90 Days Until Opening Day

Last year's opening day was the fulfillment of a long winter of hope, and a spring training in which many believed the Mets would fight for a World series title.

I'm sure you remember the Sports Illustrated prediction.

Instead it turned into what many believe was one of the most frustrating seasons in team history.

2009 Opening Day lineup

J Reyes SS

D Murphy LF

D Wright 3B

C Delgado 1B

C Beltran CF

R Church RF

B Schneider C

L Castillo 2B

J Santana P

For 2010, 2/3rds of the outfield is new, with an enormous upgrade in LF, and a pretty good upgrade in right. Francoeur is likely to put up solid offensive numbers, good defense, and play nearly every day while bringing his energy and enthusiasm to the clubhouse.

There will be a new catcher, though it's yet to be determined which combination of players will fill that key role in 2010. I've stated here many times that Josh Thole is the guy, and we should accept some defensive growing pains for the productivity we desperately need at the bottom of the order. Thole is a "rally enabler".

The remaining questions revolve around Delgado and possibly Castillo, but there is certainly a good chance both players have their final Met year this season.

While many are clamoring for Daniel Murphy to continue in a starting role, I'd personally like to see him in the minors for a full season, though he'll likely fill a slot on the bench with a decent amount of games at 1B if Delgado is signed.

Bullpen Losses Piling Up

The Mets bullpen leads the national league in ERA, and they are tied with Seattle for second (the Red Sox lead the majors in this stat with a sterling 2.90 bullpen ERA).

They are also second in bullpen losses in the National League, and tied with Cleveland for second overall.

The blown saves are down from last year--the Mets currently have 9, which is tied for 13th in baseball--middle of the pack.

Now we all know that last year the team's Achilles heel was the blown save--the Mets converted only 60% of their save opportunities in 2008. That said, 2009 hasn't been all that much better. Even with Frankie Rodriguez and his magic closer's arm, the Mets have only converted 68% of their save opportunities.

Couple that with the losses, and are the Mets really better off as a whole when it comes to the bullpen?

It's very tough to take issue with most of these guys, especially Pedro Feliciano and Frankie Rodriguez--they have been superb.

Still, there have been issues, and it's troubling that the team has had so much difficulty putting teams away.

Take a look at the stats, and you see the three "leaders" in bullpen losses: Nationals, Mets and Pirates.

Realizing of course that half of the blame for those losses can be placed squarely on the offense, it's still troubling that at this early point in the season the Mets have lost 14 via the bullpen.

By way of comparison, the 2008 Mets had 28 bullpen losses. In 2007, the bullpen had only 21 losses. In 2006, which was, in my opinion, our last great bullpen, the Mets only had 15 losses via the relievers.

So while I don't place a huge amount of importance on this stat right now, it is something to keep in mind as we work through the toughest part of the schedule.

The team is on pace for a staggering 37 bullpen losses in 2009.

Should the pace remain the same, it will surely mean this team is headed for a season barely over .500.

The below stats compare the 2006 and 2009 Mets bullpens, and below that are the current 2009 National League bullpen stats:

Mets 2006 Bullpen
NAME	GP	GS	W	L	Sv	Hld	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	K/9	P/GS	WHIP	ERA
Aaron Heilman	74	0	4	5	0	27	87.0	73	35	5	28	73	7.55	0.0	1.16	3.62
Billy Wagner	70	0	3	2	40	0	72.1	59	18	7	21	94	11.70	0.0	1.11	2.24
Chad Bradford	70	0	4	2	2	10	62.0	59	20	1	13	45	6.53	0.0	1.16	2.90
P. Feliciano	64	0	7	2	0	10	60.1	56	14	4	20	54	8.06	0.0	1.26	2.09
D. Sanchez	49	0	5	1	0	14	55.1	43	16	3	24	44	7.16	0.0	1.21	2.60
Darren Oliver	45	0	4	1	0	3	81.0	70	31	13	21	60	6.67	0.0	1.12	3.44
R. Hernandez†	22	0	0	0	0	3	20.2	15	8	2	8	15	6.53	0.0	1.11	3.48
Heath Bell	22	0	0	0	0	0	37.0	51	21	6	11	35	8.51	0.0	1.68	5.11
G. Mota†	18	0	3	0	0	4	18.0	10	2	2	5	19	9.50	0.0	0.83	1.00
Jorge Julio†	18	0	1	2	1	0	21.1	21	12	4	10	33	13.92	0.0	1.45	5.06
Royce Ring	11	0	0	0	0	2	12.2	7	3	2	3	8	5.68	0.0	0.79	2.13
Henry Owens	3	0	0	0	0	0	4.0	4	4	0	4	2	4.50	0.0	2.00	9.00
B. Fortunato	2	0	1	0	0	0	3.0	7	9	2	2	0	0.00	0.0	3.00	27.00
B. Bannister	2	0	0	0	0	0	4.0	6	5	1	2	1	2.25	0.0	2.00	11.25
Philip Humber	2	0	0	0	0	0	2.0	0	0	0	1	2	9.00	0.0	0.50	0.00
Dave Williams†	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	1.00	0.00
John Maine	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.0	1	0	0	1	0	0.00	0.0	2.00	0.00
Totals	157	0	32	15	43	73	542.2	483	198	52	174	485	8.04	0.0	1.21	3.28

Mets 2009 Bullpen
NAME	GP	GS	W	L	Sv	Hld	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	K/9	P/GS	WHIP	ERA
P. Feliciano	36	0	2	2	0	11	27.2	20	8	4	5	26	8.46	0.0	0.90	2.60
Bobby Parnell	33	0	2	2	0	11	26.1	32	9	1	11	22	7.52	0.0	1.63	3.08
F. Rodriguez	31	0	1	1	17	0	32.1	17	2	1	15	35	9.74	0.0	0.99	0.56
J.J. Putz	29	0	1	4	2	10	29.1	29	17	1	19	19	5.83	0.0	1.64	5.22
Sean Green	29	0	1	2	0	4	29.1	27	15	3	13	24	7.36	0.0	1.36	4.60
Brian Stokes	23	0	1	2	0	1	25.0	28	10	2	7	12	4.32	0.0	1.40	3.60
Ken Takahashi	14	0	0	1	0	0	17.0	15	6	2	8	12	6.35	0.0	1.35	3.18
Darren O'Day†	4	0	0	0	0	0	3.0	5	0	0	1	2	6.00	0.0	2.00	0.00
Casey Fossum	3	0	0	0	0	0	4.0	4	1	0	4	3	6.75	0.0	2.00	2.25
Jon Switzer	2	0	0	0	0	0	2.0	3	3	1	2	0	0.00	0.0	2.50	13.50
F. Nieve	1	0	0	0	0	0	2.0	1	0	0	0	2	9.00	0.0	0.50	0.00
Totals	62	0	8	14	19	37	198.0	181	71	15	85	157	7.14	0.0	1.34	3.23

National League Team Bullpen Stats: 2009
RK	TEAM	GP	W	L	ERA	Sv	CG	SHO	IP	QS	ER	R	BB	SO	BAA
1	Washington	61	5	23	5.65	10	0	0	204.0	0	128	138	114	150	.283
2	NY Mets	62	8	14	3.23	19	0	0	198.0	0	71	87	85	157	.241
3	Pittsburgh	62	10	12	3.95	17	0	0	177.2	0	78	82	106	120	.246
4	Chicago Cubs	60	9	11	4.26	14	0	0	175.1	0	83	86	108	162	.234
5	Houston	63	12	11	4.15	14	0	0	221.0	0	102	110	104	184	.265
6	Philadelphia	62	14	11	3.72	18	0	0	220.0	0	91	99	113	188	.236
7	San Diego	63	11	10	3.90	19	0	0	216.2	0	94	104	101	171	.263
8	Colorado	62	6	10	4.89	16	0	0	187.2	0	102	108	59	150	.290
9	Atlanta	63	9	9	4.20	13	0	0	197.1	0	92	105	99	173	.272
10	San Francisco	60	8	9	3.48	17	0	0	186.0	0	72	78	85	149	.249
RK	TEAM	GP	W	L	ERA	Sv	CG	SHO	IP	QS	ER	R	BB	SO	BAA
11	Florida	65	14	9	4.13	14	0	0	226.2	0	104	117	121	220	.251
12	Milwaukee	65	14	8	3.48	22	0	0	209.2	0	81	84	89	185	.215
13	Arizona	64	10	8	4.88	17	0	0	208.1	0	113	123	84	173	.275
14	Cincinnati	61	7	7	3.38	17	0	0	197.0	0	74	79	96	155	.238
15	LA Dodgers	65	19	7	3.36	20	0	0	224.2	0	84	87	97	188	.231
16	St. Louis	63	8	7	4.13	19	0	0	189.2	0	87	93	82	155	.226
LEAGUE AVERAGES		GP	W	L	ERA	Sv	CG	SHO	IP	QS	ER	R	BB	SO	BAA
American League		63	10	10	4.28	15	0	0	198	0	94	102	89	164	.254
National League		63	10	10	4.05	17	0	0	202	0	91	99	96	168	.251
Major League Baseball		63	10	10	4.16	16	0	0	200	0	93	100	93	166	.252

Joba Chamberlain's Mother Arrested for Selling Drugs

From AP:

The mother of New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain is jailed in Nebraska and facing a felony charge after being arrested on suspicion of selling methamphetamine to an undercover police officer in February.

Lincoln Police Capt. David Beggs said Monday that 44-year-old Jacqueline Standley was arrested at her apartment Saturday night.

Beggs said she allegedly sold 1 gram of a substance believed to be meth to an uncover officer for $110 on Feb. 11. The substance tested positive for meth in testing at the state laboratory.

She was charged Monday with delivery of an exceptionally hazardous drug. Her bail was set at $5,000, and she was assigned a public defender, whose name was not on her jail record.

Mets Back in First Place!

The gritty and determined Mets are now back in first place thanks to Jose Reyes, David Wright, Daniel Murphy and yes, the bullpen.

Jerry Manuel once again masterminded a beauty, and he has his team on top.

With a Phillies loss, and another Brewers loss, the Mets are now positioning themselves nicely for a playoff spot.

See you tomorrow for a very "Good Morning Mets Fans" writeup!