Mets/Phillies All-Decade Team

Written by Matt Ryan

Thursday, 17 December 2009 16:33

It's the end of the decade and everybody is making lists. And even though this rivalry has only materialized in the last five years, I felt an all-decade team was appropriate. In order to qualify, a player must have played at least four full seasons for either the Mets or Phillies 2000-2009. For comparison's sake, statistics are per 162 games. Here it goes:

Mets/Phillies All-Decade Team

C- Mike Piazza (2000-2005) .286, 36 HR, 102 RBI

1B- Ryan Howard (2004-2009) .279, 50 HR, 142 RBI

2B- Chase Utley (2003-2009) .295, 29 HR, 106 RBI

SS- Jimmy Rollins (2000-2009) .274, 17 HR, 72 RBI, 38 SB, 109 R

3B- David Wright (2004-2009) .309, 27 HR, 107 RBI, 23 SB

LF- Pat Burrell (2000-2007) .258, 31 HR, 105 RBI

CF- Carlos Beltran (2005-2009) .281, 31 HR, 112 RBI, 23 SB

RF- Bobby Abreu (2000-2005) .300, 26 HR, 99 RBI, 110 R, 32 SB

SP- Al Leiter (2000-2004) 15-11, 3.43 ERA, 171 K, 123 ERA+

SP- Tom Glavine (2003-2007) 13-12, 3.97 ERA, 107 K, 107 ERA+

SP- Randy Wolf (2000-2006) 13-11, 4.06 ERA, 171 K, 105 ERA+

SP- Pedro Martinez (2005-2009) 15-10, 3.86 ERA, 194 K, 109 ERA+

SP- Brett Myers (2002-2009) 12-11, 4.40 ERA, 159 K, 99 ERA +, 21 total saves

Closer- Billy Wagner (2004-2008) 3-2, 2.18 ERA, 37 saves, 200 ERA+

Manager- Charlie Manuel (2005-2009) 810-447, 2 pennants, 1 World Series title

A few quick observations

Final tally: 7 Phillies and 6 Mets. I counted Pedro as a Met, and Wagner as neither
Man, the pitching on this team is weak. It would look a hell of a lot different if Johan, Doc, and Lee were eligible
Writing Glavine's name on there was painful
Hitting edge clearly goes to the Phillies, Mets get a slight edge in pitching
Closest race was Rollins vs. Reyes. Reyes actually has the better numbers, but Rollins gets the edge because of stronger defense, games played, and the fact that he won an MVP during the decade.
7 out of the 14 players selected are still active for their respective teams
2 players (Billy Wagner and Pedro Martinez) played for both teams
The majority of the players appear to be from the latter half of the decade

What do you guys think? Obviously there will be complaints, but this list was difficult to complie. A lot of guys from the earlier part of the decade were forgotten because the more recent teams have been much stronger. Stay tuned for my decade award ceremony later in the week.

Comments (8) Add Comment

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written by Benny B, December 17, 2009

Hard to really argue any on the list with the 4 year criteria. It's amazing that the Mets have not had a Left Fielder in this decade that can compete with Burrell. Sad. Benny Agbayani, Endy Chavez, Alou, Murphy, Sheffield. I can't remember the last time the mets solidified LF. They could remedy that immediately if they sign Holliday :-).

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written by Team2BeatMike, December 17, 2009

yeah, it's kind of bittersweet that there weren't any wild choices to argue over!

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written by EastFallowfield, December 18, 2009

Cole Hamels and his 4 year ERA is better than all but one of the starters, as is his ERA+ (121). He'd be second on the list of starters, knocking Brett Myers off? (And he can show off a coupla postseason MVP trophies).

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written by Matt Ryan, December 18, 2009

Believe me EFF I considered Hamels. But the main reason I didn't include him is because he's only logged 200 innings once. He's really only pitched 3 full seasons in the big leagues, and my cutoff was 4.

Obviously there are going to be some complaints, but I feel like the team was as fair as possible.

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written by Matt Ryan, December 18, 2009

And before you say the Pedro Martinez also only throw 200 innings once (which you will no doubt do), the difference is that Pedro was hurt. Cole easily could have made this team, I just didn't have him qualifying.

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written by EastFallowfield, December 18, 2009

Cole was hurt some two of the years he didn't throw 200 innings. And he came close two of those years (threw over 200 innings last year, for example, if you include NLDS, NLCS, and WS innings).

For perspective...

Hamels averaged 184 innings a year for the Phils in the 2000s.

Martinez averaged 121 innings a year for the Mets. One year he had 28 innings total. That's about 4 starts for someone like Roy Halladay.

If I didn't know better, I'd guess the 200 inning mark was chosen simply to exclude Hamels. (Ya know, Brett Myers had the same exact number of 200 inning seasons as Hamels, right?)

Phils/Mets Decade In Review
written by EastFallowfield, December 19, 2009

World Championships:
Phillies 1, Mets 0

NL Championships:
Phillies 2, Mets 1

NL East Championships:
Phillies 3, Mets 1

Wild Card Berths:
Mets 1, Phillies 0

Other Finishes:
2nd Place: Phils 4, Mets 3
3rd Place: Phils 2, Mets 2
4th Place: Mets 2, Phils 0
Last Place: Mets 2, Phils 1

Records:
Phils 850 wins, .528, Mets 815 wins, .503

Head to Head Victories:
Phils 94, Mets 86

MVPs:
Phillies 2, Mets 0

Cy Young Awards:
None

Gold Gloves:
Phillies 9.5*, Mets 5

Rookies of the Year:
Phillies 1, Mets 0

Manager of the Year:
Phillies 1, Mets 0

Silver Sluggers:
Mets 10, Phillies 8.5*

All Stars Selections:
Mets 27, Phillies 25

Rolaids Reliever of Year:
Phillies 1, Mets 1

*Scott Rolen won these awards during the season he split between Philadelphia and St Louis.