Regular Season Game 3-Marlins at Mets Part II

I decided to break up the lineups section and the notes section, I thought it would be too much and I think I will continue to do this for all of the game posts. The Mets and Marlins won't see each other again until May 13-16th when they will play a 4 game series in Florida. The Mets 4 full season minor league clubs will open up tonight. Jose Reyes played 5 innings yesterday in a minor league intrasquad game. He went 1-5 and is eligible to come off of the DL on Sat. I would expect to see him with the club on that day. The only other players to have homered more frequently as a catcher other then Rod Barajas are Jorge Posada and Brian McCann. Barajas does it 1 time every 25.3 at bats. This info comes courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau. David Wrights first inning homerun was only the third such homerun in the Mets 49 yr history. Darryl Strawberry and Howard Johnson are the only other 2 Mets to accomplish that, thanks again to Elias. The Mets have the most foreign born players on their opening day roster. They have 18 such players from 7 different countries.

Welcome to Opening Day

The New York Mets begin their 2010 season at 1:00PM today at home against the Florida Marlins. Baseball is back and what can be better then that. The ace of the staff Johan Santana will take the mound going up against Josh Johnson. Here are the pregame notes I have from the Mets media notes. The Mets are set to open up their 49th season in the National League. They are 31-17 on Opening Day. This is the best winning percentage in baseball on opening day. Johan Santana will make his 5th opening day start and 3rd straight with the Mets. He is 3-1 with a 4.07 era on opening day and won his last 2 with the Mets. The Mets have never opened the season at home against Florida. They have played them twice in Florida to start the season in 1999 and 2008. This is the first time the Mets have opened at home since 2006 and 25th time overall they have opened at home. They are 17-7 in those openers, they are also 17-2 in their last 19 opening days at home. The pregame ceremonies will include renaming the brige beyond the right-centerfield wall Shea bridge. The 4 troops will do the national anthem and God Bless America and Darryl Strawberry will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Mets Lineup: Cora(SS) Castillo(2B) Wright(3B) Jacobs(1B) Bay(LF) Matthews(CF) Francoeur(RF) Barajas(C) Santana(P)

Mets News and Notes for Sunday

Jose Reyes said today that he met with the FBI on Thursday. The reason for that meeeting was his association with Dr. Tony Galea who is under investigation for drug violations. Jose Reyes said he wasn't worried because he knows he hasn't done anything wrong. He said basically he took my blood out, spun it in a machine and then put it back in his leg. He said the FBI told him there should be no problem with him. Mike Puma of the New York Post had a article on Jason Bay in todays paper. Jason Bay stated that he would like to improve on his 267 batting average from last season. He said he feels he is a 275 or 280 hitter. He said strikeouts are part of his game and he used to get upset by them but not anymore. He said as long as he is doing the other things he is ok with the strikeouts. David Lennon has a report for Newsday about Jeff Francoeur. He stated that he feels that his performance over the last 2 months of 2009 will carry into 2010. Darryl Strawberry has taken a special interest in him this spring and said he is on the verge of a breakthrough season. Strawberry said he should be a 25 homerun and 90-100 rbi a season guy.

Recap of the day in Mets Camp

Jenrry Mejia threw live batting practice today. He was wild but Jerry Manuel was impressed with the natural cut on his fastball. Jon Niese and R.A. Dickey also threw batting practice and according to SNY producer Matt Dunn, Niese was happy to just be throwing again. The team had a media training this morning and Darryl Strawberry, John Franco and Mookie Wilson all spoke during the meeting. The Mets announced their will be a interleague game on Monday and Nelson Figueroa will open the grapefruit league on Tuesday. Arturo Lopez has cleared waivers and will return to camp as a non roster invitee. Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News is reporting the Mets have made an offer to lefty reliever Joe Beimel. Top prospect Ike Davis is drawing a lot of buzz around camp. Jerry Manuel said today he envisions a opening day lineup of Angel Pagan, Luis Castillo,Jose Reyes,Jason Bay, David Wright, Daniel Murphy, Jeff Francouer and Rod Barajas. He said he could flip flop Bay and Wright. He said he thinks Ike Davis would best be served down in the minors. I agree with this you don't want to rush the kid, he is the first baseman of the future, you have to be patient with him and let him develop. He also said he thought Luis Castillo had a good year last year despite the dropped pop up agains the Yankees and expects him to be good this year. To see some video and photos of todays action in Port St. Lucie visit here

New York Mets/ St Louis Cardinals

The New York Mets got spanked today by the St Louis Cardinals 15-4. Freddy Garcia got the start and looks to be done as he didn't fare well once again going 2 innings giving up 4 runs on 3 hits with 1 bb and 3k's. He gave up 2 homers. He was the only Met pitcher of note. On the offensive side of things Luis Castillo went 0-3, after a hot start he has cooled off, Daniel Murphy went 1-3. Angel Pagan who is having a great spring again trying to make the team went 1-1 with a bb and 2 rbis. Ryan Church went 1-2 with a walk. The Mets will take on the Nationals tomorrow in a away game. The other news out of Mets camp today was Darryl Strawberry said that he would of used steroids if they would of been as prevalent when he was young and stupid. He said he loves Arod and that he is glad he stood up and admitted it. He said its not fair to pick on one guy and that he is taking the bullet for everyone, that should be enough for him.