At this point, we don’t know how severe Pedro Matinez’ hamstring injury is. He’ll have an MRI and we’ll know soon how much time that he’ll miss. I have to mention some concern that Pedro, Brian Schneider, and Ramon Castro have all had hamstring injuries over the last few weeks. Remember last spring when the Yankees were getting pulled hamstrings and they blamed on the strength and conditioning coach? If not, read here about how the Yankees fired Marty Miller last May after several players had hamstring injuries.I wonder if there’s anything to the strength and conditioning with the Mets this season. Rick Slate is the Mets strength and conditioning coordinator. I would think that he’ll receive some scrutiny over the coming days, especially if Pedro is on the disabled list for an extended period of time.
The good news about Pedro’s injury is that the Mets already have an extra starter on the roster, Mike Pelfrey. He’s currently slotted to be the fifth starter but the Mets don’t need him until April 12th because they have off-days on Thursday and next Monday before the home opener on April 8th. El Duque’s trip to the disabled list was retroactive to March 29th so he could make that start on the 12th.
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The bad news is that the Mets huge crowd for the home opener would be treated to seeing Mike Pelfrey instead of Pedro Martinez. What a let down that is! I wouldn’t be too happy if I had tickets for the home opener right now. Pelfrey is easily shaken as it is, having to pitch in front of a sold out home opening crowd is not a good situation for Pelfrey. That’s certainy not a good situation for the Mets or the Shea opening day fans.
The Mets Report 