Remember when I said I might run out of steam with these season preview pieces? I’ll be honest: I’m getting there. Turns out the week before the baseball season starts is a busy time at a regional sports network, and I’ve been a little under the weather on top of that.

But I’m halfway there, and though I don’t imagine anyone much cares, I’m determined to finish. These will probably be getting progressively shorter though. Here goes this one:

The Major League shortstops in April: Jose Reyes, Alex Cora, perhaps a week of Ruben Tejada

Overview: OK, hear me out: Opening Day is meaningless. It is a pageant. It’s fun, and it’s about my favorite day of the year, but the only thing that will distinguish the game the Mets will play on Monday from the 161 other games they’ll play in 2010 is all the red, white and blue bunting.

Bunting is awesome, don’t get me wrong. I love me some bunting. The decorative kind, not the productive-out kind. I really don’t like that kind.

Anyway, I have no idea why so many people are making such a big stink over the fact that Jose Reyes will sit out Opening Day.

No, that’s not true. I know exactly why people are making a big stink over the fact that Jose Reyes will sit out Opening Day. People love making big stinks, and no matter what the Mets do these days people are bound to make a big stink over it.

But what matters is that it doesn’t much matter. Yeah, the Mets would have a much better chance of winning their first four or five games with Reyes at shortstop than with Cora or Tejada, but it’s not as if having Reyes in the lineup guarantees victories and having him out guarantees otherwise, no matter how anyone makes it seems.

And given the way things went down for the Mets and Reyes last season, I find it hard to fault the team for playing it safe with the shortstop early this season. They’re better off losing him for a couple of games to start the year — “babying” him, if you will — than taking any sort of chance that he’ll push himself before he’s fully stretched out and ready to go and re-injure his hamstring or tweak something else.

The Mets need to maximize the amount of time Jose Reyes spends on the field in 2010 because Jose Reyes is awesome at baseball. It’s easy to forget that because we haven’t seen him play the sport regularly in so long, but the dude is damn near magnificent.

There’s what we see on paper: He plays competent defense at the sport’s most demanding position, gets on at a good clip from from the leadoff spot, hits for some power, and steals lots of bases at a high rate.

And then there’s all that stuff that slips through the spreadsheets: Dancing, bouncing, smiling Jose Reyes, one of the game’s most exciting players, engaging the fans and enraging the opposition.

So I guess, when I think about it that way, I can understand some of the apparent bitterness toward the club for holding Reyes out of the opener. I so, so badly want to see Jose Reyes play baseball again.

But I am patient. It will happen soon enough. And it will be awesome.

The Major League shortstops in September: Reyes, Cora

It’s going to suck hardcore if Reyes gets hurt again. If that happens, slot in Tejada. (Remember, I promised no more Cora-fueled rants until Opening Day, which is why none are included in this preview.)

How they stack up: The N.L. East is an excellent division for shortstops. If Reyes stays healthy, he should be better than all of them but Hanley Ramirez, who is on his own plane.