Who Wants It? Nay, Who Deserves It...

Six days remain in the 2008 Major League Baseball regular season. And while much has changed throughout the baseball landscape -- one needs only to look at the 2007 Devil Rays vs. the 2008 Rays: not just a name change, but a record change (66 wins in 2007, 93 thus far in 2008) -- it is becoming increasingly clear that much has also remained the same. Of course, I mean to say that for the second straight year, we are experiencing epic collapses by both the Milwaukee Brewers and the New York Mets, while the Philadelphia Phillies kick things into gear and snatch the division and prime postseason position.

Luckily, the Brewers were overshadowed last year by the sudden, anti-climactic fall of the Mets. But for a team that was nearly ten games ahead as the summer began reaching its proverbial dog days, the Crew somehow escaped the wrath of the mainstream sports media, probably because their payroll was microscopic in comparison to the overpaid, underachieving Metropolitans. This year, however, is a different story. Cast into the purgatory of narrowly missing the postseason for the second consecutive year despite the best efforts of the big one-two punch of Sabathia-Sheets, Milwaukee one week ago fired its manager, Ned Yost, who probably had not been the best man to make the best of his talent. I look back to last year's scuffle with Johnny Estrada for evidence. Joe Maddon, Ned Yost is not. And with his club under the microscope after the blockbuster acquisition of Sabathia, who is clearly not going to be a Brewer beyond this season, this year was the year for the Brewers to take the National League crown. Yost was not holding up his end of the bargain; now he is gone and once again, Milwaukee is pushed to the brink of elimination.

But of course, the story for the second year in a row is the tale of the New York Mets, who, miraculous comeback notwithstanding, appear to be handing over the division to the Philadelphia Phillies for the second consecutive year. This time, they have the safety net of the wild card spot, something their mediocrity was unable to afford them in 2007. But luck can only take you so far, and it seems luck is the fuel on which the Mets are running this year. With an astronomical payroll that only shot higher after the acquisition of one Johan Santana, the Mets are achieving similar unspectacular results from a mishmash of players in the twilight of their careers (Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado), those who are unable to stay healthy (Luis Castillo, Moises Alou), those who don't fully understand their role on the team (Jose Reyes), and those who are holding up their end just fine (David Wright, Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey).

And that's before we begin to talk about that bullpen, which has been acting more like a puppy pen in the last six weeks, since the sudden departure of closer Billy Wagner. With such venerable names like Aaron Heilman, Duaner Sanchez, Pedro Feliciano, and Luis Ayala, pitchers that have had measurable success in this league in years gone by, one would think that, patchwork as it may be, some combination of these veterans would be able to get three outs when it really counts. But while the starting pitching has been ranging somewhere between serviceable and stellar over these past six weeks, the bullpen has fallen somewhere between pathetic to marginally mediocre. Scott Schoeneweis, Joe Smith, and the supposed savior Brian Stokes have not been able to keep it together for long stretches, and because of that, the Mets' record has suffered. It is true that when a manager summons four, five or six guys out of the 'pen each night, not all of them are going to be successful. But then does not that fall onto the manager's shoulders, to use his pitchers prudently, to not overuse them? Mets announcers speak in jest about the number of appearances that pitchers like Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano (70 to 80 games each) have recorded, and how little-utilized is a pitcher like Scott Schoeneweis (a "mere" 60 appearances). But when a pitcher has 80 appearances under his belt in a single season and has amassed a total of just 40.1 innings, something is terribly wrong with the judiciousness with which the manager and pitching coach control the game. Warming up, then sitting down, then warming up again, then entering the game is common and expected of bullpen arms, but it should not be expected night after night after night, which is what Jerry Manuel and Dan Warthen have been doing. The bullpen is clearly the Mets' achilles heel, more so than production from second base or left field, and Manuel's use of seven or eight men each night is only exacerbating the problem. If the Mets do actually make the postseason this year, the roster will shrink from 40 to 25. No longer can you parade a dozen pitchers to the mound a night. What are you going to do about tired arms when that happens?

As much as it pains me to say this, the Phillies are clearly the better team. Despite the batting average deficiencies of players like Pat Burrell and Ryan Howard, each batting less than .250 exiting play Monday, there are plenty more players that can compensate, quality hitters like Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Jayson Werth. Their bullpen, with good, rested arms like J.C. Romero and Clay Condrey, and with the thus-far perfect Brad Lidge as far as save opportunities, this is a team kicking things into the next gear and firing on all cylinders at just the right time. I hesitate to speak as though I envy the Phillies -- Pat Burrell is always a defensive liability, Ryan Howard is always a strikeout liability, and Chase Utley is pushing 30 years old to David Wright's 26 -- but despite the Mets' efforts to stockpile as many large names as they can, rewarding them with larger than life contracts, the Phillies appear to be the team with the win-now mentality, with a core that will last them in years to come. Joe Blanton and Brett Myers prove that their starting rotation is suspect, and I do not believe Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer hold a lick to Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden in a seven-game series, but of the four National League clubs NOT from Chicago that are most likely to continue their seasons into October (Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia), it is the Phillies that seem to be most ready to take on the Cubs and the best the American League has to offer.

Getting back to the failures though, it appears our two wild card contenders are lucky; there are no other viable contenders in the National League, which means one of these underachieving units will end up "back-dooring" their way into the postseason, where they will draw the Chicago Cubs in the first round. Then, inevitably, the Cubs will dispense of them in three, perhaps four games, and we will be none the wiser. We will only see them as the wild card David that could not slay Goliath. But as far as who deserves to go deep into the postseason, it is the team from Philly and the team from Chicago that seem to be on a collision course for an epic battle for the National League pennant.