Tobi Stoner got lit up on Sunday, but he has been mostly effective in the Dominican Winter League. So, you know, good.

Scouts will tell you that Stoner has “short stuff” and doesn’t project as a Major League starter. He’s been solid but not outstanding in most of his Minor League stops, though his strikeout to walk ratio has predictably trended downward as he’s moved through the Mets’ system.

I’m rooting for Stoner for a variety of reasons. He’s a nice guy, for one. I got to talk to him a bit in Binghamton this year, and he seemed to recognize and appreciate that a lot of Mets fans would buy his jersey for comedic reasons.

Plus I’ve got this thing for homegrown and inexpensive contributors that I keep blabbering on about, and maybe he could be that. I thought a decent comp might be Brian Bannister, but it turns out Bannister’s peripherals were a bit more impressive than Stoner’s across a very similar trek through the Minors.

Regardless, the important thing, I think, is that we always remember to punctuate his name with cliched stoner utterances like “bro,” “man,” “phriend,” and “let’s get pizza.”

Will the joke get old quickly? Yeah, and it’s probably already dead. But just ask Norm MacDonald: If you keep using the same joke long enough after it’s no longer funny, it starts to get funny again.