THEY ONCE WERE METS

With the ALCS and NLCS teams set, it's time to take a look at the rosters of those teams, and figure out which players once played for the New York Mets:

BOSTON RED SOX
There are no players on the Red Sox who used to play for the Mets. This surprises me. Should it? I feel like with all the player turnover in the majors, there should be a former Met on every team. Might be an interesting experiment to find out how many rosters don't have former Mets on them.

CLEVELAND INDIANS
Paul Byrd - I really liked Byrd when he was a Met (during the lean years of 1995 and 1996). He pitched pretty well with them...then became a Brave. And it was all over for me, as far as Paul Byrd was concerned.

COLORADO ROCKIES
Kaz Matsui - It's no secret in this space that I've always liked Kaz Matsui. I always thought he was a tremendously clutch hitter. He just couldn't perform in New York...and the Rockies are reaping all the benefits.

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
Tony Clark - Same role, different team.

I'm pretty surprised how few former Mets there are in this final four. But they're all pretty east former Mets to root for, to be honest.

ONE MORE THING: Apropros of pretty much nothing, other than to draw attention to it...Rafael Betancourt is having an amazing year. I had no idea until Monday night, when he came in to pitch the eighth inning for the Indians against the Yankees, and had a pretty dominant 1-2-3 inning. Among his numbers: a 1.57 ERA, 80 strikeouts, and just 9 walks. The other numbers, which are not in my head right now, were just as impressive.

Also, as I was doing my lookover of the rosters for the former Mets, I noticed there are quite a few former Red Sox among the final four (and a whole team of current Red Sox!). Most noticeably, Trot Nixon back in Boston as a member of the Tribe, with everything on the line. Also...how about Nixon owning Roger Clemens?! He homered off him again Sunday. I only know how dominant he is against Clemens because I always used to pick him in 'Beat the Streak' when the Red Sox played the Yankees and Clemens was pitching...but he's still got it. I missed the homer live - but I hope TBS played up how great Nixon's numbers are against Clemens.