K-Rod did not say this to take a shot against the other teams in the NL East, he said this to express optimism and confidence in his team. He made sure to clarify that.

But I will say that saying “team to beat” may have been a poor choice of words

I agree, you are not classless or clueless. I will rephrase, many Mets fans are; but you can see my comment on the other board about my compliment to you (which I do not give many Mets fans).

this “team to beat” crap is annoying… it got old as soon as Beltran said it. Whoever wins it the year before, is the team to beat…. out of the NL East, it should be the Phillies or Mets again.. but could easily be the Braves or Marlins too

K-Rod is THE most overrated pitcher in all of baseball

I think that if they resign Moyer, they have a better team going into next year than they did starting 2008.

Madson will be the establised set-up man with loads of confidence, Ibanez is a better hitter than Burrell in my opinion. Werth won’t have to press as much, knowing that he is a starter and not fighting to impress and to earn more playing time… and Hamels, Myers, Moyer, Blanton, Happ/Park/Carrasco.. is MUCH better than a rotation that counted on Eaton and Kendrick to get the job done.

Pleased for Maitheson who if he does reclaim his form will be very controllable going into his prime.

K-Rod is exactly the kind of pumped up macho baby the Mets want to parade to their fans, it’s no suprise he’s the one to come out on behalf of the Mets because that’s the kind of guy he seems to be. Cheap laugh maybe from Cole but K-Rod has constantly parading around like a rooster and frankly no-once cares what’s said in this war of words unless someone actually has something valuable to say… Plus it was about as spontanous and unexpected as a pregnant woman giving birth, very classy K-Fraud.

. . . and their come back? “Your classless!”

Nice.

Mets fans cite things such as “Shane Victorino is worse than Reyes with his dancing” or “Jimmy Rollins always holds two number one fingers up when he gets a hit”.

1.) Shane Victorino doesn’t dance at all. The worst thing he has ever done was the “number 1″ finger thing when he smacked a homer. But the Phillies ragged on him stating that only Jose Reyes is that classless.

and 2.) Jimmy Rollins is praising the Lord every time he gets a hit. How could that be misconstrued with anything else?

Idiots.

burnett is damaged goods…sabathia is about to be damaged goods, and if they sign teixera, well hes good buit not worth the money he is asking for…

also, when you win a championship, the hardest thing to do is keep a team together…usually they all leave for huge contracts,,the phillies are lucky that burrells the biggest name they lost..everyone else is under contract/control. so why go “all out” when most of our team is intact and you only need to plug one or two more holes after these signings?

just get someone whos solid in there to fill out the rotation, and theyll be fine…it could be moyer, or lowe at the right price, or a trade, whatever…

i will agree that i think most of these people have become completely insane..they acted like we never won the WS and like they still havent won and they need to be the yankees…relax, the yankees will not win anything this year again..because spending INSANE money on free agents isnt the way you win championships in 2008 and beyond…maybe in the 90s, but not anymore..

if you spend big money , you spend it on your OWN players like cole hamels…

I think you people are starting to get crazy in the head with the Phillies needs right now.. Pitching and Defense win you Championships… the only person we lost defensively was the guy that we had to replace at the end of games because he’s so slow.. and the only pitchers we’ve lost so far are Tom Gordon, and Rudy Seanez…neither of whom helped us win the World Series.

We added Ibanez who hits for higher average, and more RBIs than Burrell… and Park, who will either help the team, or not… but at $1 or 2 Million, its a risk worth taking, because it doesn’t hurt you financially if it backfires

Next thing you know you have a team full of $15,000,000 players, and $500,000 players..and nobody in between… and you are the NY Yankees… and when you realize that the old players are signed to terrible contracts (Johnny Damon, Giambi, Pavano, etc)… and that the young players can’t hack it yet (Melky Cabrera, Phillip Hughes) you have no options other than to try to trade your overpriced players, while being forced to eat most of their salaries anyway, and then pray like hell that Joba Chamberlin and Phillip Hughes are the real deal..

Oh, AND… sign Sabathia, and Burnett, and maybe Teixiera… and start the whole mess over again..

I’d like to see us increase payroll to $130 M… keep our fan-favorite homegrown guys are fair market contracts, and be able to land some good free agents.. but as long as they are only spending a set amount on payroll, we need them to not overspend on aging veterans because then we won’t have the money to sign Victorino, and Werth, and whoever else to long-term deals