Posts Tagged Opening Day Lineup

The opening day of the 2010 baseball season is finally upon us and all the offseason talking and waiting is finally behind us and the excitement of your favorite team is at least tied for first place for the moment.

My favorite team is obviously the New York Mets, and although I have a lot of hope for this upcoming season I sense a lot of pessimism from some of my friends. They all say we have absolutely no pitching, besides Johan and K-Rod.

The Las Vegas Strip casinos are putting the odds that the Mets only win half their games, finishing 81-81. Everyone points to the early season injury issues of some of the same players who missed huge chunks of time last season. Obviously, the NL pennant winner Philadelphia Phillies are obviously just as strong, and it seems Atlanta, Washington and possibly Florida have made some big strides. The Mets are predicted to finish the middle of the pack in the NL East, with the best case scenario putting them at battling for the wild-card to make the playoffs.

I just don’t buy all of that. I believe, with the level of talent we have we should be realistically battling to win the division. Our pitching obviously needs to keep us in games and our offense needs to be consistent. 2, 3, or 4 runs is not enough, we need to be scoring runs and hopefully the addition of Jason Bay is going to give us that extra punch we need to put some big innings on the scoreboard frequently.

I want us to be better than .500, and I believe we can be. CitiField is definitely a pitcher’s park so let’s use that to our advantage. That means playing great defense. With the best recent New York Mets teams including the World Series team in 2000 defense was one of the Mets catalysts for shutting down other teams big innings.

Just watched Neil Diamond sing “Sweet Caroline” at Fenway Park for the Opening Day baseball game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The place was rocking and the game has been very entertaining. I hope this is a sign for what is to come this baseball season, because I am really hoping the Mets are rocking this year playing a very entertaining brand of baseball.

Mets Opening Day Lineup

1. Alex Cora – SS
2. Luis Castillo – 2B
3. David Wright – 3B
4. Mike Jacobs – 1B
5. Jason Bay – LF
6. Gary Matthews, Jr. – CF
7. Jeff Franceour – RF
8. Rod Barajas – C
9. Johan Santana – P