Last week, I wrote about the twelve guys who exceeded their established levels of performance the most when playing against the Mets. I thought I’d revisit the topic this week for two good reasons: it received a warm response, and topics are very hard to think up in the offseason.

First of all, I’d like to make some small alterations to my original list. I expanded my statistical sample to also include anyone who’s compiled a .400 slugging percentage or better (last week, for time reasons, I had included only those with a slugging percentage over .500 or an on-base average over .350), and the final twelve changed a little. Here’s the new one:

Rk   Player                    MKS
1.   Rico Carty               99.8
2.   Denis Menke              92.1
3.   Gary Carter              92.1
4.   Tony Gonzalez            83.9
5.   Willie Davis             83.5
6.   Wes Parker               83.2
7.   Claudell Washington      82.8
8.   Willie McCovey           82.1
9.   Bill White               81.3
10.  Dave Kingman             80.6
11.  John Bateman             77.2
12.  Tony Taylor              76.8

I’m sure all the John Bateman fans out there are livid that I presented an incomplete piece of research last week. I’m truly sorry, folks. Truly.

The biggest change to the list is the addition of Willie Davis, who posted a .790 OPS against the Mets over 901 plate appearances. His career number was just .723, which actually wasn’t half-bad for a tremendous defensive centerfielder playing half his games in Dodger Stadium in the 1960’s.

Also sneaking onto the list was Bateman, a catcher with Houston and Montreal from 1963-1972, who made the list with a .734 OPS, which wasn’t anything special, other than being a drastic improvement over his career number (.621).

Which brings me to my second point. Several commenters argued that the list was skewed too much toward the players of the 60’s and 70’s who feasted on the Mets’ terrible pitching at the time. Rather than committing to the arduous process of adjusting the list to compensate for the fact (and I’m not sure how “right” that would be), instead I’m offering my list of active players. I changed my sample parameters to include all players active in 2007 with 100 career plate appearances against the Mets.

10. Gary Sheffield, OF

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
553     .972      .919    31.9

Sheffield’s one of the best hitters to ever play the game, and unlike someone like Chipper Jones, Sheff has never been recognized as someone who destroys the Mets. Considering the number of plate appearances, it is a little strange, especially for someone who spent a few years inside the division. In 2003, with the Braves, he absolutely decimated them, hitting .368/.482/.706.

9. Rondell White, OF

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
250     .905      .798    33.5

Although he looks done right now, White was a pretty good player for a number of years when healthy, which didn’t happen as often as the Expos would have liked. He did almost all his damage against the Mets between 1995 and 1998.

8. Mark Grudzielanek, IF

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
342     .803      .726    36.3

The second Expo on this list, but not the last. At least Grudzielanek did some of his damage as a member of the Dodgers and Cubs.

7. Preston Wilson, OF

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
376     .876      .797    37.3

Mookie’s stepson must have vowed revenge after he was traded to the Marlins. Since then, he’s hit .277/.342/.558 with 26 homers against his former team. Oddly enough, the trade netted Mike Piazza, who’s number 13 on the active Met-killer list.

6. Scott Rolen, 3B

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
449     .955      .879    38.8

More might expect Chipper, here, but Rolen’s been nearly as good (Chipper’s OPS against the Mets is .991), but Rolen has the “advantage” of being the worse hitter overall. Still, it’s an impressive showing for one of the best at the hot corner.

5. Endy Chavez, OF

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
141     .890      .686    41.9

Now we know why the Mets signed this guy: it was worth it just to get rid of his bat. If you look only at how much a player’s OPS jumped when playing against New York, only D’Angelo Jimenez does better (and in my previous sample only Washington exceeds them).

4. Orlando Cabrera, SS

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
385     .809      .724    45.2

All I’ll say here is thank heavens for Gary Sheffield—he’s all that’s stopping Jose Vidro from joining White, Grudz, Chavez and Cabrera on this list.

3. Pat Burrell, OF

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
558     .921      .849    47.3

Burrell’s one of the most identifiable present-day Met-killers, and his position on the list reflects that. The difference, obviously, comes entirely from his slugging percentage, which skyrockets from .482 to .559.

2. Derek Jeter, SS

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
297    1.040      .850    66.4

When I drew my list last week, Jeter was actually tops among active players, eleventh overall. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I discovered a few more guys whose surface numbers weren’t as impressive, and he’s dropped to fifteenth overall, right behind Bill Mazeroski and the guy below.

1. Alex Gonzalez, SS

 PA   MetOPS    CarOPS     MKS
379     .825      .694    71.5

I should note that this is the former Marlin, not the former Blue Jay. Although he didn’t immediately spring to mind, he was certainly a pest throughout his career with the Fish and someone I never wanted to see at the plate against the Mets.

Again, MKS isn’t a particularly sophisticated stat (after all, consider who designed it), just a fun diversion, so don’t take anything here too seriously.

Case in point: the guys at the bottom of the list would probably destroy the guys at the top. Among those at the bottom of my sample were Barry Bonds (MKS of -141.6), Craig Biggio (-73.6), Mike Schmidt (-73.1), Joe Morgan (-65.6), Andruw Jones (-57.7), Ernie Banks (-46.1), Miguel Cabrera (-42.6), and Frank Robinson (-37.7). Just as the bad hitters have the most to gain from an exercise like this, the great ones have the most to lose.

References

A big thanks to David Pinto’s Day-by-Day Database and Baseball-Reference’s Play Index, which no baseball fan should be without.