One desperate final shot at relevancy begins Tuesday when the Mets get back Jose Reyes (hopefully) and Carlos Beltran (maybe) and David Wright on Friday (please) for what’ll be a week-and-a-half of steadily increasing pressure and speculation culminating (I predict) in trades of Beltran, Jason Isringhausen, Chris Capuano and Tim Byrdak and the Mets maintaining their hold on 4th place. It’ll all be for the good!
Meantime, this team can still accomplish something. Just the other day in fact, Jon Niese became the all-time winningest pitcher to wear No. 49 for the Mets. His 20th career win in No. 49 came Saturday against the Phillies, breaking Walt Terrell’s 27-year-old record. Niese like Terrell is a bit of a bulldog with Midwest roots who debuted as Mets (Terrell was from Indiana and Niese from Ohio). Terrell reached 19 wins (against 23 losses) in three seasons and 57 games; Niese thus far has fashioned a 20-19 mark in 58 games over four seasons. And at age 24, there’s presumably more to come for Niese, while Terrell’s career began at 24. While Terrell posseses the better Met ERA (3.53 to Niese 4.15) there’s little difference with regards to the era they played in, while Niese is a far superior strikeout pitcher with better control.
Following are the all-time leaders in victories among Mets who wore 49. Thanks to MBTN reader Shorty for bringing this to my attention.
| Met | Year(s) | Victories |
| Jon Niese | 2008-present | 20 |
| Walt Terrell | 1982-84 | 19 |
| Armando Benitez | 1999-2003 | 18 |
| Kevin Kobel | 1978-80 | 12 |
| Joe Crawford | 1997 | 4 |
| Orber Moreno | 2003-04 | 3 |
