The difference between the Mets and Phillies in 2008

This post is about 1.5 months too late. David Wright and Jose Reyes could've used it when everyone wanted their heads on a platter following the final game of the season. I think calmer heads have prevailed, and Met fans generally realize that trading one of the "core" (Wright, Reyes, and Carlos Beltran) would be unnecessary and stupid. I present the hitting, starting pitching, and relief pitching stats for the Mets and Phillies in 2008. The Phillies postseason stats are not counted:

To summarize:
a) The Mets and Phillies scored the exact same number of runs.
b) The Mets starting pitchers were slightly better than the Phils', and pitched a few more innings.
c) The Phils' bullpen was far superior to the Mets' bullpen.

The Phillies had a great bullpen, made the playoffs, and won the World Series. They were praised as "gritty" and "determined" and whatever other meaningless adjective you want use. The Mets had a garbage bullpen and missed the playoffs for the 2nd straight year. They were branded "choke artists" and "un-clutch" and "TRADE REYES HE DANCES TOO MUCH OMG OMG" and "TRADE WRIGHT HE ISN'T CLUTCH THIS TEAM NEEDS A SHAKEUP."

This all said - go out and improve that pitching staff Omar Minaya!