Ramping up for Mets’ Opening Day

Well, that kind of stunk. The Mets traveled across the state of Florida to take on the power-laden Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin: a three-and-a-half-hour bus ride to a place they hadn’t played in 27 years. As Adam Rubin pointed out on Twitter, there was a brawl that day. In a spring training game. Before there was inter-league play. Aaaah, those were the days… But aside from the historical aspect, this was your typical mid-spring Grapefruit League tilt. All you need to know about the Mets’ lineup is this: their DH was Daniel Muno, OK? Bartolo Colon was masterful, tossing six shutout innings, surrendering three hits, no walks and striking out six. The Mets took the lead in the ninth on a homerun by somebody named Patrick Biondi. Buddy Carlyle came on to close it out, but gave up the tying run before ex-Met prospect Ezequiel Carrera walked the Jays off with a two-run homer. That’s spring, folks. Games that mean nothing, decided by guys you never heard of.

The only reason Biondi was in the game, though, was because Michael Conforto left with back stiffness. This could be troubling. There was also talk that Jacob deGrom – feeling some back discomfort of his own, lately – couldn’t break the low-90s on the radar gun earlier this week. This could also be cause for alarm. David Wright is still showing some rust. This is expected, but still worrisome. Asdrubal Cabrera might not be ready for Opening Day with his strained patellar tendon and Ruben Tejada was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals. The bench is thus weakened, now likely to be filled by the likes of Eric Campbell and Matt Reynolds. You know what? Oddly, it doesn’t seem to matter.

We are two weeks away from the home opener on April 8. The weather has started to cooperate here in the East. Buds are blooming, sap is rising and good times are ahead. This is the most excitement for a Mets season since 2007 – and here’s hoping the Mets handle the excitement better than that. Las Vegas has their over/under number for wins pegged at 89. That means the bookies think they should be just as good as last year, when 90 wins was able to lock up the NL East by seven games. Sports Illustrated has parts of the pitching staff on one of its four regional covers of their annual baseball preview. Ticket sales are up significantly from this point last year, as would befit a pennant winner. It seems like no manner of bad news can shake the good feeling. That’s also spring, folks. The sun is shining and the excitement is real. The ingrained Met fan in me urges caution, but I’m getting giddy anyway. It’s almost time to play ball.

Let’s go Mets!

Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley.