When Sheffield hit his 500th homer, I was shocked at the huge show of love he got from the dugout. Not surprised so much by the show, but surprised at the seeming sincerity of it. Is this another one of those things where Sheffield isn’t nice to the media douches but is a great teammate. I’d say yes, but then I remember him intentionally dropping fly balls to get his way.

Maybe I’m crazy, but could Gary Sheffield actually offer the veteran leadership this team has been lacking?

Remember a couple of years ago when everyone was ready to ship Mike Pelfrey to Siberia because he was off to a terrible start? Then everyone silently realized that the guy was learning on the job at the major league level? Then, as he figured it out he got a lot better and eventually wound up having an awesome season.

Yeah, let’s remember that for a minute. Murphy is learning how to play left field at the major league level. I can’t track softballs in rec league, so I’m not going to go off the deep end giving a guy crap about bad defense because he’s having trouble in the outfield. We get it Howie. He’s having a rough go at it. It’s April. Let’s everybody settle down. Manny’s still doing crap like that and he’s been in left field for 15 years.

How about we give the guy a couple of months to settle in to the position?

Boxscore

1) I am so happy they’ve continued to improve the subway service from Manhattan to the ballpark. The terrible, 6 turnstiles through a stupid iron tower choke-point is gone, replaced with a huge staircase leading up to something like 20 turnstiles. On top of that, they’ve kept the post-game “Super Express” service that only makes four stops in getting to Grand Central. Getting to Grand Central in a 20 minute train ride is so much more awesome than getting there in 50 minutes. I know that isn’t really the Mets call, but I’d like to think they had some sort of input with the MTA.

2) I can’t really put in to words how absurd the location of Citi Field is in the world of stadiums. I mean, granted, Yankee Stadium is in a hole in the South Bronx — but at least there are a couple bars nearby. At Shea, once you were in the parking lot, you were surrounded by fence and barbed wire so the stuff outside the perimeter was of little consequence. In the new place, everything is open and beautiful and new and you can walk all the way around the building. When you walk out to 126th Street, you get a full view of the trainwreck of property across the street from the stadium. Instead of restaurants and bars, you have interstates, chop shops, and car repair garages — and that’s ALL there is. Thanks Robert Moses! You knew neighborhoods! I really hope the Wilpons get their wish to flatten this disaster and turn it in to a little ballpark neighborhood.

3) The entryways are also a billion times better. We were able to enter through the Jackie Robinson Rotunda in a very efficient line for bags. I look forward to getting a better look at the Rotunda later in the season when it isn’t mobbed. I’d like to congratulate the Mets also for successfully stealing most of the Dodger’s historic importance. As Hulse put it: “It’s not like the Dodger’s are using their New York history anymore. Would you leave an orphan sitting around the city?” When we were leaving, gone are the terrible ramps that took forever to walk everyone down to the same door. Instead, we walked to the promenade and directly out via a stairwell. Fantastic.

4) Speaking of the promenade — absolutely amazing. All of the concessions on the promenade have views of the field. Gone are the days when you had to totally leave the action to go buy beer. You can see the field and crowd from everywhere. And the concessions! My opening day meal was a shrimp po’boy with spicy mustard, corn and clam chowder, cheese fries, and a Blue Point Toasted Lager on draft from the “Long Island styled seafood stand” Catch Of The Day. Besides that, Danny Meyer’s Shake Shake and Blue Smoke make an appearance — along with two new offerings in a Taco Stand and a French fry stand. This is on top of a pizzeria and the old Shea/Aramark concessions. In case you were wondering, the Sausage & Pepper hero from Shea is still available and still among the best stadium deals at $7.

5) Also on the promenade is plenty of picnic tables and standing room tables where you can eat your food without bringing it back to your seat with a perfect view of the game. Mike and I were able to watch most of the opening ceremonies while eating before taking our seats. His girlfriend got a double Shackburger and the deliciousness is the same without waiting an hour in line.

6) I don’t have kids, but the “Fanfest” area is pretty awesome. They have a “scale version” of Citi Field (Kiddie Field) where kids can hit wiffle balls off a tee and run the bases. In dead center field is even a mini-Diamond Vision screen where you can catch replays. On top of that are batting cages, an X-Box area where you can play 2k Sports and a dunk tank!

7) For sake of completeness, I took a moment to walk upstairs to the Caeser’s Club. They have people at the doors checking ticket stubs and, I will say, I find the whole “tiered ticketing” thing to be confusing and stupid. Near as I can tell, they have various clubs that you can go to if your ticket is of a certain tier and you can go to your club and anything “lower”. I find the whole thing snooty and ridiculous, but it’s New York so whatever. I went in to the Caesar’s Club and it was very Manhattan-loungey with couches and tables and waitresses and $15 martinis. You can barely tell you’re in a ballpark. I was only in something like this in Shea once when we had the luxury suite. Now there are at least five of these of varying quality. I was going to have a drink in the club just to do it (and get a picture with their live action Cleopatra model), but we were running close to game time now and still had to get dinner.

8) The power alleys in to deep center are insanely far. All three of David Wright, Carlos Delgado, and Carlos Beltran all balls as hard as I’ve ever seen hit that both died in a combination of the wind off Willet’s Point and the 415 feet to deep center alcove. I understand their desire to create a pitcher’s park but yeesh. And, could I get some official ground rules somewhere? Citi Field has a crazy right field wall with overhangs and porches and such — I’d like to know what’s actually a home run and what isn’t.

9) After spending years of my life watching baseball in a stadium designed for football, it’s really great to finally have a baseball stadium. There really aren’t enough good things to say about these new digs. Great job to the organization — you know, besides the whole winning the first game thing.

10) If anyone would ever like to argue with you over the idiocy of the “Loss” stat, I’d point them at this game’s box score. Brian Stokes took the loss in this game. In the game itself, starter Mike Pelfrey gave up 5 runs. Stokes then “allowed” a man on base with a three base error before getting an out. Pedro Feliciano came in and balked in the winning run. Stokes took the loss without having actually given up an earned run or really doing anything at all to contribute to the team’s loss. This is how we are supposed to judge pitchers.

Boxscore

1) Was there anyone in the fanbase who thought today was going to be anything other than an unmitigated disaster? I mean, we have Ollie who — on the best of days — has control problems making his first start after a worthless spring. On top of that, we’re in a minor league ballpark where a fly ball is a home run vs. a righty-heavy line-up. I don’t know what the Vegas over/under was for this game, but if it was anything LESS than 10, it was a gimme.

2) All that said, it was actually wasn’t as bad as I thought. Don’t get me wrong, 8 earned runs over 4 innings isn’t the way they drew it up on paper, but 7 strikeouts and flashes of what we want was more than I was hoping for. We’re pretty much going to have to write off April for Ollie — especially considering we don’t face the Phillies, Yankees, or Braves in April. All that said, he gets a warm-up start against the Padres. That’s probably a good thing. If we’re lucky, his next start will fall against the Nationals.

3) Alex Cora made a start for us today. Orlando Hudson hit triples. Good call there.

4) Look, I understand that Daniel Murphy might be a Triple A player in two years, but eff it — I’m on board the Mancrush Train until it goes flying off the railing.

5) That ticking sound you hear? That’s Marlon Anderson’s time with the team drawing to a close. There’s really no reason to carry him and Gary Sheffield at the same time and, while Sheffield might be playing with a fork in back, he’s probably still better than Anderson was on his best day.

6) Also going to mention — all the runs came from the starter today. The bullpen didn’t let up a run in 4.66 innings pitched. That gives me a tingle in my nether parts.

7) On the other hand — Pedro Feliciano really needs to dial down the 2+ WHIP.

8) I’m doing my best to temper my excitement at the performance of the offense. I feel like opening the season at the Great American Ballpark is great as it allows you to ease yourself in to playing in actual ballparks. Now, the Mets get to travel to the giant, echoing cavern in Dolphin’s Stadium. No problem.

9) Let’s also send a silent prayer to the baseball gods to keep John Maine’s arm attached to his body tomorrow. That would be just awesome.

10) There are occasionally things that creep me out about how terrifying life is. Last night, I was watching MLB Network’s wrap-up show which offered live look-ins on the Angels/A’s game. 24 hours later, the kid I was watching pitch is gone. I watched Scott Boras, a man some would argue has no soul, break down in tears when talking about him and his family. This website is supposed to be irreverent and silly, but I’d like to send my deepest condolences to any Angels’ fan who may stumble upon this and to Nick Adenhart’s family. It’s senseless and unfair and I hope the man responsible suffers for the rest of his life.

Boxscore

1) I’m absurdly happy to see Daniel Murphy get the 2-hole over Luis Castillo. I totally agree that Castillo should be given the chance to earn his way up in the line-up but if you’re going to convince the world that Murphy is the answer to Manny Ramirez, put him up in the 2-hole. Now, if we can never ever sac-bunt in the first inning, we’ll be getting somewhere.

2) Let’s hope that the Mets’ training staff is up to snuff. Rainy day with threats of snow — 39 degrees. I’m terrified. The umpire agrees as he apparently has an ENORMOUS strike zone in the first inning. Hey, no one wants to stand around in a cold rain.

3) I am hopeful. No sacrifice bunt called for in the second at-bat of the season. Again, I’ll take the 85% chance of the successful steal over the 100% chance of an out.

4) Santana’s change-up is absolutely disgusting this early in the season. It’s almost unfair. I’m glad he’s on our side.

5) The crazy bobbling 9-3 double play from Church to Delgado has a chance to be the Mets’ best defensive play of 2009 and it’s the first game. Congrats, boys — it’s all down hill from here. Or not, as David Wright decided to one-up them two innings later. Church and Murphy are putting on a show in the corners today. Gary who?

6) There is still nothing more depressing in baseball than your pitcher coming up with the bases loaded. The best we can hope for is what Santana did. Work a long, 8-pitch at bat to try and get the starter’s pitch count up. Unfortunately, it’s Harang who can throw seven thousand pitches in a game.

7) Am I the only one who, by the beginning of the fourth inning, had signed up for a no-hitter as an omen of the awesomeness about to come this year? I was ready for the headlines tomorrow. Now I have to wonder if the Mets’ bullpen getting it done will be the story tomorrow or CC’s first game implosion.

8) Daniel Murphy is doing nothing to fend off my growing mancrush. I’m beginning to think he likes it.

9) It’s been six months since the end of last season, and I still got a douchechill when Manuel went to the bullpen. There was no reason to as none of these guys were even on the team last year, but that kind of logic has no place here. It was terrifying.

10) Keith’s point about the Mets not being able to script a better opening day was spot-on. I’m sure that’s the theme SNY will harp on for the next 48 hours. The first text message I sent after the victory was that I forgot what a drama-free 10 bullpen outs could feel like. It’s something I could get used to again.

—

Final Thought: I’m not going to concern myself with Santana’s 4 walks in the first game of the season. Especially on a day where it was wet, gross, and slippery. Great win, great showing by my sweet love Daniel Murphy, and a blessed final 3 innings. And, really, great job by the manager for putting the last three innings on the bullpen. That had to be a huge boost in morale for everyone from the fans to the actual starting players.

That Bootleg Guy and I shot a few e-mails back and forth this week talking about the MLB Over/Unders this week and it turned itself in to a blog post. In the interest of full disclosure, I did not actually lay money on any of these as I’m still actively preventing myself from the can of vipers that would be opened if I created an online gambling account. Of the six guesses I made, I only dropped my “Giants Over” call when m’boy Hulse pointed me at Matt Cain’s 3.76 career ERA and accompanying 30-43 record. Touchee, sir.

Tom

Boston Red Sox - 94.5 wins: The division has the reigning American League Champions and a Yankee team that just spent a quarter billion dollars on new contracts. The Yankees may be paying CC and Texeira well in to their twilight years, but the front end should be worth it. At least one team in this division isn’t hitting 95 wins, and my money goes on the team who just replaced David Ortiz (Boston)/Manny with David Ortiz (Minnesota)/Kevin Youkilis. UNDER.

Kansas City Royals - 75.5 wins: The thing that keeps the Royals above .500 is Major League Baseball’s decision to schedule them against half the NL Central every year. Even with the free wins, they still only managed 75 wins last year. And I’m supposed to find a 76th? In the AL? Pass. UNDER. In other news, the New York Times disagrees.

Florida Marlins - 76.5 wins: They have mostly the same team they did last year and almost all of their nearly-free roster is on the right side of 30. The really scary part about this team (as it was a couple years ago) is that Loria could sign a few free agents and this team would be unstoppable-good. Fortunately, he’s still whining and stomping his feet and making the team almost a contender instead of a real one. Good for me. Not only do I love this bet, but I love the Marlins as a sleeper for the NL Wildcard. The other two divisions are still pretty bad, the Braves barely improved, and the Phillies are already battling injuries in April. Besides all that, they have probably the best overall player in the league, a solidly mediocre pitching staff, and a guy who might wind up being the league’s second best player in Cameron Maybin. This group has only been getting better. OVER.

New York Mets - 88.5 wins: The Mets are a 90-win team on paper. The problem is they were a 90-win team on paper for the last two seasons. I think they are probably going to come out the gate huge. My hesitation at booking them for a 90-win season is a really bad feeling their 2 and 3 starters are going to do a stint or two on the DL. Oliver Perez is out of shape because he spent most of Spring Training not pitching in the WBC and John Maine has been injury-plagued for two seasons. My gut feeling is over, so that’s the way we’ll go. OVER.

Cleveland Indians - 85.5 wins: While I’m not one of the fools expecting Cliff Lee to remain Pedro Martinez, I love the Tribe to bounce back this year and take the division from the White Sox. The Indians lost a significant weapon last year with Hafner’s injury and, if he’s even three-quarters of what he was, that makes them a lot better than they were last year. I love them for the Central and I love them here. OVER.

That Bootleg Guy

Los Angeles Angels – 88.5 wins: Make no mistake…the Angels, when healthy, are the cream of the American League West. But, (1) the AL West could be historically awful this year and (2) the Angels aren’t all that healthy. They’ll be without their three best starting pitchers until at least May and their defense will bleed extra runs all year. UNDER.

Texas Rangers – 74.5 wins: I think the Rangers are a very real dark-horse candidate to take the division. They’ve quietly put together a hell of an offense with guys you’ve heard of (Josh Hamilton) and guys you haven’t (1B Chris Davis, 2B Ian Kinsler). Yeah, they’ll go as far as their pitching, but Texas won 79 games with subpar staff last year. OVER.

New York Yankees – 95.5 wins: I had my doubts about the Yanks in ‘09, anyway, but when they chose league-average OF Xavier Nady over the more productive Nick Swisher, that sealed the deal. So much of their offense depends on unlikely turnarounds and the miracle of sustained production and good health. The starting arms should be fine, but the bridge to Mo Rivera isn’t exactly dependable. UNDER.

Oakland A’s – 82.5 wins: Dallas Braden (career: 6-12, 5.44 ERA) is our Opening Night starter. The rotation includes two guys (Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill) who’ve never pitched more than 124 innings in a professional season. The “much improved” offense is too reliant on old guys (Jason Giambi, Nomar Garciaparra), declining guys (Orlando Cabrera, Nomar) and injury-prone guys (Eric Chavez, Nomar). UNDER.

San Diego Padres – 70.5 wins: The Pads will be in contention for “worst team in baseball” all season long. They feature just two legitimate hitters (Adrian Gonzalez, Brian Giles) and two dependable starting pitchers (Jake Peavy, Chris Young). But, Giles and Peavy are all but guaranteed to be moved to contenders during the season, while the team’s 29th ranked farm system has nothing in the pipeline to replace them. UNDER.

Gary Sheffield: 2008 - Detroit Tigers. 2009 - $400k: Take it away Mr. Hulse.

So let me get this straight….

The fact that he’d be playing one year in the hopes of getting another contract, coupled with the fact that he’s a malcontent which means he’ll bust his ass just to prove Jim Leyland wrong because in his screwed up head that’s how you do business…I might have to say I’m on board with giving it a shot. Besides the fact that he’s a massive douchenozzle…. I’m failing to see the issue here.

To the locker room cancer argument — henceforth known as “The Marbury Effect” in New York.

I’d say the fact that Marbury played for 21 million more than free hurt more than his attitude. The lack of any discernible leadership to control him on the Knicks let his attitude destroy the team. Plus they were on the hook for the kind of money that makes cutting that player impossible. Bottom line, I’m not saying he’s gonna light it up, and if his glove is that bad he may pinch hit. If he becomes an issue, he’s cut and they move on at a bargain rate. Ultimately this is as low risk as it gets with a really high reward ceiling. Like I said, what if he comes along, hits .295, 35 bombs, 100 RBI, and his glove work isn’t so horrific it makes him useless?

Also it’s ultimately a contract year which is always a good thing to get on the cheap, a la Pudge in 2003 (when everyone said he was done and he rejuvenated his career to the tune of 40 mil from Detroit).

PECOTA’s got him at .247/.344/.420 for 2009. For $400k and a serviceable glove in right field? Sure, why not?

Prediction: 90 starts. .276/.340/.490 — 20 HR, 85 RBI.

Johan Santana - 2008 salary - $19M. 2009 salary - $20M: There’s not much to say about Santana. There’s no bit of last year’s collapse on him short of the comic relief of giving up a grand slam to Felix Hernandez. Santana was a bad bullpen away from being 23-7 with 200+ strikeouts and a 2.53 ERA. The stories about Santana slowing down his last year in Minnesota were apparently greatly exaggerated. Or he moved to the NL… one or the other.

Prediction: With the new bullpen, I’m going to pencil in the Cy Young award for Queens. I don’t think Lincecum’s going to repeat this season and Webb’s due to finally slow down. With CC out of the NL again and Cole Hamels with a possible injury, I don’t see anyone beating Santana this year.

Oliver Perez: 2008 salary - $6.25M (arbitration). 2009 salary - $12M, new contract guaranteed through 2011. Ollie wasn’t exactly the Mets first option in the offseason and finally picked him back up almost as an afterthought when the Derek Lowe deal fell through. Considering the price, I’m going to assume that teams were put off by the idea of getting Evil Ollie as a throw in when signing Good Ollie. With what pitching is going for, the Oliver Perez deal is about what he is worth and I’m glad Scott Boras realized it. Now, the issue seems to be that he spent most of the WBC getting fat instead of pitching, so we’ll pencil him in for a DL trip by mid-May. He’s currently getting lit-up in Spring Training and, while that’s not a huge deal, it indicates there’s going to be a problem once real games start in, you know, a few days.

Prediction: Ollie pulls a serious muscle some time in late April due to the idiotic placement of the WBC and doesn’t get back until late June. While on the DL, he finds Duaner Sanchez and Sanchez teaches him all about the killer eats down in Miami.

John Maine - 2008 salary - $450k. 2009 salary - $2.6M (arbitration): I really have no idea what will happen with Maine this year. He’s one of those guys who tends to pitch through injury so you really can’t tell if he’s going bad because he’s hurt or because he’s bad. The disconcerting bit about Maine is that he lost a decent amount of velocity last year and it caused his K/9 rate to go down from about 8.5 in 2007 to about 7.9 in 2008. Accompanying this was a more disturbing rise in his BB/9 to 4.3 from 3.5. Neither trend is particularly settling. If Maine’s injuries are behind him, we’ll get a good year out of him. If they aren’t, it’s going to be another rough year watching him try to nibble corners instead of blowing guys away with two strikes and being pulled after five innings. ESPN’s projections have him coming in at 14 wins, a 4 ERA, and 178 K vs. 78 BB. Really, that seems about right. If it isn’t, he’s a DL trip or two from being the 7th inning guy. All that said, his spring has been encouraging and his velocity is returning. It’s a matter of finding his control again.

Prediction: Maine winds up being a much better starter than Perez this season. He ends up winning 16 with a sub 3.5 ERA as Dan Warthen finally manages to fix his mechanics.

Mike Pelfrey - 2008 salary - $450k. 2009 salary - $475k: I’ve spent the last few weeks convincing myself to not be excited over Pelfrey’s well-above-expectation 2008. Another guy who suffered for lack of bullpen help last year, Pelfrey went 13-11 in a season where a significant chunk of his losses and no decisions featured masterful performances where he gave up three runs or less. Pelfrey is a good example of why Mets’ fans are a bit too crazy sometimes. The guy spent barely 33 starts in the minor leagues. They brought him up and he got rocked in his early starts. Instead of sending him back down, the organization made him work on his stuff at the major league level. Everyone was ready to trade him before he figured it out. He went on to have a terrific season. The only worry I have is Pelfrey hitting the 200-inning wall. It didn’t seem to effect him TOO much last year, but now we still have to see if he can bounce back and do it again.

Prediction: Pelfrey continues to improve in 2009. I get to find out what happens when the walk year of a minor league deal happens after a guy’s been brought up.

Livan Hernandez - 2008 - Minnesota Twins/Colorado Rockies. 2009 - $1M: As a five-starter, I’ll definitely take a guy who almost always gets to 200 innings and 10 wins. Even if I am signing up for the occasional 15 hit, 7 run nightmare — I also get the occasional 7 inning, 2 run masterpiece. Whatever, I have it with Ollie Perez, too, so what’s having it with a second starter?

Jon Niese - 2008 - minor league. 2009 - minor league: Niese was given 3 starts down the stretch run as part of the aforementioned Operation: Triple-A Is Pointless. One was brilliant and two were the opposite of brilliant. He’s in a good place right now. Livan will eat innings for this year and keep his spot warm. I expect Niese will probably be brought up sometime during Ollie Perez’s second DL stint after the league catches back up with guys like Claudio Vargas.

Prediction: 7 starts, 2-3, 5+ ERA.

K-Rod - 2008 - Los Angeles Angels. 2009 salary - $8.5M: The Mets are convinced the bullpen was the beginning and end of all last year’s problems. Never mind the fact that the team’s slugging percentage drops to .365 in innings 7-9 and that they couldn’t buy a run in the last three innings of baseball games. It’s totally all on the bullpen. I do know that Billy Wagner had proven himself to have a little bit of the Trevor Hoffman in him. He could rattle off ten to twelve perfect saves at the beginning of the season. Then, cosmically, give up things like game-tying RBI to Grady Sizemore in the All-Star Game. I’ll leave it to my esteemed colleague from the West Coast who follows the western division of the Homerunderby-ball league to fill me in on the quality of the Mets acquisition, but for now I’m happy with it. Besides, the Mets have been known to have a problem with overcelebrating. They needed a bit of tempered class on the mound to bring respect and honor to the franchise.

Prediction: K-Rod eclipses Jose Reyes as the Phillies’ least favorite Met. David Wright takes at least two HBPs for this.

JJ Putz - 2008 - Seattle Mariners. 2009 salary - $5M: In possibly the greatest indication of the Mets’ feelings on their bullpen, they banished Aaron Heilman as far away as they could possibly send him and incarcerated poor Joe Smith in Cleveland. Heilman was then flipped to Chicago, where he’ll finally get his chance to start… probably. I look forward to him going 26-4 this year… or 4-26 — I could see either. Honestly, the Putz trade is probably a better deal than the K-Rod one. The Mets’ middle relief was terrible. Last year, getting from the starter to Wagner was an adventure. This was really an underrated, key pick-up.

Prediction: The Mets try to pick up Putz’s extension early in the season and sign him for another two years on top of that.

Sean Green - 2008 - Seattle Mariners. 2009 salary - $471k: Another piece of the JJ Putz trade, Green is a 29-year-old right-handed reliever. All I got is that he’s a relief pitcher with a league-average ERA. I’ll take it and like it. I’d like to extend a thank you to the Seattle Mariners for their part in rebuilding the Met bullpen.

Prediction: Sean Green takes Shawn Green’s jersey number and the Wilpons save part of their 300 million Schrute Madoff bucks.

Pedro Feliciano: Takes the role of “lefty specialist” from Scott Schoenweis, who was shipped to Arizona for Connor Robertson. Schoenweis, who appreciably took last season hard going so far as to break in to tears after the final game, will be remembered in New York for his final pitch to Wes Helms — a tie-breaking, eigth-inning shot that might still be traveling. I don’t blame Schoenweis for this because he never, ever should face right-handed batters in any circumstance. Lefties hit .178 off him. Righties hit .333. Obviously, he was the correct guy to be facing a righty in a must-win situation. Feliciano goes between long-relief and lefty specialist. He’s been a reliable bullpen guy for the last few seasons, so huzzah.

Prediction: Feliciano remains our Latino poor-man’s Scot Shields.

Bobby Parnell, Carlos Muniz, Brian Stokes: The three guys left in the bullpen. They all played a small bit part in the bullpen last year, but nothing to hate them over quite yet. I’m sure I’ll hate them quite soon, but for now, I pretty much got nothin.

Fernando Tatis - 2008 salary - $560k. 2009 salary - $1.7M: Did you know that Fernando Tatis wanted to build a church for his home town in the Dominican Republic and the only way he could afford it was by returning to baseball? I do. In fact, I heard the inspiring, feel-good story a bajillion times last year. I don’t want to sound bitter, because it actually WAS a cool feel-good story. I can’t find it in the archives at the moment, but I’m pretty sure I said something like “I’m very happy for Tatis and good job by the Mets for scouting him. Now, let’s hope they let him walk and allow someone else to overpay him for his decline.” Well, at least they only signed him for one year. Tatis is going to wind up platooning with either Daniel Murphy or Ryan Church depend on who gets off to the slowest start or who hits lefties worse. I don’t really expect Tatis to duplicate his .297/.369/.484 in 273 at-bats, but here’s hoping.

Alex Cora - 2008 - Boston Red Sox. 2009 - $2M: For some reason, Mets brass decided that paying Alex Cora $2M for one year was better than paying Alex Cora with power $3.5M for one year. This must be part of Omar Minaya demanding Luis Castillo get playing time so Minaya looks less foolish for the rapidly-approaching-absurd $24M contract. Nothing like sacrificing the good of the team to prove you’re right. I’ll go out on a limb and say that Cora will probably get as many starts at 2b as Castillo does this year — either due to injury or terrible batting. Thank god we have another left-handed bat off the bench.

Angel Pagan - 2008 salary - $401k. 2009 salary - $575k: Pagan was having a nice little year coming off the bench last season until his shoulder sidelined him for the remainder of 2008. This year, he was supposed to be a front-line bench guy again until bone-spur surgery in March put him on the DL until at least May. Whether Pagan is any good for an extended period of time remains to be seen and might end up moot if he winds up being one of those guys who just can’t stay healthy. His bench spot will probably be absorbed by Nick Evans, who was called from AA Binghamton to take his bench spot last year.

Nick Evans - 2008 salary - $403k. 2009 salary - $403k: Nick Evans was called up last season from AA and hit three doubles in his first game. Then he crashed back down to Earth as pitchers realized he was an easy strike out. He ended last season hitting about .250 and leaving his future on the Big Club in doubt. He’s been killing the ball in Spring Training and his .308 average will probably be good enough to play his way on to the 25-man roster as his trial by fire continues at the major league level. Considering the Mets success doing this with Mike Pelfrey (who had a cup of coffee in the minors before joining the Big Club) and Daniel Murphy’s surprise success last year, it seems as if the Mets’ new plan is to have their prospects skip Triple-A and just see what happens. This should be fine so long as it doesn’t crush the soul of 20-year-old kids like it almost did Pelfrey.

Marlon Anderson - 2008 salary - $1.05M. 2009 salary - $1.15M: Anderson is a guy who I have defended as an OK signing because, for whatever reason, he’s good at what he does. Over his career, he carries .275/.340/.413 as a pinch hitter vs. a 2008 league-average .232/.318/.350 at pinch-hitter and his own career line of .265/.314/.391. I know the full-on stathead crowd doesn’t believe that situation matters and that you’re either a good hitter or a bad hitter. For whatever reason, Anderson performs better than average as a pinch-hitter and in a league where you have to pinch hit two or more times a game, I’m fine with this guy having a roster spot.

Corey Sullivan - 2008 Colorado Rockies, 2009 salary - $600k: I didn’t really understand this signing when it happened and I still don’t. The last thing the Mets really needed was a fourth outfielder who bats lefty and who doesn’t bat particularly well. I presume he was supposed to fill Endy Chavez’s role as late-game defensive replacement for Daniel Murphy, who’s still defensively green in the outfield. As of yesterday, Sullivan has been banished optioned to Siberia Buffalo. I probably shouldn’t have included him for that reason but I’ve been dying to get that joke in to this preview and I’m going to wear it out for the next few seasons.

Jeremy Reed - 2008 Seattle Mariners. 2009 salary - $925k: Reed was a toss-in in the JJ Putz deal. Considering the Mets’ good luck with “throw-ins” I’m going to go ahead and be happy about this. With Sullivan’s demotion to Triple-A, it seems they’ve decided that they’ll go with this particular lefty fourth outfielder instead of the other lefty fourth outfielder for the bench. This should work out smashingly considering the two starting corner outfielders are also lefties. If only there had been an incredible right-handed corner outfielder available in the offseason.

Ramon Castro - 2008 salary - $1.85M. 2009 salary - $2.5M: You know your bench is built somewhat poorly when your best right-handed bat off the bench is your backup catcher. The sad part about this whole thing is I’m pretty sure he’s our better catcher. He calls a better game, has similar defense, and is a better hitter than Brian Schneider. Unfortunately, his — uh — portly frame renders him pretty much unable to be the every day catcher. On the positive, I get another full year of Trap Jaw jokes.