Among  the bright spots for the Mets in the early part of the season is the play of young first baseman Ike Davis. Because of the amount of turnover on the Mets’ roster, on their bench and in the front office, Davis seems like he’s been in Flushing for a while now. But the 24-year-old has only 170 Major League games under his belt.

It’s silly to read too much into Davis’ hot start this season since it comes across only 95 plate appearances. But his .338/.421/.600 line in 2011 bolsters his career totals, and when trying to evaluate players it is best to use the largest sample of data available.

Davis can now boast a career 124 OPS+, precisely the average for NL first basemen in 2010. By the eye and by the stats, he has been excellent defensively at first base. And of course, Davis is a 24-year-old who entered big-league play last season with only 65 games above A-ball. So it’s reasonable to expect he’s still getting better.

It’s not reasonable to expect him to maintain this pace all season, since that’d place him among the very best hitters in the game and that’s a lot to ask for from anyone. But the hot start provides more evidence that he’s a viable Major League first baseman and can be a valuable piece of the Mets’ next contender, whenever that happens.

Also, his beard is good.

Armed with the giant $105 million contract extension he signed last week, Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun had to figure that he’d see an increase in the already-large number of marriage proposals he gets from female fans.

But who knew one woman would try to separate herself from the posterboard-toting pack at Miller Park by printing her cell phone number above her suggestion? And yet that actually happened on Friday night as the fräulein above made sure to place all 10 of her digits on her very earnest offer.

– ‘Duk, Big League Stew.

Good writeup from Big League Stew of a strange series of events in Milwaukee that ended with Ryan Braun reaching a cellphone with a full voicemail box.

But as a Shea Stadium employee during the 2000 season, I can assure you that Braun is by no means the first handsome bachelor ballplayer to be offered phone numbers via posterboard.

Vendors had to be at games two and a half hours before first pitch to get assignments. That process only took about 20 minutes, so there was a whole lot of sitting-around time. Usually I found a spot in the field level and read while the Mets took batting practice.

As soon as the gates opened, almost without fail, about five to ten women would stream down to the the area behind the Mets’ dugout with signs like, “MARRY ME MIKEY P!” or “The Future Mrs. Piazza” with an arrow pointing down. Often they’d have phone numbers on them.

Whenever Piazza emerged from the dugout for warmups, they’d yell and whoop for him — like everyone did those days, understandably — and he’d often acknowledge the crowd with a tip of the hat.

Thing is, probably anybody in Shea Stadium that summer would’ve happily married Mike Piazza if he asked. He was that type of hero.