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Thursday, November 14, 2019

Jacob deGrom and Pete Alonso Add to Mets Trophy Case

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET


WE'LL BE TALKING ABOUT THIS SEASON FOR A LONG TIME


National League Cy Young Award
  • 1969: Tom Seaver
  • 1973: Tom Seaver
  • 1975: Tom Seaver
  • 1985: Dwight Gooden
  • 2012: R.A. Dickey
  • 2018: JACOB deGROM
  • 2019: JACOB deGROM

PITCHERS TO WIN CONSECUTIVE CY YOUNG AWARDS: Sandy Koufax; Denny McLain; Jim Palmer; Greg Maddux; Roger Clemens; Pedro Martinez; Randy Johnson; Tim Lincecum; Clayton Kershaw; Max Scherzer. 
In only his sixth season in the major leagues Jacob deGrom adds his name to the list becoming just the eleventh pitcher in major league history to win back-to-back Cy Young awards.

Jacob joins Tom Seaver as the only Mets pitchers to win multiple awards.  He was also named 2014 ROY, and is a three-time all-star.  Last season he won his first ERA title, and this season was baseball's strikeout king.  He has now exceeded 200 strikeouts four times in his career and has 524 in the last two seasons alone.  He owns a career 2.62 ERA and 1.053 WHiP with 1,255 strikeouts through 1,101 innings pitched and set a major league record with 30 consecutive starts allowing three runs or less.  Although win/loss records mean less in today's age of analytics, one can't help but feel bad for deGrom.  A full third (32.7%) of his 171 career starts have ended in a no-decision.  Otherwise, deGrom owns a 66-49 (.574) career record while a member of the New York Mets.

Over his last two Cy Young campaigns, he has limited the opposition to just two runs or less in 51 of 64 starts.  Nine times last season he struck out double-digit batters, with a season-high 14 coming in just his second start at Miami.  In five July starts he fanned double-digits three times, and on Aug. 23 struck out 13 Atlanta Braves at Citi Field.  Jacob pitched at least seven innings in 19 of his 32 starts.

At 31-years of age, deGrom is cementing himself as the organization's second greatest ever pitcher behind only Hall of Fame inductee, the Franchise, Tom Seaver.  He has given us every reason to believe there is still yet more greatness to come.  While Jerry Koosman is a hero to me, and he and Dwight Gooden have rings, it is Jacob deGrom's craftsmanship that presently most rivals that of Tom Terrific's.


National League Rookie of the Year
  • 1967: Tom Seaver
  • 1972: Jon Matlack
  • 1983: Darryl Strawberry
  • 1984: Dwight Gooden
  • 2014: Jacob deGrom
  • 2019: Pete Alonso

Exactly 100 years after Babe Ruth first opened the doors to the 50 Home Run club, Pete Alonso becomes the 30th ever player to join its ranks.  The Flushing Polar Bear also becomes only the Mets second position player to ever win Rookie of the Year.  And what a year it was, leading all of baseball with an all-time MLB record 53 home runs by a rookie.

Once upon a time Dave Kingman was my all-time measure of Mets dingers.  They called him Sky King.  No one else ever measured up until a young right fielder named Darryl Strawberry received his call up to the Mets early in the 1983 season.  He went on to hit 26 home runs and win Rookie of the Year honors.  In 1987-88 he posted back-to-back seasons of 39 home runs.  But no Met had ever hit 40 home runs in one season until crowd favorite Todd Hundley set the Mets all-time mark in 1996 with 41 home runs.  In 2006 Carlos Beltran tied the Mets home run record.  This past season Pete Alonso demolished it, becoming the first Mets player ever to achieve 50 home runs in a single season.


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