NY Sports Dog: 10 Most Hated Mets of All-Time

Monday, May 12, 2008

10 Most Hated Mets of All-Time

10) Gregg Jefferies: Whiner, arrogant and just plain dumb, the guy went from the wunderkind of the Mets minors to hated player in no time at all.

He actually had some talent and sported an OPS+ over 100 each of his 4 plus seasons in Flushing, but it was good riddance for him at the tender age of 23 when he was shipped to the Royals in the Bret Saberhagen deal.

This qoute pretty much sums up his Mets career, "When a pitcher is having trouble getting players out, when a hitter is having trouble hitting, or when a player makes an error, I try to support them in whatever way I can. I don't run to the media to belittle them or to draw more attention to their difficult times. I can only hope that one day those teammates who have found it convenient to criticize me will realize that we are all in this together. If only we can concentrate more on the games than complaining and bickering and pointing fingers, we would all be better off." --Greg Jefferies

9) Carlos Baerga: From budding superstar with the Indians to outright flop with the Mets, Carlos Baerga never saw a pitch he didn't like. He was traded to the Mets for Jeff Kent, who went on to have a Hall of Fame career.

In 2+ seasons with the Mets his OBP hovered right at .300 with an OPS+ of 80. After averaging 20 homeruns and 100 RBIs a year with Cleveland, he hit a total of 18 HRs and drove in 118 runs for the Mets in 306 games.

Baerga's nicknames while on the Mets were "Chunky" and "Mister Met" because of his ever increasing waistline. As trades go, this was one of the worst ever in Mets history.

8) George Foster: What do you get when you have a mid 30s former superstar, with one of the richest contracts in baseball, a surly attitude, and poor defense? Yes, George Foster.

When Foster came to the Mets in 1982. he was regarded as a potential Hall of Famer and was greeted with the enthusiasm reserved for the greats of the game. Foster had power, drove in runs, and was a key member of the great Reds teams of the 70s. Just the year prior he was 3rd in the NL MVP voting.

Things quickly soured between George and the Mets faithful as Foster put up a 13 homerun season with a pitiful 70 RBIs and a .309 OBP from the cleanup spot.

After 4 1/2 mostly crappy seasons Foster was released in 1986 after he was demoted and accused the team of racism as the reason behind his demotion. The most ironic thing is that he was replaced by Kevin Mitchell, another African-American player.

7) Kenny Rogers: The shortest tenured of all the players on our list, Kenny Rogers pitched pretty well for the Mets during the regular season, but he is here for one reason.

During the 1999 National League Championship Series against the Braves, he entered in relief in the bottom of the 11th of Game 6, with the Mets down 3 games to 2. After surrendering a double and the baserunner advancing to 3rd on a sacrifice fly and two subsequent intentional walks issued to Chipper Jones and Brian Jordan, Rogers ended New York's magical season by walking Andruw Jones on five pitches with the bases loaded.

OK, you are a major league pitcher with about 100 wins up to that point, and you are called on in the biggest spot of your career. You gave up a hit, and then you are put in a situation where the expectation is for you to challenge the hitter. You can give up a hit, you can have an error behind you, you can pretty much do anything and be forgiven...except walk the batter.

He walked the hitter....get your ass out of Flushing!

6) Kazuo Matsui: Here's an idea, let's sign a middling Japanese player and move our young franchise superstar shortstop to second base! And so it began for Kaz Matsui.

Kaz didn't hit and he fielded horribly, making 23 errors at shortstop and showing horrible range and instincts. He had trouble getting on base and struck out 97 times in just 460 at bats....and that was his good season in NY!

In my opinion, Kaz is the most boo'd Met in team history.

In 2006 the relationship mercifully ended for all involved, and Kaz was traded to the Rockies for super-scrub Eli Marrero, who played 25 games for the Mets and has never seen a major league diamond since.

5) Kevin McReynolds: McReynolds was a decent hitter for the Mets, but he had the worst attitude and was regarded as a horrible teammate in every account I have ever read from former Mets players. He didn't socialize with his teammates and was always the first one out the door after every game.

He was also considered one of the laziest players ever, and Goose Gossage absolutely blasted him in his book for not playing up to his potential.

As big a Mets fan as I am, McReynolds was always the one guy I could never identify with, and he never seemed to come up with the big hit--ever.

4) Mo Vaughn: OK, I know Mo Vaughn is a fun guy, but he set the franchise back years with his lying about his health and his fat ass and fat contract.

I will also say this--Mo Vaughn could be a major league asshole outside of the team. The rumours out there about him are endless, and there may have been some "chemical assistance" that helped push him along to some of his more angry behavior.

3) Vince Coleman: OK Mets fans! If you love Vince Coleman raise your hand! (crickets chirping). OK, if you LIKE Vince Coleman raise up that hand! Hmmmm, nothing. OK, if you think Vince Coleman was a royal asshole and a clubhouse cancer raise your hand! Ahhhh, there they are.

OK, he injured Dwight Gooden swinging a golf club and threw lit firecrackers at the fans while playing crap baseball...man this guy was just an absolute prick...he could easily be #1 on this list.

2) Robby Alomar: Oh Robby, what the hell happened! From Hall of Fame "Greatest second baseman ever" to craptastic scrubeenie with the Mets....his career fell off a cliff.

Alomar himself didn't want to come to NY, “I was kind of disappointed…I was real happy in Cleveland and thought I did a great job.” said Aomar (ut oh).

Alomar was another one of those sensitive types who couldn't handle playing in NY. The media had this figured out early, and they seemed to pick at him quite a bit. Alomar got into a really strange fight with Roger cedeno over who looked better on their baseball card, and it was pretty much downhill after that.

Thankfully he only played here a year and a half...horrible, horrible Met.

1) Bobby Bonilla: And finally our #1 most hated Met of all-time!

Where do you really begin here? He was signed in 1992 to the biggest contract in baseball and he went immediately into the tank.

He threatened Bob Klapish that he would "show him the Bronx" in response to his book on the 1992 Mets, The Worst Team Money Could Buy: The Collapse Of The New York Mets (ISBN 0-8032-7822-5).[1] On another occasion, he called the press box during a game to complain about an error that he was charged with (later attempting to explain by saying he was calling to check up on the PR director's cold.)

Booed, hated, arrogant, an insuferable egotist, untalented and tiresome, Bonilla represented everything bad about the NY Mets of the 90s.

Bobby Bonilla was an asshole, and is probably an asshole today.

Other receiving consideration: Jeremy Burnitz, Armando Benitez, Jay Bell, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Brett Butler, Rey Ordonez, Juan Samuel, Steve Trachsel, Mel Rojas, Tsoyshi Shinjo, Victor Zambrano, Kris Benson

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not a player, I know, but: M. Donald Grant.

And how can Dave Kingman not even make the dishonorable mention list?

Dave Singer said...

People loved Dave Kingman! :-)

When the Mets were awful, there was always Kong.

As for Grant...great call...e is #1 on the non-player list, slightly ahead of Art Howe.

LouOCNY said...

AMEN on M Donald Grant! If he hadn't stuck his nose into the Player Development Dept like he did, there would have been a Mets DYNASTY - imagine a Met outfield of Reggie Jackson, Cleon and Ken Singleton for 10 years!

Unknown said...

Let's not forget Grants partner in crime, Bob Scheffing, his puppet GM. Sheffing was best known for trading Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi, but if memory serves, he also was responsible for the Amos Otis for Joe Foy trade and the Rusty Staub for Micky Lolich trade. In 1974, in a Mets stadium program, there was an article about Scheffing calling him the Mets 1973 "Pennant Architect". My friend, who was at the game with me, turned to me and commented that he would have been more appropriately titled the Mets "Dynasty Destroyer". Yeah, he belongs on this list, too.

Unknown said...

What about Heilman? How many big spots did he blow for us? I can recall two off the top of my head: Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS and in July of 2008 against the Cards...again! The 2nd one was Brandon Knights 1st career start, the Birds took it to the Mets early, only for us to comeback and tie things at 8. Then they throw this bum in the game(extra innings) only for him to throw a pitiful hanger down Broadway to Albert Pujols of all people, who drove it 450 feet for 2 run moonshot. Im sure there are plenty of other instances and I dont know one Met fan who would consider him to be even a decent pitcher. He should be at least #10 on the list.

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