From: doctor8@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu (Jason Abner Miller)
Subject: Re: 1992 Mets
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Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 17:24:00 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.222343.3332@midway.uchicago.edu>, thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes...
>In article <17DEC199216125109@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> doctor8@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu (Jason Abner Miller) writes:

>>	When Jeff Torborg arrived from Chicago late one night in 1991, 
>>the popular sentiment was that the Mets were going to run away with
>>the whole thing.  Gooden, Cone, Fernandez, Saberhagen in the starting
>>staff, John Franco in the pen, Bobby Bonilla and Eddie Murray added to
>>the lineup, with Bill Pecota and Willie Randolph to provide some sort
>>of up-the-middle stability.
> 
>Whose popular sentiment?  The r.s.bb popular sentiment was that the
>Expos had the best team in the NL East, then the Pirates, and the Mets
>had no hope of contending because they were fielding the 1985 All-Stars.

	Most of the major sports magazines and newspapers, wowed by
all the Mets' off-season acquisitions, had the Mets easily beating
out the terribly weakened Pirates, or at least finishing a close second.
Me, being the average ignorant fan, read this, and sort of believed
it because I liked the direction the team was trying to make (bringing
in new players, *not* bringing in old players).

>I mean, Gooden hasn't been a good pitcher since 1989, and he hasn't
>been a *great* pitcher since 1986.  He had precisely the 1992 that
>one could expect from him.  Maybe even a little better.
> 
>Pecota was a mediocre 32-yo journeyman,

	Torborg treated Pecota's arrival as the second coming of the Savior,
and actually fooled people, for a time, into thinking that he could
be a starter.  Once spring training rolled around, Torborg got fed up,
and brought in that perennial all-star Junior Noboa to back up the
utility man.

>Randolph was coming off a great
>year in Milwaukee, but was going to be 38, and it was easy enough to guess
>that he wasn't going to repeat it

	This was more New York sentiment than statistical fact.  Willie
was always, and still is, a New York hero, and the mediots portray him
as a popular leader-type.  The Rotisserie people were actually high on
him, going into the season.  But once he hit .250 and had bad knees,
people realized that he wasn't about to hit .327 again and got bored.

>Howard Johnson was expected to decline,

	Was he?  Most of the media predicted his even-numbered-years
tailoff, but nothing quite so dramatic.

>Murray was 36 and a below-average first-baseman who had two bad years out
>of the last three.

	And he was still the Mets' MVP last season - odd, isn't it?
He still played in 156 games, drove in 93 runs, and given the Mets'
1-2 hitters, this is sort of impressive.  Yes, he's old, and Magadan
really should have gotten that starting job at 1st, but he played
well for a year.  I don't want to insult him, until he turns into
Kevin McReynolds ...

>The only real surprise was (1) how dramatic HoJo's
>decline was, and (2) Bonilla was a bit worse than expected, though still
>much better than people in NY thought. 
> 
>But all in all, I don't see many surprises on the 1992 Mets.  The ones
>they did have didn't cost them more than three or four games.
> 
>>	And, as he did with the White Sox, it was hoped that Torborg
>>would come along, take a struggling team, and win with them.  
> 
>People in Chicago knew better.  He jumped the Sox to the Mets over a 
>phone call that wasn't returned -- no way was he going to stay stable
>under the NY microscope.

	People told me that Torborg was a bad manager.  I should have
listened to them.  Once the season started, I saw.  I was not amused.

>>	Guaranteed, the Mets *do* have holes in 1993:
> 
>The same holes that they had in 1992, except they don't have Cone anymore.
>And all their old players are a year older.
> 
>>2B:  Kent - unproven
> 
>Kent's actually one of the few bright spots on the team -- he's the
>only one in the starting lineup, except for maybe Bonilla, who has a
>shot at still being around by the time the Mets are ready to contend.
>Which won't be for awhile as long as they refuse to want to rebuild,
>and strategize like Steinbrenner's Yankees. 

	But remember - he's gonna be under the microscope too, and pretty
heavily.  If he gets off to a slow start, and he well might, his
career will be trashed, and he certainly won't help the team finish above
6th. 
	On the other hand, if he hits real well the first month, he'll
become a New York Press Hero (TM) (see also Daryl Boston and Chico Walker),
and people will remember that he was once a good prospect, and like him again.

>>	This is not a great team, but not a last-place team.  
> 
>Well, there's always the Marlins to stop that.
> 
>>	Torborg and Buddy can't win with this team.  Someone who can handle 
>>players might, though.  
> 
>It's the Expos in a walk, this year.  The Mets don't have it.

	Well, they *do* have Tanana.  So they may well finish last.
Don't be surprised!

>-- 
>ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
>standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
>the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637

							Jason Miller
							"some doctor guy"
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball