Catcher Preview

After offseason surgery to repair his thumb, Paul Lo Duca will return as the Mets starting catcher this season, after hitting .318 last year he proved to be a legitimate 2 hitter behind Jose Reyes. He also was a great help to all 13 pitchers the Mets threw out on the mound over the course of the season. Lo Duca is in the walk year of his contract and wants to earn an extension to stay with the Mets, if he does what he did last year the Mets would have no problem keeping him around for a few more years.

The Mets signed Sandy Alomar Jr. to a minor league contract, but i suspect that Ramon Castro will remain as the teams backup catcher. The Mets will only carry 2 catchers, those being Lo Duca and Castro. Like in the past decade, the Mets will have a strong leader behind the plate.

Look for Lo Duca to have another solid year, hopefully putting up numbers similar to last year. I predict he will hit .310 with an OBP around .345. More importantly he will continue to hit well with 2 strikes and give Reyes as many possible chances to run. Look for the table setters to continue to do their job in 2007.

BASEBALL IS BACK

Just like the rest of baseball, i took a little hiatus from writing about it, but guess what, Pitchers and Catchers have reported, position players are due in tomorrow and baseball is officially alive and well. I'll be working on some position previews in the next few weeks, discussing rising stars, young studs and everything else that we know and love about the game.

I'm really looking forward to this season, i think the Mets have something really special that they are workin on here. To hold you over, here is a video that made me really appreciate an often under appreciated player, Lastings Milledge, check it out.



This is our Year!