Have you ever broken up with a significant other and then run into their ex? There's a weird sense of camaraderie there -- a bond formed by a shared trauma. You might not like your ex's ex, but that doesn't break the bond.
Welcome, New York Mets. Hey, remember that Armando Benitez guy? What was that about?
The Mets are currently in first place, but that's only because they don't play in a powerhouse division like the NL West, where they would be tied for second place with the Giants. Like the Nationals, the Mets have about five or six hitters who would hit in the middle of the order for the Giants, including Luis Castillo.
Pitcher to watch:
Remember how the Giants were absolutely befuddled by Eric Stults? "Man, this guy throws left-handed, he changes speeds, hits his spots, and throws a slightly above-average change up. I'm sure glad that guy's gone." Uh, yeah. Watching Johan Santana pitch against the Giants is going to be pure comedy gold. Fred Lewis just struck out against him as you were reading this. And if th...whoops, Lewis just struck out again.
There have been only 17 perfect games in the history of baseball, so it would be silly to suggest that Santana is guaranteed to pitch the 18th. He'll probably get someone to strike out on a ball in the dirt, and the ball will then skip by the catcher. So a single baserunner isn't that far-fetched. But the Giants might as well go up to the plate with a sock full of quarters in place of a bat. Because when you break a bat, what do you get? Shards of wood and sharp projectiles. When you break a sock full of quarters, what do you get? A quarter piñata, baby. And that's way more fun.
Hitter to watch:
Carlos Beltran.
writes on one side of 3x5 card: "Signing superstar, 27-year-old position players to huge deals: Good."
writes on other side of 3x5 card: "Signing non-superstar, 29-year-old pitchers to huge deals: Bad."
Sure, hindsight is 20/20. But at the end of the day, the reluctance to kick Beltran's tires and do some due diligence led to Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand. Zito's looking a little better of course, but it's still worth remembering when Beltran does something in this series that Aaron Rowand could do only in a work of crappy fan fic. It's entirely possible, if not likely, that Beltran wouldn't have come to the Giants even if the team offered him $20M more than the Mets. But if armchairing GMing is like internet baseball sex, logic is like thinking about your parents doin' it. Get that stuff out of here.
Grant's Archived Fantasy Tip (March, 2009):
Oliver Perez is a real sleeper this year, but he has a good shot to put it all together. Nab him in the middle rounds while the other owners are sleeping. I did, and I'm not looking back.
Predicition:
Our Bobby Jones demons will not be exorcised.
Four-game series are kind of fun. I wish there were more of them.
How the other half lives: