With Luis Castillo re-signed, it looks as if the Mets may have the same primary number 2 spot hitter for two years in a row. In each of the last five seasons, the hitter who started in the #2 spot in the Mets' lineup more than anybody else has been:
2003 Timo Perez
2004 Kaz Matsui
2005 Miguel Cairo
2006 Paul Lo Duca
2007 Luis Castillo
In team history, the 5 guys who batted in the second spot in the lineup in the most games for the Mets:
1. Felix Millan 628 games
2. Edgardo Alfonzo 542 games
3. Wally Backman 396 games
4. Bud Harrelson 262 games
5. Dave Magadan 236 games
Since 1962, the year the Mets entered the majors, the major league players who have batted in the second spot in the lineup in the most games overall:
1. Ozzie Smith 1,533 games
2. Omar Vizquel 1,473 games
3. Jay Bell 1,335 games
4. Ryne Sandberg 1,223 games
5. Rod Carew 1,149
If Derek Jeter bats second in 2008 as often as he did in 2007, he will move past Carew and Sandberg on this list. Omar Vizquel has signed a one-year deal to be back with the Giants in 2008 and could conceivably pass Ozzie on this listm, though by the end of last season he was batting second for San Francisco only ocassionally, having mostly moved down toward the bottom of the order.
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