Helloooooooo, Wilmington, North Carolina!!

Baseball season is around the corner, and johnnymets.blogspot.com is back for another season. I've overcome my winter sadness over the acquisition of Pedro Martinez, and am now really psyched about the Mets' upcoming year.

Since I've last written, the Mets have parted ways with the likes of Vance Wilson, Richard Hidalgo, Al Leiter, John Franco, and Art Howe. They've replaced, and upgraded, in all of those spots.

Willie Randolph is the new Mets manager, and he's bringing some Yankee style discipline to the team. Randolph allows only mustaches, so all of the Mets will look clean-shaven this year - no more Mike Piazza beards...or fu manchus. And Randolph has outlawed music in the clubhouse, a Mike Cameron favorite. Players are only allowed to listen to music on headphones. Cameron says he's going to fight this rule.

Cameron isn't a new player this year, but he's playing a new position. Cameron moves to right field to accomodate the big prize - centerfielder Carlos Beltran. I expect Beltran's power numbers to decline a bit with the Mets, but there's no reason for his average or stolen base output to go down. I'm psyched about watching Beltran play*. I just hope he adjusts to center field at Shea Stadium better than Cameron did last year, and that Cameron now makes a smooth transition to right. (* - see Pedro Martinez below)

Pedro Martinez. I've decided that there are worse things in the world than your baseball team adding a potential Cy Young Award winner to their pitching rotation* (an already-strong rotation, incidentally). (* - here's where the asterisks come in. As a Mets fan, you have to be leery of any free agent acquisitions, especially when the players have had huge success before coming to New York. In this case, I think the additions of Martinez and Beltran make the Mets a whole lot better, I really do, but it's just so hard to trust any players in New York until you see them succeed in a Mets uniform with your own eyes. So until they can prove that they are the same Martinez and Beltran that have played for other teams, all references to Martinez and Beltran from here on out will be marked with an asterisk, referring to this footnote.)

I am giving Pedro a chance, starting now. He seems to respect Willie Randolph, which gets him off to a good start. His first bullpen session was strong, he was throwing the ball with "zip". He seems to have a good rapport with the young Latin ballplayers....and there are Red Sox players right now who say they really miss Pedro. Perhaps he isn't a clubhouse cancer. Maybe he'll be a good influence on other Mets. So, Pedro, you're getting a chance to prove yourself to me. Don't blow it.

One other new addition I want to mention is Pedro Martinez' former Red Sox teammate, Doug Mientkiewicz. Mientkiewicz has a big mouth. He's already been talking about that World Series ball controversy, and in Sunday's (or Monday's) New York Daily News he started talking about how the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry didn't quite match up to the Twins-White Sox rivalry. Give me a break, Doug. He's done a lot of talking for just the first two days of camp. I hope he doesn't start rubbing people the wrong way, because he's a legitimate first baseman, something the Mets haven't had in five years.

Other things to look for this year include: the Jose Reyes-Kaz Matsui swap that never had to be, but is taking place this year....the continued emergence of THE GREATEST BALLPLAYER WHO EVER LIVED, David Wright (Reyes lost that title last year, some of you may remember, due to excessive injury)....Mike Piazza's adjustment back to catcher....who's in the bullpen.....who's on the bench.....and just how good are the Mets going to be this year?

There's a lot of spring training left...I can't promise I'll write every day, but I can promise that beginning next week, Wednesday will continue to be the regular e-mail day, and I will respond to e-mails as long as you get them to me by early Tuesday. Then, once the regular season begins, there will hopefully be daily updates, with Wednesday remaining e-mail day.

Thanks for reading - I hope you had a restful winter - and get ready for BASEBALL SEASON!!