So here we go again, spring is here and it is time to get ready for another exciting season of Mets and Yankees baseball. New faces, and new expectations, but as always its win win win!
What to expect? well for starters this seasons has 2 new ballparks as a new and shiny Yankees stadium will be unveil, and then there is Citifield the new home of the Mets.
The New Ballparks will bring an extra kind of excitement to the new season and I have to say it is going to be a lot of fun going out to the new ballparks and comparing the 2. So far from what I have seen on tv and herd, Yankee Stadium looks to be a complete replica of the old Yankee stadium, only modern and extremely luxerious. Now I'm sure Citifeild is going to be a pretty neat place to go to, especially when you had Shea to compare it with, but lets be clear here, no one is going to out do the New York Yankees. So far CitiField looks great on tv with it's wide deminsions and it's new features which give it caracther, but once I get a chance to get to the new ballparks I will give you my prognosis.
So we have new ballparks but what about the new players, well today the Yankees will be showcasing part of their $420 million offseason aquisitions as CC Sabathia gets the 2009 opener, and Mark Texiera will be at 1B giving the Yankee their best 1B since Tino Martinez came to New York in 1996.
On paper the Yankees have the best rotation in the majors who also signed #2 starter AJ Burnett, who If healty, gives the Yankees another #1 in the rotation.
Sabathia and Burnett will be followed by Chien Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlian, and Andy Pettie. As you can see the offseason was a big one for the Yankees who went out and got the best players the market had to offer. Now the time has come to put it to the field as gifts to the fans as they welcome in the new stadium.
The Mets who are coming off back to back collapses also needed to give the fans some new gifts for the new park as well, their 2 biggest offseason aquisitions are a pair of closers led by Francisco Rodriguez and hard throwing JJ Putz who will be his setup man. As far as big acquistions goes this was it for the Mets, Putz and K-ROD are the main attraction as the Mets were not able to spend big like the Yankees getting K-ROD for $37 million and Putz who was acquired via trade. The bad economy and Mr. Bernie Madoff kept the Mets from spending the way they probally wanted too, and it is the reason why Manny Ramirez is not a Met. The Wilpons want you to beleive that the reason was simply because they did not want a guy like Manny coming in and destructing the team, but why get a guy like Gary Sheffield then? This was all about Madoff and the economy cause everyone knows how much Omar loves Manny. But the Mets and Omar Minaya said otherwise that it was just not in there intrest to get Manny, which is now bullshit with the signing of Sheffield. Still the Mets were able to go out and do want they needed to do which was to change the face of the bullpen.
This year the pen will have new faces like Bobby Parnell, Sean Green and Darren O'Day replace the Heilman's, the Schoewenwiess's and Duaner Sanchez's of the past season.
On the offense, the Yankees will have to do without the services of Alex Rodriguez for the 1st month of the season as Joe Girardi who is back for his 2nd season as skipper, will have some tough decisions to make in trying to put it together. Already Girardi has installed his new starting center fielder in Brett Gardner, and has plugged in Cody Ramson as A-ROD's replacement for the time being.
Again on paper the Yankees look good offensively, the lineup will be stacked with Derek Jeter leading off, Damon will hit 2nd, followed by A-ROD, Texiera, Posada, Cano, Nady and Matsui, as scoring runs will not be a problem for the Yankees.
An area of concern for the Yankees will be on defense, up the middle you have the aging Posada behind the plate, Derek Jeter at short and Brett Gardner is the CF, clearly this is an area were the Yankees may have some problems. The Yankees will have strong pitching and great hitting, but the defense is where they will hurt.
As always this is a team built to win, the pressure will be on Girardi to get the Yankees back into the playoffs.
As for the Mets Lineup, it will look pretty much the same as core players will remain intact with David Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, and Carlos Beltran as the main contributors on offense. The Mets are also high on Daniel Murphy who Jerry Manuel has tapped as the everyday leftfielder and the #2 hitter in the lineup. Murphy will bring the Mets some patience at the plate and will be a joy for the fans with his hustle. I predict a full season of Daniel Murphy in left should produce numbers of around 300, 10 HR, and some 60 RBI's.
One of the newest Mets who I could had done without is Gary Sheffield. He might give the Mets some righty punch, But where will he play? I understand they got him on the cheaps but in the NL he has to play defense and on defense Sheffield is a iron glove. The Mets are looking to see if he can provide that right side production, but if Sheff cant be productive and can't play some outfield, then the Mets can simply release him.
Back as the skipper in charge will be Jerry Manuel, who will get a full year to lead the Mets to the promise land. It wont be easy for Manuel, but a full season at the helm should give Jerry and the Mets a better chance at detroning the Phillies. I like Jerry and I think he is the perfect guy for this team. If the Mets can stay healthy and avoid major injuries I dont see why the Mets, in the new Citifeild, should not win the division.
Manuel hopes that a rotation led by Johan Santana will be strong again this year as it was 2008. Santana will be followed by Mike Pelphey as the #2 man, then it will be the eractic Oliver Perez who will now have to show and prove his worth, then there is John Maine who is coming off an injury year as the #4, while the #5 man will be Livian Hernandez who should eat up some innings, and who is looking for a bounce back season with the Mets. I like the way the Mets are constructed, offensively they have speed and some power guys, and on defense they were #2 in all of baseball last season and with Reyes at short and Beltran in CF the trend should continue in 2009. The Mets have a lineup that should score some runs, the pitching should be solid with the revampt bullpen, defensively they are solid up the middle, and with CitiField as their new home the Mets look ready to move on to playing some better ball as a new generation of Mets baseball is here.
My predictions is that both the Yankees and the Mets will make the playoff's.
The Yankees and the Red Sox's will come out as the 2 best teams in the AL east, as the Ray's will miss out. The Mets and Phillies will battle teams like the Braves and Marlins, but the Mets and Phil's will come out as the division and wildcard winners. Look for the Phillie's and Met's to continue their much hated rivalry in 2009 which should only spice things up even more, this is the rivalry to watch this year.
NL East Mets
NL Central Cubs
NL West Dodgers
wildcard Phillies
AL East Red Sox
AL Central Twins
AL West Indians
wildcard Yankees
I like the Dodgers and the Mets as the 2 best teams to advance in the NL.
And in the AL, I like the Yankees and the RedSox.
I dont like to predict a WS winner but one of these 4 teams will win all,
so LET'S GO METS!!!!
Yankee MVP - CC Sabathia
Mets MVP - Carlos Beltran
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