The Mets made their first series of cuts today and Adam Rubin has the unofficial list.

There are no huge surprises here, though we can now put to bed the speculation that arose yesterday in some corners that Jordany Valdespin could slip his way into the second-base competition. Valdespin is supposedly a great defender at second, but he never, ever walks.

Specifically, he walked 10 times in 405 plate appearances last season and only twice in 117 plate appearances after his promotion to Double-A. Since it’s not like Valdespin is making a ton of great contact or anything — he hit .272 for the year and .232 in Binghamton — Major League pitchers would absolutely feast on the guy. He swings too much. He’d suck. Unless he made some massive, unprecedented adjustment over the winter, he’s just not anything like ready for prime time.

No-longer Teenage Hurting Machine Fernando Martinez got cut as well. This means he’s out of the running to replace Carlos Beltran in right field should Beltran prove unable to start the season.

That’s probably a good thing. Martinez, like Valdespin, needs more time in the Minors. Though he’s certainly closer to a finished product, he has a lifetime .325 Triple-A on-base percentage and probably needs more exposure to breaking stuff. It looks great when he connects and since he’s still only 22 there’s plenty of time for him, but Lucas Duda and Nick Evans, both 25, are the more polished hitters.

I thought there was some chance Manny Alvarez could sneak onto the roster, but he was a longshot to begin with and the emergence of Jason Isringhausen made that impossible. Alvarez rocked a straight-up ridiculous 9.5:1 K:BB rate in Binghamton last year, though, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him with the big club in the summer when one of the bullpen guys gets hurt or proves ineffective.

OK check it out. Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog, yesterday:

In talking to people in camp, and others connected to the team, it seems Brad Emaus could end up getting the bulk of the playing time at second base to start the season. That could change, of course. But, as of now, he’s the front-runner.

John Harper in the Daily News, this morning:

Still, if I had to pick a favorite to open the season at second, I’d go with Murphy. The Mets believe he has the most offensive potential of the candidates, and since Emaus and Turner are also offensive-oriented players, Murphy seems to be in line to get the first crack.

David Waldstein in the New York Times, this morning:

After two weeks of exhibition games, it appears that the 35-year-old Luis Castillo, in the final season of his often-belittled four-year, $24 million contract, has the early lead for the Mets’ second-base job.

So what’s happening here? Is one of these reporters lying to us, or relying on bad sources?

Doubtful. My bet is there is no definite frontrunner for the starting second-base job at this point in the spring, and the various decision-makers in camp have varying opinions on which hopeful is best for the position.

There are a ton of coaches and executives around. Look at the Mets’ travel roster, via Adam Rubin. See that right column, 19 dudes deep? That’s the staff list, and that only includes uniformed personnel, and that’s not even the full group — there’s another column that got cut off in this photo. Ask one and he’ll probably tell you one second baseman has been the most impressive. Ask another, and he’ll tell you something completely different.

We can speculate all we want, and since it seems to be the only wide-open position in the lineup (and since so many take Luis Castillo’s continued presence on the roster personally) we eat up these reports. But the amount of conflict in them seems to imply that no decisions have been made. Terry Collins said last week that the competition will be narrowed down by the Mets’ off day on March 14. We will know more then.

Turns out I missed a lot in the papers while I was in Port St. Lucie. And if you read the New York Post, you must think this is a pretty terrifying time to be a Mets fan. Let’s look at some of the things the Post would have us fear and rate them by how scary they actually are, on a scale of 1-10.

I should note that there’s plenty to fear in all the other papers and on just about every blog, too. I was going to do a general Mets Fear Index, but I started out at the Post’s Mets page and realized it had all the material I needed. So here’s what we’re afraid of:

Carlos Beltran’s knee problems: There’s a lot about this on the Post, and rightfully so. Beltran’s arthritic knees, we know, have hampered his last two seasons and slowed his preparation for this one. This is something legitimately worth fearing. The only mitigating factor is that, in Scott Hairston, Lucas Duda and Nick Evans, the Mets have a reasonable amount of depth at the position, something new for the organization. Fear factor: 9 out of 10.

Oliver Perez is still here: I’ve said this before: Barring a rash of injuries, Oliver Perez is not going to make the Mets. Every word spilled on the subject — on this site included — is a word wasted. I will not mention Oliver Perez again until either he is officially cut or it is March 31 and he is still on the roster. Fear factor: 1 out of 10.

Jose Reyes is the new Carmelo Anthony: Get this: Because Jose Reyes is not as good as Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter of all time, then there’s no chance Sandy Alderson will want Jose Reyes back. The fact that Reyes plays shortstop only gets a single parenthetical mention in this column. I’ll amount there’s a solid chance Reyes won’t be back next year, but, without quoting nebulous “executives,” I’d put it at way less than 95 percent. Fear factor: 4 out of 10.

OH MY GOD WE’RE HAVING A FIRE… sale: I will never hear the term “fire sale” again without thinking of Tobias Funke. Evacuate all of the schoolchildren! That said, I don’t know a lot about business and I don’t have a ton of inside information or anything about the Wilpons’ pending lawsuit and their finances. I’m not eager to get too deep into this, lest I sound like a shill. But everything I understand suggests that most of the media coverage — and basically all the sports-media coverage — entirely fails to grasp any of the nuance involved. Here, the thesis — citing more “executives” — is: We know the Mets have money problems, so we should expect them to cut salary down to the $70 million small-market team range. Seems like the brushstrokes are too broad. Also, my understanding is the whole point of seeking another part-owner is so the Mets’ finances are not impacted by the Wilpons’ troubles.  Fear factor: 3 out of 10.