OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - 1962-69 New York Mets

JerryShoe · 08-01-2023, 07:33 PM

1964 Mets

The Plan
After 2 years and over 400 losses, the NL decided to “help” their little brothers by holding a supplemental draft following the 1963 season. The Colt .45s and Mets were given a list of 4 players from each of the original 8 clubs' 25-man roster (on August 31) and for $30,000 (just over half of the first draft’s third-round option choice) they could pluck a player a club between them. The Reds provided 5 names and their GM Billy DeWitt offered that all 5 could be taken, a generosity later seen to be a bit ingenuine as none played in 1964 and 3 never played again. 2 former World Series MVPs almost made the list, but the Dodgers replaced Larry Sherry with Bill Haas and the Giants’ Don Larsen most likely was taken off in favor of Billy Pierce. Other familiar names were Roy Face, Harvey Haddix, Don Hoak, Norm Larker and Charlie Neal and St. Louis had 2
surprises on the list, Mike Shannon and Bobby Shantz. Shannon had a strong OF arm, was seen by Stan Musial as his possible successor and hit .308 in limited 1963 Major League service and did well in the minors. Shantz (a personal favorite of mine ever since I ate at his roadside burger joint when a kid) seemed ageless, after a 2.61/11 Save performance as a lefty relief ace and not having a bad year since 1955 arm trouble. He may have set some sort of record, being exposed in 3 expansion drafts: AL
(chosen by the Senators from the Yankees), NL (the Colt .4s from the Pirates) and this extra one. Another repeater is the Cubs’ Jim Brewer, who was on the original list and again now. The Bruins, Colt .45s and Mets disrespected him twice each, but he turned in a 2.59 ERA with 133 Saves for the rest of his career. As for who was taken, the Mets won the coin flip and chose Dodger minor-league first baseman Haas. He never played above AA ball. Houston then took Claude Raymond, who would be a bullpen staple and All-Star for them before the Mets ended things with their second choice, Giant Jack Fisher, one of Paul Richards’ “Baby Birds” Orioles of the late 50s, but turned in only a single credible full-time year in 1960 and turned in 3 seasons of 23-36, 4.58 since. Thus ended the intended replenishment. I will use the 4-player offering from each team as a backbone and substitute the lowest potential/oldest/worst performer for anyone not available on OOTP’s team. There will be no need to do this for Milwaukee (I will assign Raymond to Houston), St. Louis (I don’t see anyone with a lower ranking than Shannon who would be more appealing) or the Giants (ditto with Pierce, who I feel is the pitcher exposed rather than Larsen since he was released just after the draft). Like the original draft’s third round, I will pay to choose the maximum 4 players I’m allowed, who are:

Cincinnati..........Al Smith, 3b-of (from OOTP roster)
Pittsburgh..........Don Leppert, c (from OOTP roster)
St. Louis............Mike Shannon, of
San Francisco...Billy Pierce, lr-s

For a team going into their third year, I am satisfied. The starting staff is strong, although I am aware that Jackson, Simmons and Craig are on the old side and will look to add younger arms in support of Culp and Miller. Recently obtained Gary Bell is another starter, but not too young. Another old arm, Robin Roberts, was offered for Smith, so I bit at the bait. The bullpen is good and deep, so maybe once again will deal from there. Crandall and Triandos will not be catchers much longer, and Dietz,
Roof and rookie John Stephenson are not yet ready, so will add another receiver to my shopping list. I was able to move Triandos to the Giants for Randy Hundley who was lost in their stockpile, but he also will not be ready for a time. First base will be a platoon of Banks and Kranepool to save Banks’ knees and nurse Kranepool. Hunt and Howser will be the keystone combo and Davenport will be backed by Allen at the far turn. Virdon will man center until Agee is ready and is flanked by Hickman and any combination of Christopher, Kirkland, Shannon, and Valentine. The bench needs some more depth, too. Shea opens in view of the World's Fair and will host the All-Star games, adding a few dollars to my pocket for salary.
What Happened to the Plan
The promising pitching feel apart early and Culp was banished to the bullpen. It's a good thing I took a flier on Roberts since the starting staff was resurrected around him and Jackson. The corner infield was also revamped as Banks pushed Kranepool to the bench and Rookie-of-the-Year Allen supplanted Davenport. The summer went on with the club always a hair under .500 but sometimes creeping into the first division. The Dodgers shopped Johnny Roseboro at the trade deadline and I got him for Crandall (.290) and prime rookie Bill Wakefield (0.96). Virdon showed his age at the plate but this was offset by his superb fielding and Christopher exploding out of nowhere and Hickman doing a bit more than expected. The bullpen was a strong combined effort.

The Results
After flirting with .500 and the first division during the later part of the summer, the Mets won their last 4 games and accomplished both, at 83-79 and fifth place, just a game out of fourth. They boasted the top 2 hitting leaders in Roseboro and Allen (.335 each, although the catcher took the crown by .0003) and Allen tied for 4th in RBI (115). On the mound, Jackson tied for 3rd with 19 Wins.

LF Christopher...310/.377, 18 HRs
2B Hunt..............294/.364
C Roseboro......also excellent defense
3B Allen..............also .390/.567, .957OPS, 25 HRs, 80 RS
1B Banks............23 HRs, 90 RBI
RF Hickman........284
SS Howser..........83 RS, 14 steals
CF Virdon............232

Davenport (.260), Kanehl (.259) and Bobby Wine (defensive sub) also helped out in the fight for .500.

S1 L.Jackson....also 3.29
S2 Roberts........3.30
S2 Simmons......4.36
S4 Craig............11-8, 3.65 between starting and relieving

RP Miller..............6-4, 3.22 between starting and relieving
RP Pierce............1.62, 8 Saves
RP Brewer...........3.09, 7 Saves
RP Worthington...3.65, 6 Saves

Minnesota continued to dominate the AL with a flag every year so far in the replay but got swept by San Francisco (repeating as the NL winner). Harmon Killebrew and Willie Mays got the MVPs (rather than Brooks Robinson and Ken Boyer), Whitey Ford and Chris Short won the CY Young (Dean Chance, with only one Award given) and Tony Conigliaro got the AL ROY rather than Tony Oliva.

Next, the 1965 Mets

08-01-2023, 07:33 PM	#4
JerryShoe Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2021 Posts: 122	1964 Mets 1964 Mets The Plan After 2 years and over 400 losses, the NL decided to “help” their little brothers by holding a supplemental draft following the 1963 season. The Colt .45s and Mets were given a list of 4 players from each of the original 8 clubs' 25-man roster (on August 31) and for $30,000 (just over half of the first draft’s third-round option choice) they could pluck a player a club between them. The Reds provided 5 names and their GM Billy DeWitt offered that all 5 could be taken, a generosity later seen to be a bit ingenuine as none played in 1964 and 3 never played again. 2 former World Series MVPs almost made the list, but the Dodgers replaced Larry Sherry with Bill Haas and the Giants’ Don Larsen most likely was taken off in favor of Billy Pierce. Other familiar names were Roy Face, Harvey Haddix, Don Hoak, Norm Larker and Charlie Neal and St. Louis had 2 surprises on the list, Mike Shannon and Bobby Shantz. Shannon had a strong OF arm, was seen by Stan Musial as his possible successor and hit .308 in limited 1963 Major League service and did well in the minors. Shantz (a personal favorite of mine ever since I ate at his roadside burger joint when a kid) seemed ageless, after a 2.61/11 Save performance as a lefty relief ace and not having a bad year since 1955 arm trouble. He may have set some sort of record, being exposed in 3 expansion drafts: AL (chosen by the Senators from the Yankees), NL (the Colt .4s from the Pirates) and this extra one. Another repeater is the Cubs’ Jim Brewer, who was on the original list and again now. The Bruins, Colt .45s and Mets disrespected him twice each, but he turned in a 2.59 ERA with 133 Saves for the rest of his career. As for who was taken, the Mets won the coin flip and chose Dodger minor-league first baseman Haas. He never played above AA ball. Houston then took Claude Raymond, who would be a bullpen staple and All-Star for them before the Mets ended things with their second choice, Giant Jack Fisher, one of Paul Richards’ “Baby Birds” Orioles of the late 50s, but turned in only a single credible full-time year in 1960 and turned in 3 seasons of 23-36, 4.58 since. Thus ended the intended replenishment. I will use the 4-player offering from each team as a backbone and substitute the lowest potential/oldest/worst performer for anyone not available on OOTP’s team. There will be no need to do this for Milwaukee (I will assign Raymond to Houston), St. Louis (I don’t see anyone with a lower ranking than Shannon who would be more appealing) or the Giants (ditto with Pierce, who I feel is the pitcher exposed rather than Larsen since he was released just after the draft). Like the original draft’s third round, I will pay to choose the maximum 4 players I’m allowed, who are: Cincinnati..........Al Smith, 3b-of (from OOTP roster) Pittsburgh..........Don Leppert, c (from OOTP roster) St. Louis............Mike Shannon, of San Francisco...Billy Pierce, lr-s For a team going into their third year, I am satisfied. The starting staff is strong, although I am aware that Jackson, Simmons and Craig are on the old side and will look to add younger arms in support of Culp and Miller. Recently obtained Gary Bell is another starter, but not too young. Another old arm, Robin Roberts, was offered for Smith, so I bit at the bait. The bullpen is good and deep, so maybe once again will deal from there. Crandall and Triandos will not be catchers much longer, and Dietz, Roof and rookie John Stephenson are not yet ready, so will add another receiver to my shopping list. I was able to move Triandos to the Giants for Randy Hundley who was lost in their stockpile, but he also will not be ready for a time. First base will be a platoon of Banks and Kranepool to save Banks’ knees and nurse Kranepool. Hunt and Howser will be the keystone combo and Davenport will be backed by Allen at the far turn. Virdon will man center until Agee is ready and is flanked by Hickman and any combination of Christopher, Kirkland, Shannon, and Valentine. The bench needs some more depth, too. Shea opens in view of the World's Fair and will host the All-Star games, adding a few dollars to my pocket for salary. What Happened to the Plan The promising pitching feel apart early and Culp was banished to the bullpen. It's a good thing I took a flier on Roberts since the starting staff was resurrected around him and Jackson. The corner infield was also revamped as Banks pushed Kranepool to the bench and Rookie-of-the-Year Allen supplanted Davenport. The summer went on with the club always a hair under .500 but sometimes creeping into the first division. The Dodgers shopped Johnny Roseboro at the trade deadline and I got him for Crandall (.290) and prime rookie Bill Wakefield (0.96). Virdon showed his age at the plate but this was offset by his superb fielding and Christopher exploding out of nowhere and Hickman doing a bit more than expected. The bullpen was a strong combined effort. The Results After flirting with .500 and the first division during the later part of the summer, the Mets won their last 4 games and accomplished both, at 83-79 and fifth place, just a game out of fourth. They boasted the top 2 hitting leaders in Roseboro and Allen (.335 each, although the catcher took the crown by .0003) and Allen tied for 4th in RBI (115). On the mound, Jackson tied for 3rd with 19 Wins. LF Christopher...310/.377, 18 HRs 2B Hunt..............294/.364 C Roseboro......also excellent defense 3B Allen..............also .390/.567, .957OPS, 25 HRs, 80 RS 1B Banks............23 HRs, 90 RBI RF Hickman........284 SS Howser..........83 RS, 14 steals CF Virdon............232 Davenport (.260), Kanehl (.259) and Bobby Wine (defensive sub) also helped out in the fight for .500. S1 L.Jackson....also 3.29 S2 Roberts........3.30 S2 Simmons......4.36 S4 Craig............11-8, 3.65 between starting and relieving RP Miller..............6-4, 3.22 between starting and relieving RP Pierce............1.62, 8 Saves RP Brewer...........3.09, 7 Saves RP Worthington...3.65, 6 Saves Minnesota continued to dominate the AL with a flag every year so far in the replay but got swept by San Francisco (repeating as the NL winner). Harmon Killebrew and Willie Mays got the MVPs (rather than Brooks Robinson and Ken Boyer), Whitey Ford and Chris Short won the CY Young (Dean Chance, with only one Award given) and Tony Conigliaro got the AL ROY rather than Tony Oliva. Next, the 1965 Mets