Tag: Mets

The acquisition of Johan Santana this off-season got me thinking about some useless information, as Jason Stark would call it.

The Mets the last few years have been known for their bats, but historically this has been a team built around pitching. Its greatest player was Tom Seaver, a three-time Cy Young pitcher, and its two World Series teams were built on arms. Met pitchers have won the award four times — Dwight Gooden is the other.

The Santana acquisition gives the Mets two former Cy Young award winners for the third straight years — with both pitchers each year winning the award more than once. Pedro Martinez, in his third year with the Mets, is a three-time winner, Santana a two-time winner and Tom Glavine, Pedro’s teammate for two years, won twice.

All told, there have been 10 pitchers who came to the Mets after winning the Cy Young: Warren Spahn, Dean Chance, Mike Marshall, Randy Jones, Frank Viola, Bret Saberhagen, Orel Hershiser, Glavine, Pedro and Santana.

There also have been two pitchers to win the award after leaving the Mets: Mike Scott and David Cone.

Other odd notes about the Cy Young: Four pitchers — Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens — have won the award in both leagues. Sanata is hoping to add his name to this list. Greg Maddux is the only other pitcher to win the award for multiple teams and Clemens is the only pitcher to win with four teams.

Perry and his brother, Jim Perry, are the only brother combo to win it.

The Dodgers have won eight and the Braves seven, each covering two cities. In the AL, the Orioles and Red Sox have each won six.

The Mets (Santana and Martinez), Padres (Jake Peavey and Maddux), Diamondbacks (Brandon Webb and Johnson) and Braves (Glavine and John Smoltz) each have two former Cy Young winners on their teams this year.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Feb. 7 can’t come fast enough now. That’s assuming the Mets sign Johan Santana (pictured from MLB.com site) to a contract extension and the trade being reported today becomes reality.

The deal — Santana for prospects Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey — makes sense for both sides. The Mets need a big man to top the rotation, a monster pitcher to match up with Cole Hamel and Tim Hudson, as well as with Jake Peavey, Brandon Webb and Brad Penney. The Twins, who were not going to win this year, need to retool.

So, as a Mets fan, lets hope they can work out a deal and Johan Santana and his two Cy Young awards can make his way to Shea.

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then the Mets’ rotation would stack up fairly well with almost any other National League team. If he’s right.

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I’m at a loss to understand this trade.

It may be true that Brian Schneider is a solid backstop with a good arm, but to give up Lastings Milledge for him and a mid-level, platoon outfielder like Ryan Church — well, that seems foolish, unless this is part of a series of moves that nets the team a starting pitcher.

I’ve been loathe to question Omar Minaya up to now, but this is odd.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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