And so, I started watching Jacobs a bit more closely. And suddenly, involuntarily, I found myself rooting for him. Like I said up top, I don’t know exactly why. But I think it’s because of this: There’s a certain thrill in watching a Mike Jacobs at-bat. He seems — and I have to say “seems” because I have never asked him about this — he seems to understand exactly what’s happening around him. There’s something in his body language, in the joy he seems to get out of baseball, in the way he holds his bat … he seems to be saying to the pitcher:

“You know, I know, everyone here knows that I have some holes in my swing. And you know, I know, everyone here knows where those holes are located. I’m not going to hit the good fastball up and in. I’m not going to hit the sharp breaking ball. I’ll probably chase a pitch when behind in the count — let’s face it, I can’t really help myself, those pitches really look good. So, yeah, let’s be perfectly honest here: If you throw good pitches, you’re probably going to strike me out. And if you’re left-handed, you don’t even need to throw especially good pitches, you’re probably going to get me.

“But …

“Actually, BUT — it’s a big BUT …

“But if you make a mistake, I’m going to freaking hit the ball 700 miles.”

– Joe Posnanski, JoePosnanski.com.

I find Mike Jacobs’ at bats significantly less thrilling than Posnanski does, mostly because so far this season, they’ve all been tucked in between David Wright’s at-bats and Jason Bay’s at-bats.

There’s a reasonable case to be made the Jacobs shouldn’t even be on the Mets’ roster, no less starting at first base in Daniel Murphy’s stead, and it seems downright absurd that he should be hitting between the two best hitters in the Mets’ lineup.

(One note on the upcoming: People always misuse sandwich terminology in metaphors. They’d say, here, that it’s a good-hitter sandwich with Mike Jacobs in the middle. That’s not how you name sandwiches, though. You never say you want a whole-wheat sandwich with turkey in it.)

Jerry Manuel is serving an out-machine sandwich on good-hitter bread.

Jacobs is coming off two straight seasons with a sub-.300 on-base percentage, and he’s hitting among the three Mets in the lineup — Bay, Wright and Luis Castillo — who have proved they can reliably get on base at an above-average clip.

And for what purpose? Platoon splits, so the Mets aren’t susceptible to a tough righty reliever? Bay and Wright are undoubtedly better hitters than Jacobs against any pitcher, regardless of handedness. (So, most likely, is Fernando Tatis, for what it’s worth.)

Interestingly enough, Joe Janish pointed out last week that Jacobs has, in his career, hit far better when batting elsewhere in the lineup than while batting cleanup. The data is intriguing, but I’m unwilling — and I’d guess Joe is too — to say Jacobs could be expected to post an .867 OPS simply by hitting anywhere but the four-hole in the lineup. From a quick glance at gamelogs, it appears Jacobs has hit fourth mostly later in his stint with the Marlins and in the second half of 2009 with the Royals. Maybe his struggles there are less about a psychological block against the cleanup spot and more about coincidentally moving into it only after his league has figured him out.

Regardless, the Marlins pretty clearly have the book on Jacobs. He sure crushed a few foul balls last night, which were pretty awesome, but, you know, don’t count for much besides strikes.

I don’t really know why I’m beating this drum. I can’t imagine there are a lot of people out there still holding the candle for Jacobs to be hitting fourth for the Mets after seeing what he did in the team’s first two games. So I’ll stop now. I’m just frustrated, is all.