The great thing in sports about having a first or last name that has two “o’s” next to each other or a “u” is that fans love cheering the name, even though it sounds like the player is getting booed. Carlos Boozer of the Chicago Bulls, Mets first base coach Mookie Wilson, Mets farmhand Lucas Duda and scores of others have enjoyed this luxury. When the Mets signed Chin-lung Hu this offseason, they added another [...]

Mets manager Terry Collins has said that he would like to get each of his potential second base candidates some more at-bats over the next few days as he starts to whittle down the playing field. Reports surfaced earlier this week that Collins wanted Luis Hernandez to be the Mets starter at second base. However, those reports were quickly shot down and might have only been done to light a fire under the other candidates. [...]

The Contenders: Luis Castillo- .235/.337/.267, 0 HR, 17 RBI, 6.7 UZR/150, 0. 6 WAR, $6 million, 35 years old Daniel Murphy- .266/.313/.427, 12 HR, 63 RBI, 1.0 WAR, $400K, 26 years old Brad Emaus- .290/.397/.476, 15 HR, 75 RBI (between AA and AAA), $400K, 25 years old The Underdog: Justin Turner- .316/.374/.487, 12 HR, 43 RBI (at AAA), $400K, 26 years old The Long Shots: Ruben Tejada- .213/.305/.282, 1 HR, 15 RBI, 1.2 UZR/150, -0.4 [...]