Mets and Yankees Commentary - by Marc N. '06

Coming into the 2005 season, the two New York City baseball teams, the Yankees and the Mets, were seemingly headed in the same direction. The Yankees seemed to be a much stronger team than the one that had almost carried the franchise to yet another World Series. They had fixed the team’s lone weakness by picking up two young starters in Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright, and the best starting pitcher in baseball, Randy Johnson. With one of the most powerful lineups in baseball, and a rebuilt pitching staff, what could go wrong?
But the Yankees have many problems, most prominently the age of the team. On a team where the youngest projected starting position player on team would be twenty-nine years old, the dangers of an aging team were all there. Unfortunately, for Yankee fans, the dangers of an old team have hit, with declining performances from Johnson (41), Jason Giambi (34), Bernie Williams (36), Hideki Matsui (31), Mike Mussina (36), Jorge Posada (34), Kevin Brown (39) and injuries another shoulder injury to Wright (who has had one full, healthy season in 7 years), the Yankees are the major leagues most expensive disappointment. With a payroll exceeding two hundred million dollars, many of the more expensive contracts staying on for at least another year or more, the Yankees are a below .500 team with many holes and little hope.
On the other side of New York, the New York Mets are in the thick of the race for the NL East, only 1.5 games behind the first place Nationals. In an off-season where one hundred and seventy million dollars were spent on the two top free agents, Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran, along with an exciting infusion of young talent in the infield with David Wright and Jose Reyes, Mets fans had some hope. Unlike the Yankees, the Mets have gotten what they paid for. Beltran is hitting .293, while Pedro Martinez has been the best starting pitcher in baseball so far, posting a 2.45 ERA while striking out 104 hitters in 88 innings pitched. Not only that, David Wright is hitting .303 with a .523 slugging percentage, establishing himself as one of the best young players in the game and a definite keeper for the Mets to build around.
The Mets seem to be heading in the direction the championship Yankee teams of the late 90’s, great young talent infused with solid to great veteran talent. The Yankees on the other hand, are right on their way to becoming a more expensive version of the Mets before this year, filled with unhappy, aging veterans making fat paychecks.