With their Opening Day only 4 days away, and the last Spring Training game in Florida being played today, the Mets are ready for the start of the season. 

The roster is set with Jose Reyes, Daniel Murphy, David Wright, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, Ryan Church Luis Castillo, and Brian Schneider being the starting position players, and Fernando Tatis, Jeremy Reed, Ramon Castro, Marlon Anderson, Alex Cora, and Nick Evans composing the bench.  Come the fifth day of the season, Evans will be returned to AAA, opening a spot for the team's fifth starter... If spring is any indication, the team should score plenty once more this year...

The rotation will be led by Johan Santana, then Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, John Maine and Livan Hernandez (the aforementioned fifth starter) with a bullpen of Francisco Rodriguez, JJ Putz, Bobby Parnell, Brian Stokes, Pedro Feliciano, Sean Green and Darren O'Day... The lack of a second lefty is still a minor nit...

Key Positional Player to Watch: Delgado - On the verge of being run out of town, a seemingly over-the-hill Delgado turned it up in the second half, arguably becoming the most potent offensive force the last few months of the season, and almost carrying the Mets to the playoffs. When on his game, the offense is rock solid and balanced.  When not, see the first half of last season... Needs to carry over momentum from last year and produced another 30+ HR / 100+ RBI season.

Key Pitcher to Watch: Maine - On paper, the bullpen is not a concern, and you already have the best pitcher in the game.  This leaves the rotation behind Santana as perhaps the achilles heel of the Mets.  Last year, Maine was expected to take it to the next level and become a bona fide #2 starter and young star in the league.  Instead, he struggled and had his season end early due to injury.  Has struggled this spring, but has improved off late with new pitching motion... Needs to start off fast and remain consistent so as to give the Mets a potent combo with Santana.  Pelfrey can be that #2, but after his first full season, and most innings pitched, he is due for a letdown, while the talented Perez continues to be consistantly inconsistent...

And to wrap things up the right way, Sports Illustrated writers have picked the Mets to win the World Series (over the Angels), citing the vastly improved bullpen as the critical piece of the puzzle to finally put them over the top... A decision ToTT wholeheartedly supports...

So what say you, Mets fans?

(udpated 4/3)

Of course, no ToTT Mets post would be complete without another jab at the growing list of fashion snafu's being put forth by the organization.  Now we have already ridiculed their Domino's Pizza Uniform logo, but grow even more perplexed as they trot out a totally different patch for their cap.  See below...

Uniform Patch / Dominos Logo

Hat Patch

So if you are a new Marketing Major just about to come into the workforce, look no further than Queens... as job vacancies are likely.