N.Y. Mets

Less than one week to opening day for the 2009 Baseball season. It's weird, it feels as though a few weeks ago Brad Lidge was striking out Eric Hinske to close out the World Series for the Phils and yet here we are and opening day is almost here. Over the next week I'll have a post on each of the 30 teams in the league. Lets' get started:

N.Y. Mets
I have picked the Mets to win the division the last three years so I feel as though third time's the charm. The Mets' biggest weakness last year was their bullpen and they went out and got two good arms in J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez. I do think K-Rod is highly overrated thanks to breaking the saves record last season. This actually led to people voting him for the MVP and he finished sixth, ahead of Grady Sizemore, Alex Rodriguez, Josh Hamilton, and Evan Longoria (just to name a few). With that said, K-Rod is still an upgrade over Scott Schoenweis and Luis Ayala who were closing out games once Bill Wagner went down with an injury. Putz was a great pick up being the best closer in baseball in 2007, in 72 IP he had 82 K's and only walked 13 batters. He was injured last year, but he seemed healthy this spring and will be a great setup for the Mets. The rotation might seem weak but the top 4 don't worry me when you have the best pitcher over the last 5 seasons in Johan Santana.

Mike Pelfrey, who pitched well last season, should improve this year. Oliver Perez has a good stuff he just needs to gain some control which I think he will, and I'm feeling a bounce back season for him. John Maine and Livan Hernandez round out the rotation. I like Maine even though the last 2 seasons he had good first halfs but seems to fall off in the second half (which seems to fit in well with the rest of the Mets). I think he will put together a full season and wind up being the second best pitcher that they have. Livan Hernandez is awful, just plain bad, but I don't see him lasting there the whole season. If he can just limit his suckiness then the Mets will be OK until they find someone to replace him.

The Mets have the best left side of the infield in NY. I would take David Wright and Jose Reyes over Arod and Captain Jetes. Wright gets better by the second, and he should have won the MVP in '07 and he should have finished higher than seventh last year. With the Mets falling off in September people assume it's Wright's fault because he is their best player, but if you look at '07 and '08 he had great Septembers. In '07 his line was .352/.432/.602 and last season was .340/.416/.577. I'm pretty sure he wasn't the reason the Mets missed the playoffs, but of course voters must have thought it was his fault with the likes of Manny Ramirez and C.C. Sabathia finishing ahead of him in MVP voting last season (even though they played the first four months of the season in a different league). Along with Wright they have Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Ryan Church, Daniel Murphy and you're looking at a well balanced line up 1-6.

Up next: Washington Nationals