For the first time since I don't even know when, I'm more excited about a Phillies season than an Eagles season. How weird is that?
Everyone says the Mets are gonna own the NL East. I'm not afraid of them. Sure they've made one great addition (and spent crazy money to do it), but that's the only move they made. The Phils improved in bullpen, rotation, and line-up. You can't just land one big fish and think your team is complete and titles are locked... A-Rod, anyone? It still takes a whole team, the the Phils team looks as good as anyone's. Rowand's leaving hurt, but when you've got two MVP's (and in all likelihood, a third ) you ain't starving. Adding Jenkins and Feliz definatley covers Rowand. Cole will pitch for a Cy Young. Burrell will play for his future. Ryan will play for a fortune. Chase and Jimmy will play for a championship. Life is good. Now the only question is will our new and improved bullpen will live up to expectations. It all rides on J.C. and Brad Lidge.
And I'm not all too star-struck by Santana either. They said the Patriots couldn't be beaten, either. "They" were wrong.
Santana will go 22-5 this year. The Phillies didn't really win the NL East in '07 as much as the Mets lost it. The Mets will
not let that happen this year. Remember that the
other #1 starter on the Mets, Pedro Martinez, was out for most of the season. So, we have two #1s at the top of the rotation, then two guys who each won 15 games last year (Maine and Perez), then El Duque, who will be out for a month or two during the season, but who will win 10-11 games nonetheless. Mike Pelfrey, who went 3-1 in September last season, and Tony Armas Jr. are the first two guys out of N'awlins to fill in the rotation.
I'm thinking the Mets' rotation will end up like this:
Johan Santana: 22-5, Cy Young
Pedro Martinez: 15-7
John Maine: 15-8
Ollie Perez: 17-10
Orlando Hernandez: 10-5
Torii Hunter said of Santana: "He's going to absolutely dominate that league. I don't know who's happier (with Johan going to the Mets)--Johan, the Mets, or all of the hitters in the American League who don't have to face him again."
Plus, not re-signing Aaron Rowand was a
huge mistake. His grit and attitude is going to be sorely missed, and not replicated anywhere as much by Shanve Victorino, or Pedro Feliz (who should get a decent HR number in Philly). Remember something--the Giants didn't want Feliz back. That should say something, and it's probably not good.
Cole Hamels will have a good year. 15-10. But, when you're signing Anna and Kris Benson (hey, it's alphabetical) to a minor-league deal, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel where starting pitching is concerned. The problem with Kris is that when you get him, you get
her, too. She will turn into one of the more-hated wives on the Phillies. Brett Myers will be offering his services to Kris Benson before long. Getting back to pitching, the big knock against Benson when he was with the Mets was that he was a flyball pitcher. How do flyball pitchers do in Philly, anyway?
Ryan Howard will get his 45-50 HRs, with a majority of them coming within the "friendly confines" of CBP.
Brad Lidge . . . if the Lidge that Philly gets is the one who had the meltdown in '06, it's going to be a
long season.
One more thing about the Mets bullpen--Duaner Sanchez is throwing 95 mph again. And, Pedro Feliciano's daughter has recovered from the heart ailment that nearly killed her last year, so his head will be on the mound, as opposed to in his daughter's hospital room in the DR.
There is some indication that the Phillies are going to try to instigate a brawl with the Mets this year.
Also, there's this team in Atlanta that's going to have a say in how both the Mets and the Phill(th)ies do this year. They've got a 300-game winner, and another starter who would have 300 if he didn't take a "side job" and get over 150 saves. They, also, have two #1s at the top of their rotation (Smoltz and Hudson). Mike Hampton is at 100%, but the over/under on how long that's going to continue is somewhere around 40 seconds. Plus, the Nats didn't exactly go backwards this year, when they got LMillz. He'll do well in the new park.
And, you said that "the Phillies improved themselves in the rotation." Surely you don't mean Myers moving back to the rotation, do you? I seem to remember that he was a better closer than a starter . . . and he preferred to close. He may have to move back to that role, if Lidge works out like he did in the past . . .