[JerryShoe]

1963 Mets

The Plan
In looking to get good defense up-the-middle, I was thinking along the lines of Ken Berry or someone else with a second-tier bat but first-rate glove since I have so little to offer, but in the offseason the Giants came calling, asking Al Jackson for Jim Davenport and…Tommie Agee! I hated to lose for Al Jax, but...
Needing to add playing time behind the plate, I sent my old catchers for new-but-old catchers Del Crandall and Gus Triandos. The infield will have Hodges and Long will platoon at first base, hopefully lasting for the entire year, rookie Ron Hunt won the second base job, Joe Koppe at short and Davenport’s excellent spring won him third. Good field-no hit Bob Lillis was a late spring free agent pickup and will take any of the 3 left side spots should any falter (so much for my idea of Houston’s team identity). The outfield have Hickman in rightfield, Virdon in center and Kanehl moving from the infield to left.
The pitching should shake out 3 good starters out of L. Jackson, Simmons, Craig, Miller and rookie Ray Culp. The bullpen is so deep that 1962 opening relief ace Henry Is on reserve list, so there may be some deals out of there.
This team will not be championship caliber of course, but I think that I they will be respectable, out of last place with .500 as a goal, maybe even first division.

What Happened to the Plan
Starting out stronger than expected and ending the first month at 11-9, the team Stayed over .500 for most of the summer, even climbing as high as fourth before finally falling under the break-even point on August 18 when a few of my better players reached their maximum number of PAs/IP. The first base platoon faded after Hodges retired to manage Washington and Long started with a .086 BA and benched before his retirement. Kranepool (5 for his first 8) took over for Long and Ernie Banks for Hodges after getting him on the cheap on because of an undiagnosed mumps Ailment rather than age caused a .169/2 HR start, making a trade for Fisher easy. Ernie may break my bank since he now takes a third of the payroll. Logan finished at shortstop after Koppe and Lillis and Dick Howser (traded for Moran) maxed out after 263 PAs. In the outfield, Kanehl played well but not often, done after 220 PAs. Willie Kirkland and Fred Valentine were added to the outfield mix during the year.

The Results
Even though we bottomed out in the final month and change, we did finish in 7th place with a 74–88 mark, both marks not reached historically until the ’69 Championship. Hunt won the Rookie-of-the-Year (actual winner Pete Rose came in 4th) and pitching was a big plus with another rookie, Culp, really came through. The only Met on the leaderboard was Larry Jackson, tied for 5th with 5 shutouts, but there were several near misses.

CF Virdon............303
3B Davenport......308, 19 2Bs, 8 3Bs, 13 HRs
2B Hunt...............277/.361, 40 2Bs, 8 3Bs, 10 HRs
RF Hickman........19 HRs
C Triandos..........11 HRs
LF Kirkland...........9 HRs in NY in half season
1B Kranepool/Banks....277/.235 with NY in half season
SS Howser.............255 led club with 11 steals in a half season

Kanehl (.292), Logan (.228), Christopher (.207) and Crandall (.184) were the other Mets with significant playing time.

S1 L.Jackson........ also 13-12, 2.76
S2 Simmons..........3.60
S3 Culp................. 2.17, 211 K's
S4 Craig.................3.39
S5 Miller.................2.65 between starting and relieving

CL Worthington.......2.75, 10 Saves before maxing out
CL Brewer...............3.18, 10 Saves before maxing out
RP Henry................ 2.83 before maxing out

For the postseason, none of the historical pennant winners won in this project yet. Minnesota is the OOTP dynasty, once again topping a strong Yankee team (96-66). San Francisco swapped places with LA, who finished 3 behind, meaning that these 2 teams changed places with reality so far. Al Kaline won the AL batting crown, with actual winner Carl Yasrzemski finishing 5th, Harmon Killebrew homered the most (historically correct) and shared the RBI lead with Jim King, as Dick Stuart stayed in the NL. Luis Aparicio swiped the most bases, as in the actual 1963. Ken.Johnson had the low AL ERA (actual winner Gary Peters is further down the list), Camilo Pascual’s 23 wins led (Ford doesn’t show up), Al Downing struck out the most (Pascual isn’t on the leaderboard either) and Lindy McDaniel saved the most with Stu Miller still in the NL Tommy Davis matched history with his batting title, and Willie McCovey did share the HR lead with another, but it was Dick Stuart rather than Hank Aaron. Frank Howard had the most RBI and actual winner Aaron didn’t appear on the leaderboard. Maury Wills, like Little Luis, mirrored history with his
leading theft total.
Bob Allison was named AL MVP (winner Elston Howard had no votes), Joe Nuxhall took the Cy Young (only 1 awarded in actual 1963) and Pete Ward was the AL ROY and not his teammate Gary Peters (no votes). Willie Mays was the NL MVP and Juan Marichal the Cy winner, depriving Sandy Koufax of both trophies.
Some OOTP’s curious thinking: even when over .500 deep into the season, my owner was “frustrated” at a second-year expansion team’s progress. Gus Triandos still holds the record for most career games without ever being caught stealing, ZERO in 1206 games. Of course, he was so slow that he was only asked to steal once 13 years and hit only 6 career 3-baggers, 3 in his first full year and a single triple in 3 of his next 4 years.
OOTP properly rates his running abilities as 1/1/3, yet Tommie Agee is 1/1/1(!) I once made a trade offer which was requested, then just added a body to clear roster space and got turned down (?).

Coming up, the 1964 Mets