Quick and dirty quotes from three different articles.
Sources: Santana to start Opening Day by Adam Rubin
New York Mets ace Johan Santana will oppose Florida right-hander Josh Johnson on Opening Day, but manager Jerry Manuel has tweaked the rest of his rotation after a string of underperformances, team sources said.
I wasn’t worried that Santana would miss OD, but I guess this is reassuring for those with tickets.
Top 10 for '10: What I'm most looking forward to this season by Tom Verducci
10. The surprise team
Fourteen teams had losing records last year. One of them will be in the playoffs this year. How do I know this? Of the 120 playoff teams in the wild card era, 30 of them had a losing record in the previous season. That's 25 percent of your playoff teams, or an average of one turnaround team in each league each year. There has been at least one turnaround team in the playoffs every year but one in the 15 wild card seasons.
Verducci tabs the Mets as one of the teams to keep an eye on for this spot.
NL East Preview: A Steady Reign by Albert Chen
Prospects like 23-year-old first baseman Ike Davis and 22-year-old center fielder Fernando Martinez brightened an otherwise gloomy Mets camp as they sliced up opposing pitchers and gave hope to an injury-cursed team.
Chen also picks the Mets to finish 4th with a 79-83 record.
Yay?