[JerryShoe]

1962 Mets

The Plan
Before I can improve a team, I need to actually have a team. After the draft I was shy at least 1 starter and 2 other pitchers, a fulltime catcher, a fulltimer at each infield position except shortstop and a fulltime outfielder or maybe 2 part-timers, with 4 empty active roster places. With so many holes to fill, I’ll concentrate on up-the-middle defense which would also help pitching. The only area that go towards that way are my 2 catchers whose playing limits comprise two-thirds of a single receiver. I should add that my roster is made up only of my draft picks and players who 1962 Mets GM George Weiss took in the Rule 5 and first-year minor league drafts (Bob Moorhead and Rod Kanehl); anyone who was purchased was transferred back to their original team (with no online financials the selling team reaped no reward) and anyone picked up by the actual Mets after start of 1962 was sent back. I could have solved centerfield in 1 of 2 ways. Needing pitching, I could have chosen Vic Davalillo from the Reds rather than any of the 3 I did take from that organization and pretended not to know that he would move from the mound to become a top-flight flychaser instead. I justified taking Allen and Culp, but Henry, Nunn and Pena had better credentials than Vic. In another thread I suggested an option that players start out with their original organizations rather than with the team they made their debut with, which may be difficult for OOTP to program. This way I could have Paul Blair, as gern11 has in his similar “Reversal of Misfortune” project, but to be consistent I would have to make time to research similar occurrences and return Felix Millan to the Athletics, Curt Blefary to the Yankees, etc. Doing this would dramatically alter the 1960s baseball landscape, particularly the 1967 “Impossible Dream” season for the Red Sox when they would not have Joe Foy, Sparky Lyle and Reggie Smith (Foy and Smith were signed by the Twins, who they had to defeat in the last 2 games of the season to win the pennant) plus Denny McLain would be pitching for the White Sox (4th, 3 games behind) and not the Tigers (tied with the Twins). I’ll stay with players appearing with teams according to historical debuts. To add playing time I was going to trade Gus Bell (343 PAs) for Frank Thomas (633) as it is historically correct, but $150,000 was sent to Milwaukee and that makes it too much of leaning towards a sale. This is also another example of OOTP having 2 players traded for each other appearing on the same team.

What Happened to the Plan
I made a lot of trades and some made the up-the-middle defense somewhat stronger and the team somewhat more respectable, but also too few newcomers to be around for a turnaround. My few “stars” like Cannizzaro, Green, Mantilla, Nunn, Pena and Schoendienst were sent away for vet respectability, (Larry Jackson, Curt Simmons
and Bill Virdon), holding the fort (Dale Long, Sammy White and Gene Woodling) and some hope for future (Dave Giusti and Jim Hannan).

The Results
Well, at least I did better than Weiss/Casey Stengel (51-111, 51 games out rather than 40-120 and -60½), so there's that.

My opening day lineup was similar to the actual April 11, 1962:

Ashburn, cf.....Mantilla, ss
Mantilla, ss.....Kanehl, 2b
Neal, 2b..........Bell, lf
Thomas, lf.......Bouchee, 1b
Bell, rf..............Zimmer, 3b
Hodges, 1b......Christopher, cf
Zimmer, 3b......Hickman, rf
Landrith, c........Sherry, c
Craig, p............Craig, p

Because of Hodges’ limited playing time I platooned him with Bouchee, and Bouchee did pinch-hit in the actual opener.

The team changed drastically along the way, as you can see the heart of the team for most of the early season to its end:

C Sherry (traded)............White (trade pickup)
1B Hodges (injured)..........Long (trade pickup)
2B Kanehl.........................Kanehl
SS Mantilla (traded)..........Koppe (trade pickup)
3B Zimmer (traded)..........O'Connell (trade pickup)
RF Hickman..................... Hickman
CF Christopher..................Virdon (trade pickup)
LF Bell..............................Woodling (trade pickup)

S1 Craig........................... A.Jackson
S2 A.Jackson....................Craig
S3 Miller (playing time)......Fisher (from bullpen)
S4 Pena (traded)...............L.Jackson (trade pickup)
RA Nunn (traded)..............Guisti (trade pickup)

Hickman, Kanehl and Mantilla spent time at third base and Hickman played center, too.

With all the movement, some in the “composite lineup” never played with each other:

2B Kanehl .234
3B O'Connell .275
LF Woodling .270/.360 with 14 HRs in NY
CF Hickman 18 HRs
1B Long 6 HRs with NY in half season, 8 SBs with 0 CS
RF Bell 8 HRs
C Cannizzaro .256 with NY
SS Hartman .242

Also, Mantilla hit .272 with 6 HRs in 2 months, Hodges .293/8 HRs in less than half a season and Christopher stole 11 and caught only 3 times.

S1 A.Jackson 10-20, 3.60
S2 Craig 4.31
S3 Fisher 4.53
S4 L.Jackson 4.74

Guisti 2.30, 4 Saves
Hannan 1.73
Nunn led with 7 saves (with 1.23) even though he left in June.

As for the OOTP’s parallel with real life, the NL playoff wasn’t needed, but the race did last to the last day with the Dodgers (102-60) outlasting the Giants (100-62) in a 2-team race. The Colt .45s (67-96) finished 9th. The Twins (101-61) won big over the Yankees (90-72 as the runner-up) with the expansion Senators a surprising 87-75 (4th) with their counterpart Angels at 83-79. The Dodgers took the Series in 5 games. No surprise that no Met appeared on any (positive) leader board. Frank Robinson let the NL in hitting (.343), Willie Mays in the power department (50/134) and Wills REALLY went to town with 123 steals to shatter Cobb's mark, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax were 1-2 in ERA (2.03 and 2.04!). Dandy Don also led with 27 Wins while Bob Gibson stuck out 293. Lindy McDaniel's 25 Saves topped the Senior Circuit while over in the Junior, Twin Rich Rollins (!) led with .339, Rocky Colavito and Leon Wagner tied with 44 circuit clouts but Lou Clinton (???) had the most RBI with 119 and Luis Aparicio swiped 66 bags. Rollins' teammate Camilo Pascual also had 27 victories with the lowest ERA (2.53), Joe Nuxhall (with the Angels) K'd 241 and Turk Lown saved 36. Mays won the NL MVP with actual winner Maury Wills placing 6th, Drysdale duplicated life with the Cy Young and Dennis Bennett was the Rookie of the Year (Hickman did finish 2nd) while actual winner Ken Hubbs didn’t get a vote. Mickey Mantle took the AL MVP as he did in ’62, Pascual wont the AL Cy (there was only 1 Cy Young Award until 1967) and Ed Charles took the AL ROY (Bill James should be happy; as in the NL, actual winner Tommy Tresh got no votes)

Next: The 1963 Mets