Silver Linings

"Why? Because it's spring and baseball is coming, that's why." - Sports Night

Ok, so it's not exactly spring yet... but baseball IS coming! Since there are way too many strange, illogical things going on with the Mets (JJ Putz not having a physical, Omar working with an unknown budget, etc.), I decided that with Pitchers and Catchers coming up in two weeks, I'm going to focus on some silver linings. Here are the reasons I'm still excited for baseball:

1. During the Mets' 3 day mini-camp, Dan Warthen gave an interview to SNY where he said that Oliver Perez threw "the best he's ever seen" and that Santana has a better curve and breaking ball now than he did last year (side note - I still don't trust Ollie P. but I think that's the first positive report we've had on him in about 2 years).

2. Nelson Figueroa pitched a complete game 3-hitter for the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Series yesterday. I understand that no one really cares because it's the Caribbean League, but I saw the ninth inning of the game and Figueroa looked sharp.

3. In the same game, Fernando Martinez went 2-4 with a 2-run home run. After seeing Martinez look incredibly under-prepared at the plate last year - not to mention the infamous pop up he decided not to run out - this is good news. Martinez is too young to be considered a bust, but it's time for him to stay healthy and light up AAA.

4. Jose Reyes is back. SNY's Kevin Burkhardt caught up with Reyes on Monday, and he looks great. He is reportedly running 90 feet sprints in 3.53 seconds. This is also the first time since Reyes went down with the leg injuries in May that he has sounded like he is ready to be back. To quote him, "there's going to be a show."

Maybe I'm grasping at straws... don't get me wrong, I know we still have holes and I know that a story about the front office's incompetence seems to surface every two days. But there's something about the promise of spring training that makes it all seem okay. At least for now.