Today at Digital Domain Park, Jason Bay commented on the injury that led to him going on the Disabled List to start the season.

“It was devastating at first. I took one swing and had a little bit of a sting or a stab in my side. I’ve never had that before. I kind of hoped it was a cramp. With all the side problems that are running rampant in baseball, I kind of had a feeling something was up there. I took another round and it didn’t feel any better. That’s when we just shut it down.”

Bay can be activated from the DL on April 9th, presuming he can swing pain free by then of course.

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In 2010, our Opening Day lineup looked like this:

Alex Cora SS
Luis Castillo 2B
David Wright 3B
Mike Jacobs 1B
Jason Bay LF
Gary Matthews, Jr. CF
Jeff Francoeur RF
Rod Barajas C
Johan Santana P

In this year’s Opening Day lineup, David Wright will be the “only player” who was also in last year’s Opening Day lineup.

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I like one of the things Terry Collins said today while talking about his Opening Day lineup. He was a little feisty when asked why Willie Harris was playing tomorrow rather than Lucas Duda.

“I take every game seriously. You me to tell you why Harris is playing tomorrow and batting second? Have you even looked at the numbers?” 

Yesterday, Collins also said something I was glad to hear.

“Winning games in April is no less important then winning games in September. There’s no less of a priority to winning in April over any other month of the season. All the games matter and we want to win.”

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No news yet on if Manny Acosta passed through waivers, but I thought this was an interesting thing to say by the folks at FanGraphs:

One testament to the strength of the Mets bullpen came today, when the team designated Manny Acosta for assignment this morning. Acosta is no great shakes. In his 153.2 MLB innings he has produced a 3.40 ERA and 4.47 FIP. Last year, though, he was one of the Mets best relievers, with a 2.95 ERA and 3.63 FIP. Relievers with those types of results who can strike out more than a batter per inning are normally valuable; it would be surprising to see a second division team claim Acosta on waivers. But the Mets have enough confidence in their other guys that they felt the right move was removing another one of its top relievers from 2010.

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Edie Coleman of WFAN believes Mike Pelfrey is the big question going into the season. He writes,

The biggest question to me is this – last year, Mike Pelfrey was asked to step up and become a No. 2 behind Johan Santana in the Mets rotation. This year, Pelfrey is tabbed to go from No. 2 to the ace in Santana’s absence. Is it too much too soon for the big fella? Pelfrey had his usual sub-par spring, going 1-2 with a 5.62 ERA. Last season, he broke out of the gate 9-1 and ended up with 15 wins. Can he match that or come close? An awful lot to ask.

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According to TC Palm, the New York Mets surpassed last year’s spring training attendance total despite playing three fewer home games and having one scheduled game canceled by rain. The Mets wrapped up Grapefruit League play Wednesday with a 6-3 win over the Marlins. The club drew 87,413 fans over 14 games (6,244 fans per game), compared to 84,707 fans in 17 games (4,983 fans per game) last year.

The two highest-attended spring training games in stadium history came this season — 7,413 showing up for the Red Sox game March 6 and 7,393 against the Cardinals on March 13.