Schwei: Where Does K-Rod Rank Among Mets' Save Leaders?

By John Schweibacher
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Francisco Rodriguez was dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers last week for two minor leaguers to be named later.

K-Rod finished his Mets stint with 83 saves, the 7th most in club history.

Here's the Mets' all-time saves leaderboard:

John Franco 276
Armando Benitez 160
Jesse Orosco 107
Billy Wagner 101
Tug McGraw 85
Roger McDowell 84
Francisco Rodriguez 83
Neil Allen 69
Skip Lockwood 65
Braden Looper 57

The Mets and Brewers have not been frequent trading partners since the Brewers relocated to Milwaukee in 1970 after one season as the Seattle Pilots in 1969.

According to the Ultimate Mets Database, the Mets and Brewers have made 16 deals. Prior to last week's trade, the last Mets-Brewers deal was back on November 20th, 2007, when New York sent Guillermo Mota to Milwaukee for Johnny Estrada, who never played for the club.

Other Mets-Brewers trades include:

10/26/79 Mets obtain Mark Bomback from Brewers for Dwight Bernard.

8/30/90 Mets send Julio Machado to Milwaukee for Charlie O'Brien.

11/30/94 Mets deal Fernando Vina to Brewers for Doug Henry.

1/21/02 Mets acquire Jeromy Burnitz, Jeff D'Amico, Lou Collier and Mark Sweeney from Milwaukee for Alex Ochoa, Lenny Harris and Glendon Rusch.

The Mets face the St. Louis Cardinals for the first time in 2011 when the Redbirds come to Citi Field this week. The Cards are once again led by slugger Albert Pujols, who returned much earlier than expected from his left wrist injury.

Here are some of Pujols' lifetime numbers vs. the Mets:

Pujols hit just .167 with no home runs and one run batted in against the Mets in 2010, his worst single-season performance vs. New York in his career. In 2009, Pujols went 15-for-32 (.469) with four homers and 14 RBI's in nine games against the Mets, his best marks in a season against them.

The Mets split their six games with St. Louis last season, winning two of three at Citi Field. Since 2006, the Mets have gone 13 and 7 at home against the Cardinals at home during the regular season.

After a make-up game with the Marlins Monday night at Citi Field, the Mets will head to Florida this weekend to face them for the first time away from home since their season-opening series back on April 1st through the 3rd.

The Marlins are now led by Jack McKeon, who began his second stint as Florida's skipper back on June 20th. The 80-year-old McKeon, who was born in South Amboy, New Jersey, has been a major league manager since 1973 and has faced the Mets while with the San Diego Padres (1988-90), Cincinnati Reds (1998-2000) and Marlins (2003-05, 11). McKeon's teams have gone 58 and 37 against the Mets, including the one-game wild card tie-breaker loss with the Reds back in 1999.

McKeon's 1st game as a major league skipper in Flushing came back on April 24th, 1974 when his Kansas City Royals faced the Yankees at Shea Stadium. The Yanks defeated K.C., 4-3, that day as Doc Medich and Sparky Lyle combined to beat Marty Pattin. Thurman Munson and Craig Nettles homered for New York.

While McKeon has become the second-oldest manager in major league history, behind only Connie Mack, Terry Collins is now the second-oldest skipper in Mets history, surpassed only by the "Old Professor"--Casey Stengel.

Here is a list of the oldest Mets managers, ranked by their age at the time of their last games as Mets skippers:

Casey Stengel 74
Terry Collins 62
Dallas Green 62
George Bamberger 59
Art Howe 57
Jerry Manuel 56
Salty Parker 55
Joe Frazier 54
Willie Randolph 53
Bobby Valentine 52

Schwei's Runs, Hits and Errors:

Runs: Daniel Murphy. Enters week with hits in 19 of his last 21 games, batting .412 (35-for-85). Since May 21st, Murphy is hitting .368 (71-for-193).

Hits: Lucas Duda. Rookie is hitting .328 (20-for-61) with nine RBI's in his last 19 games.

Errors: Failing vs. Phils. The Mets lost 2 of 3 to Philadelphia, their 4th straight series loss against the NL East leaders. Mets are now just 2-15-1 in their last 18 series played vs. the Phillies since August of 2008.

Who is your all-time favorite Mets closer? Let Schwei know below...

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