The Greatest Met of All Time
There are only eight players who have participated in over 1,000 games for the Mets. In descending order, they are Ed Kranepool, Bud Harrelson, Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones, Howard Johnson, Mookie Wilson, Darryl Strawberry and Edgardo Alfonzo. Strawberry's clearly the class of the bunch as a hitter, leading the team in runs scored, homers and runs batted in.
But Strawberry's totals are not eye-popping--252 homers, 733 RBI. Hard to argue that matches up with Seaver's 198 wins for the franchise. Gooden (157 wins) and Koosman (140) have the only arguments against Seaver from the pitching side. Koosman was only 3 games over .500 for the Mets, while Seaver was 74 games over and Gooden 72 games over.
Seaver had a better ERA (2.57 as a Met compared to Gooden's 3.10). He threw almost twice as many shutouts as the Doctor. He had a better strikeout to walk ratio. He's got the quantity stats and the quality stats.
