John Maine was very upset hours after being removed from last night’s game after facing one batter on five pitches. Clearly, he and Jerry Manuel have a major difference of opinion on this.
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The mystery injury to John Maine last night leaves the Mets starting rotation in a bigger mess than we thought it was already. And it couldn’t come at a worse time for Jerry Manuel. Many of us already have a death watch on his managerial career. Of course, injuries aren’t his fault but he needs some good things to happen soon.
R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi are already in the rotation. That’s something we never would have thought before the season. With Maine appearing to be out for some period of time, we might be looking at another call-up from Triple-A Buffalo. Fortunately, Pat Misch and Dillon Gee have been pitching pretty well. But at this rate there won’t be anybody left in Buffalo.
To be left with Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey before the end of May is just a nightmare. I think with Jon Niese injured and Maine possibly hurt, we may need to re-visit the issue of the Mets medical and training staff. It doesn’t seem possible that this many players could be hurt within two seasons. The Mets chose not to change the medical and training staff after the 2009 “season of the injury” and we may be headed down that road again.
http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsThe Mets lost two of their starting pitchers in Florida, Jon Niese due to a hamstring injury, and Oliver Perez due to being dreadful.
Hisanori Takahashi will start in Jon Niese’s place on Friday night, while R.A. Dickey will start in Perez’s place tonight against the Washington Nationals.
Takahashi has seemed to relish in the long man spot, a la Darren Oliver in 2006 for the Mets, and he should be kept there as he’s been extremely valuable in that spot. R.A. Dickey, who started 14 games in 2008 for the Seattle Mariners, went 5-8 with a 5.21 ERA. Continue reading “Mets Starting Pitching Options – Niese and Perez”
Here’s some video that was shot after yesterday’s game when Jon Niese left in the third inning with an apparent hamstring injury. He’s headed back to New York for an examination and I’ll be surprised if they let him make his next start. After the ugly hamstring injury he suffered last season, the Mets need to be smart with a good, young pitcher and put him on the DL for a couple of weeks to let him heal.
The video below is the post-game thoughts from Niese and Jerry Manuel.
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The Mets are in a bad way right now. Dropping below .500 yesterday could be a dangerous sign for the 2010 season and where it’s headed. Expect the Wilpons to enter their first decision point in two weeks. If the Mets aren’t moving in the right direction at the end of May, it could spell the end for Jerry Manuel as manager. I would also expect Dan Warthen and Howard Johnson to be fired as well. If Manuel, Warthen, and HoJo make it into June in their current jobs that’s a very good sign for them.
So much has happened over the last few days, here are the links.
The Mets are 4-11 on the road this year and have no offense in those games at all. You would think they would take advantage of getting away from Citi Field but they haven’t. It’s been just the opposite.
It’s been well documented that Oliver Perez lost his spot in the rotation yesterday. But ESPN broke the news that Omar Minaya brought up the possibility of going to the minors and Perez refused. Perez has nine years in the bigs and doesn’t have to agree to go to the minors if he doesn’t want to. I wouldn’t either. If he went, he would have no control over when he came back. They could leave him in the minors all season. The difference between this situation and Steve Trachsel going to the minors in 2005 is that the Mets would have released Trachsel. They won’t release Perez. He doesn’t have to worry about that because of his big contract. There’s no motivation for him to go to the minors. Continue reading “Mets Links: Oliver Perez, No Offense, More”
This is the big day that we’ve all been waiting for. Well, maybe not. The day we’ve all been waiting for is the day that Carlos Beltran actually re-joins the Mets and is in the lineup. In lieu of that, we’ve been waiting for the day when Beltran starts running again.
Today is that day. The reports from Port St. Lucie, where Beltran has been rehabbing from knee surgery, are that he’ll try to run today for the first time. If so, it should be another three weeks or so before we start looking at a timetable for his return to the Mets’ lineup.
Beltran has already missed 100 games over the last two seasons. Anytime a player signs a 7-year contract, you have to believe that there will be a couple of bad seasons during that contract. And those bad ones will probably be towards the end of the deal. That’s exactly what’s happening with Beltran and we can probably expect the same from Johan Santana in a few years. Players are bound to break down at some point.
It seems like it’s been so long since we’ve seen him play. To jog your memory, here are Beltran’s career averages over 162 games:
.283/.360/.496 28 HR’s 107 RBI’s 30 SB’s
http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsTonight’s game against the San Francisco Giants will be the first game that Mike Pelfrey tests his shoulder since having an MRI on Monday. The MRI was ordered because Pelfrey said he was feeling something in his right shoulder before his start on Saturday in Philadelphia.
We know what happened to him in Philadelphia. The dream season that he was having slammed into a brick wall. Pelfrey was lit up by the Phillies for 6 runs in 4 innings. It was the first bad game that he’s had this season. It was really the first bad inning that he’s had.
Pelfrey’s 2010 was starting to look like it might be legendary. But baseball legends aren’t made in April.
I have to wonder if Pelfrey was shocked when he gave up 6 runs in that fourth inning last Saturday. He had been cruising along so smoothly this year, even picking up a save in that 20-inning game in St. Louis.
Something must be wrong physically? Get an MRI.
We’ll see tonight if there’s really anything wrong or if Pelfrey’s dream season is just over and he needs to figure out how to get hitters out again.
The Mets Report 