Here is a list of all of the pitchers drafted/developed by the Mets who started a Major League baseball game since the start of the decade:
| Pitcher | Games Started | GS For the Mets |
| Tyler Walker | 1 | 1 |
| Grant Roberts | 1 | 1 |
| Phillip Humber | 1 | 1 |
| Bill Pulsipher | 2 | 2 |
| Bobby Parnell | 6 | 6 |
| Tyler Yates | 7 | 7 |
| Jonathon Niese | 8 | 8 |
| Octavio Dotel | 20 | 0 |
| Aaron Heilman | 25 | 25 |
| Billy Traber | 28 | 0 |
| Lenny Dinardo | 29 | 0 |
| Pete Walker | 31 | 0 |
| Yusmeiro Petit | 36 | 0 |
| Nelson Figueroa | 44 | 11 |
| Jesus Sanchez | 44 | 0 |
| Kevin Tapani | 59 | 0 |
| Mike Pelfrey | 76 | 76 |
| Bobby Jones | 78 | 27 |
| Brian Bannister | 91 | 6 |
| Jae Seo | 102 | 66 |
| Paul Wilson | 127 | 0 |
| Scott Kazmir | 146 | 0 |
| AJ Burnett | 232 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 1194 | 237 |
Not a lot of big names on this list. And the two All-Stars were traded away before they made it to the big leagues. This is an embarrassing list.
To crunch the numbers: the Mets’ organization drafted/developed 23 pitchers who started games in the past decade, combining for1194 games started.
There have been 23,952 Major League Baseball games played from the beginning of the 2000 season through yesterday, meaning that there have been 47,902 Games Started overall in the decade.
1194 is 2.5% of 47,902. So, pitchers developed by the Mets have started around one out of every 40 MLB games this decade. Given that there are 30 MLB teams, the Mets are clearly not pulling their weight here.
And this says nothing about quality, which it clearly lacking in the list above.
Also, if you look at the 23 pitchers above, they started a combined 237 games for the Mets (the majority of which are accounted for by two pitchers – Mike Pelfrey and Jae Seo). The Mets have played 1595 games as a team this decade. So home-grown talent has started just 14.9% of their games. The rest of their games have been started by talent acquired elsewhere.
Considering where the Mets came from in the 1980s (with Gooden, Darling, Fernandez, and others coming from the Mets’ system), the Mets track record in developing pitchers for the past decade is embarrassing.
Any “blueprint” that the Mets care to develop to guide their team back to glory should probably involve an overhaul of the way they develop young pitchers.
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3 comments:
This is some really excellent work. but two things...Pulsipher in this decade? And also, Sid Fernandez, in my home known as FF Sid (figure out the FF part on your own), came up through the Dodger system.
Your point is well taken and very clear when you present it this way. Great job.
Tom
Good point about Fernandez. Darling also was acquired via trade (from the Rangers, for Lee Mazilli). However, both Fernandez and Darling spent time in the Mets farm system before pitching for the Mets.
Bill Pulsipher pitched briefly for the Mets in 2000 - it wasn't very memorable.
Ok, perhaps i am misunderstanding tnis, and perhaps this is so old you won't even look at it, but how can there be twice as many games started in the decade as there have been games played in the decade?
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