NL East

Well, by the looks of it the Mets are going to be in a horse race with Phillies all year. Phils have an explosive line-up, good pitching, and a GM with an excellent track record of doing what it takes to put together a winning team. I'm amazed the Phillies played as well as they did in the 2nd half last year; they were supposed to fold after losing Abreu and others.

In what can only be considered great news

Aaron Sele is now part of the Mets organization. Jose Lima, Brian Daubach and Edgardo Alfonzo now have a 4th to round out their Euchre game.

Where in the world is Carlos Gomez?

Apparently MetsGeek knows, as Alex Nelson wrote a thorough entry on the speedster's ascent through the Mets farm system. Here At SHKs, we've also had a few links to some of the scuttlebutt surrounding this up-and-coming CFer. With 105 SB in the last two seasons, Gomez could be a terrifying sight for opposing pitchers at the top of the Mets lineup, especially when partnered with Reyes.

That said, his BA and OBP have been .275/.331 at class A and .281/.350 at AA the last two years. There's definitely room for improvement, though the trend is encouraging (especially factoring in a jump in the level of competition). Read Nelson's piece if you want an in-depth look at Gomez' prospects. Here's his summation:

Gomez is still a good prospect due to his age. He’s extremely young for
the Eastern League, and the mere fact that he held his production steady with
some minor improvement despite skipping over High A is a big positive. And there
is no doubt that he’s very talented. But he is still a prospect with some
serious flaws, namely his power and his plate discipline. If even one of those
develops, he could become an elite prospect, but he hasn’t shown it
yet.

The Wicked Witch is Dead

Pats are OVER!!!

Pitchers

Looks like Mets are set with their pitching staff, and also they resigned En-dy Cha-vez to a one year deal.

So many question marks for next season, definitely interesting. How will Glavine's arm hold up? Will El Duque have enough focus and discipline to be a #2, show up at every game, and turn in a good season? Will Pedro and Mota return and perform well? Will Reyes and Wright continue their upward trends? Will Alou serve his purpose, add pop to line-up and protect Wright?

And, oh yeah, I still hate the Pats.

I HATE the Pats

Perhaps in the offseason this blog can be devoted to how much I hate the Pats. I'm sick of their just squeaking by. I have never seen teams make as many absurd and stupid mistakes as they do against the Pats. I don't know why the NFL even bothers existing anymore. Clearly Belichick must be the best coach ever, Brady the best QB ever (despite 3 picks yesterday), Pats' think tank best talent prophets in draft / free agency / trades ever, bob kraft best owner ever, etc. If not, why would EVERY team lay down like a bunch of sallies week in and week out and completely suck? How do you have LT rush for over 100 yds, get 2 TDs, force 3 brady picks, and STILL LOSE??? By miraculously fumbling an interception (I can't even remember seeing something like this before), dropping a punt and instead of just sitting on it trying to pick it up and run, telegraphing a pass that colvin easily picks off, and picking up 2 stupid unnecessary roughness penalties.

Pats have all new receivers (except Troy brown), new rookie RB, new corners, etc. and still dominate. The pats should be beaten - they are NOT the team they were in the past. This year they have a lot of turnovers and a lot of penalties. Usually they won in the past because they avoided those things. So will SOMEONE please beat the F'in pats already???

Off Season Open Thread

Have at it.