3-3-13 – Opening Day Rotation, Lucas Duda, Johan Santana,

It’s a little early, but this might be a good time to start discussing exactly what the opening day rotation might look like. Right now, both Johan Santana and Shaun Marcum are not participating in the process. Mets official late yesterday afternoon said that they still are projecting Santana to be the opening day starter, which is fine because I plan on flapping my ears and flying to the moon that day also. I’ll change my stance here after I see him pitch 65 pitches in a March game and tell me his arm feels fine the next day. As for Marcum, I just don’t think he liked pitching as early at ST started this year, got pissed with the results, and shut himself down. Dillon Gee is a gamer so he’ll be ready and I don’t think we have anything to worry about when it comes to Matt Harvey being ready. Past that, I wouldn’t get too excited about all the Cory Mazzoni and Rafael Montero buzz. It makes for good media. But they aren’t ready to fill the bill in 2013 (what you might see is one or both of them elevate to Las Vegas rather than their originally projected Binghamton start). My guess is Jeremy Hefner would win over Collin McHugh and fill in the one or two rotations in early April that Santana might miss.

Three home runs, including a pair in back-to-back innings by first baseman Joe Mahoney, powered the Marlins to an 8-8 tie with the Mets, in front of 3,957 on Saturday afternoon at Tradition Field. New York's bats warmed up later in the game, erasing a five-run deficit. Right fielder Lucas Duda hit a solo shot in the sixth and second baseman Brian Bixler blasted a two-run, game-tying homer in the eighth.

As we have said in the past, statistics mean nothing in spring training. Thus, Lucas Duda’s lack of a batting average meant nothing. Still, with all the stealth health problems and Area 51 batting cages, it was great to see Duda go yard today. I’m telling you, get off this kid’s back and he’s going to hit between 30-35 home run this year.

Jorge Castillo‏ - @jorgeccastillo

Alderson just spoke about report that Santana didn't arrive in pitching shape. Basically said it's obvious since he wasn't ready to pitch. Alderson said Santana could've done more over the winter, "but that's a judgment he ultimately has to make about how he's feeling. We haven't ruled out opening day, altho given when we think he might get on a mound, it becomes less and less likely. The next step is actually getting him on a mound & that hasn't happened yet & it probably won't for another good 10 days or so."

Try to imagine the frustration you would have if you paid a closer six million dollars and your ace starter another twenty-five million dollars and both of them come to camp without even tossing a baseball to their neighbor’s six-year old’s son? Is there any sense of responsibility here or is this something you just create on your own. Let’s face it, if you pay me $25,000,000.00 a year… to do anything… and I know that I’m never going to get another dollar out of you once this contract runs out in a year, I really don’t have any incentive to be 100% ready on opening day. Frankly, my motivation would be to be 100% when my contract runs out.

Once again, I am surprised that Alderson is playing this out in the press. It’s another in a series of moves that won’t make things easier in the clubhouse.