Ben Berkon

The Mets announced yesterday that Justin Turner will be the Mets backup first baseman going into the season. Even though Terry Collins seemed confident in Turner’s abilities to occasionally handle the duties, the natural middle-infielder has only played first base in one inning of one Minor League game. Not only would Turner playing first be odd, but also–as Ed Ryan of Mets Fever briefly mentioned–maybe Turner’s spot on the roster could be better used on someone else.

Most people spend their Sundays catching up on their DVR’d television of the week or just trying their best not to remember that Monday is soon approaching. I, instead, spent part of my Sunday randomly going up to people on the street wearing Mets stuff, and asking them questions about the upcoming season. Their reactions varied.

Matt Kaufman has been a contributing writer for Rising Apple since January 6, 2011. He also works at MLB.com in the overnight hours. But more importantly, he is a die-hard New York Mets fan, and an unrelenting optimist. Luckily, he had a moment to answer some questions for us today.

In their fifty years of existence, the New York Mets have only retired three of their own numbers–37 (Casey Stengel), 14 (Gil Hodges), and 41 (Tom Seaver). Since 1988, the Mets have strangely refused to recognize the contributions of its more recent heroes by formally retiring their numbers. And with the news of Gary Carter’s passing, it only further exposes the Wilpons’ embarrassing and disrespectful non-acknowledgement.

Once again, the New York Mets have been featured on Fan Sided’s prospect blog, Seedlings to Stars. This time, it’s in the form a full analysis of its Minor League system’s top prospects. It’s a great read for anyone who wants to gain a better knowledge of the players who will hopefully be helping the Mets in the near future. Read an excerpt and get the link after the jump.

There is always that person in a group of friends who is known as the baseball fan. In the case of Travis Miller, a former blogger at Fan Sided, he is all that and more. Even though he wrote for the Chicago White Sox blog at Fan Sided, he is a tried and true New York Mets fan–but more importantly, he is a fan of all things baseball. And that’s why he’s trying to become the 2012 MLB Fan Cave fan. Below is a little interview, cutting to the core of Travis and his fandom.

With an extremely competitive NL East and tight salary budget, the Mets chances for glory in 2012 are slight. That being said, there are still various things for fans to look forward to this coming season. One of those things is first baseman, Ike Davis.

I’m not talking about a fake account here, the real Sandy Alderson created a Twitter handle. You can follow him @MetsGM. Below are his first two tweets.

Hitting one hundred on the gun doesn’t equal Major League success.

“Ruben or Jose?”, many Mets fans often ask. The topic is moot.