First off, on the awards: I’d like to say that there are no egregious picks this year!

I think that reasonable people can disagree about the MVP or Cy Young or anything like that. It’s just that sometimes the choices go far beyond the realm of the sane. This year, however, I’m happy to report that the choices were all in bounds:

AL ROY: Evan Longoria
AL Cy Young: Cliff Lee
AL MVP: Dustin Pedroia

NL ROY: Geovany Soto
NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum
NL MVP: Albert Pujols

I would have voted for Halladay for AL Cy, but otherwise, this matches my IBA ballot.

Now, the votes do not have to match my ballot to be sane. The more “controversial” awards this year, I thought, were as follows:

AL Cy Young: Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Mariano Rivera
NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, Johan Santana, Brad Lidge
AL MVP: Joe Mauer, Dustin Pedroia

I thought that any of Lee, Halladay, and Mo Rivera were valid picks for the AL Cy Young. For the NL Cy Young, Lincecum and Santana were a toss-up, and a perfect relief season deserves consideration. And in the AL, where there was no clear-cut favorite, Mauer and Pedroia were a coin-flip.

I think that this is a victory worth celebrating, in its own right. None of the consensus picks were indefensible, from a standpoint of logical analysis. This is a good thing. We probably put way too much stock into awards as fans/analysts, but they’re great for debate, and it’s good to see that the voters are getting smarter. (Notice the absence of K-Rod from the AL Cy ballots; I pray for moderation from Mets’ management on this one.)

But for this piece, I’m more interested in the Mets’ schedule. I’d just like to point out a few interesting tidbits I noticed while looking it over:

1. There’s a World Baseball Classic again this spring.

I had forgotten about this entirely, to be honest. (Also, still in the interest of honesty, I have been out of the baseball loop, to some extent, caught up in a few other things.) A handful of Mets should be playing in this, though Johan Santana was none too impressed in 2006.

2. Either the Mets’ third or fourth starter will pitch Opening Day at CitiField.

Right now, that would either be John Maine, Big Pelf, or Oliver Perez though that could change with an offseason acquisition of a starting pitcher. The Mets break in the new stadium at home against the rebuilding Padres.

The collective bargaining agreement stipulates that a team flying coast-to-coast cannot play a day game on the next day, so, for the first time in a very long time, the Mets’ home opener is a night game. Anyone recall the last time the Mets opened Shea with a night game?

3. Geek Day may work at Camden Yards next year, but the Mets are only playing there on weeknights.

A few of us discussed the possibility of having a Geek Day at Camden Yards in 2009, on the off-chance that the Mets would wind up in Camden Yards for a series. The Mets currently have a three-game stretch with Baltimore scheduled for June 16-18 at beautiful Camden Yards, but those are weeknights.

4. The Mets have a very tough slate of opponents from June 9 to July 9.

Take a look at these opponents:

- 6 with Yankees (3 Home/3 Road)
- 6 with the Phillies (3 Home/3 Road)
- 3 with the Orioles (3 Road)
- 3 with the Rays (3 Home)
- 4 with the Cardinals (4 Home)
- 3 with the Dodgers (3 Home)
- 3 with the Brewers (3 Road)

Excepting the Orioles, all of those teams were over .500 last year. The Mets will get three of the NL’s four playoff teams, plus the restocked Yankees and the reigning AL champion Rays. The Mets should be over .500 by a few games going into that stretch. If they can build on that over those 28 games, I would be quite optimistic going into the All-Star Break.

5. The Mets’ schedule seems to spread out their West Coast trips nicely.

I count three trips to the West for the Mets during the season:

May 14-20: San Francisco, Los Angeles
August 6-12: San Diego, Arizona
September 1-3: Colorado

6. The Mets may be quite exhausted going into those first two West Coast swings.

The Mets have two absolutely grueling stretches this year, both capped off by the West Coast trips. First, the Mets play 20 straight games in May:

May 1-3: at Philadelphia
May 4-5: at Atlanta
May 6-7: home against Philly
May 8-10: home against Pittsburgh
May 11-13: home against Atlanta
May 14-17: at San Francisco
May 18-20: at Los Angeles

They have another 20 straight games spanning the end of July and the first couple of weeks in August:

July 24-26: at Houston
July 27-30: home against Colorado
July 31-August 3: home against Arizona
August 4-5: home against St. Louis
August 6-9: at San Diego
August 10-12: at Arizona

Although the NL West is pretty bad, I would not be surprised to see the Mets struggle in these games. The rest of the schedule seems to have a good smattering of off-days, but it just so happens that the Mets’ two major West Coast trips come without a travel day. It’s something to keep an eye on.

7. Once again, the Mets finish against the Phillies way too early.

I’ve written about the emerging Mets/Phillies rivalry in the past, and you can certainly add 2008 to the history. But the Mets and Phils never seem to face off in the crucial last weeks of the season. This year, the two teams have only 3 games in September (11-13), closing out their season series.

8. The Mets should rack up some wins in late May/early June.

From May 25 to June 7, the Mets have six games against the Gnats, three against the Marlins, and four against the Pirates. Although all three teams should be better in 2009, is 10-3 too much to ask for in that stretch?

9. It doesn’t look like the Mets will face any B-teams preparing for the playoffs down the stretch.

Last year, the Mets were gift-wrapped a series against the Cubs in late September at Shea. The Cubs had just clinched the NL Central, and the Mets were poised to take advantage of their backups. Instead, they gutted and clawed their way to a 2-2 split in the four-game series. Great games, but not good enough. There appears to be no such opportunity for such a series in late September this year; the Mets face divisional foes from September 8 all the way through September 30.

10. The Mets don’t have to face their late-season nemesis (Florida) on the last weekend.

The Marlins have played spoiler to the Mets two straight seasons. This time, the Mets end against Houston. Perhaps avoiding the Fearsome Fins will change their luck.

So, how many days until pitchers and catchers, again?