NL East

I find headlines like "Phillies stun Yankees in World Series Game One" comical because the Yankees are not the team to beat. It's almost like last year when the Tampa Bay Rays went through the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox on their way to the World Series.

The Rays were never given a chance to beat the Red Sox after taking out the White Sox. Yet, if you were listening to the broadcast, you would automatically assume that the Rays were the wild card team and that the Red Sox had won the American League East.

So, I’ve been trying this week to actually write some insightful columns and conduct some interviews, both for the folks over at CBS and here. In addition to that, I’ve been accumulating a tremendous amount of notes that I’ve slipped into various columns or interviews.

However, not everything made the cut, or fit, or whatever. So, just for the sake of having everything in one place, or in case this is the only Web site you go to on your Internet machine, let’s review the events from the last few days:

After what has seemed like an eternity since the end of the ALCS, the World Series is finally ready to get underway later tonight.

On paper, I can't say that a Yankees-Phillies matchup is one that will go down in history as one of the greatest playoff rivalries, but I'm sure some people probably thought the very same thing about the 2001 World Series between the Diamondbacks and the Yankees.

This review was originally published on www.stadiumjourney.com.

When the Florida Marlins began their existence as a Major League franchise in 1993, it seemed as though the league had expanded to a perfect market. There was a diverse community of baseball lovers waiting to soak up the sun and take in a ball game.

The Mets need an everyday left fielder—on that we can agree—but the question of who Omar Minaya will make the effort to acquire and who he is willing to give up in the process is what fans are concerned about this winter.

Free agent acquisitions are obviously a big issue with the winter meetings in December, but trade opportunities will no doubt also present themselves, and Minaya needs to be aggressive but not further deplete the Mets' anemic farm system in the process.

Any other season, Atlanta Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson would be the top pitching candidate for National League Rookie of the Year.

But this year, he isn't likely to win the award. Why? Because he's going up against Philadelphia Phillies pitcher J.A. Happ, who, quite simply, isn't a rookie.

Perhaps the biggest factor impacting Hanson is that he only entered the scene for the final four months of the season. Happ pitched in 35 games. Hanson pitched in only 21.

With the news coming out over the weekend that the Detroit Tigers do not intend on bringing back slugger, Aubrey Huff , next season; the Mets now have another potential candidate to play first base next season.