Here’s some video from ESPN’s Steve Phillips talking about the impact that Johan Santana’s injury could have on the Mets. He talks about everyone in the rotation getting bumped up a slot and the negative impact on the bullpen. Also in the clip is some information about Pedro Martinez trying to get a major league contract for 2009.
Month: February 2009
Video: Mets Reyes On Big Hitting Day
José Reyes talks about his huge day hitting two homers and six RBI’s on Thursday.
Mets Sign Villone To Minors Deal
Ron Villone signed a minor league contract to compete for the second lefty spot out of the bullpen. I’m not sure how much value he adds to the Mets. He did appear in 74 games last season for the Cardinals pitching to 4.68 ERA and 1.640 WHIP.
Villone is a Jersey guy and just turned 39 years old last month. We’ll have to see where this goes but the last few times I saw him pitch he didn’t look like he had that much left in the tank.
Garcia Terrible In Mets First Outing
Freddy Garcia looked horrible in his first spring training appearance for the Mets yesterday. He only went .2 innings giving up four runs, two of which were earned, and three walks. It took him 40 pitches to get two outs.
He claims to be a slow starter but he needs to do better than that if he expects to make this team. Livan Hernandez, Jon Niese, and Tim Redding are serious contenders for the fifth spot in the rotation. I think that the Mets would like to see Garcia win the spot so Redding can go long out of the bullpen. But yesterday’s appearance didn’t inspire any confidence in Garcia’s ability to recover from serious shoulder surgery.
Audio: Mets Minaya, Santana, K-Rod, And More
- Image via Wikipedia
Yesterday’s visit to Port St. Lucie didn’t go as planned for Mike Francesa of WFAN. We have some clips below from his interviews. But the big news is that Francesa couldn’t get interviews with David Wrigh and Ryan Church. Both refused to do interviews with him and even meet with him to discuss their problems.
Francesa went on to say that he tried to work through Mets PR man Jay Horowitz to meet with both players to discuss the situation. Both players refused the meeting. Wright didn’t like Francesa’s comments about his problems hitting in the clutch. And Church didn’t like Francesa’s comments about Church disliking New York.
Francesa said during the show that Church didn’t matter but Wright was immature about the situation and that he has some growing up to do. He also likened Wright’s immaturity about the interview to his problems hitting in the clutch.
It sounded to me like sour grapes that he couldn’t get the player interviews that he wanted. Francesa comes across as pompous at times. I think he was planning on generating some big ratings by having both players on to discuss their problems. When it didn’t happen, he was upset and lashed out at both labelling Church as inconsequential and Wright as immature. Good stuff…
Onto the interviews that Francesa did get:
Report: Mets Santana Injured Worse Than Thought
Newsday’s David Lennon is reporting that Johan Santana is still feeling tightness in his elbow and it may be more severe than we had hoped. He’s already been scratched from pitching in two games this spring. And now we find out he’ll throw a bullpen session today and if he still doesn’t feel good he’ll come back to New York for tests.
From Newsday:
“We have 162 games,” Santana said. “What we have to accomplish takes 162 games. Everything starts April 6, if it’s going to be me or somebody else. It’s tough to say right now.”
Now they’re talking about the opening day start being in jeopardy. This could be terrible news for the Mets if Santana is going to miss significant time this season. Really, the season could be in jeopardy if he’s going to miss a lot of time. More news to come soon, I’m sure.
Audio: 2009 Mets Roster And Coaches Interviews
We’ve got a ton of audio for you here today from WFAN. Mike Francesa was at Tradition Field and he talked to many of the major players and coaches. Tomorrow he’s scheduled to talk to Ryan Church and David Wright which could get interesting. He’s had beefs with both of them. I’m sure the whole “Church dislikes New York” thing will be a major topic of their conversation.
Click the links below to listen to the interviews:
Dan Warthen – Note how ga-ga he is about Dillon Gee.
Ron Darling– From the Boomer & Carton show
The Mets Report 