A quickie, if you will allow me:
From 2001-2010, the three highest win totals of that time span by a good margin were from 2006-2008, 97, 88, and 89. The three best seasons in terms of runs scored were also those three seasons … again, by a significant margin.
Not coincidentally, those were the three full seasons that Carlos Delgado played with the team.
The Diesel officially announced his retirement yesterday, and he’ll probably get remembered in a negative light considering the collapses, and whispers of being clubhouse poison. All I know is that his presence in the Mets lineup gave them a chance to win every night, and gave guys like Carlos Beltran and David Wright the protection they needed to be superstars. Consider that Beltran, with Cliff Floyd and Mike Piazza (who by then was a shell of his former self) batting behind him led the team with a WAR of 5.0. With Delgado batting behind him, he lead the team in WAR in ’06 and ’08, with an 8.0 and 6.8 respectively. Wright led in ’07 with a 7.8.
Since Delgado was injured early in the ’09 season, the lineup has been a vast wasteland of automatic outs. It’s not a coincidence. And it’s a reminder that talent trumps everything. I know the lineup isn’t the issue with the present version of the Mets, but Delgado was more important to the Mets than most will probably want to admit. We could have done much, much worse.
Oh that’s right, we did.
“There comes a moment when you have to have the dignity and the sense to recognize that something is not functioning. You can’t swim against the current.” -Carlos Delgado
Something the Mets might want to consider next time they think about pitching to Troy Tulowitzki.
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