The Mets made their final cuts today. Bobby Kielty and Elmer Dessens were assigned to Triple-A Buffalo and Fernando Nieve was released. Kielty had a great spring getting 54 at-bats and hitting .296/ .365/ .407. We’ll be seeing him with the big league club at some point this season. Dessens only pitched 3 innings this spring so we don’t really know how much he has left. We’ll find out as he spends time at Buffalo. Nieve was picked up after being cut by pitching-poor Houston a few weeks ago. He pitched 10.2 innings to a 6.75 ERA… that’s not going to get it done in a tryout situation.
Here’s the roster to start the season:
Catchers
Brian Schneider
Ramon Castro
Infielders
Carlos Delgado
Luis Castillo
Jose Reyes
David Wright
Marlon Anderson
Alex Cora
Nick Evans
Outfielders
Daniel Murphy
Carlos Beltran
Ryan Church
Jeremy Reed
Fernando Tatis
Starting Pitchers
Johan Santana
Mike Pelfrey
Oliver Perez
John Maine
Livan Hernandez
Relief Pitchers
Francisco Rodriguez
JJ Putz
Bobby Parnell
Brian Stokes
Pedro Feliciano
Sean Green
Darren O’Day
Livan Hernandez isn’t officially on the roster until he’s needed in the fifth game. Actually, the Mets could go for a couple of weeks without him but Jerry Manuel is choosing to go with a straight five man rotation to start the season. Expect Nick Evans to head to Buffalo when Hernandez’ spot in the rotation comes up.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia
The Mets Report 
Looking pretty strong… The corner outfield spots are still a worry for me, but hopefully Church can stay healthy and Murphy is as good as we all hope…
LETS GO METS!!!
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I agree. Hopefully, Murphy can hit lefties. He only got ten at-bats against them last season. If not, we’re in for another long season unless Minaya brings in Matt Holliday, Gary Sheffield, or Maglio Ordonez.
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I once again agree with Stathead on the corner outfielders, all we can do is hope they are decent enough to not be a weakness. I like Murph’s hitting, granted its based on early returns.his fielding is downright ugly. I am not a big fan of Church, I know he was hottest Met early last year, and as I have mentioned before, I always worry about players with multiple concussions on the resume, it effects them in ways that only a person who has had one can understand best . I will maintain my optimism, because I love the new bullpen, and in the final analysis, the Mets lost the division last season the day Wagner went down. thankfully they have much better people out there,
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Is it Castro or Schneider as the opening day catcher? I heard that Castillo will be batting 8th. I’d assume that if Schneider’s in the lineup, he’ll be 7th. That could be 3 easy outs at the bottom of the order.
Otherwise, I like this lineup. The bullpen looks decent enough on paper. The starters also look solidr. Beltran will probably have a lot of ground to cover in the outfield.
I wonder if El Duque will make an appearance at Livan’s starts? He can give his younger brother some pointers on bunyons.
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Schneider is the starter. Manuel has been challenging Castro but he can’t stay healthy enough to play every day. There have been rumors that they’ve tried to trade him several times since the end of last season.
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I watched a little of the game this evening (Mets v Red Sox Exhibition). Luis Castillo actually looks like he’s in shape!
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