The virtual 1960s New York Mets (Part 5:  1968-69)

Our long strange 1960s trip began with a virtual 1961 expansion draft. From there we took off with our virtual Mets through ’62 and ’63, then ’64 and ’65, and then ’66 and ’67. Here’s how our version has performed, compared to the actual Mets of those seasons:

     Actual Mets             Virtual Mets

     W     L   Pos   Year    W     L   Pos
    40   120    10   1962   65    95     8
    51   111    10   1963   64    98     9
    53   109    10   1964   70    92     9
    50   112    10   1965   62   100    10
    66    95     9   1966   66    95     9
    61   101    10   1967   77    85     7

In their sixth year, our Mets had taken a major stride forward. Now we’re ready to see if we can sustain that momentum.

1967-68 offseason: Actual Mets deals we will make

Nov. 8, 1967: Traded infielder Bob Johnson to the Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Art Shamsky.

The record is hazy on exactly what point it was in the fall/winter of 1967-68 that Mets general manager Bing Devine was released from his New York contract in order to accept an offer to return to the St. Louis Cardinals (and was replaced in New York by Johnny Murphy). But it’s very likely it was after this trade was completed, so we can probably assume this one was Devine’s work.

And if so, we can credit Devine with a virtuoso performance of “Buy Low, Sell High” on Bob Johnson. The Mets had picked up the utility man for a pittance early in the 1967 season and been delighted by his exceptionally robust performance with the bat over the balance of ‘67. But all observers suspected that Johnson, though a genuinely good hitter, wasn’t really that good.

All observers, that is, except Reds GM Bob Howsam, who was normally among the sharpest traders. Howsam would appear to have not only been overly dazzled by Johnson’s glittery 1967 batting average, but also was overreacting to the 1967 slump of the young power-hitting Shamsky.

Our Mets will be eager to accept Howsam’s offer.

Feb. 19, 1968: Sold catcher John Sullivan to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Sullivan hadn’t impressed, and as we’ll see below, our Mets will have acquired a much better-established left-handed-batting catcher.

1967-68 offseason: Actual Mets deals we will modify

The actual Mets did this:

Dec. 15, 1967: Traded outfielder Tommy Davis, pitchers Jack Fisher and Billy Wynne, and catcher Buddy Booker to the Chicago White Sox for outfielder Tommie Agee and infielder Al Weis.

We didn’t trade for Davis, and, thus, as attractive as Agee is, we can’t expect to be able to get him. But we can re-work the balance of the deal. Let’s do this:

Dec. 15, 1967: Traded pitchers Jack Fisher and Bob Miller to the Chicago White Sox for catcher J.C. Martin and infielder Al Weis.

The White Sox actually would deal Martin to the Mets that off-season, and Martin-for-Miller is as entirely reasonable a deal for them as Weis-for-Fisher. Let’s combine them and be done with it.

1967-68 offseason: Mets deals we will invoke

Dec., 1967: Purchased third baseman Ed Charles from the Oakland Athletics.

Our Mets had declined to purchase the veteran Charles from the Athletics in the spring of ’67. But the subsequent departure of Bob Johnson now creates a place on our roster for a right-handed hitter to play some first base. Charles could surely do that, as well as providing backup value at third. With Sal Bando coming along for the A’s, it’s highly likely we could work out a deal with Charlie Finley.

Jan. 11, 1968: In a three-club deal, traded outfielder Roger Maris to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals sent outfielder Alex Johnson to the Cincinnati Reds and cash to the Mets, and the Reds sent outfielder Dick Simpson to the Mets.

In reality on this date, the Cardinals and Reds swapped Johnson-for-Simpson straight up. But we’ll intervene in this manner, because:
{exp:list_maker}We know that the Cards liked Maris*
Their trade of Johnson wasn’t so much to acquire Simpson (whom they would play sparingly and then trade away in June of ’68) as it was to unload Johnson, who’d been a bust in St. Louis
We like Simpson, a toolsy guy with some gaudy minor league stats, whom the Reds had pretty much buried on their bench in 1966-67 {/exp:list_maker}
April, 1968: Sold outfielder Ty Cline to the San Francisco Giants.

April, 1968: Sold infielder Dick Schofield to the St. Louis Cardinals.

April, 1968: Sold infielder-outfielder Jimmy Stewart to the Cincinnati Reds.

April, 1968: Sold catcher Orlando McFarlane to the California Angels.

For the second straight year, our Mets have accumulated enough talent to be able to be a seller in the cut-down days at the end of spring training. This is a very positive sign.

1967-68 offseason: Actual Mets deals we will not make

Nov. 27, 1967: Traded pitcher Bill Denehy and $100,000 cash to the Washington Senators for manager Gil Hodges.

Because we never sent Hodges away to Washington in the first place.

1968 season results

The starting lineup would project as essentially the same as ’67’s, with the only change being Shamsky replacing Maris in right field. But the bench would be almost entirely revamped.

On the mound, the departures of Fisher and Miller would open up some slots for rookies to compete to fill, with the most prominent among them a 25-year-old left-hander named Jerry Koosman, who’d been excellent in Triple-A in 1967.

  Pos   Player       Age    G  AB   R   H  2B  3B  HR RBI  BB  SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS OPS+
   1B   E. Kranepool* 23  114 336  27  77  12   1   3  19  17  35 .229 .263 .298 .561   69
 2B-3B  R. Hunt       27  148 529  71 134  19   0   2  28  76  40 .253 .363 .301 .663  102
   SS   B. Harrelson# 24  111 402  39  88   7   3   0  15  29  68 .219 .273 .251 .524   59
   3B   B. Aspromonte 30  118 350  22  79   8   2   1  39  31  49 .226 .286 .269 .554   68
   RF   R. Swoboda    24  104 300  32  73   9   4   7  39  35  75 .243 .326 .370 .696  110
   CF   R. Repoz*     27  133 413  40 103  10   1  12  56  37  90 .249 .308 .366 .674  102
   LF   C. Jones      25  147 509  66 151  29   4  14  58  31  98 .297 .341 .452 .793  137
   C    J. Grote      25  117 363  29 104  16   0   3  29  41  72 .287 .359 .355 .715  116

 R-L-1  A. Shamsky*   26  116 345  31  82  14   4  12  48  21  58 .238 .292 .406 .698  108
 1B-3B  E. Charles    35  117 327  37  91  10   1  14  48  26  49 .278 .328 .443 .771  131
   OF   D. Simpson    24   85 233  31  46   7   2   7  19  27  82 .197 .289 .335 .624   88
   C    J. Martin*    31   67 195  16  44   7   2   2  26  17  25 .225 .298 .316 .613   85
   2B   K. Boswell*   22   75 189  25  49   5   1   3   9  11  18 .259 .299 .344 .643   93
 SS-2B  A. Weis#      30   90 182  10  31   4   0   1   9  14  42 .170 .233 .209 .441   34
   OF   L. Stahl*     27   53 122  10  29   5   1   2   7  14  25 .238 .314 .344 .658   98
  C-1B  G. Goossen    22   38 106   4  22   7   0   0   6  10  21 .208 .286 .274 .559   69
   SS   G. Garrido    27   18  53   5  11   0   0   0   2   2   2 .208 .228 .208 .436   32

        Others                 71   5  14   2   0   0   4   3  13 .197 .224 .225 .449   36

        Pitchers              439  19  58   6   0   1  15  11 222 .132 .187 .153 .340    3

        Total               5464 519 1286 177  26  84 476 453 1084 .235 .299 .323 .622  87

        * Bats left
        # Bats both

        Pitcher      Age    G  GS  CG   W   L  SV  IP   H   R  ER   HR   BB   SO  ERA ERA+
        T. Seaver     23   36  35  14  18  11   1 278 224  73  68   15   48  205 2.20  137
        J. Koosman*   25   35  34  17  21  11   0 264 221  72  61   16   69  178 2.08  145
        G. Brunet*    33   31  29   6  12  13   0 196 159  66  62   16   49  105 2.85  106
        D. Selma      24   30  23   3  10   8   1 153 132  56  46    9   49  107 2.71  112
        K. Johnson    35   31  16   1   5   8   1 135 148  58  52    9   26   54 3.47   87
        G. Arrigo*    27   31  10   2   5   6   1 103  88  38  34    5   39   74 2.97  102

        R. Taylor     30   58   0   0   3   4  14  77  64  24  23    4   18   49 2.69  112
        D. McMahon    38   45   0   0   5   3  13  82  56  18  18    4   27   64 1.98  153
        A. Jackson*   32   25   8   0   4   5   3  84  78  37  33    4   15   54 3.54   85
        J. McAndrew   24   18   3   0   3   3   0  40  31   9   9    2    9   25 2.03  149

        Others                  5   0   1   3   0  69  63  33  28    6   41   59 3.65   83

        Total                 163  43  87  75 34 1481 1264 484 434  90  390  974 2.64  115

        * Throws left

As sensational as Seaver had been as a rookie the previous year, Koosman was even more spectacular this season. The Mets had suddenly bloomed a pair of home-grown aces.

And that wasn’t all that would be going right for our Mets. The staff supporting the two stars was so solid that in the National League only the pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals, propelled by Bob Gibson’s historic 1.12 ERA, would present a better team ERA+.

Cleon Jones and Jerry Grote both bounced back from their disappointing 1967 performances with superb seasons in ’68. Ed Charles, in a part-time role, delivered the best year with the bat of his career.

Not everything went well, though. Bud Harrelson was nagged by injuries and hit weakly, and veteran Bob Aspromonte’s bat was similarly unproductive. The Mets had been waiting for Ed Kranepool to break out as a hitting star, but in this season he not only failed to do so, but instead severely regressed. On balance the offense presented by our Mets remained below average, though the team OPS+ of 87 would tie for the best mark we’ve yet attained.

It was sufficient run production, when combined with the extraodinary pitching staff, that sent the Mets soaring into the first division. Only the Cardinals and Giants would achieve significantly better Pythagorean records than our 87-75, and thus our probable finish would be in third place.

It would be a breakthrough season. The actual Mets quietly, almost stealthily improved in 1968, but still finished ninth. Our Mets’ prominent “arrival” would be among the big stories of 1968.

Can we achieve even greater things in ’69?

1968-69 offseason: Actual Mets deals we will make

Oct. 14, 1968: Pitcher Dick Selma selected by the San Diego Padres in the 1968 expansion draft.

Oct. 14, 1968: Outfielder Jerry Morales selected by the San Diego Padres in the 1968 expansion draft.

Oct. 14, 1968: Outfielder Larry Stahl selected by the San Diego Padres in the 1968 expansion draft.

Oct. 14, 1968: Pitcher Don Shaw selected by the Montreal Expos in the 1968 expansion draft.

Oct. 14, 1968: Pitcher Ernie McAnally selected by the Montreal Expos in the 1968 expansion draft.

Oct. 14, 1968: Pitcher John Glass selected by the Montreal Expos in the 1968 expansion draft.

Our rule for this expansion draft is that, to the extent possible, we have to allow the Padres and Expos to pick everyone from us whom they picked from the actual Mets. As it turns out, we do have all of those players on our roster, so there they go.

Dec. 2, 1968: Drafted infielder Wayne Garrett from the Atlanta Braves in the 1968 Rule 5 draft.

Just like left-handed-batting catchers, left-handed-batting infielders are always worth attempting to find at low cost.

Dec. 4, 1968: Traded catcher Hector Valle to the Detroit Tigers for pitcher Jack DiLauro.

And left-handed-throwing pitchers as well.

1968-69 offseason: Mets deals we will invoke

Oct. 21, 1968: Traded first baseman Ed Kranepool and pitchers Rob Gardner and Billy Wynne to the San Diego Padres for pitcher Dick Selma.

We had to let the Padres draft Selma, but that doesn’t mean we had to like it. It would be worth it for us to put together a package to get him back, and we’ve run out of patience with Kranepool.

The Padres actually would trade Selma (to the Cubs) in a similarly-structured deal, as well as trading another of their draft-pick pitchers, Dave Giusti, in the same kind of manner. San Diego GM Buzzie Bavasi was exceptionally keen on accumulating quantities of the youngest talent, and we’ll be accommodating him here. On this date the Padres actually acquired a left-handed-batting first baseman named Bill Davis from Cleveland, and stagnant though the flow of Kranepool’s career had been, he was still a whole lot better than Davis, and two-and-a-half years younger to boot.

Dec. 4, 1968: Traded third baseman Bob Aspromonte to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Marty Martinez.

This trade was actually made by the Astros. Just as he did in Houston, Aspromonte had enjoyed a real nice run with our Mets, but his poor year in 1968 tells us it’s time to go in a different direction.

Dec., 1968: Traded pitchers Ken Johnson and Al Jackson to the St. Louis Cardinals for first baseman Joe Hague.

Our offloading of Kranepool creates an opening at first base.

Hague was a good-but-not-great prospect. He was a sure-handed first baseman, and he’d put together a fine year with the bat at Triple-A in 1968. But he was already 24, and the Cardinals weren’t about to hand their starting job to him, as he was blocked by Orlando Cepeda/Joe Torre. Nor were the Cards even keen on giving Hague a spot as their backup first baseman, as they would acquire the veteran Bill White to fill that role for 1969.

Instead, St. Louis would open the ’69 season using Hague as a utility outfielder (where he was not good defensively). In that capacity Hague would hit poorly, and he’d be sent back to the minors in June.

So it’s plausible we could interest the Cardinals in trading Hague by offering them two veteran pitchers, both on the downside but with apparently something left. The right-hander Johnson and the left-hander Jackson would be better options than two journeymen who were in the St. Louis bullpen at the outset of the ’69 season: right-hander Gary Waslewski and southpaw Mel Nelson.

(With the trades of Aspromonte, Johnson, and Jackson, our Mets would have dispensed with the last of their 1961 expansion draft picks.)

April, 1969: Sold infielder Al Weis to the Atlanta Braves.

April, 1969: Sold infielder Marty Martinez to the Houston Astros.

Weis had hit quite poorly for us in 1968 (even by his standards, which is saying something), prompting us to trade for Martinez to compete for that utility infielder spot. But yet a third banjo-hitting middle infielder, Gil Garrido, is also on hand (you’ll recall that we had acquired him in a 1965 trade), and he’ll win the spring training competition, allowing us to cash in these two.

April, 1969: Sold outfielder Dick Simpson to the New York Yankees.

Simpson had done okay for us in ’68, but he’s just getting squeezed out, as rookie Amos Otis is on hand to take over Simpson’s role.

April, 1969: Returned infielder Wayne Garrett (earlier draft pick) to the Atlanta Braves.

This kid is also getting squeezed out. We like him, but he’s quite raw and we just can’t fit him into the picture, especially given that we already have another left-handed-hitting third base prospect, (Kevin Collins), ready to be promoted to the majors if needed.

1968-69 offseason: Actual Mets deals we will not make

Feb. 5, 1969: Traded catcher-first baseman Greg Goossen and cash to the Seattle Pilots for a player to be named later. (On Jul. 14, 1969, the Pilots sent outfielder Jim Gosger to the Mets, completing the deal.)

Goossen had failed to develop good defensive skills behind the plate, prompting the actual Mets to give up on him. But he was still only 23, and his minor league power stats were impressive. Given that we’ve got room for a right-handed-batting platoon partner at first base, we’ll keep Goossen around and see if he might be able to handle that.

1969 season: Actual Mets deals we will not make

June 15, 1969: Traded infielder Kevin Collins and pitchers Steve Renko, Jay Carden and Dave Colon to the Montreal Expos for first baseman Donn Clendenon.

And with Goossen still around, there will be no need for us to do this.

1969 season results

The emergence of the solid-hitting young second baseman Ken Boswell will allow us to shift Ron Hunt from second over to third base and replace Aspromonte.

The key questions for ’69 will center on the performance of the unproven youngsters at first base and this year’s crop of rookie pitchers, which includes a control-challenged flamethrower named Nolan Ryan, as well as Tug McGraw, a southpaw who’s been struggling to master a screwball.

  Pos   Player       Age    G  AB   R   H  2B  3B  HR RBI  BB  SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS OPS+
 1B-LF  J. Hague*     25  124 386  47  92  17   3  11  48  47  76 .238 .323 .383 .707   96
   2B   K. Boswell*   23  131 460  56 125  16   9   3  40  43  62 .272 .333 .365 .699   95
   SS   B. Harrelson# 25  123 395  40  98  11   6   0  24  54  54 .248 .341 .306 .647   82
   3B   R. Hunt       28  128 478  65 130  23   3   3  40  50  45 .272 .361 .351 .712   99
   RF   R. Swoboda    25  109 327  36  77  10   2   9  52  43  90 .235 .326 .361 .687   91
   CF   A. Otis       22  131 394  47  96  15   3   8  42  34  81 .244 .298 .358 .656   82
   LF   C. Jones      26  137 483  87 164  25   4  12  75  64  60 .340 .422 .482 .904  151
   C    J. Grote      26  113 365  36  92  12   3   6  40  32  59 .252 .313 .351 .663   85

   OF   R. Repoz*     28  103 324  34  63   6   2  11  32  41  78 .194 .280 .327 .607   69
 RF-LF  A. Shamsky*   27  100 303  40  91   9   3  14  47  36  32 .300 .375 .488 .863  139
   1B   G. Goossen    23   99 269  30  73  13   2  11  39  23  59 .271 .338 .457 .795  120
 SS-2B  G. Garrido    28   82 227  16  52   5   1   0  10  15  10 .229 .268 .260 .528   48
   C    J. Martin*    32   66 177  11  37   5   1   4  21  12  32 .209 .257 .316 .573   59
   3B   E. Charles    36   46 125  13  25   6   1   2  14  15  27 .200 .289 .312 .601   67
 2B-SS  B. Heise      22   49 112   9  27   3   0   0   7   8  11 .241 .287 .268 .555   55
   C    D. Dyer       23   36  87   6  22   3   1   3  13   5  24 .253 .290 .414 .704   94
   RF   B. Sorrell*   28   20  56   5  12   2   0   1   5   7  10 .214 .302 .304 .605   69

        Others                 36   3   7   1   0   0   3   2   5 .194 .237 .222 .459   29

        Pitchers              414  20  48   7   1   1  17  18 184 .116 .149 .145 .294  -18

        Total               5418 601 1331 189  45  99 569 549 999 .246 .315 .352 .667   86

        * Bats left
        # Bats both

        Pitcher      Age    G  GS  CG   W   L  SV  IP   H   R  ER   HR   BB   SO  ERA ERA+
        T. Seaver     24   36  35  18  24   8   0 273 202  75  67   24   82  208 2.21  165
        J. Koosman*   26   32  32  16  16  10   0 241 187  66  61   14   68  180 2.28  160
        D. Selma      25   40  28   5  10  11   1 191 162  75  69   15   83  178 3.25  112
        G. Brunet*    34   30  18   2   6  10   0 148 151  76  66   19   54   84 4.01   91
        J. McAndrew   25   27  21   4   5   8   0 135 112  57  52   12   44   90 3.47  105
        N. Ryan       22   25  10   2   5   3   1  89  60  38  35    3   53   92 3.54  103
        G. Gentry     22   12   6   1   2   2   0  46  38  19  18    5   16   31 3.52  104

        R. Taylor     31   59   0   0   8   5  13  76  61  23  23    7   24   42 2.72  134
        D. McMahon    39   47   0   0   3   5   8  61  41  27  25    3   25   59 3.69   99
        T. McGraw*    24   42   4   1   8   4   6 100  89  31  25    6   47   92 2.25  162
        G. Arrigo*    28   25   5   0   1   4   0  61  56  30  25    5   41   26 3.69   99
        J. DiLauro*   26   12   2   0   0   3   0  32  25  10   9    2    9   14 2.53  144

        Others                  1   0   1   0   1  20  25  14  13    2   12   16 5.85   62

        Total                 162  49  89  73 30 1473 1209 541 488 117  558 1112 2.98  122

        * Throws left

The questions would be answered in the affirmative. Hague and Goossen would combine for a solid first base platoon. Ryan would miss a month with a groin pull, but otherwise hold his own as a spot starter/long reliever. And McGraw would blossom splendidly in the bullpen.

With Seaver and Koosman continuing to shine at the top of the rotation, our Mets staff would surpass its terrific performance of the previous season. No National League team would achieve a better ERA+ than our 122 in 1969.

Once again it would be in the area of run production that our Mets would encounter some struggles. Center fielder Roger Repoz would suffer an off year with the bat, thus providing more playing time than expected for the rookie Otis, who would flash brilliance but also take rookie lumps. While this offense wouldn’t have any gaping holes, the booming bats of Jones and Shamsky would lack for company.

Altogether, the mix of so-so hitting and tremendous pitching would result in a ballclub only marginally improved over that of 1968. Our Mets tally a Pythagorean record of 89-73: this is our best yet, but it does fall far short of the scintillating 100-62 won-lost record posted by the actual “Miracle Mets” of 1969.

But, hang on a second. That glittering 100-62 mark was a product of remarkably good fortune enjoyed by the actual Mets, in two separate ways. First, the actual Mets’ offensive production yielded a Runs Created total of 588 runs, fewer than the 601 created by our version. Yet the actual Mets hit extraordinarily well in the clutch, and actually scored 632 runs, or 7.5 percent more than they “should” have—a very rare feat.

And on top of that, the actual Mets’ totals of 632 runs scored and 541 runs allowed yields a Pythag record of 92-70—eight fewer wins than they actually achieved, another quite unusual deviation from the norm, and once again breaking in entirely the right direction.

So if our Mets would be able to pull off either one of those accomplishments, they’d have a better record than 89-73. And if they pulled off both of them to precisely the same degree as the actual ’69 Mets, then our Mets would cruise in with a record of nothing less than 103-59.

No team can ever count on that sort of thing, of course. It’s unrealistic for us to expect our Mets to so dramatically overperform on both scores, and let’s not overlook the fact that they could just as well underperform.

But taking the assumption we’ve been taking all through this exercise, that our Mets score just as many runs and win just as many games as they “should,” our 89-73 record is a real good one. It wouldn’t capture any flags—we can allow the long-suffering 1969 Cubs to take that eternally-awaited champagne bath—but it would be good enough for second place in the NL East, and our Mets would be rightly perceived as a legitimate and formidable contender in this, their eighth season.

Well then

Let’s recall the assertion we determined to test in this exercise:

By not digging themselves into such a deep chasm at the outset … when the Mets’ first championship would eventually arrive, whether in 1969 or in a different season, it wouldn’t have been a stunning “miracle.”

With the benefit of some luck, our Mets would be capturing that first championship in 1969. But if not, they’d clearly be in position to contend for it for the next several years. If we assume our Mets wouldn’t trade away Amos Otis in 1969, Nolan Ryan in 1971, and Ken Singleton in 1972, it’s very easy to imagine this organization nabbing more than one flag within a half-decade or so.

And the larger issue is that such an achievement wouldn’t have been shocking and “miraculous.” It would have been understood as a logical outcome for a franchise that had been soundly built from the ground up, husbanding its resources wisely, and reaping the bounty of an abundantly productive farm system.

     Actual Mets             Virtual Mets

     W     L   Pos   Year    W     L   Pos
    40   120    10   1962   65    95     8
    51   111    10   1963   64    98     9
    53   109    10   1964   70    92     9
    50   112    10   1965   62   100    10
    66    95     9   1966   66    95     9
    61   101    10   1967   77    85     7
    73    89     9   1968   87    75     3
   100    62     1   1969   89    73     2

References & Resources
* Indeed, as an alert reader pointed out in last week’s comments, we know that the Cards liked Maris so much that owner Gussie Busch was willing to offer Maris a Budweiser distributorship upon his retirement from baseball.