K-Rod Tempts Fate By Boasting Of New York Mets Forthcoming Division Title, 3+ Months Before Season Starts

Fans of the New York Mets, rejoice! Francisco Rodriguez, a.k.a. K-Rod, hasn’t been in New York for a week, and he’s already running his mouth about his team’s expected success.
In a conference call over the weekend, K-Rod showed zero humility and declared that the Mets will absolutely be the team to beat in the NL East next season, despite the presence of the World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies.
Hmmm…if memory recalls, the Mets were the “team to beat” coming into the last two seasons, as well. How’d that work out?

“Of course, we’re going to try to win the division. Of course, we’re going to be the front-runner. Of course, we’re going to be the team to beat,” he said Saturday.

Four days after agreeing to a $37 million, three-year contract, K-Rod was confident the Mets will put consecutive September collapses behind and overtake the World Series champion Phillies in ruling the NL East.

“I don’t want there to be a controversy or the other ballclubs in that division to take it personally or take it in a bad way,” he said. “If they ask me, ‘Oh, which ballclub is going to win the National League East?’ It’s going to be the Mets. Easy question.”

While we would never expect K-Rod, or any other player on any team, not to extol the virtues of their own club, they usually don’t provide opposing clubs with locker room wall motivational pieces this far in advance of Opening Day.
Last week, Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels called the Mets “choke artists” on sports radio in New York. Harsh? Maybe, but at least he has two years of actual evidence, each featuring epic chokejobs late in the season that cost the Mets the playoffs, to back him up.
K-Rod offers no similar evidence to predict the Mets future victories, other than his own bravado. And it usually takes more to win the division than just that.
K-Rod on the Mets: ‘We’re going to be the team to beat’ [USA Today]
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