After a long winter we’ve finally made it to the cusp of the 2008 baseball season. The Red Sox and A’s just finished kicking things off in Tokyo, while the rest of the teams finally play real games on Sunday and Monday. It’s time to play ball!

We thought we’d begin our baseball coverage by asking U-Melt’s Rob Salzer, who’s a huge Mets fan, to list his ten favorite Metropolitans of all-time.

Let’s see what he came up with:

1. Keith Hernandez
2. Dwight Gooden
3. Mike Piazza
4. Jose Reyes
5. David Wright
6. David Cone
7. Edgardo Alfonzo
8. Sid Fernandez
9. Ron Darling
10. Darryl Strawberry

Be sure to read on for Rob’s thoughts on the acquisition of Johan Santana…

So, generally, I feel very optimistic about Johan Santana. I feel as though he’s going to take a lot of pressure off of Pedro Martinez, and off of John Maine and Oliver Perez too. Those 2 guys are young, and they were both being counted on to be 15 game winners this year for sure. Now, maybe not so much. El Duque, well, he likes pressure, and he is what he is. As long as he’s healthy, he’s pretty much on point.

As far as the Mets chances this year, I think it all depends on their mentality and resilience, and the bullpen. They have all the talent to win a championship, but some things obviously came apart for them last year. The chemistry was a bit off. However, if they can come together, and the starting pitching can go, *gasp*, six or seven innings and save the bullpens’ arms a bit, I think they can at least go to the Series.

Thanks to Rob for taking the time to talk to us about a subject near and dear to his heart. U-Melt returns to The Paradise in Boston this evening for the third and final night of a 3 week Thursday residency before they head to NYC for two nights of progressive grooves at Sullivan Hall. Tickets are available through Ticketweb.