Today Johan Santana admitted he won’t know when he’ll pitch again. So what happens next?

The Captain.

David Wright has been named the fourth captain in Mets history, joining Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter and John Franco.

Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said the decision was essentially made from an ownership perspective the instant Wright signed an eight-year, $138 million contract in early December. Wright, though, said he wanted the endorsement of teammates before accepting the honor.

Wright said it was a joint decision not to place a “C” on his jersey, since it’s not his personality and a standard uniform is sacred.

Read the whole post by Adam Rubin here.

You could see this coming a mile away, and it’s just a formality – David Wright is the leader of this team.  Incidentally, I’m glad they’re keeping the “C” off the jersey.  That always looked weird on a baseball uniform.

John Stearns

I was reading this post over at Amazin’ Avenue about the worst Opening Day lineups in Mets history (a story prompted by the lineup we may see on April 1st this year).  They arranged it by decade.  When I got to their nominee for worst lineup of the 70s, I stopped – and a flood of memories came back.

1979 was the year I first year I started following the Mets in earnest.  I had watched them on and off in ’77 and ’78, but at the time, my life was about Star Wars and surviving first grade.  For whatever reason, the ’79 team caught my attention, maybe because I was playing little league

Newsday, Matt den Dekker & Terry Collins 

Questions continue to loom over who will be starting where in the outfield, especially in centerfield. And Matt den Dekker still isn’t the answer.

There’s an article by Jorge Castillo in NJ.com about Jordany Valdespin and his “complicated” clubhouse presence.

After reading it, I can’t help but recall Mets from the past who followed the beat of their own drum and — because of their passion / personality / immaturity / fill-in-the-quirk — didn’t quite fit in with their teammates.

The original Yogi.

This is the phase of Spring Training where we start to wring our hands and worry about injuries and try to predict who’s going to start on Opening Day.  Since I have enough to worry about in real life, I’m adopting a new philosophy – I’m not going to worry about baseball – at least not until the actual games are played.

Baseball is supposed to be a welcome distraction from the real world anyway – a chance to lose yourself in a sporting event for 3 hours.  So I’m just going to get into a “Lilting Flower” pose (or whatever that yoga pose is – I have hamstrings of concrete which prevent me from doing yoga anyway) and not worry about whether David Wright or Justin Turner or Richie Hebner will start at third base on Opening Day.

And I’m not going to worry about the outfield, which could be really bad, just like the 2000 outfield was on paper.  Besides, if Lucas Duda can keep hitting the ball the way he has lately in ST, maybe he can make us forget that he has the range of and Easter Island statue in left.

More importantly, what do the Mets bat weights look like this year?

Oh, and the bullpen is going to be better this year.  It’s in the Post, so it must be true.

So, Ohm and Kumbaya and let’s play ball already.

In a story published on WSJ.com, Tim Marchman suggests that Kirk Nieuwenhuis “personifies” the Mets.

Do you agree?

Surely you remember the old Abbott and Costello routine: “Who’s on First?”

With Opening Day less than two weeks away, the Mets have Ike Davis on first, are asking what’s on second, and I don’t know about third base — and it’s no joke.