Today Jerry Manuel, for the second straight offseason, said he’d consider batting Jose Reyes third.

Matt Cerrone followed with a poll, and his readers are currently split right down the middle on whether it’s a good idea. It’s actually 50-percent yes and 50-percent no after 3540 votes. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before.

Obviously it’s a bit more complex than a straight yes-or-no, good idea/bad idea thing, which might be the source of the Met fan ambivalance. It’s certainly the source of mine.

I’ve always assumed Reyes would develop a little more power as he aged. I don’t have a ton of evidence to back that up, but he’s impressively broad if you see him up close, and it feels like when he does hit home runs, they’re not ones that just edge over the wall — he knocks the crap out of ’em.

That’s a biased and unscientific assessment, but I’m open to Manuel’s notion that Reyes, if healthy for a full season in 2010, could produce a few more extra-base hits than we’ve come to expect from him.

The thing is, if he’s not going to be batting leadoff, he damn well better be replaced by someone who gets on-base as frequently as he does. I touched on this a little last week: The most important quality for a leadoff hitter is not actually speed, but the ability to get on base.

So if Luis Castillo, David Wright or Jason Bay is manning the leadoff spot, I suppose I’m cool with Jose hitting third. Since no one else is likely to post a higher OBP, no one else should lead off.

I’m looking at you, Angel Pagan.

Since there’s no chance Wright or Bay will lead off, that pretty much leaves Castillo. He’s not a lock to get on base at a higher clip than Reyes, but even on his old knees he’s a decent fit to bat leadoff. He’ll certainly find his way to first base with some frequency, and it’s not like he has any power that would go to waste at the top of the order.

I still like him as a ninth hitter with Reyes leading off, since that’d be a good way to make use of Castillo’s OBP and then, after the first time through the order, Reyes’ power, while maximizing Reyes’ at-bats. But that’s probably not happening.

And I’ll settle on the status quo on this one: Let Reyes do his thing, leading off and stealing bases and making things fun to watch. If he’s going to start hitting for more power, make him force the issue. That’s a good type of problem to have.

So Jerry Manuel said he could see Mike Jacobs serving as a power bat for the bench, like what the Phillies had with Matt Stairs.

But Mike Jacobs is not like Matt Stairs.

Matt Stairs was notable for a several reasons: He looked like a beer-league softball player, got on-base a lot, hit home runs, and couldn’t really play defense. Mike Jacobs only shares two of those qualities.

Matt Stairs finished his career with a .358 on-base percentage. Mike Jacobs is currently rocking a  lifetime .313 on-base percentage.

I tweeted this information a few minutes ago, and several Mets fans responded — perhaps accurately — that the Mets would only be asking Jacobs to be a lefty pinch-hitter off the bench who wouldn’t have to play defense, and so Manuel wasn’t comparing the two as players so much as he was suggesting Jacobs could fill a similar role.

That’s all well and good, and far be it for me to complain about the Mets finally adding a bench bat with a little pop.

But I’m guessing — and I haven’t run the numbers on this — that for a player to be valuable to his team while only being asked to do one thing, he has to be very good at that one thing. And Jacobs is not that good at that one thing.

Yes, he can hit home runs. That’s great.

What he can’t do — at least probably not well enough to earn a roster spot — is get on base. Not like Stairs could, and maybe not like Quad-A Spring Training invite Chris Carter could, either.

Why’s that important? Well, it’s not like all the situations that call for pinch-hitters only call for a home run. Hitting a home run is always the best possible thing a pinch-hitter can do, of course, but in instances where the team is down by more than one run, getting on base, well… you know.

Plus, if the pinch-hitter is being used to replace the pitcher — as he most often is — his getting on base means the top of the order will get to bat with a man on to drive in. And the top part of the order is where the good hitters hit.

It may feel like I’m on some sort of campaign against Mike Jacobs, but that’s really not the case. I have no personal agenda against the man, and I’m sure he’s a really nice dude. I just bristle when people bandy about Matt Stairs’ name haphazardly.