It was 25 years ago this week (the 22nd actually) that the Mets by the Numbers project first published on the Internet. The earliest versions of the site seem to have vanished but here’s an archived page from 2001 where I discuss the arrival of Jerrod Riggan and the demotion of Donne Wall. And then the return of Donne Wall. It was riveting stuff.
When I started this project I was single; today I’m married almost 20 years and my son is picking a college. I was anxious back then to participate in this new internet thing and was full of energy from the excitement of falling back in love baseball again after taking much of the 90s off.
I had been turned off by the fall of the Mets would-be dynasty. I was living outside the Sportschannel/WOR belt, and I was angry about the strike. When I moved to NYC, the Mets helped me find my way in the city and I fell hard for Bobby Valentine. I’d spent a few months combing through yearbooks and scorecards with the idea I could find the uni number of every one of the roughly 600 guys who played for the Mets through then. I badly missed that goal when I first published but it was better than what else existed at the time, which was nothing.
Against every rule of writing a blog, I’ve gone through period of frequent updates and months of nothing, then again “blogs” didn’t really exist in 1999. Purely by coincidence this site launched within weeks of the Ultimate Mets Database and when Paul Lukas started writing about sports uniforms for the Village Voice. Countless websites have come and gone since then, all three survive (although Paul is planning to retire).
Happy birthday to all of us.
Just kicking this list back to the top and adding another DH candidate, Luke Voit, at 99. Who’s your DH(s) this year?
Suspicious I say that we go and sign Ji Man Choi only hours after Daniel Vogelbach goes off the board. Both are rotund lefty sluggers who can’t be counted on as much beyond DHing and signed minor league deals (Vogelbach with Toronto). Who knows how the DH role will play out for the Mets this year. I’m not entirely sold on Mark Vientos or DJ Stewart quite yet. Not to suggest Choi is anything but a backup plan.
So you may as well junk the post below, it contained little that wasn’t contradicted by the numerical roster dropped today by the club. Here’s your Spring roster, countdown style, or count up, if you prefer.
The news here as I see it is Luis Severino taking over Drew Smith‘s No. 40, forcing Smith into 33 and membership in the three-number club. (He was also 62 you may recall). Also noting that our friend Dr. Grant Hartwig has moved down in the world, from 93 all the way to 56. Sean Manaea takes 59, Adrian Houser 35 and Harrison Bader 44.
Tyrone Taylor appears to be issued No. 15. He’s the speedy reserve outfielder we picked up from Milwaukee along with pitcher Adrian Houser, for Coleman Crow, one of the guys we got from the Angels in the Eduardo Escobar trade. I’m getting a Collin Cowgill vibe from Tyrone, hopefully his results are better.
Free-agent infielder Joey Wendle is shown with 18, his number with Miami. Give the Mets’ plans to retire 18 for Darryl Strawberry this summer, it’s a good bet this doesn’t last.
The Mets will be the 9th team for journeyman lefty sidearmer Jake Diekman, who appears to be bound for No. 35. He signed a 1-year+option deal with the Mets.
You know the roster is unreliable when there’s huge swaths of unclaimed digits but two guys assigned the same number. That’s what’s going on with No. 48 where two free agents–outfielder Harrison Bader and reliever Jorge Lopez— both have a claim. Lopez wore 48 with Minnesota and Baltimore. Bader wore 48 with St. Louis. Either guy would be the Mets first 48 since Jacob deGrom.
Free agent reliever Michael Tonkin is listed in 59. I suppose he’s the Mets’ answer to losing Luis Guillorme to the Braves.
Manaea has worn 55 most often in his career and that would appear to be available here. Severino was 40 with the Yankees; that belongs to Drew Smith now.
I can’t think they fired Buck Showalter only to wind up with a Yankee coach nobody’s ever heard of, so it seems like someone miscalculated the ease with which they’d gather in Craig Counsell. I was no fans of Counsell anyway so I’m glad he’s not here but in the end I’d have stayed with Buck all along.
Carlos Mendoza will wear No. 28, and said all the right things at his press conference, but we’ve heard plenty of good press conferences before.
Mendoza’s staff will include returning hero John Gibbons as bench coach, Jeremy Hefner remains as pitching coach and Eric Chavez mercifully becomes the hitting coach again. New to the staff is first-base coach Antoan Richardson and third base coach Mike Sarbaugh. None of these new guys have been assigned numbers yet; Gibbons wore 8 for the Mets until Gary Carter came along, then took 43 and 45.
Peyton Battenfield is his name, and he’s up for Jeff Brigham. The Mets acquired this guy from Cleveland on a waiver claim earlie rthis month. He’d gone 0-5, 5.19 for the Guardians. The Met roster lists Battenfield in No. 60, which was freed up when Ronny Mauricio took 10 upon his callup.
So as it turns out, Ronny Mauricio is wearing 10 tonight, and batting last as the Mets host the Mariners. The projection engines don’t much like Mauricio (they see him as a low-OBP) but I’m always excited about a power-speed switch-hitter, the future is hard to predict, so let’s see how he does.
Going down for him is Danny Mendick who hasn’t done much to justify staying on the roster other than he can pitch. Also back up are Jose Butto and Brett Baty, whom the projection software likes but slumped into Mauricio territory.
Well it looks like the mystery below has been settled on Twitter, or has it? Word now is that’s Marv Throneberry, based on his white sideburns. Here’s an image I found on the Internet. Could be him! Marv wore No. 2 as a Met but 55 seems like something they’d give a coach.
Another blast from the past, if you recall minor-league Mets, is Adam Kolarek, a lefty sidearmer wearing 66. Kolarek was a longshot prospect who got away and since been kicked around the league from Baltimore to Tampa to Los Angeles to Oakland to Atlanta, etc. The Mets got him from the Dodgers along with Phil Bickford in a cash deal at the deadline. A whole new middle-relief corps.
This week we saw the arrival–and departure–of reliever Tyson Miller, becoming the first Met since Seth Lugo and the second overall to wear No. 67. We also witnessed the debut appearance of Sam Coonrod wearing No. 45. Coonrod spent the whole year injured.