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1998 New York Mets season

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1998 New York Mets
File:NewYorkMets.gif
DivisionEastern Division
BallparkShea Stadium
CityNew York
Record88–74 (.543)
OwnersNelson Doubleday Jr., Fred Wilpon
ManagersBobby Valentine
TelevisionWWOR-TV/Fox Sports New York
(Ralph Kiner, Tim McCarver, Fran Healy, Howie Rose, Gary Thorne)
RadioWFAN
(Bob Murphy, Gary Cohen, Ed Coleman)
WADO (spanish)
(Juan Alicea, Billy Berroa)
← 1997 Seasons 1999 →

The 1998 New York Mets season was the 37th regular season for the Mets. Like the previous season, they finished the season with a record of 88–74. Despite placing 2nd in the National League East, the Mets fell one game short of playoff contention following a catastrophic collapse during the final week of the season. They were managed by Bobby Valentine. They played home games at Shea Stadium.

Offseason

Regular season

Despite their collapse toward the end of the season, the 1998 season was notable for the Mets due in large part to the acquisition of All-Star catcher Mike Piazza. The Mets were in need of a catcher due to an injury suffered by their own star catcher Todd Hundley, and took advantage of both Piazza's disagreement over a new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the ongoing salary dumping by the defending World Series champion Florida Marlins; unable to negotiate a deal, the Dodgers traded Piazza to the Marlins, who turned around several days later and dealt Piazza to the Mets for outfield prospect Preston Wilson, among others. Piazza contributed a .348 average with 23 home runs and 76 RBI during his time with the Mets and once again was voted to the National League All-Star team. Hundley, meanwhile, attempted to make a move to left field when he rejoined the team, but it did not work. His tenure with the Mets ended when he was traded to the Dodgers after the season.

John Olerud was again the hitting star for the Mets. He recorded a .354 average, the second best in all of baseball behind Larry Walker, and once again led the team with 93 RBI, to go with his 22 home runs. On the pitching side, another Marlins castoff made his presence felt as Al Leiter had his career best marks as a starter. Leiter won a career high seventeen games and added a 2.47 ERA. Rick Reed continued his career renaissance by adding sixteen wins of his own.

Opening Day starters

The Mets played an unforgettable opening day game at Shea Stadium on March 31 against their division rival Philadelphia Phillies. Both of them were involved in the longest scoreless opening day game in the National League and the longest one in MLB since 1926 when the Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics 1–0 in 15 innings.[5][6][7] The Mets won the game 1–0 in 14 innings when backup catcher Alberto Castillo delivered a full-count, two-out, pinch-hit single to right with the bases loaded off Philadelphia closer Ricky Bottalico.[6] This was the first regular season baseball game played in New York in March.[8]

Notable transactions

  • May 10, 1998: Steve Decker was signed as a free agent with the New York Mets.[9]
  • May 22, 1998: Mike Piazza was traded by the Florida Marlins to the New York Mets for Preston Wilson, Ed Yarnall, and Geoff Goetz (minors).
  • June 16, 1998: Rich Becker was selected off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles from the New York Mets.[10]
  • July 3, 1998: Josías Manzanillo was signed as a free agent with the New York Mets.[11]
  • July 31, 1998: Tony Phillips was traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the New York Mets for Leo Estrella.[12]
  • July 31, 1998: Bill Pulsipher was traded by the New York Mets to the Milwaukee Brewers for Mike Kinkade.[13]

Season standings

NL East
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Atlanta Braves 106 56 .654 — 56‍–‍25 50‍–‍31
New York Mets 88 74 .543 18 47‍–‍34 41‍–‍40
Philadelphia Phillies 75 87 .463 31 40‍–‍41 35‍–‍46
Montreal Expos 65 97 .401 41 39‍–‍42 26‍–‍55
Florida Marlins 54 108 .333 52 31‍–‍50 23‍–‍58

Record vs. opponents

1998 National League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Team AZ ATL CHC CIN COL FLA HOU LA MIL MTL NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL AL
Arizona — 1–8 5–7 4–5 6–6 6–2 4–5 4–8 6–3 2–7 4–5 2–7 6–3 3–9 5–7 2–7 5–8
Atlanta 8–1 — 3–6 7–2 5–3 7–5 4–5 8–1 7–2 6–6 9–3 8–4 7–2 5–4 7–2 6–3 9–7
Chicago 7–5 6–3 — 6–5 7–2 7–2 4–7 4–5 6–6 7–2 4–5 3–6 8–3 5–4 7–3 4–7 5–8
Cincinnati 5–4 2–7 5–6 — 4–5 9–0 3–8 5–4 6–5 8–1 3–6 4–5 5–7 1–11 2–7 8–3 7-6
Colorado 6–6 3–5 2–7 5–4 — 6–3 6–5 6–6 4–7 7–2 3–6 5–4 5–4 5–7 7–5 3–6 4–8
Florida 2–6 5–7 2–7 0–9 3–6 — 3–6 4–5 0–9 5–7 5–7 6–6 3–6 4–5 0–9 4–5 8–8
Houston 5–4 5–4 7–4 8–3 5–6 6-3 — 3–6 9–2 7–2 5–4 7–2 9–2 5–4 6–3 5–7 10–4
Los Angeles 8–4 1–8 5–4 4–5 6–6 5–4 6–3 — 5–4 5–4 3–5 5–4 7–5 5–7 6–6 4–5 8–5
Milwaukee 3–6 2–7 6–6 5–6 7–4 9–0 2–9 4–5 — 6–3 1–8 4–5 6–5 3–6 5–4 3–8 8–6
Montreal 7–2 6–6 2–7 1–8 2–7 7–5 2–7 4–5 3–6 — 8–4 5–7 2–7 4–4 3–6 3–6 6–10
New York 5–4 3–9 5–4 6–3 6–3 7–5 4–5 5–3 8–1 4–8 — 8–4 4–5 4–5 4–5 6–3 9–7
Philadelphia 7-2 4–8 6–3 5–4 4–5 6–6 2–7 4–5 5–4 7–5 4–8 — 8–1 1–8 2–6 3–6 7–9
Pittsburgh 3–6 2–7 3–8 7–5 4–5 6–3 2–9 5–7 5–6 7–2 5–4 1–8 — 5–4 2–7 6–5 6–7
San Diego 9–3 4–5 4–5 11–1 7–5 5–4 4–5 7–5 6–3 4–4 5–4 8–1 4–5 — 8–4 6–3 6–7
San Francisco 7–5 2–7 3–7 7–2 5–7 9–0 3–6 6–6 4–5 6–3 5–4 6–2 7–2 4–8 — 7–5 8–5
St. Louis 7–2 3–6 7–4 3–8 6–3 5-4 7–5 5–4 8–3 6–3 3–6 6–3 5–6 3–6 5–7 — 4–9


Roster

1998 New York Mets
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Mike Piazza 109 394 137 .348 23 76
1B John Olerud 160 557 197 .354 22 93
2B Carlos Baerga 147 511 136 .266 7 53
SS Rey Ordóñez 153 505 124 .246 1 42
3B Edgardo Alfonso 144 557 155 .278 17 78
LF Bernard Gilkey 82 264 60 .227 4 28
CF Brian McRae 159 552 146 .264 21 79
RF Butch Huskey 113 369 93 .252 13 59

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Luis López 117 266 67 .252 2 22
Tony Phillips 52 188 42 .223 3 14
Lenny Harris 75 168 39 .232 6 17
Matt Franco 103 161 44 .273 1 13
Todd Hundley 53 124 20 .161 3 12
Rich Becker 49 100 19 .190 3 10
Alberto Castillo 38 83 17 .205 2 7
Todd Pratt 41 69 19 .275 2 18
Jermaine Allensworth 34 54 11 .204 2 4
Tim Spehr 21 51 7 .137 0 3
Jim Tatum 35 50 9 .180 2 13
Jorge Fábregas 20 32 6 .188 1 5
Wayne Kirby 26 31 6 .194 0 0
Jay Payton 15 22 7 .218 0 0
Preston Wilson 8 20 6 .300 0 2
Craig Paquette 7 19 5 .263 0 0
Rick Wilkins 5 15 2 .133 0 1
Benny Agbayani 11 15 2 .133 0 0
Todd Haney 3 3 0 .000 0 0
Shawn Gilbert 3 3 0 .000 0 0
Mike Kinkade 3 2 0 .000 0 0
Ralph Milliard 10 1 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Rick Reed 31 212.1 16 11 3.48 153
Bobby Jones 30 195.1 9 9 4.05 115
Al Leiter 28 193.0 17 6 2.47 174
Masato Yoshii 29 171.2 6 8 3.93 117
Hideo Nomo 17 89.2 4 5 4.82 94
Armando Reynoso 11 68.1 7 3 3.82 40
Dave Mlicki 10 57.0 1 4 5.68 39

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Brian Bohanon 25 54.1 2 4 3.15 39
Willie Blair 11 28.2 1 1 3.14 21

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
John Franco 61 0 8 38 3.62 59
Dennis Cook 73 8 4 1 2.38 79
Turk Wendell 66 5 1 4 2.93 58
Greg McMichael 52 5 3 1 4.02 44
Mel Rojas 50 5 2 2 6.05 41
John Hudek 28 1 4 0 4.00 28
Bill Pulsipher 15 0 0 0 6.91 13
Jeff Tam 15 1 1 0 6.23 8
Rigo Beltrán 7 0 0 0 3.38 5
Brad Clontz 2 0 0 0 9.00 2

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Norfolk Tides International League Rick Dempsey
AA Binghamton Mets Eastern League John Gibbons
A St. Lucie Mets Florida State League Howie Freiling
A Capital City Bombers South Atlantic League Doug Davis
A-Short Season Pittsfield Mets New York–Penn League Roger LaFrançois
Rookie Kingsport Mets Appalachian League Tim Foli
Rookie GCL Mets Gulf Coast League John Stephenson

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: St. Lucie, Capital City[14]

References

  1. ^ John Olerud Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  2. ^ "Ultimate Mets Database - Dennis Cook".
  3. ^ "Ultimate Mets Database - al Leiter".
  4. ^ "1998 New York Mets Roster by Baseball Almanac".
  5. ^ Salisbury, Jim (April 1, 1998). "For Openers, Zilch Phils Fall in 14th Without a Run". Philadelphia Inquirer. p. E1.
  6. ^ a b Diamos, Jason (April 1, 1998). "A Midsummer Classic in March as Mets Nip Phillies". New York Times. p. C1.
  7. ^ Pedulla, Tom (April 1, 1998). "Mets edge Phillies 1-0 in 14 innings". USA Today. p. 5C.
  8. ^ Vecsey, George (April 1, 1998). "Mets Take An Opener For the Ages". New York Times. p. C1.
  9. ^ Steve Decker Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  10. ^ "Rich Becker Stats".
  11. ^ "Josias Manzanillo Stats".
  12. ^ Tony Phillips Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  13. ^ Bill Pulsipher Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  14. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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