Birth of Generation K

Full list of 1991 Mets draft picks

Today’s Mets have a clear surplus of talented young pitchers. With Matt Harvey returning from Tommy John surgery, Jacob deGrom coming off a Rookie of the Year season, Noah Syndergaard making his MLB debut tonight, and Steven Matz not far behind, the future looks bright. And that’s without even considering Zack Wheeler, who should be back on this list sometime next year after he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Hot young pitching is nothing new for the Mets, but neither is heartbreaking disappointment for Mets fans. Case in point: Generation K.

The Mets were a complete disaster in the early ’90s. One after another, big-name free agents failed to deliver anything but embarrassing headlines. The only hope for Mets fans came in the form of the 1991 draft class, which contained pitchers Bobby Jones, Bill Pulsipher, and Jason Isringhausen. The “Worst Team Money Could Buy” Mets were terrible, but Generation K (Pulsipher and Isringhausen plus 1994 pick Paul Wilson) promised to turn things around and send the Mets back to the World Series.

1 Al Shirley	1s Bobby J. Jones	2 Bill Pulsipher	2s Marc Kroon
8 Randy Curtis	12 Jason Jacome	16 Donny White	22 Jason Isringhausen

Partially thanks to their increasing prevalence in MLB, MiLB, and unlicensed baseball card products, prospects were being hyped more than ever before. By 1994, autographs from every team’s top prospects had become commonplace. Pulsipher and Isringhausen had autographs in 1994 and 1995, but the most successful pitcher of the bunch for the Mets, Bobby Jones, would have to wait until 1996 for his first autographs. Rounding out this draft class is a trio of relative nobodies, Randy Curtis (shown in a Mets uniform but with the Padres), Jason Jacome (who actually spent time with the Mets), and Donny White (who signs as Donnie but is listed as Don on Baseball-Reference).

As luck would have it, the Mets would make it to the World Series with the help of someone from this draft class. But not anyone from Generation K. Bobby Jones couldn’t do it by himself though, so we’ll pick up the story in 1995.