Ever since Omar Minaya rebuilt the Mets, there have been many heated discussions about his stockpiling of Latin American players. I thought that it might be interesting to see what the PI can tell us about this subject. I am not presenting them to you as a judgment, just as a presentation of facts.

(I'm going to focus on the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, because they provide the most players from that region. If I'm making a glaring omission by not including another country, please let me know.)

First lets look at pitching. In 2007 there were 71 players who were born in the Dominican Republic and pitched in major leagues. Four teams had more and four teams as many as the Mets 4 pitchers. 12 major league pitchers from 2007 were born in Puerto Rico. The Mets had 2 of these players . This was tied for second behind the Red Sox who led the majors with 3. Overall, major league pitchers from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic threw 11% (4793.67/43425.67) of all major league innings. For the Mets they (PR & DR ) threw 20% (293.33/1452) of all innings. This is a high total, but not earth shattering.

In 2007 there were 64 position players who were born in the Dominican Republic. These 64 players were spread out among 26 teams. No team had more than the Mets 5. 20% of the Mets' plate appearances came from Dominican players (including pitchers) compared to the major league average of 12%. Again high, but not overwhelming.

When you look at Puerto Rican position players, things become interesting. There were 29 Puerto Rican born position players in the majors in 2007. These players played on 18 different teams. The New York Yankees, had 3 of these players, the second most in the majors. The New York Mets had 7. The 34 Puerto Rican players (including pitchers) who had plate appearances in 2007 , accounted for 4% of all the PAs in the big leagues. On the Mets they accounted for 29%!

Two other stats of note. When it comes to the most position players born outside of the fifty states, the 2007 Mets are only tied for fifth since 1901. The 2004 Royals hold that record. For pitchers, the 2007 Mets are tied for eighth. However, Minaya's 2005 Mets are tied for 4th and the 2006 edition is tied with the '07 Rockies and '04 Dodgers for the most.

Finally, in case you thought that this is only a Met thing. The teams with the fewest US born position players: The '97 Blue Jays and Minaya's '03 Expos.

EDIT: Please see Spanish Flushing II for a continuation of this topic.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 am and is filed under Leaders, Splits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.