The Mets clobbered the Marlins tonight and took the rubber game of the opening three game set in Miami. Oliver Perez (1-0) got the win for the Mets. Andrew Miller (0-1) took the loss for the Fish. For a full recap, head to MLB.com.

What more can you say about Perez? Having just gotten the news Pedro would be down for 4-6 weeks, He silenced all doubters for now with his six inning shutout performance. He allowed five hits and struck out eight along the way.

Everyone was hitting tonight, from Reyes to Schneider. The biggest boppers of all were Wright and Beltran. Beltran went 3-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, but was robbed of a home run after the umpires huddled together to decide whether Beltran’s ball hit above the yellow line in the right field bleachers. It was overturned after originally being called a homer. Wright went 3-5 with three rbis and deposited his first home run deep into the left field bleachers.

Billy Wagner, Nelson Figueroa, and Pedro Feliciano all made their season debuts and pitched scoreless innings.

The Mets are off tomorrow, but continue their season on Friday. The projected pitchers are John Maine for the Mets and Tim Hudson for the Braves. It will be Maine’s first start of the season. Hudson will be making his second start after allowing one run on six innings in his season debut last Sunday.

Well, I had wanted a 12-1 victory before the game, but 13-0 suits me fine….

Marty Noble over at mlb.com reports that Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado both might just play tomorrow. If this is to occur, then only Moises Alou (currently being stored in dehydrated form), Ruben Gotay and Luis Castillo would remain amongst the too ailing to participate. According to Noble, Beltran would be used as a DH, while Delgado would take his standard spot at first base.

And to think, just a week ago we were penciling the staff here at Hotfoot into bench spots. Hopefully I’m not the one who has to tell Mets Gal she will no longer be the utility outfielder for the team.

Hat tip to Aaron on LI for the tip.

In an article for SI.com Jon Heyman discusses the trash talk between Carlos Beltran and Jimmy Rollins. 

He writes:

Beltran gave it a shot. But under the circumstances his words came off as a pale impersonation of the master [Jimmy Rollins].

For more insight on rivalries, at Metsblog Matt Cerrone asks readers, “Who do you consider the Mets biggest rival?”

As of 3:45 today, the Phillies lead voting at 46%, while the Braves trail closely at 42% and the Yankees trail in the dust at 7%.

While recent chatter has certainly made things more interesting, I certainly see the Braves as our biggest rival today.  As I wrote in this week’s Beaton’s Banter, I really just see the Phillies as a 3rd wheel that is trying to provoke the Mets into paying attention to them.  The Mets rivalry has always been bitter and intense, while classy.  The Phillies and Mets have finally become decent at the same time for the past few years, so naturally there has been some tension and aggression.  But nothing is like Chipper Jones naming his kid, “Shea”, or when June 29, 2000 became the unofficial Throw Batteries at John Rocker Day.

Tomorrow, the Mets take the field against players in opposing uniforms for the first time this year, and few outside of Port St. Lucie will care. It’s merely an exhibition with some college kids, and the Mets will feature at least two pitchers I’d never heard of before a few days ago (apparently Nate Field is a 32-year-old who spent a couple seasons in the Royals bullpen and has a career ERA over 5, and Ryan Cullen is a 28-year-old who has spent eight years working his way from rookie ball to AAA—he actually pitched well in relief for New Orleans last season). But then there’s Friday. Ohhhhh, Friday. Friday will feature the first game we New Yorkers actually get to see (1 p.m., SNY), and it will feature the Mets debut of starting pitcher Johan Santana.

This will be the most anticipated spring training game in Mets history. There, I said it. I don’t mean that it’s a must-win spring training game, or even that I will care who wins the game. The days of important exhibition games died with the Mayor’s Trophy, and the beginning of interleague play and the regular season rivalry with the Yankees—though I still remember gloating to Yankee-fan friends over an 11-0 Mets spring training victory in the early nineties (if anybody finds a date for that, you’re my hero). I mean that I’m looking forward to this spring training game as I’ve looked forward to no other.

First and most obviously, Santana, the biggest offseason acquisition in Mets history, takes the mound. Never before has there been so much hype around seeing a player in a Mets uniform. I’m sure people were excited back in 1966 when the Mets won the Tom Seaver lottery, and I know people were excited when the Mets signed Bobby Bonilla and paid him (what was then) a ton of money, and of course we can all still remember the Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez celebrations. But Seaver was just a college pitcher, and though the other three were elite players, none of them could’ve be considered the best in the game at the time we got them. In Santana, the Mets have the best pitcher in the game, at his prime—or at least, that’s what everyone (including me) seems to think. We get to see him on Friday.

Second, this is a sorry time of year for sports, made even sorrier because the NCAA hoops schedule is running really late this year. We should be getting ready for conference tournaments this Saturday March 1. Instead, we have another entire week of regular season still to go. The major conference tournaments don’t start until March 12, and the NCAA tournament doesn’t start until March Freaking Twentieth. With nothing else to focus on, I’m certainly more excited than I ordinarily would be to watch the orange and blue on Friday.

Finally, this is our chance to lose The Collapse once and for all. The last time any of us watched a Mets game was on that fateful Sunday, when by 1:30 p.m. the big decision became whether to go somewhere to catch the Phillies game, or to stick it out with the likes of Jeff Conine, Jorge Sosa, and Sandy Alomar Jr. In the end, of course, it didn’t matter which game we watched. We all found out the result. On Friday, we get to see something completely different.

It’s time to enjoy baseball again. It’s time to watch what might be the best Mets team of the last 20 years. It’s time for us to see this new pitcher we’ve been hearing so much about. This Friday, it’s time to get started.

Single: Head over to ESPN.com, Sportsline.com, and Yahoo! for some great fantasy baseball prep. 

I already had my draft, and let me tell you starting pitchers are thin.  Makes me more and more thankful that we have four really solid guys in Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, John Maine and Oliver Perez.

Double: At the Journal News, John Delcos quotes Moises Alou as saying, “I’d love to get over 500 at-bats. If I do that I can have a great season. And, if I do that the team can have a great season.” 

The last time he had over 500 at-bats was in 2004 when he had 601 for the Cubs.  He’s only had over 500 at-bats three times in the last eight years.  While I’d love to see Alou step into the batters box 500 times this year, I just don’t see it happening.  Willie has to almost treat him like a catcher, rest him most day games after night games, etc.  Let’s be realistic, he’s 41 and was consistently hurt in his mid 30’s.  I think he can get close to that number if Willie rests him properly.  Most sundays he should send Alou for a day-off, tell him to go see a movie.  He’d probably enjoy one, seeing how movies are in color now. 

Triple: According to Newsday, Jose Reyes plans on cutting down on his antics this year such as his clubhouse dancing and celebratory handshakes.  Tuesday Reyes said, “No more handshakes. People kept saying we got teams fired up when we did those handshakes, so now I want to focus more on baseball.” 

Sometimes they seem a bit too choreographed but really, he didn’t bat .205 in September because he slapped Carlos Delgado’s hand a few times before he entered the dugout.  Sometimes most people–including me–often take this game like its a religion of some sort.  Baseball is a game, a sport, a very important and intense one at that.  And we in fact are hypocritical when we look down on these players for demanding too much money and treating it like a job. I know I’ve thought they should  be thankful that they have the privilege to play baseball for a living.  So yeah, let them enjoy it, make sure they know its not a job.  Jose should slap hands bump fists elbows and feet when he hits a homerun.  

Home Run: The usually quiet-mannered Carlos Beltran recently said, “So this year, to Jimmy Rollins — we are the team to beat!” After he proclaimed a division title last year, Phillies’ SS Jimmy Rollins responded, “Has anyone heard of plagiarism?”  In an interview for 950 ESPN radio, ESPN senior baseball analyst Jayson Stark discussed how there were people in the Phillies locker room suggesting there would be a brawl. 

This hatred between the two teams really has just blossomed over the last few years, since both teams have been good.  The rivalry really spiked with Rollins’ prediction of the division crown last year, and the Mets collapse allowing his seemingly absurd prophecy to be true.  What’s still humorous though, is that I still don’t see them as our biggest rival.  Even though there has been all this tension and hatred lately, the Braves have been our rival for so long and probably again will contend for the NL East Title as well as the wildcard.  To me, the Phillies are a grumpy third wheel that just desperately wants some attention.  Really, we won as many playoffs games as they did last year. 

“Let me tell you this: Without Santana, we felt as a team that we have a chance to win in our division. With him now, I have no doubt that we’re going to win in our division,” the star center fielder said. “So this year, to Jimmy Rollins — we are the team to beat!” — Carlos Beltran, February 16th. 2008

In the Associated Press, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins had arrived to spring training and answered a few questions for the reporters.

Rollins on Beltran’s statement…

“Has anyone ever heard of plagiarism?”

“Pretty good, especially coming from him. Because he’s a quiet guy, it was probably shocking when he said it. Not shocking in a bad way, like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe he said that.’ More like, ‘Wow, he finally said something because he’s a leader on that team and you definitely need to be a vocal leader.’”

Rollins on the Phillies…

“There isn’t a team in this division or the National League that’s better than us. After 162 games, we’ll be looking to win the next 11.”

“We can win 100 games. Look at what happened to us last year with all the injuries and all the different pitchers and the uncertainties and we wound up winning 89 games.”

At CNNSI, they have a list ranking the 10 biggest trades of the last decades. While none of the trades directly involve the Mets, some of them certainly hold some significance:

10 ) Kansas City Royals send Carlos Beltran to the Astros.

Boy, in that post season where he hit 8 HRs in 12 games he certainly earned himself millions of extra dollars in free agency, where Omar Minaya gobbled him up.

9 ) Dodgers deal Paul Lo Duca, Guillermo Mota and Juan Encarnacion to the Marlins for Brad Penny and Hee Seop Choi.

Well, that year the Lo Duca trade sparked the Dodgers to the playoffs and the Marlins barely missed out. I guess I can only hope getting rid of Lo Duca and Mota sparks us to the playoffs next year, among other things.

8 ) As GM of the Expos, Omar Minaya trades Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore in exchange for Bartolo Colon who immediately got hurt.

Wow, you think you’re trading just a few prospects thinking only one might pan out, but then you look at this trade and you see Lee who’s a decent starter, Phillips who is 26 years old and hit 30 HRs last year as a 2B and Grady Sizemore, who is just truly stunning.

I hope Omar knows what he’s doing if he gives away our prospects.

Other of note to the Mets include the Braves trading for Tim Hudson, the Marlins’ deals of Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis as well as the Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell for Hanley Ramirez trade.

Oh, and naturally the Yankees needed to be #1 on the list, with Alex Rodriguez for Alfonso Soriano topping the list.

Rob Neyer on ESPN runs down the best and worst deals made by Scott Boras. Out of 10 deals, only three of them does Neyer find to be a good deal for the team who signed the player. Carlos Beltran is among the three Neyer lists as a good deal for his team. He writes the follow about Beltran :

When the Mets signed Beltran, the thinking — well, my thinking — was that the Mets had been over-awed by Beltran’s brilliance as a member of the Astros in the 2004 postseason, and that while Beltran would be excellent for the Mets in the first season or two of his new deal, in the long term he’d be overpaid. Instead he struggled in his first season with the Mets, but has been outstanding since. Considering salary inflation and Beltran’s age — he turns 31 next April — if he can stay reasonably healthy the Mets should receive solid value for their $119 million investment.

See, it’s really not so hard to fare well when signing one of Scott Boras’ top clients. All you have to do is sign one of the best players in the majors when he’s still in his 20s (Rodriguez and Beltran) or one of the all-time greatest pitchers when he’s still in his early 30s (Maddux). No problem!

Its incredible how quickly inflation kicks in when you’re talking baseball money. What once seemed like a huge amount of money just a few short years ago seems like peanuts in comparison to contracts today.

The Mets have to be pretty happy about the fact they have their core in David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran locked in for the next few years under very good contracts.

David Wright and Carlos Beltran, recent Gold Glove winners, have won the Silver Slugger awards as well. It was Wright’s first.

Other winners including Prince Fielder, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins in the NL, and Big Papi, Ichiro, A-Rod, Derek Jeter, and Vlad in the AL.