Phillies 2007 NL East champs (Scranton, Oliver: credit, house, layoffs) - Northeastern Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania (PA) -Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pocono area - City-Data Forum

Mr Yuk · 10-01-2007, 09:36 AM

There has never been a more fun team to watch than the 2007 Phillies (right up there with the 93 team)....despite injuries and some pitching adversity this team never gave up. Likewise, it also fun to watch the Mets choke. I loved these headlines from the NY papers:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10012007/frontback.htm (broken link)

KristyLiz · 10-01-2007, 10:19 AM

It was a great game!

NEPA-x-pat · 10-02-2007, 07:24 AM

Phillie fan here in Virginia! This has been a great year. What heart the team displayed. Gotta love them. GO PHILLIES!

ScrantontoHoboken · 10-02-2007, 08:08 AM

As a former NEPA'er, I'm happy for the Phillies, but I am SOO DISSAPOINTED about the Mets!! How the mightly have fallen...in one short month. If I had my pick, I'd much rather the Mets be in the playoffs/WS than the Yankees (if you had to pick on NY team). So now I'll be rooting for the Phillies.

Mr Yuk · 10-02-2007, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScrantontoHoboken

As a former NEPA'er, I'm happy for the Phillies, but I am SOO DISSAPOINTED about the Mets!! How the mightly have fallen...in one short month. If I had my pick, I'd much rather the Mets be in the playoffs/WS than the Yankees (if you had to pick on NY team). So now I'll be rooting for the Phillies.

I hate the Yankees, but you know what, the Yankees really played hard and with heart in the second half...they were 13 games out and left for dead at one point. While the Mets showed a total lack of heart and hustle. I'd be really ticked off if I was a Mets fan. I would say its time to clear house on that team. I'd keep Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Maine, and Pedro...and get rid of the rest of them. Carlos Delgado summed it up a few weeks ago when he said they were "bored."

So as much I usually dislike the Yankees, I give them credit this year. Plus, for once, it really wasn't the high-priced free agents and trades that made the difference this year...it was the young guys like Cabrera, Chamberlain, Wang, Hughes, etc.

I would really love a Phils-Yanks world series. I want the Phils to beat the best.

WasPA · 10-02-2007, 08:25 AM

^^^ Less than a month Scranton/Hoboken....it was a 7 game Met advantage on Sept. 12, if I recall correctly ( and often don't....heh).

I would never have imagined this outcome as of early/mid Sept.......in fact I was ready to swear off the Phils for good.......

Willemite · 10-04-2007, 01:01 AM

Congats to the Phils and their fans. Best of luck in the playoffs.

I have been a Mets fan since the beginning, 1962, and will remain one until my personal end, so the season was a bitter disappointment. But as someone who followed the team closely all season I believe that an emphasis on the late season collapse overlooks the character of the season as a whole.

Most analysts I read prior to the season thought that the Mets would take the division, but that they were not as strong a team as the 2007 version. That turned out to be the case. The 2007 Mets were never the dominant team of 2006, even though some players may have mistakenly thought they were. After getting off to a pretty good start in April and May, the team seemed to disappear, going 4 and 14 over the first few weeks in June. They were 13 and 14 for the month of July and a mere 15 amd 13 for August. Many times over the season they had opportunities to widen their lead as neither the Phils nor the Braves seemed all that interested in catching them. The malaise that was the 2007 campaign was not the result purely of a late season iceberg encountering their rushing Titanic. It was more like a slow leak that they were able to bale successfully until it grew just a bit too fast for them to keep up with. Consider that in this so-called disastrous final month they were a five hundred team, 14 and 14.

As with many other teams, including the Phils, the Mets suffered a large number of injuries, having their entire starting outfield, plus two backup outfielders on the DL at the same time. Jose Valentin, last year's surprise at second base, coming off a major comeback in 2006, succumbed to season-ending injury. His backup, Damian Easley, also went down. Moises Alou, who was a remarkably effective offensive force when he played, spent a huge portion of the season on the DL. And an aging Carlos Delgado, hampered by age and declining skills as much as by injury, had a very lackluster year. Paul Loduca, a scrappy and effective catcher spent some DL time this year as did his backup, Ramon Castro, much of it at the same time. The Mets had to make do with third tier backups behind the plate far too often. In addition, while some of the kids the team brought up did well enough, none of them announced to the world by their performance that they were ready for stardom.

The Mets were taking chances with a pitching staff that was both too old and too young. While Glavine performed well for the most part, final game excepted, El Duque was troubled with injury for much of the season, and Pedro Martinez pitched pretty well in the few games in which he appeared in September, but contributed nothing for the season prior to that. John Main was not half bad but has not yet arrived in terms of consistency, and you never knew until the game began which Oliver Perez would show up, the one who might flirt with a no-hitter, or the one who would need a compas to find home plate. There was a steady stream of ineffective number four or five starters throughout the season. Our rookie hope, Mike Pelfrey, was a huge disappointment early and was sent back to Triple A until September call-ups.

Lest Phillie fans or any other fans take this as making excuses for the Mets, that is not at all my intent. They were an amazingly talented team, and should have taken the division, despite the injuries. My point is that I believe the general view of the team that they "collapsed" in the final days of September does not tell the true story of the 2007 Mets. They did not lose the division purely by having a crappy final month or week or game. The signs were there from early in the season that their division crown was available for the taking. The Mets had plenty of chances to run away with the division and hide. That they failed to do so earlier in the season tells, I believe, a truer story about this team than headlines about their September demise.

I have a lot of faith in our GM and in Willie Randolph. Hopefully they can take some positive learning from this unfortunate experience, but whether they do or do not, Mets fans just have to wait 'til next year. Sigh.