.

And that brings us to this year's squad, who currently is one of just two teams in franchise history to win 80% of their quality starts - the other is the 1986 World Championship team.  With a rotation led by Bartolo Colon, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, the 2015 Mets have been wonderful at limiting runs scored by the opposition.  Unfortunately, the hitters have prevented the team from winning games when the starting pitchers haven't been on top of their games.

The Mets have averaged 3.79 runs per game in the 56 contests they've played this year.  The last Mets team to score fewer runs per game was the 1992 squad, who crossed the plate 3.70 times per affair and famously became known as "The Worst Team Money Could Buy".  This year's team is also averaging 7.73 strikeouts per game.  The only teams with a higher strikeout rate were the last two - the 2013 and 2014 clubs.  It also doesn't help that the Mets are batting .241 and reaching base at a .305 clip.

It wouldn't take much for the 2015 Mets to win on a more consistent basis.  In fact, they don't even need a bunch of superstars to push them over the top.  They just need to be average at the plate.

The average National League hitter is putting up a .253/.314/.392 slash line.  Those numbers aren't spectacular, but they're much better than the current .241/.305/.367 slash line posted by the Mets.  In addition, the average National League team has 91 doubles, nine triples, 49 homers, 31 stolen bases and has scored 225 runs.  All of those numbers are greater than the 82 doubles, five triples, 47 homers, 19 stolen bases and 212 runs scored by the Mets.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to postulate that quality starts usually help a team win ballgames.  But even having a staff that produces quality starts by the bunches doesn't guarantee a playoff berth or even a winning record.  The 1968, 1974 and 2012 Mets know all about that.  And despite the season-ending players strike that put the kibosh on the 1994 campaign, Jeff Kent, his epic mustache, and rest of the '94 club could attest that winning the majority of the team's quality starts doesn't mean very much if the team can't win its non-quality starts.

The best teams in Mets history had great starting pitchers and could also hit the ball around the park.  That's why the 1969, 1986 and 1988 squads are the only ones to appear on both of the above charts.  Neither of those three teams were offensive juggernauts, but they each had a balanced attack at the plate.  The '69 squad finished in the middle of the pack in most offensive categories, yet still won 100 games.  That's all the 2015 Mets need.  If they're just mediocre at the plate, their starting pitching will carry them to places they've rarely been.

All the quality starts in the world won't produce a memorable season if the team's hitters are less than average at the plate.  A little mediocrity may be just what the doctor ordered to prescribe a successful season at Citi Field in 2015.

It's Been Tuffy for the Mets to Win at Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field photo courtesy of the Chicago Cubs.  Lack of wins there courtesy of the New York Mets.

The Mets lost another game at Wrigley Field today.  That may not seem newsworthy considering how awful the Mets' offense has been recently, even against a team that has posted 30 losing seasons in the last 42 years.  But despite Chicago's penchant for piling up losses, it's been the Mets who haven't been able to emerge victorious whenever the two teams have hooked up on the North Side of the Windy City.

Things weren't always that way for the Mets in Chicago.  They used to win there quite regularly.  But things got tougher on the road once Tuffy Rhodes got things going in one memorable game against Dwight Gooden and the Mets at Wrigley Field.

The Mets opened the 1994 season in Chicago against the Cubs, handing the ball to Dwight Gooden for his eighth Opening Day assignment.  In his first ten seasons with the Mets (1984-93), Doc had allowed two homers to the same batter in a single game just once.  That came in 1986 when Montreal's Tim Wallach took Gooden deep twice in a 7-4 Expos victory on June 18.  Wallach never got a chance to hit a third homer off Doctor K that day, as Gooden was removed from the game immediately after Wallach's second blast.

Wallach hit 260 home runs in his 17-year major league career, making him a legitimate power threat and not an unusual candidate to take a pitcher of Gooden's caliber out of the park twice in one game.  But on Opening Day in 1994, Doc was victimized three times by a player who had five career home runs coming into the game and hit just five additional home runs after his game to remember.

Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes hit three of his 13 lifetime home runs against Gooden in the 1994 season opener.  However, unlike the aforementioned Wallach game in 1986, Gooden and the Mets actually overcame the trio of Rhodesian taters, taking a 12-8 decision over the Cubs.  The Mets went on to sweep the Cubs in the season-opening series, giving them 11 series sweeps at Wrigley Field in a 21-year period (1974-94).  So how many times have the Mets swept a series from the Cubs at Wrigley Field in the 21 years since the Tuffy Rhodes series?

Would you believe the answer is zero?

Incredibly, the Mets have played 25 series at Wrigley Field since 1994 and have won just six of them, taking two of three games in all six series.  Over the same time period, the Cubs have won 15 of those series (the two teams have split four series).  And it's even worse since 2003, as the Mets have lost 28 of their last 39 games in Chicago and have been swept five times.

It's one thing to be dominated at Turner Field by the Braves - a team that has been a playoff contender for most of the last quarter century.  But the Cubs have finished in last place or next-to-last in 12 of the last 21 seasons.  Not only that, but over the past 70 years, the Cubs have the worst home record of any non-expansion team in baseball.  And the Mets still can't beat them in Chicago.

Prior to the series that made Tuffy Rhodes a household name for about 15 minutes, the Mets didn't have much of a problem defeating the Cubs at Wrigley Field.  But everything has fallen apart for New York on the north side of Chicago since that opening series in 1994.

The Cubs have the Curse of the Billy Goat.  The Mets appear to have the Curse of Tuffy Rhodes.  The once-friendly confines of Wrigley Field have been most unfriendly to the Mets in the 21 years since Rhodes introduced himself to Doc Gooden.

Ever since Doc Gooden allowed three home runs to Tuffy Rhodes, the Mets have wanted to run home from Chicago.

One Season Wonders: Bret Saberhagen

In 1991, the Mets went into the season with a manager other than Davey Johnson for the first time since 1983. Perhaps not coincidentally, the 1991 season ended with the Mets registering their first losing record since the aforementioned '83 campaign.

During the Mets' seven-year string of excellence from 1984-1990, the team prided itself on having a strong starting rotation.  Pitchers like Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Bobby Ojeda, David Cone and Frank Viola had all contributed excellent seasons for the Mets during that period.  But a lot was changing as a result of the 1991 season.

Ron Darling was traded to Montreal at the 1991 trade deadline. Also gone were Bobby Ojeda, who was traded to Los Angeles prior to the 1991 season, and Frank Viola, who signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox after losing 10 of his last 12 decisions with the Mets in 1991.

Of the pitchers still on the Mets,  Sid Fernandez was coming off an injury-plagued season in which he only made eight starts, winning one of them.  David Cone lost a career-high 14 games in 1991, despite leading the league with 241 strikeouts.  And Dwight Gooden, the long-time ace of the staff, had undergone rotator-cuff surgery in September and was not a lock to be ready for the start of the 1992 season.

The Mets needed a quality starting pitcher and they needed one fast.  They also wanted a young pitcher who was a proven winner and could give them plenty of innings.  Five years after acquiring David Cone from Kansas City, they went back to the Royals and found themselves the ace they wanted in 27-year-old Bret Saberhagen.

The Mets hoped Bret Saberhagen would be the apple of their eye when they traded for him in 1991.

Bret William Saberhagen had done it all in the major leagues before his 28th birthday.  He was a two-time All-Star (1987, 1990), a Gold Glove Award winner (1989), a two-time Cy Young Award winner (1985, 1989), had pitched a no-hitter (1991) and was a World Series MVP, pitching the Kansas City Royals to their first and only title in 1985.  One thing he hadn't done was pitch in a large market city, as Kansas City wasn't exactly the media capital of the world, or even Missouri for that matter.

But with the Mets in need of a quality arm to anchor their depleted staff, Saberhagen seemed like the perfect fit.  So on December 11, 1991, the Mets traded Kevin McReynolds, Gregg Jefferies and Keith Miller to the Royals for Saberhagen and Bill Pecota.  The cost to acquire the front-line starter they coveted was steep, as McReynolds, Jefferies and Miller were all regulars on the 1991 Mets, but the Mets were desperate for an ace, and Saberhagen fit the bill.

As good as Saberhagen was during his eight-year stay with the Royals, he did suffer from the even-year, odd-year syndrome.  Saberhagen finished with a losing record in every even-numbered year, going a combined 36-48 with a 3.70 ERA and 1.23 WHIP in 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1990.  However, in odd-numbered years, Saberhagen was an elite pitcher.  In 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1991, Sabes combined to go 74-30 with a 2.85 ERA and 1.06 WHIP.  His first year with the Mets was going to be an even-numbered year.  You can imagine what happened next.

Bret Saberhagen was one of a number of new faces brought in by general manager Al Harazin prior to the 1992 season.  With Eddie Murray, Bobby Bonilla and manager Jeff Torborg on board, Saberhagen was supposed to be the crown jewel of the offseason haul.  Instead, he turned out to be the cubic zirconia version of his former self.

Injuries prevented Saberhagen from performing at the level the Mets expected of him, and as a result, he was only able to make 15 starts, going 3-5 with a 3.50 ERA.  The next year, everyone expected a bounceback season from Saberhagen, especially since it was an odd-numbered year.  The only problem was that it was only Saberhagen who everyone expected to bounce back.  The rest of the team was another story.

In 1993, the Mets produced their worst record in twenty-six years.  Not since the days before Gil Hodges' arrival as manager had the Mets been so awful.  The '93 squad finished the year with a 59-103 record, and it could have been much worse had it not been for a season-ending six-game winning streak.  The Mets were so bad in 1993 that even the expansion Florida Marlins finished ahead of them in the seven-team National League East.  Needless to say, Bret Saberhagen did not win a lot of ballgames in '93.  However, he wasn't that bad compared to his teammates.

Although injuries curtailed Saberhagen's season for the second consecutive year, he was the only starter to not finish the season with a losing record.  In addition to his 7-7 record in 19 starts, Saberhagen had a respectable 3.29 ERA and an outstanding 1.06 WHIP.  The low WHIP was a direct result of Saberhagen's excellent control, as he walked a mere 17 batters in his 19 starts.

After two injury-plagued seasons in 1992 and 1993, the Mets still had not gotten what they expected from their ace.  However, when Saberhagen was healthy in 1993, he showed he could be one of the stingiest pitchers in baseball.  All he needed was one season of good health, just one, to prove that he could still be one of the best pitchers in the game.  That wish became a reality in 1994.

After their horrific 1993 season, the Mets weren't expected to do much in 1994.  But they surprised most experts over the first month and a half of the season, jumping out to a quick start.  The Mets weren't doing it with their hitting (they finished next-to-last in the NL in batting average in 1994) or their baserunning skills.  (Jose Vizcaino went 1-for-12 in stolen base attempts and John Cangelosi led the team in thefts with five - that's one, two, three, four, FIVE STEALS!)  But the one thing they had in 1994 that they didn't have in 1993 was a healthy Bret Saberhagen.  And his health was instrumental in getting the Mets off to their quick start.  In the team's first 32 games, Saberhagen was 4-1 with a 3.09 ERA.  As a result, through May 10, the Mets were in second place with an 18-14 record, just 2½ games behind the first place Atlanta Braves.

Saberhagen split his next four decisions as the Mets slipped below .500.  But beginning with his start on June 13 against the defending National League champion Phillies, Saberhagen went on a roll that lasted until the end of the season.  On that fateful night, Saberhagen pitched beautifully, allowing two runs (one earned) in seven innings, needing only 94 pitches to stifle the high-powered Phillies' offense.  It was a far cry from his previous outing against Philadelphia, a four-inning, seven-run debacle on May 21.  The confidence he gained by beating the Phillies in mid-June lasted for the rest of the season, as Saberhagen was pretty much unhittable after that game.

Beginning with his final start in June, Saberhagen had one of the finest extended stretches in club history.  From June 30 to his last start of the season, Sabes went 7-0 with a 1.51 ERA and 0.85 WHIP.  Even more impressive was his strikeout-to-walk ratio, as Saberhagen struck out 62 batters over his final nine starts while walking only five.  That's one, two, three, four, FIVE WALKS, as in the same number of steals John Cangelosi had all season.

During this second-half surge, Saberhagen pitched what was perhaps his best game as a Met against the San Diego Padres on July 15.  In the second game of a twi-night doubleheader against the Padres, Saberhagen pitched ten scoreless innings, allowing five hits (all singles) while striking out 11 and walking none.  Unfortunately, Padres' starter Andy Benes matched Saberhagen zero-for-zero, striking out 14 Mets batters in eight innings of work.  Saberhagen's valiant effort went for naught, as the Mets lost the game, 2-1 in 14 innings, when Mike Maddux allowed back-to-back home runs to Tony Gwynn (the best hitter in Padres' history) and Phil Plantier (the current hitting coach for the Padres).

After Saberhagen defeated the Phillies again on August 10 to improve his record to 14-4, the Mets stood only two games under .500 with a 55-57 record.  It was Saberhagen's seventh consecutive victory, a streak that began on June 30 when the Mets entered the day in last place with a 33-43 record.  Since then, the Mets had gone 22-14 and had climbed into third place in the NL East.  The Mets lost their next game in 15 innings and then lost the season soon after, as the baseball strike put an end to the 1994 season.  Who knows what Bret Saberhagen would have accomplished had the season not been cut short?

Despite the premature ending to the 1994 season, it still went down in history as the year in which Bret Saberhagen produced one of the best pitching performances in club annals.  For the year, Saberhagen went 14-4, but that didn't tell the whole story.  His 2.74 ERA and 1.03 WHIP were both second in the National League to Atlanta's Greg Maddux.  Saberhagen also finished in the top ten in wins (14, 3rd), winning percentage (.778, 2nd), innings pitched (177⅓, 3rd), strikeouts (143, 4th) and complete games (4, 4th).  He also had the dubious distinction of finishing the year with more wins (14) than walks (13).  In addition, by recording 143 strikeouts against only 13 bases on balls, Saberhagen finished the year with an unheard of 11:1 K/BB ratio.  How unheard of was it?  To this day, it's still a major league record.

After two injury-plagued seasons in 1992 and 1993, Saberhagen finally produced the season the Mets expected from him during his third year in New York, making the All-Star team and finishing third in the Cy Young Award vote.  His 1994 campaign came on the heels of his infamous bleach-spraying incident, a matter that earned him a four-game suspension to start the '94 season and caused him to be discussed in trade talks with the Cleveland Indians, a trade that would have brought shortstop Felix Fermin and young right-handed starter Albie Lopez to the Mets.  Fortunately for the Mets, that deal was never consummated, as Fermin went on to hit .190 in 1995 and 1996 (after a .317 campaign in 1994) and Lopez posted a career ERA just under 5.00 in a decade-long major league career.

The 1995 season didn't begin as scheduled, as the strike knocked out the first three weeks of the regular season.  The season finally did get underway in late April, but Bret Saberhagen left his best stuff behind.  Although Saberhagen was decent in 16 starts for the Mets in 1995, he only won five games.  His 3.35 ERA and 1.14 WHIP, although both good, were nowhere near his numbers from his record-setting 1994 campaign.  Also, his strikeout-to-walk ratio decreased dramatically in 1995, as Saberhagen struck out 71 batters while walking 20 in his 16 starts.  The 3.55 K/BB ratio was a far cry from his major league record 11.00 K/BB mark in 1994.

As a result, Saberhagen was traded to the Colorado Rockies in July for minor league pitchers Arnold Gooch and Juan Acevedo.  Although the move was widely speculated to be payroll-related, Mets' co-owner Fred Wilpon said it was due to Saberhagen's injury history and lack of overall productivity during his 3½-year stay in New York.  Wilpon had decided that Mets needed to get younger to get better, and Saberhagen was not part of that equation.  Besides, Generation K was about to take Flushing by storm.  Until it didn't.

One thing Fred Wilpon was right about was that Bret Saberhagen wasn't very durable.  In fact, Saberhagen only had one more injury-free season left in him, going 15-8 in 31 starts for the 1998 Red Sox.  Although Saberhagen did pitch in the majors until 2001, he was never able to stay healthy once he left the Mets, save for that 1998 season.  A career that once looked so promising fizzled out earlier than expected, as Saberhagen appeared in only three games after his 36th birthday.

If not for injuries and Bleach-gate, Bret Saberhagen's career as a Met could have been truly special.

From 1992 to 1995, Bret Saberhagen was never as bad as people made him out to be.  Although he won only 29 games as a Met (the same total won by Oliver Perez, a pitcher who really was as bad as people made him out to be), he posted a 3.16 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in his nearly four-year career in orange and blue.  Let's put his Mets career in perspective. 

Only ten pitchers in Mets history had a lower ERA than Saberhagen's 3.16 mark.  Bret Saberhagen's winning percentage as a Met was .580.  The only pitchers in team history who topped that are Dwight Gooden (.649), Rick Reed (.621), Johan Santana (.615), Tom Seaver (.615), David Cone (.614), Ron Darling (.586), Al Leiter (.586) and Pedro Martinez (.582).  And about that WHIP.  The only Met with a better career WHIP than Bret Saberhagen is Tom Seaver, and you need to go to a third decimal point to determine that Seaver's 1.076 WHIP was only slightly better than Saberhagen's 1.079 WHIP.

For all the talk about how Bret Saberhagen underachieved, he really didn't.  Although he wasn't as healthy as he could have been, when he was on the mound, he was one of the best pitchers to ever put on a Mets uniform.  Unfortunately, his career on the field in New York was overshadowed by his mischief off the field.  But once you look past his off-field behavior, you'd see that Bret Saberhagen was really a special pitcher for the Mets.

To New York sports fans, 1994 was memorable because of the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup and the Knicks making it to the seventh game of the NBA Finals.  But for Mets fans, 1994 was the year Bret Saberhagen quietly put up one of the best seasons in team history, even if the season was cut short by the players' strike.  The Mets haven't had a player win more than 17 games in a season since Frank Viola and Dwight Gooden accomplished the feat in 1990.  Just imagine what Bret Saberhagen could have done had it not been for the strike.

Although he was technically a one-season wonder in New York, Bret Saberhagen's career as a Met was not too shabby.  But because his tenure in New York coincided with some of the worst seasons in recent history, his accomplishments on the field have been largely forgotten.  They shouldn't be.  Bret Saberhagen was pretty darn good.  No amount of bleach will ever erase that.


Note: One Season Wonders is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets who had one and only one memorable season in New York.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:
 
January 2, 2012: Bernard Gilkey
January 9, 2012: Terry Leach 
January 16, 2012: George Stone
January 23, 2012: Roger Cedeño
January 30, 2012: Frank Viola
February 6, 2012: Joe Christopher 
February 13, 2012: Dave Magadan 
February 20, 2012: Pedro Martinez