Meet the Mets
As you might have already heard, Matt Harvey gets the start for the Mets today in Port St. Lucie against the visiting Yankees. The game will air on SNY, WOR, and WEPN and figures to be one of the more exciting on the Grapefruit League schedule.
When David Price pitched against Harvey earlier in spring training, he expressed that he was a big Harvey fan. C.C. Sabathia is not quite as excited about that. As for Harvey, it's been business as usual this spring, writes Marc Carig at Newsday.
It sounds more and more like Daniel Murphy will open the season on the disabled list, at least if the way the discussion is going in terms of finding a replacement for second base on Opening Day is any indication. Of course, Dilson Herrera, who did not dominate at the plate but definitely did hold his own late last year in the big leagues, is not a part of that discussion. Ruben Tejada, Danny Muno, and Matt Reynolds are.
Over at Faith and Fear, Greg Prince considers how the Mets are tied to their predecessors after picking up a tidbit that the history of the United States has been covered by the lifespans of just four overlapping presidents.
The Mets are pretty excited about Steven Matz, which is understandable. The lefty was predictably moved to minor league camp after another impressive outing in big league camp yesterday.
Bobby Parnell, whose return to the bullpen keeps looking more and more important, threw in an intrasquad game. If all goes well in his comeback from Tommy John surgery, he could join the team in the early-ish part of the season.
Around the National League East
The Phillies should experiment with a six-man rotation this year, says The Good Phight. And Grant Brisbee takes a pretty in-depth look at which teams might actually want Ryan Howard, who Philadelphia is really trying hard to trade.
If you've missed anything with the Marlins' contract extension with Christian Yelich, Fish Stripes has you covered.
Around Major League Baseball
The Marlins might not be the only team to extend a young player to an extension, as the Red Sox are reportedly considering doing just that with outfielder Mookie Betts.
The league has scheduled all games on the last day of the regular season at the same time, which sounds like it could be pretty great if there is anything left to play for that day. Given the way regular seasons have ended in recent years, that seems fairly likely.
This date in Mets history
The Mets and Yankees played a spring training game—their very first time playing one another—on this date in 1962, which makes today's spring training game a nice little 53rd anniversary celebration.