New York Mets

NEW YORK—Entering today, Johan Santana had beaten every team in the Majors except his former club, the Minnesota Twins. Santana had never faced them before and will never want to face them again.

Cliff Lee will most likely be the biggest name moved this season. There have been lots of rumors about where Lee may eventually end up. He has been linked with the Mets, Twins, and Rangers among other teams. Now, there are even rumors that Lee will be traded within the next two weeks.

Earlier this week, I wrote an article talking about the Mets outfield dilemma now that Carlos Beltran is playing rehab games for the St. Lucie Mets.  I concluded that the best-case scenario would be for the four outfielders to platoon.  I also joked that maybe Angel Pagan should take ground balls at second base, giving Jerry Manuel the ability to play all four outfielders at once.

Omar Minaya made a pretty good move by finding this random baseball player with an odd name and a knuckleball. The pitcher's name is R.A. Dickey and he has started off the season 6-0 with the Mets. He has been around the block for a while, but this season many feel like this guy came from nowhere. 

Nobody knows his true identity. 

Last year, he went 1-1 with the Twins in 35 games. This season's wins are equivalent to the amount has with Seattle and Minnesota the last two years. But Baseball Reference and all other websites have all of his stats wrong.

NEW YORK-- He spent eight seasons as a member of the Minnesota Twins. Now, three years later, Johan Santana faces his old club for the first time ever.

Santana was quite a dominant pitcher in Minnesota. He came up in 2000 and became a full-time starter in 2004, when he won 20 games and his first of two Cy Young Awards.

He was just unbelievable. He had one of the nastiest changeups the game had seen in over 50 years, and he was as big a strikeout pitcher as there was at the time.

According to the New York Mets twitter post , the Mets have won their opening game in their last seven straight series. Teams beaten include: the Twins, the Tigers, the Yankees, the Orioles, the Indians, the Marlins, and the Padres (four of these seven were at home).

NEW YORK-- After losing their last game to the Tigers, the Mets were trying to start a new winning streak, and they got one started with a solid win over the Twins on Friday.

The game got off to a stunning start, as Denard Span led off with a home run on the second pitch from Mike Pelfrey, only his third of the season.

I wrote a piece on Wednesday night about how the Seattle Mariners traded Cliff Lee to the Minnesota Twins for Minor League catcher Wilson Ramos, left-handed pitcher Brian Duensing, and a low-level minor league outfielder.

The trade disintegrated when Ramos got hurt last Saturday playing for Triple-A Rochester.

With Carlos Beltran closing in on his return to the New York Mets, speculation is running wild that he will replace Angel Pagan in the lineup. 

Why? 

Pagan has done nothing but form a dynamic one-two punch atop the Mets lineup with Jose Reyes.  Jeff Franceour?  He’s just done nothing.

There is no doubt the Mets would not be in the position they are currently in without the contributions of the whole team.

However, much of their recent success is due to David Wright, who has been an RBI machine with 57 as it stands now, first in the NL. 

Fans around the country are on a campaign to get Wright into the 2010 All Star Game. Placido Polanco is currently the top vote-getter for NL third basemen, but its possible that Wright could catch or pass Polanco before voting ends on July 1, 2010.