Chipper picks Mets as champs, admires stacked rotation
Chipper Jones destroyed New York Mets pitching for 19 seasons while playing for the Atlanta Braves, but he's envious of the young stable of hurlers the modern New York club will roll out for the 2016 season.
Jones, now a special assistant with the rebuilding Braves, had nothing but good things to say about the division-rival Mets during an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Tuesday.
"The blueprint is kind of like what the New York Mets are doing right now," Jones said. "It's hard to come up with three or four guns like the Mets have, whether it's (Matt) Harvey or (Jacob) deGrom, (Zack) Wheeler coming back, (Noah) Syngergaard, the lefty (Steven) Matz, they have an entire rotation that lives at 94-95 (mph) and has an idea what they're doing with their breaking stuff.
"They're really setting the bar, and I think they're my early season pick to go all the way. Having made it to the World Series last year, just coming up short. I think they'll probably be the early-season favorite to push over the top this year."
Jones took it a step further, suggesting the Braves need to revert to the model that produced 11 consecutive National League East titles from 1995-2005.
"That's the way I would want to build it," Jones added. "The Braves' success in the early 90s all started with (Tom) Glavine, (John) Smoltz, (Steve) Avery, (Greg) Maddux, and (Denny) Neagle. It was hard to beat our rotation in the early 90s, because you knew you'd probably have to beat two of those guys, if not all three in a big series. When you have that kind of star power at the top of the rotation - three first-ballot Hall of Famers - a lot of times you're going to have the game won before the game even starts."
Jones hit .309/.406/.543 with 49 homers and 159 RBIs in 245 career games against the Mets.