braves just werent very good, there a year older , their staff is long in the tooth and unkown back end…. the loss of jones is huge…. and texiera and glavine are not enough to overcome.. the age , bullpen and bench….. they also lost renteria and while the kid looks good he’s got growing pains of a full season to overcome..

phils…. losing rowand is so much more than most are giving credit for..victorrino is not in any way shape or form the equal of rowand in many many ways… 1 game better than a met team in meltdown… they have done nothing to get better……. nothing…

the mets will dominate ….

Meanwhile, the Phillies may have upgraded their #2 starter in Myers, but, it remains to be seen if Lidge can equal Myers’ production as closer. The outfield dropped, due to the loss of Rowand, since I don’t see Jenkins being as productive, and his defense is worse than Victorino’s, while replacing Rowand with Victorino is at best a wash. They upgraded the defense at 3rd. And, 3-5 in the rotation is a crapshoot.

Meanwhile, it took until game 160 to get the Mets out of 1st place. They’ve upgraded defensively in RF and catcher, and should get better production in RF by adding Church and subtracting Green. They’ve subtracted the God-awful Mota from the pen. ON top of all of this, they’ve added the BEST PITCHER IN BASEBALL THE PAST FIVE SEASONS. In a supposed down year, he won 15 games, struck out 235 batters and had an ERA of 3.33…in a better hitters league, and in ballparks not nearly as pitcher friendly as Shea.

Frankly, the Phillies and Braves have teams capable of winning 87-89 games; the Mets have a team capable of winning 97-100 games. Don’t be shocked if the Mets win the division by double digits, especially, if we see players with variables, such as Pelfrey, Church, Maine and Perez, have the arrow go up, or Sanchez returns healthy, or a surprise like an Eddie Kunz helps to strengthen the bullpen.

now, considering they both bat second, and that you want your #2 hitter to get on or move your #1 hitter over, than castillo is better. johnston struck out 117 times to castillo’s 45.

now if your talking power than its without question johnston but you do not need power form the #3 spot in your order. your power bats are 3-6.

r u that other moron who always has something negative to say about the wilpons not speanding moeny??cause last i looked, they set a record for paying a pitcher.

point of the story….everyone hates when the best team gets even better. were going to win 95-98 games this year boys. get your tickets to shea!

watch this team digress

if he had pitched his whole career the way he did for the mets he wouldnt have 300 wins or even he talked about in the same sentence than as the hall of fame.

honestly glavine is no better than livan hernandez. they both have an 85 mph fastball and work off there breaking pitches. the only thing thats good about both is that they eat innings but again, there not good innings

replacing glavine with santana has to be minimum 5-6 wins.

replacing shaun green with ryan church has to be worth 4-5 wins. remember shaun had a good april and may and thats about it. plus he has no range and i can remember plenty of balls shaun (my hat falls off every time i run) green. church is far superior as an all around player, his hitting is very close.