Now I’m straight trolling.

I’ve noticed a lot of Mets fans throwing around Fernando Tatis’ name when listing the players that have stunk up the Mets’ bench in the past couple of years, and that’s not really fair. I covered this during the offseason: Tatis has been a valuable reserve player for the Mets for the past two seasons. He’s certainly not an ideal starting first baseman — a role he’s been thrust into due to injuries and ineffectiveness at various points in the past two seasons — but he’s a player worth having on a reasonable contract.

The Mets signed Tatis to an $850,000 contract this offseason — less than half of what Alex Cora got, and without any vesting option. He has struggled so far this season, posting a .706 OPS across a small sample of 54 plate appearances, but look a little closer: His batting average on balls in play — .250 — is well below his career .309 mark and he’s hitting at least as many line drives as he ever has.

Tatis’ struggles are likely a sample-size blip, and though it’ll likely take him a while to get enough hits for his stats to normalize a bit, his rough start doesn’t make him any less apt to produce moving forward. Certainly he’s aging, and at some point it will stop seeming wise to hang onto an old utility player, but as long as he is demonstrating decent plate discipline with some power and the capacity to play almost anywhere on the diamond, he’s a guy worth having.

He doesn’t belong lumped in with the rest. Even to this point in the 2010 season, Tatis can boast a 0.3 WAR, placing him solidly ahead of Cora, Gary Matthews and Frank Catalanotto, all of whom have marks below the replacement-level.

There was always a cold feeling in the Mets clubhouse last year. Players checked in for work, but there was no sense that this was a team that was in it together.

That has changed.

These 2010 Mets certainly have their flaws, and their margin of error is slim, but that makes team chemistry even that much more important. When last night’s game against the Padres was rained out at Citi Field, David Wright walked past Mike Pelfrey’s locker. As he passed Big Pelf, he gave him a friendly little slap in the face with his batting glove, laughed and jogged away.

– Kevin Kernan, N.Y. Post.

Are the Mets winning because they’re getting along, or are the Mets getting along because they’re winning? Was there a cold feeling in the clubhouse last year because Ike Davis wasn’t around, or was it because basically every player got hurt and the team was out of the race by late July? It’s an impossible chicken-egg debate and not one I really care to expound upon further than I did here or here.

But I wonder why the team-oriented leadership of Jeff Francoeur didn’t propel the Mets to greatness in the second half of last season, why Rod Barajas couldn’t do much to help the Blue Jays last year, and why the 2006 Mets seemed to have no trouble winning with ol’ me-first Carlos Delgado slugging home runs?

No one could argue that it’s bad for a team to get along. It’s not. Everyone appreciates a cheerful work environment, baseball players included. But I bet the clubhouse doesn’t seem nearly as chummy when the Mets lose four in a row. Kernan says it himself in his conclusion: “Talent is always the difference-maker.”

That. Francoeur, Barajas and Davis do seem like pretty awesome guys, always charismatic and affable when pressed by reporters. And that’s good. In the grand scheme of things — whatever the hell that means — being a great person is probably more important than being a great baseball player. But the latter will probably win more games.

The Mets unveiled their player-designed t-shirts recently. Carlos Beltran’s got an Affliction thing going, John Santana has a 7-Train busting through a brick wall, Jose Reyes’ incorporates elements from his tattoos, and Jason Bay’s looks like this:

My, what a pleasant-looking t-shirt. The letters and numbers are red to pay homage to Canada.

Pelfrey and Davis, Davis and Pelfrey. Whatever may become of the Mets’ season as summer turns to fall, there is the hope that at least — at least! — this year will be the year when Mike Pelfrey and Ike Davis become bona fide stars. Strasburg struck out 14 for the Nationals on Tuesday, fulfilling the expectations that come with being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 MLB First-Year Player Draft. The Mets took Pelfrey at No. 9 in 2005, and it wasn’t until this year that he has shown the sustained success they had envisioned.

Tuesday’s start against San Diego was typical of 2010 for Pelfrey: Nine innings, one run, five hits, no walks, six strikeouts. He ended up taking a no-decision — the Mets wouldn’t win until Davis’ walk-off blast in the 11th (more on that later). Yet Pelfrey’s performance still resonated. He’s allowed a total of three earned runs in his last four starts, dropping his ERA to 2.23, good for ninth in the insanity that is the pitching landscape of this season.

– Sam Borden, SNY.tv.

Last night, the Mets started an entirely homegrown infield, all 27 or under, with Pelfrey on the mound. Jose Reyes and Davis hit home runs. David Wright had a pair of hits. Pelfrey was awesome.

Fans always seem to appreciate young, homegrown players, and they’re right to: Young, homegrown players are both exciting and cost-effective.

These are exciting times for Mets fans. Whether by design or by accident, the Mets appear to be moving away from their familiar model of relying on over-the-hill acquisitions and toward a more organic winner.

That may or may not come this year, but those clamoring for the team to to trade a slew of prospects for the right to rent Cliff Lee or overpay Roy Oswalt should consider the Mets’ promising future. This is something I got at this offseason: For the first time in years, the Mets have numbers in the farm system. Not just one or two top-flight prospects and a pile of muck, but a whole group of young players in the high levels who appear likely to contribute to the Major League team.

Not all of them will pan out, but there’s no good way of knowing which ones will and which ones won’t, and no reason to trade away any of them in the name of this single season. The Mets should, as always, strive to compete every single year. And teams need to develop good young players to do that.

Sure, Oswalt and Lee are great pitchers and if either could be had for a steal, you know, cool. But neither guarantees the Mets a playoff berth, and so the team should be leery of jeopardizing its longterm health for a short-term fix.

Oh, and someone please make Jenrry Mejia a starter already. Good lord.

Ike Davis vs. Rakim. Enjoy it before it inevitably gets pulled offline:

Thanks to Alex Belth for the tipoff.