NL East

Like The Who said, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Technically, your New York Mets have yet to officially name Sandy Alderson as the new General Manager, but that’s mostly out of respect for the World Series than anything else. Mets fans everywhere can rejoice as the hiring of Alderson is set to start a whole new era of Metropolitan baseball.

Or is it?

The Mets are closer to being a contending team than you may think.  The incoming GM could make these simple and, perhaps more importantly, cheap changes to have them competing next year and for years to come.

When the Atlanta Braves 2010 came to a close a couple weeks back at the hands of the eventual National League Champion San Francisco Giants, there was a lot of mourning at the Britt (that's me) household.

I was resigned to filling out college applications and (gasp) putting school over baseball for a couple of weeks as I bitterly refused to watch the LCS's for the thought of what might of been had Chipper Jones, Martin Prado, Billy Wagner and Kris Medlen been good-to-go for the first round of the playoffs.

What's that?

ESPN.com, citing an unnamed source, is reporting that the New York Mets have chosen Sandy Alderson as their next General Manger and the announcement could come as soon as this Friday, between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series.

After his red-pinstriped heroics of last season, Phillies fans were hoping that Clifton Phifer (Cliff) Lee would be back pitching Game 1 in the 2010 World Series.  After all, didn't the new Phillies pitcher dazzle the baseball world—and endear himself to Phillies Nation—with his performance in Yankees Stadium in last year's Fall Classic?

Well, we got our wish.  Sort of.

In case you may have forgotten, here are the "Cliff Notes" for the 2009 World Series.   

After a long process, the Mets have cut their search for a new general manager down to two candidates, neither of which is a surprise to anybody.

Josh Byrnes and Sandy Alderson have been favorites for the job ever since the Mets' offseason began.  Some people like Byrnes and some people like Alderson, but it all matters on who the Mets like.  This week, the Mets are interviewing Byrnes and Alderson for the second and last time. 

Making it to the World Series is the goal of every player and team. But not all World Series participants are created equal.

Whether it be a team peaking at just the right time, or simply a down year in the league, there have been plenty of teams in the fall classic that seemingly shouldn't have made it.

So, in light of the underdog Rangers and Giants making the World Series, let's take a look at the worst teams of all time to have played in the World Series.

Without the benefit of a Farmer's Almanac or sophisticated meteorological computer modeling, it is clear that it will be a long, cold winter in Philadelphia.  

When New York Mets' former first-round draft choice Brad Holt is good, he's capable of shutting down offenses at will. When he's bad, well, he's "3-14 with an 8.34 ERA" awful.

Holt, the 33rd overall pick of the 2008 draft, was considered by upper management to be one of the best starting pitchers in the entire Mets system heading into 2010. But his terrible campaign with Double-A Binghamton was made even worse when his struggles continued with Class-A St. Lucie.