Were the 1993 Mets really that bad?

Without a doubt. The 59-103 record pretty much speaks for itself. But I was doing a little thinking, and, in hindsight, the personnel on this team -- and the players' resumes support this -- wasn't 103-loss bad.

I'll preface saying this was the first team that I vividly remember watching. Sure, there were Kevin McReynolds' home runs and Gregg Jeffries' triples and Dwight Gooden's home runs that I saw on WWOR earlier in the '90s. But this 1993 team, through each aggravating loss -- most of which, it seemed, coming from Anthony Young -- was my life as a 10-year-old kid. So, I'm still pretty fond of the players; not so much the results.

Looking at this roster, however, I can't help but think these guys could have been so much better than they were. (By the way, this is a season after finishing 72-90, berthing Bob Klapisch and John Harper's The Worst Team Money Can Buy.)

Here's the main characters:

Eddie Murray: Hall-of-Famer; eight-time All-Star; hit at least 20 home runs, 75 RBIs in 16 of his first 20 seasons; one of four in the 3,000-500 club.
Vince Coleman: Two-time All-Star; sixth all-time with 762 steals; three 100-plus stolen-base seasons; led the NL six straight seasons.
Bobby Bonilla: Six-time All-Star; six seasons with 95-plus RBIs; two 30-plus home run seasons; seven seasons with 30-plus doubles.
Howard Johnson: Two-time All-Star; three-time 30-30 guy.
Jeff Kent: One of the greatest offensive second basemen in the game's history; eight seasons with 100-plus RBIs; 377 home runs; 560 doubles; 1,518 RBIs; five-time All-Star; 2000 MVP.
Todd Hundley: Became the single-season home run champ for catchers in 1996, with 41*; two-time All-Star.
Jeromy Burnitz: All-Star in 1999; six seasons with 30-plus home runs; four seasons with 100-plus RBIs; 315 home runs.

Pitchers
Dwight Gooden: 194-112 record; one Cy Young, four top-four finishes; four-time All-Star.
Bret Saberhagen: Three-time All-Star; two-time 20-game winner; two-time Cy Young winner (third-place finish in 1994); 1985 World Series MVP.
Sid Fernandez: Two-time All-Star; Top 5 in strikeouts six times (top-three finishes in K/9 innings during each of those six seasons).
John Franco: Four-time All-Star; 424 saves (fourth all-time; second when he retired; first for a left-hander); nine top-five finishes in saves -- three firsts; three sub-2.00 ERAs.

Obviously, they weren't all good or at their primes at the same time, especially in the 1993 season. Frank Tanana, who was 7-15 and served up 26 home runs, was pitching in his last of 21 seasons and hadn't been an All-Star since 1978. Hundley, Burnitz and Kent were both very young and unproven players -- and Hundley and Burnitz were completely natural (maybe) hitters. Murray was aging, and Bonilla didn't have Andy Van Slyke and Barry Bonds in front of him. Coleman's best base-stealing seasons were behind him. Gooden, well, he was Gooden in the early '90s. And Saberhagen, while having pretty good seasons in 1994 and 1998, had his best seasons with the Royals in the '80s.

Throw in Anthony Young's 1-16, record-setting season, along with the stellar play of Tim Bogar (.244 avg, .300 OBP), Ryan Thompson (.250 avg, .302 OBP), Pete Schourek (5-12, 5.96 ERA), Mike Maddux (3-8) and Franco (4-3, 10 saves, 5.20 ERA) -- plus 18 errors by Murray and Kent on the right side of the infield -- and you've got 103 losses and no excuses.

They were terrible that year, but -- and I'll bet you can do this with most bad teams in history -- I'll bet when people look back at this roster and see who played at Shea Stadium in 1993, they'll wonder how that team could lose so many games. I know spnited won't. But some will.

I imagine this year's Tigers team, with 88 losses, and Seattle -- with Ichiro, Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard, Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre -- might draw similar comparisons in 15 years, depending on how the players progress.

Does anyone else have any thoughts or memories of that atrocious team? I'd really like to find out when my life starting going so horribly wrong, and this really might be the beginning.

And are there any other teams that just make you people scratch your heads?

 

Is it shuffle pass, or shovel pass?

Oh, sorry. I thought this was a random thoughts thread.

 

The 49-113 2003 Detroit Tigers would beg to differ

 

This is a cry for help.

 

Poor Mikey.

 

They weren't even that good. 43-119.

No, it made no sense that the Mets were that bad, other than that they put together a clubhouse full of combustible personalities and expected it to work out well. Kinda like how gasoline can be good, and fire can be good. Just not together.

 

They were really more like a 61-101 team. They underachieved.

 

In 2018 people will say, hey Bonderman wasn't that bad. He had that 10 win season, and that Brandon Inge character, he batted .168 for three straight seasons.

 

And a really sad one.

 

That's what happens when you fill a room with losers.

Murray was a great player, but not the type of guy who could be a centerpiece in a big market. Kent was still young and wildly unhappy (as opposed to now, when he's old and wildly unhapppy). There's a reason Burnitz never played for a winning team (never mind a playoff team). One of the biggest don't-give-a-shit-I'll-collect-my-numbers-and-be-happy losers I've ever seen. Bonilla and Coleman...enough said.

El Sid had horrible self-esteem and could never be a staff leader. Saberhagen was an idiot. Gooden was on the downside. Franco was hurt. And the "leadership" from Jeff Torborg, Al Harazin and the rest of the idiots upstairs (minus, perhaps, Doubleday, who looks pretty good right now, doesn't he?) was laughable.

Individually, yeah, they were pretty good. But that team earned every single one of the 103 losses.

 

it's sad because it's true.

 

I remember at the beginning of the season thinking that they were going to be pretty good. Boy, was I wrong.

Just a mix of too many guys who were too young and too many guys who were too old.