Shooting Yourself In The Foot

At SI.com they quote Billy Wagner on how the Mets have dropped nine straight to the Phillies:

"There's none of us in here going, geez, the Phillies are coming to town, we're probably going to lose,'' Mets closer Billy Wagner said after New York lost its ninth straight to Philadelphia, 5-2. "I think all of us are tired of hearing the Phils have our number. The Phils don't have our number. We shoot ourselves in the foot every time we go out there. When they come here, they bring it. They show up and they play great. That's what we have to do.''

Great quote by Wagner. I mean every time he’s asked a question, he gives it to you straight up. I’m surprised that there aren’t more reporters running to him after a game.

Put Up Or Shut Up

Kevin Kernan at The New York Post writes about today’s Shea Opener and proclaims that the games before this one were all merely warm ups:

Up until today, the games against Florida and Atlanta have been warm-ups. This is the real thing when Oliver Perez goes against Jamie Moyer this afternoon at Shea. Now the Mets' season is truly under way.

The Mets will never completely close the door on what happened to them last year until they win a World Series championship, but they can begin to close the door on last season with a win against the Phillies today. That's Step One.

I love this mentality because like Kevin said; to erase the stench of last year the Mets are going to have to put a big hurting on the Phillies. Let’s hope our boys can deliver on Beltran’s comment and deliver us from evil.

Perz To Start Home Opener

Marty Noble at Mets.com writes about Oliver Perez and how he will be starting the final Opening Day at Shea Tuesday:

The Mets seemingly would have been better off had their original plan held and Pedro Martinez was to oppose the Phillies. Perez lost two decisions, won none and produced a 5.40 ERA in three starts against Philadelphia last season. Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollins have combined for six home runs in merely 36 combined career at-bats against him. Perez has beaten the Phillies once in eight career starts.

Let’s all hope that Perez can rebound from last year. All that goes through my mind when I think of Perez facing the Phillies is that tower of a shot from Ryan Howard in 2006 that ended Perez’s day. Cross your fingers.

Do The Phillies Still Have The Edge?

Apparently Mike over at A Citizen’s Blog had some choice words as to why the Mets aren’t the team to beat in the National League East this season. But wait a minute Mike, the Phillies didn’t win the East last season. They were just there to collect the prize, like they were the only one’s bidding on a product on EBAY. It took a historic collapse in the form of key players struggling, important figures on the DL or playing injured and an over exposure to the bullpen that eventually caught up with them.

So here are his key notes and below are my rebuttals to his, as he likes to put it, four good reasons as to why the Phillies shouldn’t fear the Mets in 2008:

1. History: Remember the 2002 Mets? In the wake of the Mets surprising run at the N.L. East title in the days after 9/11 the Mets management decided to open up the team’s purse-strings and attempt to lure the top free agents to Queens. In came Mo Vaughn, Roberto Alomar, and Jeremy Burnitz. And the Mets finished seven games worse than they did the previous season. History is against the Mets here.

Less we forget that those acquisitions were made under the Steve Phillips regime and how about the Carlos Beltran, Billy Wagner, Marlon Anderson, Jose Valentin, John Maine, Oliver Perez acquisitions? Should I go on with more players or do you get the point? This is a new era and a new General Manager, so that point is moot.

2. Numbers: The addition of one player rarely makes the sort of impact that people are talking about here. Suddenly the Mets suspect rotation goes from a weakness to an exceptional strength? I don’t think so. Remember, Santana will throw 35-40 games for the Mets in 2008. They still need pitchers for the 120-130 games that Santana cannot pitch. Do you really feel comfortable, Mets fans, with Willie Randolph handing the ball to John Maine on the last game of the season?

Way to downplay this one. It’s not just the addition of one player. It’s the addition of the most dominant pitcher of this decade, who pitches more innings, strikes out more batters and provides more protection than most every other starter out there and as a result it will provide the bullpen to not be used as it was last season and knocks down every other starter to take the pressure off of them. Can you tell me a better one through four in the East? Not likely.

3. The Aging of their Roster: They added Santana to bolster the rotation, but they’ve updated none of the other positions on the roster in any meaningful way. Anyone notice that Carlos Delgado really struggled in 2007? His OBP plunged to .333, a decline of nearly thirty points and a nearly seventy point decline from the .399 he posted with the Marlins in 2005. His home runs declined from 38 in 2006 to 24 last season and he saw his Runs Created dip from 101 to 70. Delgado is 36 this season and is entering the twilight of his career. He better not struggle in 2008 or the Mets are in trouble.

Granted, Carlos Delgado isn’t getting any younger and he may be on the wrong side of thirty, but let’s look at your first baseman. Ryan Howard hit .313 in 2006, had 58 home runs and drove in 149 runs as well as striking out 181 times. In 2007 he hit .268, with only 47 home runs and drove in 136 runs as well as striking out 199 times. I think Howard had a little bit of a drop off. I’m not even going to get into the home runs because the Phillies play in a little league park to begin with. So before you sit and judge our first baseman, I would be a little worried that if pitchers had caught on to Ryan Howard and his ridiculous way of setting himself up to bat. Can he adjust? Was 2006 a fluke? Can he please strike out a little less!

4. It’s in their heads: The memory of last season is still going to echo in their minds. Any time the Phillies have struggled in a pennant race the ghosts of 1964 are raised. Any time this season that the Mets struggle, the ghosts of last season will return. I wonder how badly this will affect the play of a young player like Jose Reyes, who really seemed to wilt under the pressure of the pennant race last season while his counterpart in the Phillies lineup, Jimmy Rollins, shined. Will Reyes struggle any time the mention of 2007 comes up? I think he will.

I will give you this one, but not easily. There is no way to tell if last season will remain with them as psychological downer or a motivator. You can sit on either side of the fence and make an argument one way or the other, but the only way we will truly know is when the season ends next year and, we fans can look at it in a whole.

Manufacturing A Rivalry

With the sudden proclamation from Carlos Beltran and Jimmie Rollins rebutting, the media is sanctioning the Mets and Phillies as the next great rivalry. If these two teams stay good and develop a pure hatred for the opposing team, that would be great for fans. But the fact of the matter is that the season hasn’t even started yet, so how can people stand up on their soap boxes and give their best sales pitch on these two teams.

I understand that the fuel was already thrown onto the rivalry when the Mets collapsed and the Phillies took advantage, but rivalries are built over years, not off seasons.

So I think that us as fans can produce a pure hatred for another team or player for a season, just take Rollins for example, but the teams themselves are being force fed an intense hatred rivalry that I’m not even sure they want to be a part of.

I may be wrong, but the media should back off the topic for a little while and see how this whole situation evolves before manufacturing something that doesn’t come to fruition.

Joking Around, Rollins Calls Beltran A Plagiarist

Rob Maaddi at Slams Sports writes about Jimmy Rollins response to Carlos Beltrans somment on the up-coming season:

"Has anyone ever heard of plagiarism?" Rollins said, breaking into a laugh.

The NL MVP treated Beltran's in-your-face message that the New York Mets are the team to beat in the NL East like a take-out slide at second base.

He eluded it nicely, but mixed in a jab the way some middle infielders purposely land on a hard-charging runner at second base.

"Sequels are never good," Rollins said, crediting teammate Brett Myers with that statement first.

Pending Physical, Benson Is A Phillie

Ken Mandel at MLB.com writes about Kris Benson signing with the Phillies:

On the eve of pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training, the Phillies added veteran free agent Kris Benson to their inventory of arms.

The right-hander, the No. 1 overall pick in the June 1996 First-Year Player Draft, agreed on Wednesday to a Minor League deal, pending a physical.

The Phillies dispatched Chuck LaMarr, the team's director of professional scouting, to watch Benson throw twice near his Atlanta home. LaMarr reported that Benson was at "60-70 percent" of his velocity and might not be ready for Opening Day.

Phillies Think Hamels Could Become Santana

David Murphy at The Philadelphia Daily News writes about Cole Hamels and how the Phillies believe he may one day achieve what Santana has become (reaching high aren't we Charlie?):

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel is saying he expects Hamels to someday reach the superstar level of the Mets' newly acquired ace, Johan Santana. But that ascension involves a variable.

"It depends on if I stay healthy," the pitcher said.

How well he rides it could very well determine how good of a position the Phillies will enjoy during their stretch run. Hamels says his target is 35 starts. The mark is a little on the ambitious side, considering the fact that only one major leaguer achieved it last season (Dontrelle Willis, with Florida). But his point remains: to achieve a status like Santana's, one must first achieve Santana-like durability, and the two-time Cy Young award winner has made at least 33 starts in each of the last four seasons. Hamels, meanwhile, has averaged just 25 1/2 starts in his first two seasons in the majors.

"If he can ever go through a season, stay healthy, it's hard to tell. Last year was his first year in the big leagues, really," Manuel said. "He's got about a year-and-a-half in the big leagues . . . Santana right now is, if not the best pitcher in baseball, he's definitely talked about being the best. I think eventually Hamels' ceiling can be that high."

Phillies Close To Deal With Benson

Scott Lauber at Delaware Online writes about the Phillies and Kris Benson being close to a deal:

Clifton, reached Tuesday by phone at his office in Scottsdale, Ariz., said Benson may sign with the Phillies by today, just in time for the club's pitchers and catchers to hold their first workout Thursday at the Carpenter Complex. Benson, 33, had surgery last March to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and hasn't pitched since 2006.

"Both sides are saying, 'You want this, we want this,' " Clifton said. "We're in that mode now, and we're having conversations back and forth. From years of doing this, I'd say we should know something in the next 24 to 36 hours, judging from where things are now."

The Freakin' Mets Got Better

Randy Miller at Philly Burbs writes about the early arrivals to Spring Training for the Phillies and what manager Charlie Manuel had to say about the Mets:

As usual, Manuel already has pitching concerns, especially on the heels of the rival New York Mets trading for two-time Cy Young winner Johan Santana.

“I think the freakin' Mets got better,” Manuel said. “Hell, [Santana is] tremendous.”

2008 Predictions

Matt Wease at Prototrade gives his predictions on how the NL and AL will shape up and here is what he had to say about the National League East:

NL East- this is the true toughest division in baseball. it is one of the few with any real depth to it. the phillies have the best infield in baseball (howard, utley, rollins, feliz) while the mets have the best rotation (santana, martinez, perez, maine, hernandez). atlanta, despite glavine's return, doesn't have the same offense it had in his first tour there. washington is getting better, as is florida. looks for the mets to take this one with philly biting at their heels. atlanta will finish third followed by washington and then florida.

Reactions From Braves And Phillies Fans

At The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they ask this question:

The Mets have already finished ahead of the Braves in the NL East the last two seasons, and picking up a dominant lefthander for the top of the pitching rotation would only make them stronger. Are you concerned that the Braves, despite picking up future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine in the offseason, will have enough pitching to compete with the Mets?

Better yet, will the Braves’ offense be able to contend with a rotation that could include Santana and Pedro Martinez as the top two starters?

J. Weitzel at Beerleaguer puts up the following insight for the Phillies:

The sounds of our "small splashes" never sounded so small. This is a tidalwave, causing a flood that will submerge the rest of the National League East for six or seven years. Baseball's best pitcher belongs to the Mets, set to anchor the rotation for years to come while canceling out our best hitters head-to-head.

Introducing the winner, and new champion, of the 2008 off-season, and possibly much, more more: Johan Santana and the New York Mets, who've stuck it right up the Phillies' butts.