As all the lame blogs get ready to do some LOLMets/Bonilla completely unoriginal played out content tomorrow, let’s take a look at some numbers.
In 1990 for the Pirates, Bonilla hit .280 with 32 and 110. These were the waning days of The Old Stats, before players starting working out more and eating better. 32 was a ton of home runs.
Perhaps the Mets should have been spooked by the drop to 18 HRswith the Pirates in 1991.
Bonilla joins the 1992 Mets, one of the all-time cluster fudge Mets teams, and hits .249 19 and 70, no matter the decade the Mets never learn not to build their teams around a power hitter. Are you listening 2020s Mets? I have warned you about this. I know you are excited but BEWARE STATISTICAL OUTLIERS. I digress.
So 1992 is a mess and Bonilla becomes Boonilla.
But before you get all Revisionist History let’s not forget how excited YOU were to have him. Here’s Opening Day 1993.
Look at this stroke!
And here’s Bobby rounding third in the Mets snazzy new uniforms.
And there’s all of you cheering for him! You don’t seem to upset about who is paying for what.
And here’s a closeup of possibly you giving him a standing O. So relax with the LOLBonilla stuff.
In 1993 he hits 34 HRs at Shea which is like hitting 50+ in 2019 with juiced baseballs and better workouts and diets. Somehow 34 HRs came with only 87 RBIs which makes the season look a lot worse. Had it been the same .265 and 34 but with say 110 RBI, then 1993 looks a lot better. But it was not the case.
’94 is .290 20 and 67 in a strike shortened 110 games. And those are nice numbers for the second best guy on a team. Like say your star player is Bonds, well then you hand in .290 20 and 67 and you’ve had a nice season. But when you are the supposed Star Player and everything is a disaster in Queens….booooooo. Want to pro-rate those numbers a bit…I am too lazy to get out a calculator but let me do Eyeball Math and call that something like 26HRs and 80 RBI in a full season. Not awesome (again the low RBI) but .290 and 26 is not bad at all.
His 1995 combined (NYM-BAL) numbers are eye opening. .329 29 and 99. That’s a nice season (in 141 games, remember that season started late).
Where everyone gets insane – me, you, Wilpons, Bobby, the baseball gods, the baseball mafia – is that the Mets decided to bring this guy back. He’s 36 years old and eats up a roster spot in 1999 and bats .160.
This leads to a buy out of his contract that you may have heard of. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry EVERY METS SITE BUT THIS ONE WILL TAKLK ABOUT IT TOMORROW.
Now having lived through the 1990s…..yeah Boo-nilla deserves every boo he gets. When he wasn’t disappointing us on the field, he wasn’t exactly Curtis Granderson off the field, There was really nothing to like about the guy.
So yeah, the Mets did a questionable finance thing. Some of you probably have a mortgage where you are playing 5 or 6 percent because you haven’t bothered into refinancing it. Maybe Jeff Wilpon should make fun of you once a month.
And to the gang at the AAIMBR and all the newspapers getting ready with your super original July 1 takes, make sure you remember to point out that Bobby will be paid more than Vulgar Pete Alonso this season.
