Former Mets Dominating the American League

From Peter Gammons:

As of this weekend, Jason Bay and Nelson Cruz are 1-2 among American League outfielders in homers and extra-base hits, and seemingly certain to make the All-Star team. Talk about scenic routes:

Nelson Cruz

• 1998: Signed by Mets as undrafted free agent
• 2000: Traded from Mets to A's for Jorge Velandia
• 2004: Traded from A's to Brewers for Keith Ginter
• 2006: Traded by Brewers with Carlos Lee to Texas for Francisco Cordero and Kevin Mench
• 2008: Cleared waivers at the end of spring training, accepted demotion to Triple-A

Jason Bay

• 2000: Drafted in 22nd round by Montreal Expos
• 2002: Traded by Expos to Mets for Lou Collier
• 2002: Traded by Mets to Padres for Steve Reed
• 2003: Traded by Padres to Pirates with Oliver Perez for Brian Giles
• 2008: Traded by Pirates to Red Sox for Craig Hansen, Brandon Moss, Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris

Amazingly, both of these guys were in the Mets system. In 3 seasons with the Mets, Velandia's line looked like .149/.281/.216. And Steve Reed pitched well in 24 games with the Mets, but left as a free agent when the season was over. The Mets weren't the only team who passed on those two players, but they sure could use them this season. Here is the homerun output of the Mets corner OFs this season:

  Cnt Player            **HR** Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
   1 Gary Sheffield       5   2009  40 NYM NL  46 137 112  26  29  5  1  20  24   2  19   1   0   0   3   2  1  .259  .394  .455  .849 79       
    2 Daniel Murphy        4   2009  24 NYM NL  51 174 150  21  36  5  1  18  19   1  15   0   3   2   2   1  1  .240  .322  .367  .689 *73      
    3 Ryan Church          1   2009  30 NYM NL  39 138 125   9  34  7  0   8  10   3  18   1   1   1   5   2  1  .272  .328  .352  .680 *9       
    4 Fernando Martinez    0   2009  20 NYM NL   9  35  30   3   6  3  0   4   4   0   4   1   0   0   0   2  0  .200  .314  .300  .614 /*97     
    5 Emil Brown           0   2009  34 NYM NL   3   6   5   0   1  0  0   0   1   0   0   0   0   0   1   0  0  .200  .333  .200  .533 /9       
    6 Jeremy Reed          0   2009  28 NYM NL  47  63  60   5  19  3  1   3   3   1  15   0   0   0   1   0  1  .317  .349  .400  .749 *7/839   
    7 Angel Pagan          0   2009  27 NYM NL  14  51  42   7  14  3  0   3   7   0   9   0   2   0   2   4  0  .333  .429  .405  .834 /978