METS HAVE MORE POST-SEASON SAVVY THAN YOU THINK—

EVEN WITHOUT PEDRO! You’ll Be Amazed at Which New York Mets Excelled in Previous Postseasons-- And which Mets Didn’t! Another Amazine Exclusive!
Copyright © 2006 by Evan Pritchard

I bet you’ll be surprised—very surprised, at which players on the current New York roster were in post-season games in the past, and which were not. You will also be surprised to find out which of those did well in those post-season match-ups and which were not so great.

The Mets will meet the Dodgers at 4 PM on Wednesday, October 4th, for their first playoff encounter since 2000, and will not have the pleasure of introducing the Dodgers to Pedro Martinez, a man we all associate with the post-season. This is a real tragedy for baseball, as Pedro is one of the more colorful pitchers in the history of the game, but there are some things we need to talk about…

MYTHS ABOUT PEDRO MARTINEZ

Myth: The Mets have little chance of going all the way without Pedro.
Fact: The Mets can win without Pedro, and have been doing so all year.

Myth: Pedro has a long and glorious World Series career.
Fact: Pedro has only appeared in one World Series game, that was in 2004. He was excellent and pitched 7 scoreless innings for the Red Sox.

Myth: Pedro has a sub-zero ERA in the post-season.
Fact: Pedro’s lifetime post-season ERA is a so-so 3.40.
(To his credit, he is 6-2 with the Red Sox in post-season games, with 80 strikeouts in 79+ innings.)

Myth: Pedro doesn’t give up many runs in League Championship Series.
Fact: Pedro has one win and two losses in his three ALCS seasons, posting a run-of-the-mill 4.72 ERA in 6 games. Not including his great 1999 showing, he has a 6.00 ERA in League Championships.

Myth: Pedro carried the Red Sox through many divisional series contests.
Fact: Pedro went 1-0 each ALDS,; 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004. That’s not bad, but not enough to carry a team. Except for 1999, when he really was “Pedro,” (no runs in 17 post-season innings) he had a 3.86 ERA through 28 ALDS innings.

Now that we’ve got that mythological roadblock out of the road, let’s look at who on the Mets was great, who was mediocre, and who didn’t get to play, in post-season games in years past.

Carlos Delgado: Never played in a post-season game.

Steve Traschel: Although he pitched an important tie-breaker for the Cubs at the end of the 1998 season, to give the Cubs the wild card berth, he did not get to pitch in the playoff series that followed.

Paul LoDuca: Through all those years with the Dodgers, including 2004 when they went to the post-season, he never played in a post-season game.

Reyes, Wright, A. Hernandez, Castro, Chavez, all too young to have been in previous post-season games. Hard to say how they will react.

THEY WERE GREAT
PITCHING:

Chad Bradford has appeared in no less than ten ALDS post-season games, for the White Sox in 2000, the A’s in 2001, 2002, and 2003; and for the Red Sox in 2004. Talk about your post-season experience! In those ten games he pitched 9.2 scoreless innings of relief, giving up 8 hits and getting 8 strikeouts.

Duaner Sanchez will not be appearing in this post-season due to an arm injury, however he has sterling post-season credentials. He appeared in two games in the 2004 NLDS, gave up one hit, no runs, one base on balls, and got three strikeouts in two innings, for an ERA of 0.00.

Jose Lima of all people, was in three NLDS post-season games in three different seasons, with a nice cool 2.16 total ERA. In 1997 he toiled for the Astros, one inning, one strike out, one base on balls, no runs. In 1999 he appeared again with the Astros, starting and losing a game with 4 runs in 6 2/3 innings, and two bases on balls, but 4 strikeouts, for a 5.40 ERA that year. In 2004, he pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers, starting and winning a complete game shutout in the NLDS, on five hits, four strikeouts and one bases on balls. Again, a total 2.16 post-season ERA, but he has not been able to convince Randolph that he still has the stuff.

Orlando Hernandez (El Duque) is one of the better post-season pitchers around. His lifetime record in the AL Divisional playoffs(in five seasons four with the Yankees, one with the White Sox) is 3-1 with an ERA of 1.78 with 25 strikeouts in 30+ innings. His AL Championship Series numbers are a little plumper, 4-1, with a 3.26 ERA with 46 strikeouts in 47 innings. But what is really impressive is his World Series stats: 2-1 in 4 starts with one appearance in relief, with a total World Series ERA of 2.20 with 36 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings.

All told, his totals in six post-seasons are 9-3, with a 2.55 ERA. He has appeared in 19 post-season games with no less than 14 starts and 107 strikeouts in 106 innings pitched. In 1998, he was 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA. In 1999, he was 3-0 with a 1.20 ERA. In 2000 he was 3-1. In 2002 he had a 2.84 ERA and in 2005 he was scoreless in relief for Chicago in two appearances.

Tom Glavine has the most post-season experience of any Met in recent history, with a total of 201 1/3 innings pitched in post-season play. He’s given up 77 earned runs and 20 homers, but has 137 strikeouts through 32 games. He has a 12-15 win-loss record and a 3.44 ERA through 11 consecutive years of post-season play from 1991 to 2002. Some say these are not great stats, but his World Series stats are quite remarkable, and fairly consistent except for 1999. Let’s look at those World Series stats.

In the 1991 World Series he was 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 8 strikeouts. (one complete game)
In the 1992 World Series he was 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA and 8 strikeouts. (two complete games)
In the 1995 World Series he was 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA and 11 strikeouts.
In the 1996 World Series, he was 0-1 with a 1.29 ERA and 8 strikeouts.
In the 1999 World Series he was 0-0 with a 5.14 ERA with 3 strikeouts and 3 homers.
All told, Glavine has 58 1/3 innings of World Series experience under his belt, a total that few pitchers in history have reached, in fact an inning more than Sandy Kofax pitched. His total World Series ERA of 2.16 is hard to complain about, except that it was for the Braves.

THEY WERE GREAT
BATTING

Carlos Beltran played in the 2004 post season for the Houston Astros and was out of this world. As they say in Brooklyn, “he went nuts.” In 22 at bats in the NLDS, he hit four balls out of the park, with two doubles and 10 total hits for a .455 batting average and a terrifying slugging percentage of 1.091. His on-base percentage was .500 and he also stole two bases. He scored nine runs and batted in nine as well.

In the 2004 NL Championship series, he struck again, with 4 homers, one double, and again 10 total hits, for a .417 batting average. His slugging slacked off to .958 but his on-base percentage went up to .563. In that series, he stole 4 bases, earned 8 base on balls, and got 5 ribbies with 12 runs scored.

His cumulative batting average for post-season play is .435 with 8 homers and 14 rbis and a 1.022 slugging percentage.

Jose Valentin played for the White Sox in the 2000 post-season. In three ALDS games he came to the plate 10 times scoring 2 runs on three hits, two of which were doubles, for a .300 batting average. He knocked in one rbi. He stole 3 bases, and had a .500 slugging percentage.

Ricky Ledee did okay in his one divisional series (1999) and his two league championship series with the Yankees (1998 and 1999) batting .273 in the divisional playoffs with two doubles and two ribbies, and batting .250 in the 1999 championship series, going 2 for 8 with two runs scored and 4 ribbies.

However, Ricky Ledee really came alive in the 1998 World Series with the Yankees gong 6 for 10, with three doubles and 4 ribbies for a .600 batting average. That was offset by his 1999 World Series the following year, which was more down to earth, showing a .200 average in 8 plate appearances with one home run and four ribbies. His career post-season total batting average is .295.

Shawn Green played in the 2004 NLDS for the LA Dodgers, and hit no less than 3 solo homers in 4 games for 3 rbis and a .250 BA. Pretty good!

THEY WERE NOT SO GREAT
PITCHING

Billy Wagner pitched in no less than four NLDS seasons with the Astros. In the 1997 post-season, he posted a 18.00 ERA; three hits and 2 runs in one inning. (To give him credit, he had 2 strikeouts.) In the 1998 NLDS he won a game but again posted a 18.00 ERA with four hits (including a home run!) and 2 runs in one inning. In 1999, he had his best NLDS with one scoreless inning and one strikeout. In 2001, he posted a 5.40 ERA in 1 2/3 innings with one run, a home run, and one hit batter. To his credit he got 3 strikeouts that year in relief. His post-season totals, all NLDS appearances, is a not-so-stunning 9.64 ERA, with 8 hits and 5 runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Roberto Hernandez has pitched in no less than three post season series; two NLDS, and one ALCS. Unfortunately, he was not very lucky in one of those years; 1997. In 1997, he lost a game for the Giants in the NLDS. In three short appearances in relief, he gave up 5 hits and 3 runs, three bases on balls and only one strike out, for a total ERA of 20.25.

Other than that, he was pretty good. In the 1993 ALCS pitching for the White Sox, he appeared in 4 games, and pitched 4 scoreless innings, with a total of 4 hits for a 0.00 ERA. In the 2003 NLDS, he pitched one scoreless inning for the Atlanta Braves for a 0.00 ERA. In spite of all those scoreless years, his total ERA in the post-season is a so-so 4.26 in 8 appearances.

Darren Oliver has an okay post-season record, but it’s not unbelievably good. In the 1996 ALDS, pitching for the Texas Rangers, he started a game and lost after giving up three runs in 8 innings for a 3.38 ERA. That’s actually lower than Pedro’s lifetime post-season ERA.

THEY WERE NOT SO GREAT
BATTING

Cliff Floyd played in the 1997 World Series for the Marlins. He came to the plate only two times, plus one base on balls. He scored one run and struck out once, with no hits.

Julio Franco is a great player with no less than six years in the post-season, but they were, with the exception of 2003, somewhat so-so. He appeared in the divisional series with the 1996 Cleveland Indians, and the 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 Braves. He reached the NL Championship series in 2001 and never played in a World Series.

In the 2001 NL Championship Series he batted .261 with one home run and two ribbies in 23 at bats.

His totals for the six divisional series was one homer and 3 ribbies in 71 at bats for a .225 batting average. His best post season was 2003. In the 2003 NLDS he went 4 for 8 with 2 walks and one run scored for a .500 batting average. Let’s hope his 2006 numbers are like 2003… or better.

Eli Marrero, did you know, was in three NLDS and two NLCS, but no World Series. In 18 at bats in those three years in the divisional playoffs, he only got one hit, for a .056 batting average; And in those two NLCS years, with 20 at bats, he also only got one hit, for a .150 batting average. His career post-season batting average is .105, which is not what we hope for this year, but he certainly has lots of post-season experience.

Michael Tucker was with Atlanta in 1997 and 1998, and played in both the divisional and championship series, but unfortunately, was weak in the 1997 post-season, which off-set his strong numbers the following year.

In 1997, Tucker was 1 for 6 in the divisional, and 1 for 5 in the championship series, including a homer, for a total .125 batting average. However, in 1998, he was 2 for 8 in the divisional with 2 ribbies, for a .250 average, and was 5 for 13 in the championship series with one homer and five ribbies for a .385 average. His post-season total batting average is a respectable .243. I bet you didn’t even know Michael Tucker had a post-season career.

So there you have a complete picture of the Mets total post-season experience in the clubhouse, and its nothing to sneeze at. I hope you were as surprised as I was to find how many October resumes there are on this talented team.. It is not quite so important how great these players performed in past championships, as it is that they were there and got acclimated to the “altitude” being at the top of the heap. They learned from their mistakes and will do better this time. And anyway, they'll all be too busy chasing Jose Reyes around the bases, a youngster with no post-season expereince at all, but will some day probably hold a few records for October excellence and I don't mean raking leaves for $9 an hour.