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It’s not exactly the best way to cap a great season, considering that your team was probably one of the best teams overall throughout the year. But when it comes down to it, nobody will look at what happened in April, May, June, July, August, or September. They’re only going to look at one thing: Your team’s final record.
And if you’re the New York Mets, that must piss you off.
For starters, it was just a couple of weeks ago when you were able to claim that you had the best record in the Majors. The New York Yankees weren’t anywhere near you, Detroit struggled but were close, and the National League? Yeah, right.
But with just about a week to go, the Mets are in fourth place overall, with three teams (obviously, if you did the math, you’d know this without me telling you) ahead of you in the race. But what’s most important to note is that three of those teams are American League teams, and that can’t be that great a sign for the National League as far as chances to win the World Series goes - regardless of who represents them.
I was listening to a local radio show the other night and former pitcher John Rocker was on, talking about how he thought the Mets had a chance to beat the Yankees should both teams end up in the big dance. I disagree, especially now after reading that Pedro Martinez has yet another ailment to deal with that will keep him from playing in the post-season.
For starters, the Yankees are a group of players that… in all honestly… haven’t really played that much throughout the year. At least not this current roster, with a bunch of injured players coming back the past couple of weeks. So the B team was able to carry the squad through and put together the winningest team in baseball this year (so far). So imagine what the hired guns are going to do…
Randy Johnson is a question mark, but the rest of the starting rotation is more experienced and ready for the playoffs. Except for Mike Mussina, who I’m starting to wonder if he’s trade material or not, I think they have a strong enough pitching squad to take series after series until the playoffs are completed and a 27th World Championship enters the hallowed field of Yankees Stadium.
I think the Mets have a great team, a lot of young blood and great offense, but in the past couple of years we’ve seen great offense in the National League shut down by American League pitching, and here’s why: National League pitchers are one dimensional. One or two pitches can win a game there, because after five innings, the pitcher is pulled from the game anyway and a fresher guy is thrown on the hill because unlike in the AL, National League pitchers have to bat, too.
So when you have an ace pitcher like Orlando Hernandez, who pitched excellently in the American League (as did Pedro Martinez), or Tom Glavine, who is one of the premiere National League pitchers, and the rest of the NL are filled with bums, of course you’re going to float to the top.
But when faced against a team that has seen those kinds of pitchers for over 150 games, especially a team that has seen all three pitchers before on several occassions like the Yankees, it could seriously set the stage for yet another American League championship.
And if the Yankees don’t make it to the World Series, there’s always the Detroit Tigers to worry about, or the momentum-carrying and title hungry Minnesota Twins (I had to check my notes to make sure I wasn’t wrong. I mean, Minnesota?!?).
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