According to Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com and reported by Metsblog.com and Matt Cerrone, Jerry Manuel has announced that the following will be his opening day lineup.
1. SS Alex Cora
2. 2B Luis Castillo
3. 3B David Wright
4. 1B Mike Jacobs
5. LF Jason Bay
6. CF Gary Matthews Jr.
7. RF Jeff Francoeur
8. C Rod Barajas
9. SP Johan Santana
First off, Pagan SHOULD be starting in CF and leading off. Cora should be batting lower and Francoeur should be 6th. Also, Mike Jacobs splitting up Wright and Bay is absolutely dumb. You're using a guy with a .230 or so batting average splitting up two guys with (as far as I remember seeing) relatively little difference between lefty and righty splits. I'd rather see Pagan, Castillo, Wright, Bay, Francoeur, Jacobs, Matthews, Barajas, Santana for the first few games, until Reyes comes back and makes our lineup look less miserable.