{"id":628,"date":"2010-04-02T08:59:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T13:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=628"},"modified":"2010-03-31T22:50:11","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T03:50:11","slug":"letters-to-the-nl-east-part-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2010\/04\/02\/letters-to-the-nl-east-part-45\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the NL East, Part 4\/5"},"content":{"rendered":"

(To read past year\u2019s letters, click here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Letters to the NL East, Part 4 of 5. (part 1<\/a>, part 2<\/a>, part 3<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"phil_phylis\"<\/p>\n

Dear Philadelphia Phillies,<\/p>\n

You suck.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, you heard me.\u00a0 You\u2019re the \u201cpopular\u201d pick to win the division, much like the Mets were predicted to win the World Series last year.\u00a0 You know what?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 You get credit in analysts\u2019 eyes for being there in the past, but that doesn\u2019t actually get you any wins in 2010.<\/p>\n

You already get one big black mark for letting Cliff Lee leave when you acquired Halladay.\u00a0 Now suddenly your rotational is only marginally better, at best.\u00a0 And you have at least as many question marks at the Mets.\u00a0 Sure, those questions have turned out to be exclamation points in the past, but this is a different year.\u00a0 Maybe Hamels was a one-hit wonder, and will continue to be merely pedestrian.\u00a0 Blanton has never been anything special, and Moyer had a hot spring, but is hardly a reliable product in the rotation.\u00a0 Happ is the one thing to hold on to, in that he had a really good year in his time up last year.\u00a0 There is no guarantee that that will continue, that he won\u2019t get figured out by the league and fail to adjust, that he won\u2019t suffer the sophomore curse.<\/p>\n

Pedro Feliz was such a solid feature at third base that I just don\u2019t buy that Polanco is anything more than a lateral move at best. \u00a0Your bullpen is extremely suspect, and while you do have a potent offense, the Mets did match you in runs scored prior to the injury-plagued 2009.\u00a0\u00a0 This offseason you lock up a couple of your players to long term contracts, and coupled with letting Lee go, it\u2019s apparent you don\u2019t have the money to fill any holes that arrive this season.<\/p>\n

So, while you get many props for winning the division in previous years, the calendar has turned and that buys you nothing in 2010.\u00a0 You\u2019re at the top of the hill but you\u2019re teetering at the edge.\u00a0 All it would take is one misstep, or one good push, for you to go tumbling back to obscurity.<\/p>\n

While I\u2019ve enjoyed having a real rival that\u2019s both geographical close and in the same league, I don\u2019t know if you can keep it up for long enough for us to say that Mets-Phillies is better than Yankees-Red Sox and really mean it.\u00a0 The Mets have some minor injuries to start the season, so you should take advantage of it while you still can.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t start getting ahead in the race, the Mets will steamroll right by you when they\u2019re back to full strength.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be a fun and combative year.\u00a0 Can you handle it?<\/p>\n

Your bitter enemy,<\/p>\n

Optimistic Mets Fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(To read past year\u2019s letters, click here) Letters to the NL East, Part 4 of 5. (part 1, part 2, part 3) Dear Philadelphia Phillies, You suck.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, you heard me.\u00a0 You\u2019re the \u201cpopular\u201d pick to win the division, much like the Mets were predicted to win the World Series last year.\u00a0 You know … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Letters to the NL East, Part 4\/5”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[809],"tags":[2986,942,944,943,135,227,368,2964,190,26,382,282],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}