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Top Tens thru the years

Frayed Knot Mar 06 2008 09:28 PM Edited 4 time(s), most recently on Jan 10 2011 12:09 PM

I was fiddling around with the spreadsheet that houses all our Ranking info and started wondering who were the top players at various points in NYM history. Since we didn't start this project until 2002 there was no real list prior to that, but just based on our backward-looking rankings of early years there is at least a theoretical one for any point in time. The list at the end of 1962 would have simply mirrored the results from that one year. So the top 10 would have been comprised of these guys: 1962 1st Frank Thomas 2nd Richie Ashburn 3rd Al Jackson 4th Roger Craig 5th Charlie Neal 6th Felix Mantilla 7th Jay Hook 8th Jim Hickman 9th Elio Chacon 10th Craig Anderson Of those guys, only Hickman (70) and Al Jackson (77) remain in the top 100 of the up-to-date list. By the end of 1963 it becomes the cumulative sum of those two years meaning that your reward for 10,000 posts would have been attainment of the exhalted Roger Craig level: 1963 1st Roger Craig 2nd Al Jackson 3rd Frank Thomas 4th Jim Hickman 5th Ron Hunt 6th Charlie Neal 7th Carl Willey 8th Richie Ashburn 9th Duke Snider 10th Larry Bearnarth And after 1964 a few new faces start to crack the top 10 - including our namesake: 1964 1st Jim Hickman 2nd Al Jackson 3rd Ron Hunt 4th Roger Craig 5th Frank Thomas 6th Joe Christopher 7th Tracy Stallard 8th Ed Kranepool 9th Galen Cisco 10th Charlie Neal

AG/DC Mar 07 2008 07:24 AM

Cool. I did this, but for number one only.

Frayed Knot Mar 08 2008 06:05 AM Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Feb 19 2011 05:48 PM

With only 75 total names after 4 seasons it's much easier for new names to move up the list 1965 1st Jim Hickman 2nd Al Jackson 3rd Ron Hunt 4th Joe Christopher 5th Ed Kranepool 6th Charley Smith 7th Roger Craig 8th Frank Thomas 9th Galen Cisco 10th Tracy Stallard 1966 1st Ron Hunt 2nd Jim Hickman 3rd Ed Kranepool 4th Al Jackson 5th Jack Fisher 6th Joe Christopher 7th Ron Swoboda 8th Charley Smith 9th Roger Craig 10th Frank Thomas The post-1967 list creeps up over 100 names (111) for the first time. Some guy named Seaver debuts at #16 1967 1st Ed Kranepool 2nd Ron Hunt 3rd Jack Fisher 4th Jim Hickman] 5th Ron Swoboda 6th Al Jackson 7th Cleon Jones 8th Joe Christopher 9th Charley Smith 10th Roger Craig Our namesake completes a 2-year stint on top. Koosman debuts in 16th place. 1968 1st Ed Kranepool 2nd Ron Swoboda 3rd Ron Hunt 4th Cleon Jones 5th Jack Fisher 6th Jim Hickman 7th Al Jackson 8th Tom Seaver 9th Jerry Grote 10th Joe Christopher

AG/DC Mar 08 2008 07:21 AM

Now I'm remembering. You gave me shit when I did this.

Frayed Knot Mar 08 2008 12:21 PM

AG/DC wrote: Now I'm remembering. You gave me shit when I did this. ???

Frayed Knot Mar 08 2008 04:59 PM Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Feb 21 2011 05:38 PM

Continuing merrily along ... The championship year pushes its heroes to the top and starts to shove the early guys permanently out of the top 10 1969 1st Cleon Jones 2nd Ron Swoboda 3rd Tom Seaver 4th Ed Kranepool 5th Jerry Grote 6th Jerry Koosman 7th Ron Hunt 8th Jack Fisher 9th Jim Hickman 10th Al Jackson In case you were wondering (and I know you were) how quickly Seaver took over the lead, now you know. He grabbed it after his 4th season, still has it 37 years later, and is almost certain to hold it for at least another 6 seasons and quite possibly on beyond that. 1970 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Cleon Jones 3rd Ron Swoboda 4th Jerry Koosman 5th Ed Kranepool 6th Jerry Grote 7th Tommie Agee 8th Bud Harrelson 9th Tug McGraw 10th Ron Hunt Gary Gentry joins the party meaning that the entire top 10 save Swoboda (dealt prior to the season) are all active Mets 1971 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Cleon Jones 3rd Jerry Koosman 4th Ed Kranepool 5th Ron Swoboda 6th Tommie Agee 7th Jerry Grote 8th Tug McGraw 9th Bud Harrelson 10th Gary Gentry The realization that this project is about to become really boring (assuming it wasn't already) has just hit. The rapid changes from the early years are no more as most of 1972's top-10 will remain there in some order or another for the next 15 years. 1972 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Cleon Jones 3rd Tug McGraw 4th Jerry Koosman 5th Tommie Agee 6th Ed Kranepool 7th Ron Swoboda 8th Jerry Grote 9th Bud Harrelson 10th Gary Gentry

Rockin' Doc Mar 08 2008 05:40 PM

This is pretty neat. It's interesting to watch the changes over time.

Frayed Knot Mar 09 2008 06:55 PM Edited 4 time(s), most recently on Feb 23 2011 03:28 PM

Jumping ahead a few years due to the relative stability at the top of the list; Koosman passes Cleon to claim the #2 spot that he'd hold for another 18 years. Matlack & Rusty have replaced Swoboda and Gentry in the top 10. This top 7 would remain unchanged until 1987. 1976 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Jerry Koosman 3rd Cleon Jones 4th Tug McGraw 5th Ed Kranepool 6th Jerry Grote 7th Jon Matlack 8th Bud Harrelson 9th Tommie Agee 10th Rusty Staub The list is now 236 names long. Rusty gets dealt away and as a result is dropped from his brief perch in the top 10 by Milner - only to rejoin the team in '81 and gain enough points to jump back in and drop the hammer on Hammer. Kranepool's longevity pays off as he outlasts Tug to take over spot #4. 1980 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Jerry Koosman 3rd Cleon Jones 4th Ed Kranepool 5th Tug McGraw 6th Jerry Grote 7th Jon Matlack 8th Bud Harrelson 9th Tommie Agee 10th Jon Milner The list goes past 300 names for the first time.. Hernandez breaks into the top 10 in 1986, Straw in '87, while Gooden & Mookie jump in with '88's list, dumping Agee, Matlack, Rusty and Harrelson. Orosco peaked at #11 ('86 list). 1988 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Jerry Koosman 3rd Cleon Jones 4th Darryl Strawberry 5th Ed Kranepool 6th Keith Hernandez 7th Mookie Wilson 8th Dwight Gooden 9th Tug McGraw 10th Jerry Grote In his last full season w/the Mets Gooden leaps past Straw & Koos and cements the top 4 into its present state. Longevity and steady progress get Sid & HoJo into the ring of honor at the expense of Tug & Grote 1993 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Dwight Gooden 3rd Jerry Koosman 4th Darryl Strawberry 5th Cleon Jones 6th Sid Fernandez 7th Howard Johnson 8th Ed Kranepool 9th Keith Hernandez 10th Mookie Wilson Franco jumps in after the '99 season dropping Mookie. Fonzie reaches in '02 at Keith's expense. And the final top 10 change was when Piazza got there in 2004 kicking Kranepool out. 2005 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Dwight Gooden 3rd Jerry Koosman 4th Darryl Strawberry 5th Mike Piazza 6th John Franco 7th Edgardo Alfonzo 8th Cleon Jones 9th Sid Fernandez 10th Howard Johnson Next players with the best shot to crack the elite range are obviously Wright and/or Reyes, either one of which who could reach the top-10 with three more good years or possibly with two great ones.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 09 2008 08:19 PM

How about this. Following 66, the Mets traded their No. 1 and No. 2 players of all time in the same deal!

Gwreck Mar 09 2008 10:56 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: In case you were wondering (and I know you were) how quickly Seaver took over the lead, now you know. He grabbed it after his 4th season, still has it 37 years later, and is almost certain to hold it for at least another 6 seasons and quite possibly on beyond that. Presumably Wright has the best shot to knock Seaver off #1, and Reyes slightly behind him. The question is...how likely? I know the formula accounts for team wins in a season, but why is it 6 seasons minimum? What does being player #1 in a season with 97 wins get you? What about a season with 87 wins? etc.

Frayed Knot Mar 10 2008 05:40 PM

Wright is coming off a season which netted him 7,920 points in our system as the top ranked player in an 88 win season: 30 pts squared x 88 wins, then divide the whole thing by 10 (just to make the numbers more managable) ((30^2*88)/10). A 98 win season would have made it worth 8,820 while a playoff bound team where the multiplier would often go above 100 (reg season wins + various post-season bonus points) a top-ranked player's score could top 10,000 points for that season. But Wright is still more than 52,000 points behind Seaver, meaning that even 5 in a row of those best-case scenario seasons would still almost certainly leave him short which is what led me to guesstimate that 6 would be the minimum needed before GTS could be caught. The fact that we're even discussing the possibility that Wright, after 9 or 10 seasons as a Met, could even be near what it took Seaver 12 seasons to reach is optimistic enough. At approx 8K pts/yr (Wright's avg over the last 3 seasons) it would take another 7 for him to grab the top slot. Reyes is only slightly behind Wright (5 slots and about 1,200 pts) so is essentially in the same boat although is averaging closer to 7K/yr recently.

Frayed Knot Feb 23 2011 03:27 PM Re: Top Tens thru the years

Haven't updated this list in a while - haven't had to really. But since D-Wright broke into the top ten this year (drop-kicking Howard Johnson just like Sandy Alderson just did) we have our first change in the top 10 in a number of years. 2010 1st Tom Seaver 2nd Dwight Gooden 3rd Jerry Koosman 4th Darryl Strawberry 5th Mike Piazza 6th John Franco 7th David Wright 8th Edgardo Alfonzo 9th Cleon Jones 10th Sid Fernandez The total list now consists of 605 players