Lineup Against the Wall: New York Mets

Another team I can't stand. The late '80s incarnation of the franchise was dominant, particularly over my Cubs--who, we would have imagined in '84 & '85, might have at least been competitive over the next few years, but no. The Cubs managed to take the East in '84, two games ahead of New York, but that was it. After that, The Strawberry GoodenDarlings steamed ahead to a World Series in '86 and general excellence regardless, while the Cubs backslid to suck.

So I'm carrying a grudge. Which might have been why I picked the Marlins to make a huge leap forward and take the division, rather than this ultra-talented group. More after the coding--which doesn't look like coding, but try to think HTML for once.

Given that time is becoming an issue with these, no more pussyfooting. Here's the Amazins' lineup:

Catcher -- Brian Schneider
First Base -- Carlos Delgado
Second Base -- Luis Castillo
Third Base -- David Wright
Shortstop -- Jose Reyes
Left Field -- Daniel Murphy
Center Field -- Carlos Beltran
Right Field -- Ryan Church

Starting Pitchers:

Johan Santana (L)
Mike Pelfrey (R)
Oliver Perez (L)
John Maine (R)
Livan Hernandez (R)

Relief Pitcher:

J.J. Putz (R)
Pedro Feliciano (L)
Sean Green (R)
Brian Stokes (R)
Carlos Muniz (R)

Closer:

Francisco Rodriguez (R)

Bottom Line: I have no defense for last night's pick of the Marlins. I know that the Mets have choked the last years--and mightily so, it should be mentioned--but you can count the teams with that kind of power, speed and overall hitting ability on the fingers of no hands. Plus, they roll out a starting lineup led by arguably the best pitcher in the game, even if the guys behind him are pretty average. They spent a lot of money on F-Rod to shore up a recent weak spot, they have pretty good middle relief...not a lot of weaknesses.

So, naturally, I'm picking them to finish behind the Marlins. You have to go out on the occasional limb.

Projected Finish: 2nd in the NL East