Schwei: Looking At Carlos Beltran's Place In Mets History
By John Schweibacher
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Carlos Beltran's tenure with the New York Mets will very likely come to an end this week as the July 31st trading deadline approaches.
Beltran is in the final months of his seven-year, $119 million dollar contract the Mets signed the outfielder to back on January 11, 2005.
Here is where Beltran ranks in some of the offensive categories in Mets history entering this week:
· Games: 837, 17th (Keith Hernandez is 16th with 880)
· At Bats: 3127, 13th (Keith Hernandez is 12th with 3164)
· Runs: 548, 8th (Cleon Jones is 7th with 563)
· Hits: 877, 13th (Keith Hernandez is 12th with 939)
· Singles: 503, 17th (Wally Backman is 16th with 554)
· Doubles: 208, 6th (Edgardo Alfonzo is 5th with 212)
· Triples: 17, 17th (tied with Rey Ordonez and Lenny Dykstra)
· Homers: 149, 6th (Dave Kingman is 5th with 154)
· RBI: 557, 6th (Ed Kranepool is 5th with 614)
· SB: 100, 11th (Roger Cedeno is 10th with 105)
· K: 544, 13th (Mike Piazza is 12th with 546)
· BB: 446, 9th (Ed Kranepool is 8th with 454)
· AVG: .280, 7th (Cleon Jones is 6th at .281)*
· SLG: .501, 4th (Piazza .542, Strawberry .520, Wright .512)*
· OBP: .369, 4th (Hernandez .387, Wright .382, Piazza .373)*
*among Mets with at least 3,000 at bats
Beltran appeared in 662 games in centerfield for the Mets, second only to Mookie Wilson's 907. His 89 games played this season in right field rank 34th, three behind Victor Diaz' 92.
(Thanks to UltimateMets.com for its help with these stats.)
The Mets close out July with road games against the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals. The four-game set in Cincinnati will be the Mets first meeting of the season with the Reds.
This will be just the 5th time since 1984 that the Mets will play a series of at least four games vs. the Reds in Cincinnati. That 1984 four-game set was also the only series of that length ever won by the Mets against the Reds on the road.
The Mets have gone 14 and 11 (.560) in Cincinnati against the Reds in the eight seasons since Great American Ballpark opened in 2003. The Mets were just 77 and 100 (.435) all-time at Riverfront Stadium from 1970 to 2002 after going an awful 20 and 51 (.282) at Crosley Field from 1962 to 1970.
The Mets will be facing the Nationals this weekend for the first time since Davey Johnson took over as Washington's Manager. Johnson, who had not managed in the majors since the 2000 season, has gone just 23 and 24 against the Mets as a big league skipper:
· Reds 1993 5-4
· Reds 1994 2-4
· Reds 1995 7-5
· Orioles 1997 1-2
· Dodgers 1999 4-4
· Dodgers 2000 4-5
Other than Joe Torre, Johnson will be the first ex-Mets manager to manage against the Mets since Jeff Torborg did so with the Florida Marlins back in 2003.
Jason Isringhausen recorded his first save since 2008 with Tampa Bay last week, preserving the Mets' 4-2 win against the St. Louis Cardinals.
It was Izzy's first save for the Mets since July 6th, 1999 when he picked up his first major league save, going the final three innings in a 10-0 Mets win over the Montreal Expos at Shea Stadium.
The 12-year, 14-day gap between the saves was the longest in Mets history, topping a three-year, two-month and 24-day stretch between saves by Jerry Koosman.
Koosman, who had five career saves for the Mets, notched his first in a 14-inning, 3-2 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field on May 25th, 1972.
Kooz's next save came more than three seasons later when he got the final five outs in relief of Tom Seaver in a 3-0 shutout victory over the Giants at Shea on August 17th, 1975.
Koosman picked up another save just two days later, getting the final out in a 6-3 Mets' victory over Houston at the Astrodome, but it would be another three-plus years before the left-hander would get his next save, on September 20th, 1978, when he closed out a 7-6 Mets win for Kevin Kobel over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Schwei's Runs, Hits and Errors:
Runs: 50-50. Mets reached the 100-game mark with a record of 50 wins and 50 losses, the first time in club history they had exactly a .500 record at that point. The Mets narrowly missed .500 through 100 each of the last two seasons; going 49-51 in 2009 and 51-49 in 2010.
Hits: David Wright. Wright returned to the Mets lineup for the first time since May 15th and had two RBI in each of the three games of the series vs. the Marlins.
Errors: Bullpen. Bobby Parnell's blown save and loss on Sunday in Florida were both the first for the Mets' pen since June 22nd (KRod blown save in extra-inning win over A's) and June 16th (Carrasco loss on bases-loaded balk in Atlanta).
Where do you think Beltran ranks among all-time Mets? Let Schwei know in the comments below...
