As the season slowly inches closer day by day, it’s time to resurrect our daily feature entitled, “The Morning Grind”. As we did last season, I’ll give you my reflections on the latest Mets and MLB stuff and give you something to ponder and sound off on. Jump right in and give us your two cents.

Oliver’s Story

After  three weeks of hearing how great Oliver Perez looks, and how balanced he is, and how he has found his groove, and how the “Institute” has transformed him, and… You get the idea. Now judge the early results from yesterday’s first official appearance of the spring. Perez allowed five runs (should have been six) and seven hits in three innings against the Nats “B” squad. The enigmatic left-hander issued just one walk  (a vast improvement)and struck out two (Dan Warthen was thrilled). Apparently he threw plenty of strikes, but when the fastball comes in at 89-91 mph, he all of a sudden becomes more hittable. Is anybody else out there as pleased as Jerry Manuel was with his performance?

Omir-acle Part Deux

Omir Santos does it again… well not really… Last year he provided the Mets with their biggest highlight of the season when he homered off of elite Red Sox closer Jon Papelbon in a big Mets win. Yesterday, he hit an inside the park grand slam when Nats outfielder Willy Taveras couldn’t get the umps to call the ball out of play after it got stuck under the padding in the outfield wall. Hopefully, this won’t be the Mets biggest highlight this season, but it was fun to watch nonetheless.

Craig Carton Is Such An Ass

Craig Carton, of WFAN’s “Boomer and Carton” show, really proved this morning why he is the biggest buffoon on sportstalk radio. While speaking about Jose Reyes this morning, he said,

“I have no doubt that they are pumping him full of HGH like he’s the second coming of Secretariat and I don’t need anyone to tell me this had everything to do with the hyperactive thyroid gland.”

As crazy as that sounds, the worst was yet to come.

“Personally, this is the way I feel about it. I couldn’t care less if he’s dead by the age of 50, as long as the Mets pump these guys up with HGH and win us a World Series. What the hell do I care if they all die after that.”

Wow… Are you freaking kidding me???

Parting Shots and Quick Hits

I don’t care how much plastic, Pilates, botox or silicon it took, but Demi Moore is still smoking hot after appearing as a presenter at last nights Academy Awards…

Jeff Francoeur still has a gun for an arm as evidenced by the two runners he nailed at home plate which put the Mets on the winning side of a game decided by one run. Afterward, he said, “King Kong has got nothing on me!” while pounding his chest in the clubhouse…

After getting a glimpse of Pelfrey and Perez this weekend, I’m more inclined to do whatever it takes to not risk losing Nelson Figueroa or Fernando Nieve to waivers should they be designated for assignment…

Left-hander Hisanori Takahashi followed Perez with three brilliant scoreless innings that has me looking forward to watching his progress for the rest of the spring. He allowed one hit, struck out six and walked none. Hey, you never know… Maybe we caught lightning in a bottle… We’ll know more in about three weeks…

So whatcha got for me?