Sunday, February 17, 2008

Which NL East foe is more of a threat to the Mets?

Before the Johan Santana trade the NL East was widely considered to be a three-team race between the Mets, Phillies, and Braves. Phillies fans were boasting about there division title being handed to them, the Braves fans were boasting about a 3some of Smoltz, Hudson, and Glavine. Then Johan Santana came along and propelled the Mets to early season NL Champs favorites. I'm not ready to write off the Phillies or Braves yet, but it does seem as if the Mets should win the NL East. The Phillies and Braves should be healthy competition all year, they both have negatives and positives.

Phillies
Pros - Have a good core of Rollins, Utley, Howard, and Hamels. They still won the Nl East last year, have a very good offense, dominated the Mets late in the year.

Cons - Pitching, pitching, and pitching, after Hamels their rotation is a 2 out of 5 at best. Myers has always had the stuff but he's never had a very good year and he beats stuff,(Jrolls meat and his wife) their bullpen is a huge question mark, if Lidge can regain form it will be good though.(After his first blown save in Philly he'll be run out of town.)

Braves
Pros - They are still the Braves, as long as Larry, Smoltz, Cox, and new ones such as Francoeur and McCann are there they will be in the Mets heads. Hudson and Smoltz provides a nice 1-2 punch that few can match. Their offense now with the addition of Teixeira is still very good. They have a fine bullpen.

Cons - Even though Andruw Jones had a down year, Mark Kotsay is hardly a good replacement for him. Second base is a pretty big hole, don't have a true closer. Chipper gets injured numerous times throughout the year.

After that AMAZING analysis I would have to think before the season starts the Braves are more of a threat to the Mets than the Phillies.

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