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At the Serious Tip, Jordi takes a look back at a collection of 
outfielders who had been traded by the Mets, who went on to prosper with other teams, such as Kevin Mitchell and Lenny Dykstra.
…man, i remember thinking mitchell was the coolest guy in baseball when he nearly hit 50 HR for the Giants in 1989, while wearing that black protective shin-guard above his cleats…i had never seen one of those before…like Rickey Henderson’s neon batting gloves, or Michael Jordan’s sneakers, as a kid, i am sure i believed that the shin guard was the secret to mitchell’s success…
Alex Escobar.
My gut tells me that Gomez will never be anything special, but I LOVE speed and hate to see the excitement go. I was probably also sad to see Jason Tyner go, and we know how that one turned out.
Whenever I hear about F-Mart, all I can think of is the comparisons to Manny Ramirez and what it would feel like. I gotta hold onto him.
Jason Tyner was never even close to the level of talent that Carlos Gomez is.
Gomez will accidentally hit more HR’s than Tyner.
I’m not saying Tyner was anywhere near as good as Gomez, I just remember him being penned as “Future Leadoff Hitter for the Mets”. He turned out to be like an Eckstein in the outfield.
Oh he had extreme skill, just no power behind him. If he was bigger he could’ve been great. But if he worked out to become more muscular it would have messed up his mechanics, he was an extremely talented athlete.
aLEX oCHOA
Ochoa was a prospect we traded FOR…If Jeffrey Maier and co. hadn’t robbed the 96 Orioles they’d still be laughing about getting a productive, if high-maintenance, Bonilla for nothing but that clown.
Damon Buford and Ochoa for Bonilla and PTBNL. 2 years later turned Ochoa into the immortal Rich Becker. Imagine if
there were Metsblog posts during those winter meetings.
Mitchell had a heck of a right straight as well
The thing I remember most about Mitchell was that over the head barehanded catch he made.
I was at that game…He also hit one of the farthest home runs I have ever seen!
I remember those Leaf cards. Worth more than tops. I think cards nowadays are worth squat.
i dunno, that shows a handful of bad moves..but seriously…if every prospect became as good as them…why would you EVER trade? You could do that for every single team and find examples
Exactly!!! Most of them don’t pan out. Remember how those Alex’s were all world, can’t miss, 5 tool studs? There is no guarantee with prospects.
Amos Otis and Ken Singleton.
…the Amos Otis (for Joe Foy) trade was indeed a tragedy.
The Ken Singleton (with Mike Jorgenson and Tim Foli) trade for Rusty Staub only became a tragedy after they traded Staub a few years later for a retired Mickey Lolich. Up until then, Staub was the best batter the Mets had.
Plus both Mitch and Singleton Didn’t become stars until
they were traded again!—And really you could do this to
every team!
prospects are a total crapshoot………first off dykstra wasnt an unproven commodity for us……it was just a miserable trade…..he was a proven player who got better once he discovered steroids……jay payton hasnt done anything anymore special for anybody else since hes been gone
the alex’s and tyner were all good names
how about ryan thompson……timo perez……terrence long??
i also remember a CF we had in the early 90’s at st lucie named randy curtis who was tagged as the next vince coleman…..in two years in the organization he hit over .300…….stole 85 bases and hit almost 20 triples………he was sent to san diego……and failed to play higher than AAA
its a total crapshoot with unproven guys
id rather tarde them and get proven stars than hold onto them and hope for the best
you Nailed it! Using Dykstra 3 1/2 years into his ML career as an example of a prospect is completely erroneous.
Thompson…again are we talking about propects we traded away, or traded for…or any combination of both which make us all feel miserable?
I believe Carlos Gomez will be develop into a fine ballplayer, but the fact of the matter is that there is really no telling what he may truly become. He could be the next Carl Crawford or very well the reincarnation of Esix Snead. There is just so much uncertainty with prospects. I think if any deal with the Twins can be made by using only prospects, it is a trade that has to be done. Johan Santana is the best pitcher in baseball today. If the Mets come out of this still holding Mike Pelfrey and Fernando Martinez, Omar has made a killer trade.
Rickey Otero anyone???
The ONLY things FMart has in common W/ Manny is
BOTH Baseballs and both f/ The D.R.
Errrr, that would be Baseballers.
both sub par fielders, three things
I’ll reserve judgement of FMart’s fielding abilities atleast until he’s old enough to legally buy himself a beer.
Dykstra would of been on the Mitchel report.
speaking of esix snead……prentice redman anyone?
victor diaz??
Ain’t THAT the TRUTH !–Along w/ buddy Darren(I’m outta my–
–friggin’ mind) Dalton.
Comparing the prospects of today to the prospects of 30 or even 10 years ago is disingenuous. Scouting and development are totally different than they were back then.
Not For US!!!
Herm Winningham ( the next Mookie) !?
Kevin Mitchell was a nut case, I don’t care how many homers he hit for the Giants in ‘89. Gooden said that Mitchell once held him and another man hostage in Mitchell’s house while Mitchell threatened his live-in girlfriend with a shotgun.
The guy was a bad influence.
Ah!!, The Good Old Days!!
You’re taking Gooden’s word for that? All I’ve heard is that all that stuff is overblown, and because Mitchell had a hard past, everytime Darryl or Doc screwed up they looked to pin it on Mitchell, since they damn well couldn’t pin it on their two young superstars.
matt, looking back you probably realize there was a different secret to success for mitchell back in san fran in 1989…the same secrets used by guys like canseco and mcgwire
Chicken and Ribs??????
the secret is that the chicken and ribs consumed by Mitchell, Canseco and McGwire were STILL ALIVE!!!!!!!!
Super-Chickens who had stuff injected into their butts.
by the way……two others in that kevin mitchell trade were shawn (Mr #1 overall pick) abner and stan jefferson
both of which were much highly rated prospects than micthell at one point
Butch Huskey…
He put up some decent numbers in 97…and in 99 while with Boston and Seattle.
You can put Dykstra’s Phils in with the Balco Bombers in Oakland and San Fran as some of the most blatant users of the Anabolic Edge. Lenny replaced his Redman with HGH Chew.
Anthony Young!!!
3 Year record for the Mets:
5 Wins – 35 Losses
27 consecutive losses. At least he holds a record. How many of these other prospects can say that.
I remember how painful those losses were to watch.
hey did we non tender estrada? i know so far off base but i dont recall hearing it.
butch huskey had his best years with the mets
In spring training……
not at all look up his numbers…….he put up his best numbers with the mets
I’m ticked.
Dykstra played 7 seasons after her left us, and only two were of any real quality.
Mitchell had two really good seasons and a great season after leaving us. Not exactly knocking at the door in C-Town
Otis, another story. 10 years of 130 plus games. top 10 mvp voting four times. The guy could have played CF for us long after the great one was traded
Still have visions of Butch Striking out on curve after curve
by Daryl Kile during his no hitter.
This is a blast from the past, but does anyone remember Jose Martinez? He was a prospect in ‘91 and I believe he was 19-3 with a 1.5 something era. He was coming up around the same time Bobby Jones was. I remember thinking as a kid how great this guy would be.
While we’re on the topic of underachieving prospects, how is there no mention of Generation K? Izzy, Pulse, Wilson? That right there my friends should be end all of all examples.
I think the discussion was specific to OFs. However, I agree with you. I also gave honorable mention to Anthony Young (above). 5 Wins – 35 Losses.
Jeesh, what was Izzy’s value after his initial call up? He tied Cone’s record of 8 consec wins.
Generation K was struck down by injuries with only Izzy retaining his considerable talents.
R.I.P. Brian Cole.
Thanks for That. Really is sobering.
and re: your post above, R.I.P. Daryl Kile
Sid Finch…I wonder what ever happened to that guy?
I think the Yankees signed him to a minor league contract, then he blew his arm out. Those 160+ MPH fastballs cut his career short. (LOL)
Benny Agbayani
Although never a touted prospect, he did give Mets fans some excitment. However, during his first season in Japan he crushed the ball… hitting .315 with 35 home runs and 100 RBIs.
i hit 35 homers in japan and i’m only 12
If you take a look at Benny’s MLB Stats, they compare favorably to Ryan Church. So we can say Ryan Church is Benny with a better glove.
terrible article… left out many key names and left out the good trades… must be a slow news day
how about we talk about how bad our prospects are again
Just more media Met-bashing!, As usual !
i dont get the media, how can you write an article like this and then also say no one wants our prospects bc they suck. technically in following whats said in this article EVERYONE should want our prospects because they are guaranteed to florish once they come to your team. my question is if omar gets santana will the media praise him for being able to get top talent for our supposed bad trading chips or will they more predictibly say that omar has now ruined our future bc carlos gomez and kevin mulvey will each be winning mvps and cy youngs for years to come.
[sarcasm]I just wish we could somehow blame Omar for all these fine memories.[/sarcasm]
how are you guys forgetting the biggest bust of all…gregg jefferies? this guy was supposed to be the second coming and mets savior
Wasn’t Victor Diaz supposed to be the next Manny? So what exactly says F-mart will be? How many Manny comparisons can the Mets system possibly have? However I do believe F-mart will be a great player so I would prefer not to trade him but the rest of them can go in my opinion [Pelfrey, Humber, Mulvey, Gomez].
he was being compared to manny.
further proof that you cant base the future on unproven players
The only people who compared him to Manny were Met fans. LOL
not even close……he was one of our highest rated prospects in all the mags out there
baseball america loved him for some time if i remember correctly
BB America ranked him 8th on the Met prospect list behind the immortal Shawn Bowman, Ambiorix Conception, and Ian Bladergroen. In no way shape or form was he ever compared to Manny Ramirez unless it was some Met fan that did because he looked like Manny and he had a batting stance like Manny.
Pls don’t mention Lenny Dykstra. He’d be a poster boy for the upcoming Mitchell report. He had promising seasons for us and would have been pretty good player. But lets get real, take a look at him w/ the Phils. He had to be juicing and if that doesn’t prove it look at his numbers that suddenly skyrocketed. DIdn’t he hit like .400 for the beginning of 1990. The mistake we made ws not getting anything for him. I remember when we got Juan Samuel they wanted him to recapture his magic from 1984 where he hit close to 30 HRs. Seems like a trend that we can’t seem to escape. Not getting enough for our guys, Dykstra, Kazmir, Kent, Milledge …
Kevin Mitchell. I haven’t heard that name in a long time. I was living in Houston in ‘86, and went to a ’stros game when the Mets were in town. Mitchell was down on the field, by the stands, just chatting with anyone who came by. It was his rookie season, if I remember correctly, and he was just looking for playing time. A nice kid, who turned into a hell of a batter. Unfortunately not for us…
what a ridiculous article i didnt know every one of out OF prospects that we traded went on to become hall of famers and all the ones we kept were total busts. you could write this article about any team. of course though its about the mets and how we dont know what we’re doing and we trade gems for garbage.
everybody’s correct that this was a slanted, incomplete and limited analysis.
If you’re going to talk about OFs, why not bring up trading Lee Mazzilli to Texas for Ron Darling and Walt Terrell. Terrell eventually became Howard Johnson. And now all three are working for the Mets. That could be the best trade ever, except for the Mazzilli part.
Plus how did that Babe Ruth trade work out for Boston?
you just made me throw up in my mouth a little bit