1986 New York Mets

The 1986 World Series Champion New York Mets are here in showdown form. In Peters classic set we saw a representation of this team, but the stats were not all from the 1986 season. As he stated in his first post this is the World Series team is remembered from the historic error of Buckner letting the ball go through his legs, leading to a series comeback win for the Mets.

This Mets team went 108-54 winning the NL Easy by 21 games, that is some true dominance. and as I was researching this Mets team on Wikipedia I found an awesome quote that I believe represents what I knew about this team and all their off the field troubles.

 "On July 19, Mets' infielder Tim Teufel and pitchers Rick Aguilera, Bobby Ojeda, and Ron Darling were arrested after fighting with policemen outside a bar in Houston. Just three days later, the Mets played a game in Cincinnati that saw Ray Knight, Darryl Strawberry, and Kevin Mitchell get ejected, forcing starting catcher Gary Carter to play third base and the Mets to play a pitcher in the outfield, with lefty Jesse Orosco and right-hander Roger McDowell alternating between the pitcher's mound and the outfield as needed. Despite the adversity, the Mets won the game, 6-3 in 14 innings, on a three-run homer by Howard Johnson.^[9]"

I knew about Strawberry, Gooden, and Dykstra and their off the field issues but this just keeps 
to the list of issues that the team had. So here are the 86 Mets with the highest quality pictures of them
that I could find, which was a struggle for a few.

Lineup: This lineup isn't going to scare pitchers but they can produce plenty and by the time the pitching
staff rolls out you will see why run support is nice but may not always be necessary. Starting it off with
the speedy Lenny Dykstra, this team has that small ball feel of not a lot of power until the middle of the
order but should be able to get on base and hopefully get the runners moving. 

Rotation: This rotation is scary good, Led by their 8IP Ace Doc Gooden, the team doesn't lose

much when he's not on the mound either between Ojeda and Darling. Sid Fernandez is no push

over as well and a fifth starter in Rick Aguilera that will probably get used as a bullpen arm as

this team only comes with 3 relievers. As you can see if the pitcher is in control against any

starter, you aren't getting on base until 18.

Bullpen: The bullpen seemed to be a split bullpen with 2 closers, I gave the nod to McDowell based

on statistics of more saves and games finished but he also has a 2 IP. You truly can't go wrong with McDowell or Jesse Orosco and then the final reliever Doug Sisk will be there when needed

hopefully against the bottom of the order.

To me this team looks like a serious contender and if that pitching staff gets hot look out. In showdown cup form i believe that this team would have a chance to compete because no matter who is on the mound they should be in the game. 

Finally as I was making this team, call it fate, I ran into a funny quote on Imgur from none other then Mookie Wilson of the 86 Mets and figured I would share it with you guys in case you haven't seen it yet, here is a little motivation for your week to believe in yourself:

Thank you all for following along and reading this, this was the first request of many that I will try to be working on throughout the year, any teams you would like to nominate let me know in the comments and be on the lookout for more position breakdowns on the way, and something else that I have been working on recently that should be making its debut soon.