Month: February 2012

Video: Mets Johan Santana Back on the Mound

Johan Santana got back to the mound today and threw 25 pitches in Port St. Lucie. As you know, he’s rehabbing from a serious left shoulder surgery and missed all of 2011. He looks like he’s in good shape, as you’d expect from him, and it sounds like he’s encouraged about the bullpen session today with Josh Thole.

Personally, I’m hoping that he can pitch a solid half season this year. Anything more than that will be gravy.

Check out the video below when he spoke reporters after the bullpen session.

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Mets Mourn Gary Carter

Gary Carter
Gary Carter (Photo credit: AxsDeny)

In December 1984 I remember being shocked that the Mets could trade for a player as great as Gary Carter. The Expos got Hubie Brooks, Herm Winningham, Mike Fitzgerald, and Floyd Youmans in return. But Carter was great! I remember wondering why the Expos would trade a player of Carter’s caliber. He was a seven time All-Star in 10 seasons with the Expos. It still surprises me to this day.

In his 15 Major League seasons he made $13.3 million. He’d make more than that in ONE season if he was playing now.

The 2003 Hall of Fame inductee and 1986 World Series champion passed away today at age 57 from brain cancer.

Sadly, many media outlets had obituaries ready to publish today. Carter was in tough shape recently so it shouldn’t come as a surprise. But writing an obituary before some dies seems so disturbing to me.

I wanted to link to a few that I thought were worth reading:

Here’s some audio of Darryl Strawberry with Mike Francesa on WFAN today.

You won’t be forgotten Kid.

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Mets Johan Santana’s Shoulder Recovering in PSL

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Johan Santa...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

There have been quite a few reports about Johan Santana recovering in Port St. Lucie this month. The Mets are hoping to get 25 starts out of him this season while he’s recovering from surgery on his left shoulder capsule. It’s the same surgery that Mark Prior and Chien-Ming Wang had that kept them out for years and were never the same when they came back.

Dan Warthen has been in PSL and talked to Dan Martin of the Post about it:

I’ve been looking at video from when he’s been down here recently and comparing it to video from 2008, before he got hurt. It’s no different. Not even one percent. That’s extremely important.

Personally, I don’t think Santana is going to be able to make a significant impact on the 2012 Mets. He may be able to come back in June and work toward pitching every five days. But I’m concerned that he’ll never be the pitcher that the Mets expected to live up to his $25 million salary this season.

The rest of the team isn’t even close to strong enough to support the team without Santana running at full strength.

Mets 2012 Single Game Tickets on Sale March 5

English: Citi Field with Shea Stadium's Home R...
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The Mets announced that single game tickets will go on sale March 5th and 10:00am. You can buy tix at the box office, Mets.com, and by calling (718) 507-TIXX.

I don’t think you need to rush out to get tix this year. There’s likely to be plenty of empty seats at Citi Field considering the sad roster that the Mets have put together. Let’s face it, on paper this is a last place team. Very few fans are rushing out to buy tix for this team.

But the Mets are bringing back Banner Day on May 27th. And the Yankees series at the end of June is always an event no matter how bad the Mets might be this year.

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Mets Alderson Takes on Jose Reyes on Twitter

Sandy Alderson was at it again yesterday on Twitter. This time the target of his comedy stylings was Jose Reyes and the MLB Network.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MetsGM/status/168505233637507072″%5D

So far he’s gone after the Wilpons financial situation and the chop shops across the street from Citi Field. I wish he’d gone after Reyes in free agency as well as he is on Twitter.