San Diego’s Bret Boone – a former Brave who saw more than enough of Mike Hampton in last year’s playoffs – said the Mets’ newest ace puts them on a par with Atlanta and ahead of the rest of the NL, including his Padres.
San Diego skipper Bruce Bochy said he saw what an ace can do for a team when Kevin Brown put his Padres in the World Series, and he sees no reason Hampton can’t do the same for the Amazin’s.
“I think any time you get a pitcher like that – Mike Hampton won more games than any pitcher in the league last year – he’ll make you a better ballclub. He’s a No. 1 pitcher, a No. 1 guy,” said Bochy, who just got a four-year contract extension Tuesday.
His salary doubled to the $1 million range; and you can bet he’d throw in a little loose change of his own to get a pitcher like Hampton on his club. After all, his Padres got Kevin Brown for just one year, but it was enough, as he pitched them into the 1998 World Series against the Yankees.
“I saw what Kevin Brown did for us; got us to the World Series. A guy like Hampton [could do the same],” Bochy said. “It’s not just what he does in his games; he makes everybody better.”
Hampton went an NL-best 22-4 last season for Houston, finishing second to Arizona’s Randy Johnson in the Cy Young balloting. And he pitched the Astros to the NL Central title and into the playoffs against the Braves, who eventually beat them and the Mets on the way to the World Series.
Boone was the Braves’ second baseman at the time, and remembers Hampton’s nine strikeouts against Atlanta in the first round. And he knows full well what a pitcher like that can do for a Met team that was good enough to take the Braves to six games.
“Last year, they were a hell of a team. It was just one of those years where we just had their number, taking nothing away from them,” Boone said. “We knew they were a great team; it was just one of those years where everything [went right]. In close games, it just seemed we got the breaks and we won. But adding Hampton, here’s a guy that was second in the Cy Young voting. You add anybody like that to a team, it’s gonna make them much better.
“You’re adding a legit No. 1 to a good staff and a real good bullpen. They’re gonna be tough, especially now that Atlanta has one of their big guys [John Smoltz] out. Take a No. 1 out of that rotation and add one to the Mets. It’s gonna come down to the same things, Mets and Braves. Looking at the Mets, I think they’re a tick better than they were just because of the addition of Hampton.”