We’re 10 days from opening day and some things with the Mets are ready to go and some are a work in progress and others are just some old farts healing. I love the headline in Adam Rubin’s Daily News story today: METS ARE VULNERABLE TO LEFITIES. And I’m vulnerable to blonde women with shapely asses. It’s just stating the obvious the question is what to do about it? The ansewer may lie with an ex-Highlander, Andy Phillips, still hanging in there at Reds camp and a maybe soon to be ex-Highlander Morgan Ensberg who is making Pee Wee Cashman spend sleepless nights deciding which extra infielder to keep. If either one gets cut, Omar needs to pounce at once and corral one. At this point, I’d take Ensberg over Phillips.

 

So where is the room for the righty bat? Hey this is why Omar is the big cheese around here and by hiring so many elderly baseball players he created this problem.

 

Here are my picks of players who will call Flushing home for 2008

 

Position Players:

 

Delgado (for better or worse)

Castillo (and his electric scooter)

Reyes (more mature?)

Wright (The Golden Boy)

Chavez (stretch those hammys)/Pagan (Platoon Partner)

Beltran (old aches and pains)

Church (I have not seen enough yet to make a wise crack)

 

Catchers

 

Schnieder (the lefty entry)

Castro ((the righty entry)

  

Add these ten to the 12 man pitching staff (I’ll get to them in a minute) that leaves three spots on the bench.

 

One spot goes to Damien Easley who to me is very much underrated. He can play any where in the infield and he has that all important right handed bat. Ruben Gotay gets a spot as well more for his bat than his glove, in fact if it weren’t for his ankle injury, I would have loved to see him work out at a corner spot in the outfield. That leaves one more spot.

 

Marlon Anderson is a Willie fav and if he were right handed there would be no question about him making the team but the Mets desperatley need not only a righty stick but someone to play first base on a part time basis. That’s why Anderson unfortunately has to be collateral damage here and be given his release and hope that Morgan Ensberg falls in our lap.    

   

 

The pitching staff has a little more clarity. The starting five is strong and stellar:

 

Santana (worth every de-valued American dollar he was signed for)

Petey (Rembrandt in baseball uni)

Maine (20 Wins? Anyone want Kris Benson back? HA, HA, HA, HA, HA)

Perez (Ollie wake up and sign a contract extent ion)

Pelfrey (What’s that Jay Black? It’s Now or Never? Yes we know)

 

The bullpen has both quantity and quality. We will go from the back to the front:

 

Wagner (looks outstanding this spring, I think he even bought Willie coffee one morning)

Heilman (This is his niche)

Wise (flying under the radar 1BB 8K in 8IP)

Feliciano (You’re more than a LOOGY to me Pedro Lite)

Register (STOLEN BY OMAR!!!!!!!!!!!)

Schoenwiess (The real LOOGY here)

Sosa (is SHWING? Or Swing Man?)

 

OK I know what your saying where’s El Duque and Dirty Duaner? They’re on the DL in extended spring training as the pen and overall pitching staff is as deep as a James Joyce Classic , so why rush back these two wounded warriors? Let’s see if Register is as good as he has shown this spring and he has shown a nasty fastball. Let’s throw Pelfrey in the deep end of the pool without his swimmies and make him perform. If everything goes as planned then you have  precious commodities to trade with but then again these are the Mets so watch out for falling rocks.   

 

 

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