Category: Roster

Mets Delay Santana’s Elbow Examination

Johan SantanaMets ace Johan Santana threw 35 pitches this morning at about 80-85% velocity. He reportedly felt fine afterward. But his trip to New York to have the injured elbow looked at was delayed due to the impending snow storm here in New York.

Pitching coach Dan Warthen and Santana seem to be at odds over the cause of the injury. Santana believes the aggresive throwing schedule that Warthen mandates caused the elbow pain. Warthen believes that Santana had an agenda to prepare himself for the World Baseball Classic caused the injury.

Either way, they just need to get Santana right at this point. After the throwing session today Santana told reporters (from NY Daily News):

“I felt fine. It’s the first time in the last four days that I threw, but I feel good. … As you throw more pitches, you feel better. That tells me we’re making progress and getting loose.”

As Omar Minaya told reporters, the important thing is that he felt good after throwing. Hopefully, he’s not trying to be a hero and telling the Mets that he’s fine when he’s not. Time will tell.

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Mets Sending Injured Santana For Tests

Red CrossOmar Minaya told reporters that Johan Santana is being sent to New York for tests on his left elbow. The early diagnosis has been that he has some tightness in his tricep ligament. The New York Post is reporting that the Mets are still allowing Santana to throw a light bullpen session this morning of 30-35 pitches.

If Santana is seriously injured, the move to allow him to continue to throw will be criticized to no end. This smells of the Mets lack of caution they displayed last season with Ryan Church. They flew him all over the country with the team and didn’t put him on the disabled list immediately after his second concussion of the season.

The importance of Johan Santana to the 2009 Mets can’t be understated. It’s hard for me to understand why they would let him throw again today.

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Mets Eye Santana Bullpen Today

Johan SantanaAll eyes are on Johan Santana’s bullpen session this morning in Port St. Lucie. Jerry Manuel told reporters yesterday that he isn’t overly concerned yet about the situation. But the Mets are being cautious about their ace.

Even with the Mets exercising caution, Mets fans are extremely worried and rightfully so. I’m not sure that we can say the fate of the 2009 Mets rests with Santana’s tricep but that wouldn’t be too far from the truth. If he’s out for an extended period of time this season the Mets chances of making the playoffs will be seriously impacted.

We shouldn’t get too worked up until we know the extent of the injury. At the same time, we need to start bracing ourselves for the possibility of starting the season without our ace.

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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.

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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.

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Mets Sean Green Injured In Grapefruit League

More information to come but relief pitcher Sean Green left today’s Grapefruit League game against the Orioles with an injury. Green started the game and faced only for batters.

Green was obtained in a trade with the Seattle Mariners during the offseason. It was the same trade that brought J.J. Putz to the Mets.

Mets Fernando Martinez Top 30 Prospect

Fernando MartinezBaseball America lists Mets minor league outfielder Fernando Martinez at #30 in their list of top 100 prospects. They estimate that he’ll be in the majors in 2010 and that’s fine. He’s only 20 years old. But I have a feeling we’re going to see him in one of the corner outfield positions for some period of time this year. Whether it’s an injury or poor performance, I think Martinez will spend at least one month at the major league level this year.

I might have to make the trek to Triple-A Buffalo this summer to see Martinez play. That’s where I expect him to be for most of this season.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia