One Person's Opinion: The All-Time Best Mets TRADED Team

Okay- while losing 2 horrible games against the Mariners before David's Wrights two homers to start the game off tonite, I had some time to think about the many trades the Mets have made over the year, good, bad and inconsequential. With the July 31st trade deadline just over a month away, I decided to "honor" it with a list of the best players the Mets have traded away over the years, with a few catches:

a.) None of the players who were traded away could have been on the Mets' major league roster for more than 5 seasons - this rules out Seaver, Koosman, Cone and Matlack from the list, among others.

b.) The Mets could not get "even" value back - as in Singleton, Foli and Jorgensen for Staub.

c.) If the player first came from another organization, they had to play less than 2 years in the majors for that team,

and

d.) Could not have departed the Mets as a free agent (waivers and draft are okay).

A TON of players therefore had to be left off the list, and we couldn't include someone like Roger Clemens, who was drafted by the Mets but never signed with them and subsequently went to college at Texas.

Keeping these rules in mind, here's our list:


LF: Amos Otis CF: Lenny Dykstra RF: Kevin Mitchell


3B: Melvin Mora SS: Fernando Vina 2B: Ron Hunt 1B: Jeff Kent


C: Jesus Flores

Rotation:
Nolan Ryan
Scott Kazmir

Mike Scott
A.J. Burnett
Brian Bannister

Bullpen:
Jeff Reardon
Randy Myers
Jason Isringhausen
Heath Bell
Octavio Dotel

Now, of course, we had a sizable group of second basemen (Scutaro, Kent, Hunt, Keppinger) but not a lot of first baseman. Therefore, I had to move Jeff Kent over to first.

You'll notice that the majority of talent that's been traded over the years were, go figure, pitchers - and the majority of position players, outside of Kent and Mitchell, weren't real power hitters (Otis was a solid RBI guy with excellent speed but only hit 20+ homers in a season twice.)

Furthermore, the Mets had plenty of trades where they traded younger talent for veteran talent (sound familiar - Delgado, Viola, etc.) which may have benefited the team in the short run, but not as much in the long-term. One such deal was the afore-mentioned Rusty Staub for Ken Singleton/Mike Jorgensen/Tim Foli deal, but not because of anything Staub did- it's what the Mets did with him after only three and a half seasons- traded him to the Tigers for a washed-up Mickey Lolich-which took a trade that potentially benefitted both teams and ended up with the Mets losing one of the best home-grown offensive talents they've ever drafted.

Singleton knocked in over a hundred runs with the Expos in his second full season, and was traded in 1974 with Mike Torrez to the Orioles for Dave McNally. With the Orioles, he proceeded to knock in over 100 runs twice, and over 80 three times, and was an all-star 3 times and was top 10 in MVP voting 4 times, including runner-up in 1979. Jorgensen and Foli both had second go-rounds with the Mets, during their journeyman careers. Jorgensen was a good field, light hitting first baseman, and Foli was a scrappy shortstop with a few decent offensive seasons. Singleton was the star of the deal for the Expos, and Staub's career with the Mets, in 2 tours, was legendary; however, he only had one 100+ RBI season with the Mets, but followed that up with 96, 101 and 121 RBI seasons for the Tigers; his second go-round with the Mets was mostly as a pinch-hitter and role player, his presence larger than his actual stats.

If the Mets had kept Singleton, he would have been the best homegrown offensive player ever developed by the Mets, until Darryl Strawberry came along; if they had kept Staub, perhaps the '76 Mets would have come in first and not third; either way, they bungled this deal on both accounts.

Let us know your "all-time Mets traded team" - but keep in mind the guidelines we used!

Perhaps, by the time you read this, we'll have pulled one out from the Mariners...