No More
Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Tug McGraw, Gary Gentry, Jim McAndrew, Jon Matlack, Danny Frisella, Craig Swan, Jeff Reardon, Mike Scott, Jesse Orosco, Randy Myers, Rick Aguilera, Kevin Tapani, Jason Isringhausen, Paul Wilson, Octavio Dotel, and of course, Dwight Gooden. No other team has produced such great home grown pitching talent. But that is no more.
In 1967, the Mets were in their sixth season of existence. There was no free agency and teams were built by drafting college and high school players. The first draft occurred in 1965 with the first pick going to the major league team with the worst record. Despite jokes about whether the Mets actually were a major league team, their losing history put them in an excellent position for the draft and their general manager, George Weiss, knew that pitching made winning teams. While they were losing games on the field they were signing young pitchers off the field.
In 1969 it all came together. A terrible offensive team that averaged under 4 runs a game won 100 games in the regular season, swept the Braves in the playoffs, and beat the highly favored Orioles in the World Series. How? Because of Seaver, Koosman, Gentry, and McGraw. Why? Because they had gone after young pitchers and then let them develop.
Free agency has changed everything. Teams like the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and Dodgers are vultures that spend money signing pitchers other teams develop. Teams that claim poverty but won't allow their books to be scrutinized won't sign pitchers whom they have developed once those pitchers become eligible for free agency.
The 2005 Mets' starters are Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Kris Benson, Steve Trachsel, and Victor Zambrano. Martinez was drafted by Los Angeles in 1988, was traded to Montreal in 1993 for Delino DeShields in one of the worst trades in baseball history, and then in 1997 when Montreal could no longer afford him, was traded to the Red Sox. Glavine was drafted by the Braves in 1984 and remained with them until they "no longer could afford him" and allowed him to walk. Benson was drafted by the Pirates in 1996, Trachsel was drafted by the Cubs in 1991, and the Mets traded top draft pick Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay for Victor Zambrano.
The new Mets pitchers are old pitchers. Glavine is thirty nine, Trachsel is thirty four, Martinez is thirty three, Benson is thirty and Zambrano is the "youngster" at twenty nine. This doesn't mean that these pitchers can't win or that they won't be successful, but it does mean that the Mets, like their friends the Yankees and the Red Sox, are playing for today and not worrying about tomorrow.
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