The State of New York Baseball

Sorry I missed last week...finals took control of my life...lets get down to business.

Both New York baseball teams have it all.  The money, the fanfare, and the fan base.  Both are getting state of the art stadiums at the start of the 2009 season, Citi Field for the Mets and Yankee Stadium for the Yankees.  Personally, I don't like the name Citi Field, but that has to do with money and all that so, I guess I can live with it.  However, this is not the topic of this weeks entry.  As we all know, this past weekend kicked off round 1 of the Subway Series.  Last Friday, at Yankee Stadium the Mets will send their ace Johan Santana to the mound against Darrell Rasner, who the Yankees called up to help their pitching.  Personally, I like inter-league play.  I like to see National League teams have a DH in the American League park and American League pitchers hit at a National League park.  Anyway,  I'm here today to talk about the state of both teams.  Last year at this point when these two teams met, the Mets where flying high and the Yankees slumping.  This time it is different.

Both teams so far this year have UNDER-ACHIEVED.  Yes, I said it.  BOTH teams have not reached the expectations of the fans or all of the experts on ESPN and SNY and YES.   Now for an explanation.

The New York Mets.

22-22 

4th Place in the NL East

I think that says it all.  This is a team that was predicted to win the division and at least get to the World Series when Spring Training started.  When the Mets signed Johan Santana I was the happiest person on Earth.  I knew that all of the problems were not fixed but it was no doubt a huge step forward.  This team cannot get a clutch hit or any consistent efforts in the bullpen. The best player on the Mets right now is Ryan Church.  He is the right fielder traded to the Mets in the offseason along with Brian Schneider from the Nationals for outfielder Lastings Milledge.  He is batting over .300 with 9 home runs and 30+ RBIs.  This was a guy that was thought of as a person that cannot hit for average or power lefties or play everyday.  He has had the most consistent bat on the team.  But of course, he got a concussion and will miss a few games. Carlos Delgado is off  to a slow start.  Sadly, I don't think he is coming out of this funk any time soon.  I would write more about him but it is just painful to even think that such a great player could lose it just as fast.  His downfall was similar to Mets-fan favorite, Keith Hernandez.  After a rainout on Friday night, the Mets came out and won the two other games of the series.  The offense was firing on all cylinders and the Met fan got to thinking maybe this is the start of  a nice little run.  But, in typical Mets fashion they go down to Atlanta for a four game series and as of right now they have lost three of the four games and have fallen to just about the bottom of their division.  To most fans, the initial reaction is to fire the manager.  I never felt that this was the fair way to do things, but you cannot fire the team.  I will say this about firing Willie, if the team is so far behind by the All-Star break or if the Mets keep it close but fail to make the playoffs or at least get to the NLCS he will be fired.  Lets just see what happens.  

Next week is all about the Yankees