Musings: Phillies vs. Mets

Thoughts going into the Mets biggest series of the year…

The Mets go into this series 3 games up and have won 10 of 15 against the Phillies this season. However this doesn’t make me feel at ease.

While I think being able to add 15 new players to a team in September is absurd, the added bodies, most notably the added arms, is huge for Jerry Manuel. He was already nursing his way through the late innings with what I call “the most exciting bullpen in baseball”. Now he’s almost to the point where he can use a reliever per out before he goes to Luis Ayala or whoever is the closer of the day.

Speaking of Ayala, he certainly fits right in with the rest of the bullpen. It’s to the point where I don’t even get scared anymore at the end of the game. Drama at the end of games is just a way of life for Mets fans.

Picking up Matt Stairs was a good move for Philly. He’s a good weapon to have coming of the bench late in the game.

For some reason, Jayson Werth scares the crap out of me. Maybe it’s because in 14 games against the Mets the season he’s batting .327 with a slugging percentage of .510.

At every opportunity, the Mets should:

• Pitch around Pat Burrell and to go after Ryan Howard

• Brush Burrell back, just because he’s annoying.

• Keep Aaron Heilman (7.00 ERA, 3 Homeruns allowed in 9 innings vs Philadelphia) out of the game as much as possible.

I despise all the usual subjects on the Phillies: Rollins, Burrell, Victorino, etc. But J.C. Romero is starting to move right into that elite class of annoying Phillies players.

Bad job by Major League Baseball with scheduling this series at the start of September. Obviously they can’t predict how the pennant races will shake out, but it makes more sense to hedge your bets and have rivals close the season against each other. At the very least, you ensure a decent attendance at the end of the season.

Prediction: Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran have big series for the Mets. Rollins and Werth play well for Philadelphia. Ryan Howard continues to show how overrated he is.  Both bullpens have meltdowns. One of the Manuels gets tossed from a game, both teams at some point celebrate just a little too much.  Mets win the series 2-1, with Santana winning the last game of the series 7-4.