New York Mets

The bullpen in Flushing, New York has been subject to a lot of finger pointing over the years. But with names like Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran at the top of the order, and Johan Santana at the top of the rotation, it made Aaron Heilman and Luis Ayala look all the worse.

With 29 blown saves last year (third worst in the majors), the pen left us with some bitter memories. Worse, it caved more then ever down the stretch as the Mets narrowly lost their playoff spot to the Phillies for the second straight year.

Some people consider David Wright a hero for his walk-off right-field blooper last night against Puerto Rico in the WBC. I understand why some may praise him, but am surprised that no one is critical of the pitch he decided to swing on.

What the hell are you doing swinging at a pitch down and outside when the count can go to 3-1? It was an awful decision by Wright to swing at such a poor pitch.

With the Astros signing Ivan Rodriguez this morning, it appears as though GM Ed Wade believes that the group he has assembled could be good enough to compete.

The New York Mets' offense was noticeably anemic today in their spring training game against the Atlanta Braves. In their defense, most of the offensive stars are either playing in the World Baseball Classic or did not make the trip to Orlando.

Big Sports News can help you with all your fantasy needs. If you are those types of guys who check out Lester’s Legends or Fantasy Football Maniacs, then you’ll love this! Big Spots News can also help envy your friends on how much sports you know today. You can even get famous! Well, no, not really but still read Big Sports News.

In order to provide some insurance in the infield, the Mets have signed veteran infielder Junior Spivey to a minor-league deal today.

The 34-year-old Spivey hasn’t played in a major league game since 2005 with the Washington Nationals, where he hit for an unimpressive .232 batting average.

It seems like everyone is making their picks for who wins the AL East. I'm going to take it one step further and look at both the AL and NL East, arguably baseball's best divisions.

Lets start in the National League. The East is a powerful division. Will the defending World Champion Phillies again take the top spot? Will the Mets suffer another late-season collapse? Can the Marlins overtake them both? Will the Nats actually look good this year?

Barring major injuries and some fluky miracle season, here are my picks for the NL East.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Shea Stadium. Let's welcome Bob Murphy to the microphone (Tim McCarver is up in the TV booth) to introduce the Irish Mets—a list of Mets who have at least Irish-sounding names. Feel free to hit comments to add suggestions, nitpick heritage, or bitch. Bob, take it away... (no, I'm not going to attempt to write in Murph-cadence).

Let's walk through the 2009 New York Mets and give everyone the best case scenario.

1B—Carlos Delgado

In what will likely be his final year as a Met, the super-motivated Delgado will choose not to play bad in April and produce a 40 home run, 120 RBI year. They’re off to a great start.

2B—Luis Castillo

Castillo's going to hit .334 and steal 62 bases like he did in 2000 as a 24-year-old.

SS—Jose Reyes

Mike Pelfrey, like Jose Reyes and David Wright, is a product of the Mets farm team system, which sets him apart from the other starting pitchers in the rotation. Johan Santana is from the Minnesota Twins, Oliver Perez is from the San Diego Padres, and John Maine is from the Baltimore Orioles. 

Who the No 5 pitcher will be is yet to be determined, but at this point most likely will either be Livian Hernandez or Freddy Garcia, as Tim Redding has been shut down and will not be on the active 25 man roster going into Opening Day.