Mets blog

Over the years the Mets have been blessed with some great fielding players. They’ve also had a few really bad gloves on their team. I took a look at which Mets player committed the most errors in a single season.

Errors certainly do not give a full picture of fielding prowess. More modern statistics like UZR and DRS do a much better job. On TV, the MLB Network’s Brian Kenny has even lobbied to do away with errors completely. But just for fun, let’s see what the Mets record book shows.

Most Mets Errors in a Season

It’s a tie. Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson and utility player Rod Kanehl both made 32 errors in a single season. Harrelson committed 32 errors in 1967. Kanehl made 32 errors in the Mets’ inaugural season of 1962. Kanehl had stints at 2B-3B-CF-LF-1B-RF-SS that first year.

Coming in a close second to Harrelson and Kanehl is Mets third baseman, Howard Johnson. HoJo led the National League in errors in back-to-back years. He committed 28 errors in 1990 and 31 errors in 1991. Johnson also led the Mets in errors in 1986 (20), 1987 (26), 1988 (18) and 1989 (24). Yeah, HoJo was known for his bat and his speed not for his glove or the accuracy of his arm.

Related: Who lost the most games for the Mets?

Mike Phillips also committed 31 errors in 1975 playing shortstop and second base for the Mets. Charlie Smith, playing 3B-SS-LF for the Mets, made 31 errors back in 1964.

Next on the list are Hubie Brooks and Ron Gardenhire. Brooks led the Mets in errors in 1984 with 29. Gardenhire also committed 29 errors in 1982. Like HoJo, Hubie was known for his bat, not his glove.

More recently, some slick fielders have led the team in errors. Shortstop Rey Ordonez led the Mets with 27 errors in 1996. That was his rookie year. Ordonez range was off the charts and he’d try to make plays on balls that no other shortstop would even get to. He’d go on to win the Gold Glove for shortstop the next three years in a row.

Similarly, third baseman Robin Ventura led the Mets in errors in 2000 (17) and 2001 (16). But he’d already won 6 Gold Gloves by then.

David Wright tied Troy Glaus for the NL lead with 24 errors in 2005. Wright also led the Mets in errors in 2006 (19), 2007 (21), 2009 (18), 2010 (20) and again in 2011 (19). Yet David was awarded the Gold Glove in both 2007 and 2008. Just like with Ordonez, sometimes a player’s great range hurts their error totals.

Last season, shortstop Amed Rosario committed the most errors on the Mets with 17. He also led the team in 2018 with 16 errors.

There aren’t nearly as many arguments between umpires and managers as there used to be. Video replay has eliminated many of the on-field shouting matches which invariably led to the manager being tossed from the game.

Mets Manager Ejected the Most in a Season

Joe Torre holds the Mets record for getting ejected in a season. Torre was ejected 7 times while Mets manager in 1979. The Mets went 63-99 that year, so you can sympathize with Joe.

It was surprisingly difficult to find the Mets manager with the most ejections in a single season. Bobby Cox holds the Major League record for most times a manager has ever been ejected from a game. Cox was kicked out of a staggering 161 games. He should have gone for one more to make it a full season’s worth of games.

The image of Bobby Valentine also kept coming up in my google searches. He was in disguise, wearing a fake mustache. It’s from the game when after he was ejected, he tried to sneak back into the dugout.

Here’s a table of every Mets manager, their years as manager, and how many times they were ejected from a game.

Mets Manager Ejections in History

Joe Torre was ejected 23 times while Mets manager between 1977-1981. Terry Collins is a close second, while Mets manager he was ejected 20 times.

Related: How much is Noah Syndergaard worth?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include probably the most famous of all Mets manager ejections. Here is the unedited video of Terry Collins and Noah Syndergaard from May of 2016. They both got ejected after Noah threw at Chase Utley. It was payback for Utley’s slide that broke Ruben Tejada‘s leg during the 2015 NL Division Series. Warning that some of the language is offensive. Enjoy!

Related: Why Noah pitched in his underwear!

More Mets batters are getting hit-by-pitches (HBP) this year than in past seasons. As of August 9th, they lead the league in HBP with 14. Brandon Nimmo alone has been hit 3 times.

After initially dropping the ball on the sign-stealing scandal, MLB is supposedly going to crackdown this year on pitchers using foreign substances.

There’s always been an unspoken understanding between batters and pitchers when it comes to doctoring the ball. The batters don’t want the pitcher’s grip on the baseball to be so slick that they have no idea where the ball is going. No one likes getting hit by a 99 mph fastball. On the other hand, getting too good a grip means a better spin rate. Better spin rates are equal to increased pitch effectiveness.

So batters feel that it’s okay to put some sticky stuff on the ball, just not so much that you have an unfair advantage. Besides, their own pitchers are doing the same thing. Just don’t make it obvious or excessive.

In the last couple of seasons, players have been getting hit by pitches at historic rates. Probably because pitchers are throwing harder than ever. Control has suffered.

Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil were each hit by a pitch 21 times last year. Both easily surpassing former Mets player Ron Hunt. Known for trying to get hit by pitches, after leaving the Mets in 1967 Hunt got hit by a pitch 50 times one season.

Hit by a Pitch the Most in a Mets Season

Brandon Nimmo set the Mets hit by pitch record by getting plunked 22 times during the 2018 season. Nimmo led the Major Leagues in HBP that season.

I don’t think this picture is from when he set the Mets HBP record, but with Nimmo, you never know.

Besides Brandon Nimmo, some past Mets players have also been prone to get hit. While playing for the Mets in 1994, Fernando Vina led the NL in HBP. Vina was plunked 12 times that year. Mets second baseman Felix Millan led the league in 1975, also getting hit by a pitch 12 times.

Related: Why does Nimmo smile so much?

Hit by a Pitch the Most in Mets History

First baseman Lucas Duda was hit by a pitch the most in New York Mets franchise history. In 2895 plate appearances, Duda was hit by a pitch 48 times.

David Wright follows him, having been hit by a pitch 45 times in 6872 PAs. Basically, Duda used to freeze like a statue when a ball was about to hit him. I guess when you’re 6′ 4” and 255 lbs a baseball isn’t going to hurt you too much.

Related: Who is the heaviest player on the Mets?

Which Mets pitcher has hit the most batters? In 2002, pitcher Pedro Astacio led the league while also setting the Mets record for hitting batters with 16. He was probably angry because Astacio also led the league by allowing 32 home runs that year.

This bit of Twitter artwork by Athlete Logos is fictional. But how do you think Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez would do if he was to appear on the TV quiz show Jeopardy? Since Ron Darling went to Yale and Gary Cohen went to Columbia, Keith might be at a slight disadvantage.

Keith might do pretty well if the categories were Fundies / Ice Cream / Domestic Cats / Lou Brock. But not so good in sandwich abbreviations.

But seriously, he might do pretty well if one of the categories was “American Military History”. His interest in the Civil War goes back to his playing days. He also seems to have read quite a bit about World War II. He often refers to holes in the infield “wide enough to drive a Panzer division through”.

Related: Keith loves ice cream.

Cleverly, the scores are Darling’s career strikeout total, Cohen’s birth year, and Keith’s career total base hits.

The number of different pitching statistics seems to be increasing every year. Adjusted ERA+, Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), and Win Probability Added (WPA) just to name a few. But what about one of the most overlooked, least examined pitching stats – Wild Pitches.

Most Wild Pitches in a Mets Season

Jack Hamilton threw 18 wild pitches while pitching 148 innings for the Mets in 1966. That’s a wild pitch every 8.2 innings. Jack Hamilton appeared in 57 games that year going 6-13 with 13 saves and having a 5.3 BB9. Yeah, he was wild. The Mets still weren’t a very good team yet. They finished that season with a 66-95 record.

Most Wild Pitches in Mets History

1. Tom Seaver 81 (3045.2 innings)
2. Jerry Koosman 66 (2544.2 innings)
3. Ron Darling 63 (1620.0 innings)
4. David Cone 62 (1209.1 innings)
5. Dwight Gooden 47 (2169.2 innings)

Another Mets pitching record held by Tom Seaver. Not one he probably would brag about. But look at that list. There are some pretty great pitchers on it. The high number of wild pitches is just a side effect of the total innings they pitched while members of the Mets.

Related: Who has the most wins for the Mets?

Darling and Cone would have easily topped the list if they had pitched as many innings as Seaver or Koosman. Gooden’s total wild pitches are remarkably low considering the total innings he threw.

Bonus fact, onetime Mets pitcher and strikeout king Nolan Ryan is No. 1 all-time in the MLB record books for wild pitches, with a whopping 277.

Baseball fans are flooded with statistics today. But one stat that is rarely mentioned is a players’ weight. Maybe because a players’ weight can fluctuate so much during the season. Or even during a game. Tom Seaver used to claim that he lost about 10 pounds (mostly water) every time he pitched.

This spring, reliever Jeurys Familia reported to camp 30 lbs lighter. The previous spring, first baseman Dominic Smith showed up noticeably lighter.

Here’s another reason you don’t hear much about MLB player weights:

One should also keep in mind that you should not have great confidence in the weights here or elsewhere. We have not been able to get any information on how this information is produced, so they may just be estimates from team PR rather than actual weights generated by a scale.

baseball-reference

According to the site WeAreFanatics, the average weight of an MLB player is roughly 207 pounds. Walter Young set the modern MLB record in 2005 when he debuted at 320 pounds! Sadly he died in 2015 at the young age of 35.

Who is the heaviest player in New York Mets franchise history? Looking at the 40-man roster from each year gives this top-3 list.

1. Jon Rauch 290 lbs (2012)
2. Bartolo Colon 285 lbs (2016)
3. Val Pascucci 265 lbs (2011)

Some honorable mentions include Aaron Harang 260 lbs (2013), Eddie Kunz 260 lbs (2008), Tyler Walker 260 lbs (2002) and Lucas Duda 255 lbs (2017).

Note that all the top spots are held by players from the year 2000 and on. It’s no secret that MLB players are getting taller and bigger. Sid Fernandez, considered hefty at the time, is listed at just 220 lbs in 1990. Pitcher Ed Lynch held the top spot through most of the 1980s at 230 lbs. As did pitcher Craig Swan most of the 1970s at 215 lbs.

Related: Why Pete Alonso’s dog is named Brodie.

Who is the heaviest player on the Mets’ current roster? Here’s the top three.

1. Dellin Betances 265 lbs
2. Corey Oswalt 250 lbs
3. Pete Alonso 245 lbs

Keith Hernandez has no idea what PB&J means in this instant classic from the Mets broadcast team of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Hernandez.

Earlier in the game against the Braves from August 1, 2020, Keith expressed surprise when Darling used the term “horseshoe” to describe the part of a baseball where the seams form a U.

Gary and Ron had a field day with that and then Keith explains that away with him not being one to pay attention to pitchers.

Then Steve Gelbs explains that Michael Wacha always eats a PB&J sandwich on the days that he pitches. Keith asks what is a PB&J? Hilarity follows.

Related: Keith and the hot dog lady.