The Departed, Part III

Shortly after publishing Part II of our "Departed" series on Wednesday I saw a list comparing this year's Mets roster with last year's, and I realized I'd missed a few names. Before we get to the final assessment, let's quickly review these few remaining poor bastards, shall we?

Ambiorix Burgos

A complete bust who came at the cost of popular young pitcher Brian Bannister (who went on to have a really good first season in Kansas City before a really bad second season), Burgos lost any remaining trace of goodwill when he beat up his girlfriend, and then topped it all off by killing two people in the DR.

Burgos is currently locked up and the fans in Queens will likely have no chance to serenade him with boos, but put his Mets legacy this way, most fans aren't upset that he's in jail.

Damion Easley

Poor Damion, he of the 17-year playing career without a single playoff appearance. Following the Mets' playoff run in 2006, Easley would be forgiven for thinking his luck was about to change when he signed on with the team before the 2007 season. Well, I'll spare you the details but things didn't exactly work out.

As for Easley, he was always a likeable enough guy and he had a few game-winners his first season with the Mets. He's tainted by the failures of the past two years, but no one would heap responsibility on him. Expect mild applause when he returns.

Orlando Hernandez

Though he's unlikely to ever return, El Duque would probably receive more cheers than boos if his name ever blasted over the Citi Field speakers. Between replacing the horrifically unpopular Jorge Julio and his mostly unhateable tenure with the Yankees, El Duque had the fans on his side from the moment he arrived in Queens.

The trade mostly worked out; when he was healthy he was a serviceable pitcher, going 18-12 across his two seasons with the Mets.

The fact that he was injured more often than he was healthy is mostly understood by the fans, all of whom appreciate that he is 41 at the youngest and that the risk of injury came with the territory. I expect he would receive faint applause if he ever returned.

Willie Randolph

For all his talk of "being a winner all my life," Willie never managed a Mets team that fulfilled its potential.

In 2005 he didn't have a playoff team, but in 2006 he had the best team in the National League and it fell flat against a clearly inferior St. Louis club in the NLCS.

In 2007 he presided over one of the greatest collapses in Major League history, and in 2008 he saw his team play uninspired ball for 55 games before he got canned.

Simply put, Willie didn't produce, and when he returns he's going to hear boos. Lots of them. Afterward he'll say he grew up in Brooklyn, he's a New York guy and he gets it. Cool.

Duaner Sanchez

This is a tough one. On the one hand, Duaner was an extremely popular Met his first season at Shea, and most people understand that the taxi cab accident that derailed his Mets career was no fault of his own.

At the same time, if you believe what you read, Sanchez didn't do the things in the offseason to prepare himself for a return to form in 2007, and the result was a lost season. When he finally returned in 2008, he was a shadow of his former self.

You have to try; unfortunately for Duaner's legacy, it's kind of an open question as to whether he tried his hardest to come back from his injury.

I'm somebody who will always remember the good times with Duaner, and I'll clap when his name is called, but I don't think other fans will be as charitable. After two straight collapses, one of them directly attributable to failed relievers like Sanchez, 2006 feels like a long time ago.

It pains me to say it, but I expect Duaner will get booed when he comes back.

Matt Wise

Wise spent about a week in the Mets bullpen in 2008 before getting shut down for the year. In his small body of work, Wise produced a 6.43 ERA and proved generally unreliable.

Most fans won't care either way when his name is called. The ones who do will boo.

* * * * *

As I review the names across our three lists, the first thing that stands out is how few of the people we've lost that I'll miss.

Of the 16 players listed, there is exactly one that I would definitely still want to have (Joe Smith), and one who could potentially still make sense for us (Pedro Martinez).

Of the remainder, for me, three are on the bubble -- Luis Ayala, Endy Chavez, and Aaron Heilman. Ayala would probably be serviceable enough, and Endy is always good for his glove, but neither is a must-have type of talent. I still think Heilman has the talent to be a productive pitcher, but I doubt whether that would ever happen with the Mets, so that's that.

Of the 11 other names, there's not one I'd still like to have on this team. By itself that doesn't mean that the Mets are better for their absence, but more likely than not, cutting ties with these players was a step in the right direction (the same goes for that former manager of ours, too).

Next week we'll run a balance sheet analysis of the Mets, examining their assets and liabilities. After the whole Madoff thing we probably don't want to go near owners equity, so shelve that for now.

As I've said all week, if you feel I got any of the names above wrong or treated them unfairly, please, let it all out on the comment board.

- A.F.O.M.G.