Well, maybe this league's Eastern division was not so different from its younger brother's counterpart after all. The
Metropolitans are still the back-page New York team, but only barely so. Their financial situation again gives them an advantage over the lesser lights of the division, but not so much so that their pitching should be inordinately better, yet that's just the case. It's a talented and staggeringly deep staff, evidence of such being that
Jeremy Affeldt, the
Royal who tortured us so last year, is pitching in middle relief despite a 3 year, $30+ million contract. Yet how is he going to crack a rotation composed of two horses in
Tim Hudson and
Livan Hernandez, fellow big-ticket signing
Bronson Arroyo, and two cases of "OOTP's development system sucks" in
Aaron Heilman (a legitimate ace!) and
Jeremy Griffiths? So
Affeldt will work to set up
Dan Wheeler alongside
Matt Mantei and
Felix Rodriguez, and I just see way too many guys with ERA's in the twos and threes to expect this team to not win dozens and dozens of games.
That's without discussing the position players, who aren't the caliber of those in
Atlanta or
Philly, but they don't have to be. Even if
Eli "Hollywood"
Marrero doesn't drive in 108 runs again (but he might -- he drove in 105 in '05!),
Jim Edmonds, yet another free agent pickup, will pick up the slack with his sparkling on-base skills. I wouldn't want to be on the books for his $10 million contract, but in the Apple, who cares?
Jose Reyes and
Kaz Matsui, who I nicknamed "Rodeo Monkey" in a past pique of wit, will provide a hacktastic, speedy, slick fielding 1-2 punch up the middle, and
Jason Phillips and
Matt LeCroy will provide a better post-Piazza tandem at catcher and first than will the barber shop quartet of
Olivo-
Torrealba-
Thomas-
Hillenbrand in
Chicago. And
D.Y.'s D.Y.'s under the bright lights in Shea now, and as long-suffering
Chicago fans well know, he's a championship-caliber player. Even without a top-notch farm system (though Scott Kazmir's yet to be traded in this universe
), this club has plenty of those championship-caliber players, so it makes sense that they'll be using them to compete for
championships, both this year and in the forseeable future.