Outlook Good

A busy day in Mets news included the Jose Reyes injury magic 8 ball coming up positive as the batting practice that nearly brought the young second baseman to tears a day earlier came off without a hitch. No decision has yet been made as to whether or not Reyes will start the season on the disabled list, but there is still some doubt that he'll be ready to start the team's first regular season game against the Braves on Tuesday. Reyes was apparently quite upbeat although he speculated that the team might let him play a few games in the minors before joining the major league lineup.

Aaron Heilman and James Baldwin's hopes of winning the fifth spot in the Mets' starting rotation came to an end as both were optioned to Norfolk despite posting good numbers in spring training. Matt Ginter, Danny Garcia and Raul Gonzalez were sent down as well.

And Art Howe is now apparently reconsidering putting Kazuo Matsui atop the team's lineup given his offensive struggles so far this spring. Taking spring training statistics too seriously can be dangerous, but Matsui was never going to put up the kind of on-base percentage to be an ideal leadoff man, speed or no speed. The Mets can get away with having him there if he's hitting well, especially given their lack of obvious alternatives, but moving him down, at least temporarily, is no big deal. Jose Reyes would probably be the first choice to replace Matsui, if healthy, but I think Mike Cameron might be the way to go, at least in the short term. Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA projections peg him as having the second best OBP on the team this year, just behind Cliff Floyd, and he doesn't have the kind of power that demands to be stuck lower in the lineup. Of course, if Jason Phillips can come close to repeating his .373 OBP of a year ago, or the team can acquire a certain disgruntled outfielder who got on base over forty percent of the time last year, they'd be even better choices.  ¶ joe | 1:27 AM |