I've been contending that the addition of Johan Santana to the Mets club improves the pitching staff, but it in no way guarantees them the NL East like Carlos Beltran has been claiming. Yes, they probably have the best one, two, three with Santana, John Maine and Pedro Martinez; they still are elderly in the field. At second they have Luis Castillo who has bad knees, his replacement, Jose Valentin, was he ever healthy last season? And Moise Alou, he's trudging on Julio Franco's ageless wonder nickname for sure. Not to mention, if anyone gets injured, they've practically given away a large part of the farm and in a 162 season, injuries will abound. Every member of the Mets outfield spent some time on the DL in 2007, couldn’t that happen again. There offense isn't a guarantee either. The better hitting catcher is their back-up Ramon Castro. And was Carlos Delgado’s 2007 swoon at the plate an anomaly or a sign of things to come?
Apparently, I'm not the only one not willing to give up the NL East crown. The Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur told reporters he's excited about the team and thinks they've got a pretty good shot
at winning their first divisional title since 2005.
"I'm not going to sit here and make predictions, but I feel like our team is just as good as the other two teams in our division," Francoeur said. "When I ran today, I was looking at all the names on the back [of the jerseys] and I was like, 'We've got a pretty good team.'"
Darn skippy, less centerfield, the Braves have remained the same or upgraded every position on the field, including bringing in Tom Glavine for the third spot on the rotation not to mention the amount of young talent that is bursting at the Braves seams. One things for sure, it's a long season and anything can happen. The Braves taking the NL East title is certainly not out of the realm of possibility.
(Photo: ajc.com; source)
It's been fun blogging with you,
Kate
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