In an article for SI.com, Jon Heyman explains that weeks before the Mets acquired Johan Santana, the Texas Rangers came very close to a deal for the star pitcher. Many believe that Santana’s unwillingness to go a bad team and pitch in a hitter’s ballpark played a major part in the deal falling through.

Who could blame Johan for not wanting to go to Texas? That might be one of the worst 5 teams to be on right now..

The Mets tied the Red Sox this afternoon by a score of 1-1 in 10 innings. Johan Santana pitched brilliantly, allowing 2 hits in 4 innings, while striking out four.

• Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado went 0-3 and 0-2 respectively in their returns to the lineup
• David Wright and Jose Reyes had a hit each, and are both batting under .250 for the spring.

Only Spring..

• Matt Wise pitched a perfect inning, and his spring ERA still stands at 0.00

The Mets reeled in their fifth straight win today with another walk off win against the Dodgers. 2B Anderson Hernandez won it with a hit down the line in the 9th. Joe Smith got the win for the Mets, and Tom Martin took the loss for the Dodgers.

A few notes

Johan Santana pitched 3 innings of 1 run ball, striking out four.

Hernandez, who could make the team if Ruben Gotay goes down with an injury, went 3-5 including the game winner.

“Teenage Hitting Machine” continued his nice spring showing, going 2-3 including a double.

Tomorrow the Mets travel to Viera to play the Nationals. Pedro Martinez is scheduled to make his first start of the spring.

Right now, the Mets are facing off against the LA Dodgers.  Johan Santana takes his 2nd start of the spring, facing off against Brad Penny. 

Notables starting for the Mets include Jose Reyes, David Wright and Fernando Martinez.

To chat during the game, head over to the Hot Foot Bleachers.

The New York Times created a brilliant graphical study of Johan Santana’s change up.

You can view it here.

Hat tip to Hot Foot Jr. for the link.

The Mets lost to the Cards yesterday 5-4 in Johan Santanas first start as a Met. Santana pitched two innings, allowing three runs, all on a three run homer by Juan Gonzalez in the first inning.

Only Spring Training.

Duaner Sanchez allowed a solo home run to Albert Pujols in his one inning of work.

Jose Reyes went 2-3, David Wright 1-3

Carlos Beltran and Luis Castillo did not play, still rehabbing from offseason surgeries.

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.

In a much anticipated live batting practice session, Johan Santana finally faced batters as a member of the New York Mets.

David Lennon in Newsday relays what went on down in snow-less Port St. Lucie:

Everyone gathered at Field 6 to see Johan Santana, but the star of the session was 25-year-old catcher, Solomon Manriquez, who took Santana deep into the trees beyond the centerfield fence.

Could you imagine being a minor-leaguer facing Santana, and jacking one over the wall? Sure, it’s his first session in spring training, but Manriquez has to be on cloud nine right now.

Update: Jeremy Cothran posts a recap of the pitches on his NJ.com blog:

David Wright — took four straight pitches and then hit a weak tapper to third.
Olmedo Saenz — foul ball, pop up, pop up, changeup low, fastball high.
Ryan Church — fastball strike, fastball strike, changeup low, single to right, changeup outside.
Damion Easley — crushed a ball foul, fastball low, pop out, fastball high, single to left.
Salomon Manriquez — foul ball, foul ball, home run left-center, foul.

Overkill much?

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.