Brad

Friggin Collins keeps going to Clippard. Game over

I go back to my earlier post that in pitching the Mets strength is the starting pitching and middle relief is weak. If the Royals hitters knock out a starter we are in deep trouble. I think Colon could save the day but you're asking a lot. The strong part of the Royals pitching is their middle relief and I don't think their starters are as strong. The Royals could survive a starter going down early. The Mets simply cannot. That the Mets middle relief is unpredictable at best is not a secret. I don't see this happening with Harvey but it could happen with deGrom and Matz. We will see. That's why they play the games! :)

You're probably correct about the starters. However, you can probably survive a poor start by your starters. The Mets probably cannot. That is the one advantage the Mets have in this series.

From what I've read -- and I'll admit to not seeing many of their games -- KC looks to their starters to get them at least five or six and turns it over to the pen, which is very strong, certainly much stronger than ours. Middle relief is a problem for many teams. Mets are the converse; they look to get at least six or seven from the starters and use Reed and Clippard to bridge to Familia. In the post season, Colon has been part of the bridge as Clippard has not been very effective for a month or so. If I were Collins, I'd flip Reed and Clippard but he's pretty loyal to his guys.

Lack of soda and perhaps too much candy corn has obviously turned your brain into mush. what's your pick or you just gonna bash mine Catesta is from NY so I assume he's picking the Mets.

The Royals are going to play the way that has been successful for them all year as will the Mets and it will be up to each team to try to counter what the other one does. The Mets pitchers pitch, not just try to strike you out; they know how to pitch to another team's strengths and weaknesses. That is why the Mets are here. Obviously KC has their formula: limit the damage of their SP and turn it to the bullpen, which is the Mets Achilles heel. It will probably be a long series. Mets can win on the road, something like 21-6 during the regular season in the last 27 games and 4-1 on the road. As the season wound down, they were actually better on the road than at home. As far as Murph goes, he is a good hitter: he will get you a lot of doubles and can hit to the opposite field but he is streaky. He may be on a prolonged streak or maybe it's coming to an end. However, here are a couple of interesting articles, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/sports/baseball/how-mets-coach-brought-out-daniel-murphys-power.html?ref=baseball and http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/upshot/trust-your-eyes-a-hot-streak-is-not-a-myth.html?ref=baseball Mets had -- and may still have no intention of resigning him (he's not great defensively and makes some stupid mistakes on the basepaths) -- but the fans love him (he's imperfect like the rest of us) and if he has a decent World Series, regardless of the outcome, they may have no choice. Even before the playoffs started, fans felt (myself included) that he was probably not a Met next year and that the team would miss his hitting.

I guess I'm not surprised that you guys would pick the Royals but the Royals haven't faced starting pitching like this, the best starting pitching there has been in baseball in a long time. They are not just strikeout pitchers but they can do that also. Since the trading deadline, their lineup has been one of the most explosive in baseball. Royals rotation is ok but not overwhelming. On top of this, no DH at Citi. American League teams don't do well at the National League park; heard on one of the baseball channels that since 2006, they were 8-17. Mets in 6, 7 at the worst.

That seems to cut out the fan who follows them all year Scott but I think that's always the case. I also noticed looking on Stubhub that parking passes are $500! Now, Citifield doesn't have the greatest parking situation but that's crazy. Getting out of Shea Stadium (which is now the parking lot for Citifield) was always a nightmare so I used to park in Flushing (about 5 minutes from Shea) and take the subway one stop. Had I been going to a game, that's what I would have done this time.

Don't know about KC, but prices are ridiculous for the games in NY; $700 for standing room only. Crappy seats are around $1,300. CitiField is not the largest, only seats about 42,000. Shea had around 56,000.

I think he meant either team. If the Mets don't win, the WS it will still have been a tremendous season; sure beats the last six seasons. I'm not sure the Royals would feel the same way if they lost as they went to the WS last year.

Some great players like Jon Matlack, Wayne Garrett, Gary Gentry, Amos Otis and Ken Singleton. He felt he was snubbed by M. Donald Grant, the President of the Mets, when Grant named Yogi as Manager over him when Gil Hodges (the greatest of all Mets managers in my opinion) died in 1972. He eventually left the Mets and hated them forever. Grant is the same idiot who traded Seaver.

One of my least favorite people in baseball and to think he worked for the Mets as head of player development in the 60s!

The Mets pitchers were actually running out of gas and towards the end of the season, deGrom didn't look that good; at one game I attended he got lit up pretty good. The Mets responded by skipping him a turn. They did the same with Harvey and Syndergaard. Skipping them made all the difference in the world. I don't know if the Cubs did that with Arietta. Or veteran experience? I can't believe they were swept. Would have never expected it. A big factor was that the Cubs never got a lead. They were always playing from behind and catchup the whole series. I didn't expect it but the Mets basically rolled over them.

I think the only thing this Cubs team is missing is more starting pitching. After Arietta and Lester, they are not that good. They're not even as good as the Mets fifth and sixth starters. Also Schwarber needs some work in the instructional league or offseason work on his fielding; he just didn't look good out there. Other than that, they look pretty darn good. I think the series turned when the Mets beat Arietta. I didn't expect that and was a little shocked. The number of innings he pitched this year were probably too much. You can say that this experience will help the Cubs next year -- and it should -- but as we have seen you can never guarantee you'll be back. See the Nationals experience, for example.

Reading David Halberstam's Teammates about four players on the Red Sox (Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr). Nice baseball book but more a book about four men.

That's the original Mr. Met! The original mascot and the best! Same to you Scott. I'd like to see both teams finish it up today. They're the two best teams and it should be a lot of fun, when they both get there; we don't want to jinx them.

He sounds like an ass. I've been lucky to get some of the Bee Hives over the years and can't wait to get this. Need to get on the stick!

I think MLB and Fox would be happy in that they will have one of the major markets in the WS, be it the Mets or the Cubs. However, we still have one game to go; to a man, the Mets aren't looking past the Cubs and say today is a must win game. If the Mets get in, the ratings here will be huge, not that they aren't already. Unlike past years, Yankee fans are rooting for the Mets. Met stuff is everywhere and basically that's all people want to talk about. Hard to fathom but it will be even bigger and I think that the story of the young arms and Daniel Murphy will be a great ratings draw, not to mention the Royals heading back to the WS and the comeback kids, etc. I hope the Mets (as well as KC) can wrap it up today so they can save Harvey for the opener, to be followed by deGrom and Thor (Syndergaard). As good as this pitching has been, and I've never seen anything like it, it even gets better next year when Zach Wheeler returns.

Wonder if the Blue Jays wished they could do over the Dickey trade. They could have had Syndergaard pitching for them today. Sandy Alderson fleeced them.

For me it has, but that's because my team has been in the wilderness for a long time so come what may it's been a great run.

??? Was that meant for me? I never thought I'd see the day when the Royals were the only one of the remaining four Championship Series teams to have the most recent success. Three short years ago none of the four teams remaining even had winning records. The Mets at 74-88 had the best record. That same year the Cubs lost 101 games! The turnaround started in 2013 when Harvey burst on the scene. Obviously a few of the players here now were here then (Murphy, Wright, Niese).

Bring on the Cubbies!

Astros and Rangers fans (and players, etc.) will remember this one. So close to moving on. Cardinals can say, "oh, well, we'll be back next year." Don't know if it's worse to lose like Astros did or just be blown out. Neither feels too good. Mets and Dodgers fans are starting to have sweaty palms (2.5 hours to go as we speak).

That article doesn't completely convince me, not to mention its four years old. I notice they talk about the new Yankee Stadium and it's soulless. Unlike old YS it has no personality. At at any rate new ownership has renovated or is renovating the place. Regarding last night's game, I'm not terribly optimistic about tomorrow. Bats have been generally quiet for a couple of weeks, Monday being a major exception. deGrom will need to be close to perfect to win. They may need to bring in Syndergaard at some point, with him and Colon being a bridge to Familia. No one else in that pen is trustworthy.

Neither the Cubs nor Cardinals are among my favorite teams; Cub fans still whine about 1969. However, I know that they will draw big ratings and be America's darlings. Mike Shannon? One of the worst broadcasters and biggest homers around. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. I've never been to Wrigley but places like that and Fenway are our cathedrals. Duke, a great CF and part of the trio of great CFers (along with Mays and Mantle) when NY was the center of the baseball universe. Saw him play at the old Polo Grounds.