Saturday, March 15, 2008

A Preview A Day Keeps the Winter Away, #15

For the month of March I will be doing a season preview, with a new team each day, going in alphabetical order by team so I can save the Yankees for last, because I am, in fact, that devious.

As this is a Yankees' blog, the previews for AL East teams will be more detailed than those of AL Central and AL West teams, and any AL team previews will be more detailed than NL team previews, save maybe for the Mets. Each preview will involve consideration of how much 'threat' a team is to the Yankees, for fairly obvious reasons.

Up today: The New York Mets

Well now, what can you say about a team that last September just had to win two games, with 17 to play, to grab a playoff spot...and couldn't?

You could say that they needed to make some changes, and, well, trading for Johan Santana is certainly up there, but aside from that, they haven't done much. Omar Minaya, who scouted the likes of Sammy Sosa, has done a less than stellar job as Mets GM.

This was a team in first place since May, that could not hold on, and that, for a time this spring, had exactly TWO healthy regulars. It almost makes you feel for them, but, of course, they're the Mets.

It's the last year for Shea Stadium as well, but of course Shea isn't quite the same as Yankee Stadium, and I will never forget the wet peanut shells on my seats when I went...yuck!

Anyway

Threat to the Yankees: Yellow, Exercise Caution

We do play the Mets the same amount of times we play AL Central and AL West teams, so thus we can't ignore them. They've got a legitimate shot at the NL East title as well, though I'd be suprised if the Wild Card came out of that division as well.

1 comment:

  1. Santana is definitely a big boost to the Mets and they should have a pretty good pitcing staff. But their position players (aside from Wright and Reyes) are on the old side and dealing with injuries which could hamper them through the season.
    I think that several teams in the NL have gotten stronger. I don't think that the Mets have the edge that they did over the rest of the NL.

    ReplyDelete