Carlos Beltran, spoke to Daily News writer Christian Red, and I’m diggin’ what he’s sayin…
To begin, Beltran weighed in on the recent comments made by Cole Hamels who said the Mets are choke artists.
“I just have to say, the Phillies did play well. They were champions last year. This year is a new year. I still believe we have a great team. If he says those words – when you say words like that, you have to back it up. So he will be watched when he faces the Mets, lets see how he does against our team.”
He also talked a little bit about expectations for the newly revamped bullpen.
“Like I said, this year’s going to be a great year. I think with the bullpen that we have – after we lost all those games last year, late in the games – this year, I don’t think that will happen with Rodriguez and J.J. Putz and the guys we have.”
Beltran also hinted that Omar Minaya should be going after Manny Ramirez, and thinks re-signing Pedro Martinez would be a good idea. I can’t say I disagree with him on both counts and I know there are many Mets fans who also agree.
One of the biggest thing that stands out from his interview with Red, was his feelings regarding his tenure with the New York Mets which as most of you know, didn’t really start off so good back in 2005.
“I was thinking about that couple days ago. I was saying, ‘Wow, I already have five years with Mets. Two more to go. Hopefully I can finish my career in New York. That’s not in my hands. That’s something the organization will decide, but I would love to finish my career there. I don’t want to move to any other city. My wife (Jessica) loves being in New York. We have a beautiful house. I have a beautiful daughter (Ivana). I don’t see myself playing in any other city. It’s like, you play in New York, where you going to play now?”
Finally, Beltran spoke out about the last two seasons and what we can expect in 2009.
“We haven’t been able to accomplish our goal as a team. Last year was a tough year for us. The year before was tougher. It’s painful, of course, because you don’t want to go through that, and we went through that two years in a row. That’s how it is. That’s baseball. We have to win. We have to prove that we’re a good team. We have to prove to every team in MLB that we are a great team and that we can win also. I believe we have the potential to win a championship.”
Amen to that, brother…
