Category: Spring Training

Mets Off-Day: Maine, Garcia, Hernandez Working

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/Resources/Javascripts/PisV3.jshttp://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/Resources/javascripts/DataV3.ashx?ImageId=764398&PublisherId=1326MLB: FEB 27 Spring Training - Cardinals at Mets

While most of the Mets are enjoying a relaxing day off in Florida, several of the starting pitchers are working hard today. Livan Hernandez and Freddy Garcia are going up against each other in a minor league game. And John Maine canceled a golf game to work on his mechanics.

It seems like Hernandez has all but locked up the fifth spot in the rotation. The Mets even insist that they’ll use five starting pitchers to begin the season. I’m not sure why they would do that when they really don’t need a fifth starter for several weeks. Hernandez has proved himself able to work as well as possible with well below average stuff. He’s got a 3.07 ERA in 14.2 spring innings. You certainly can’t ask for more than that from a fifth starter.

Contrast that with Freddy Garcia, who looks like he’s got a long way to go before he’s ready to face major league hitters. He’s got a 16.71 ERA in 7 innings of work so far. The only way you could describe his work this spring is “ugly”. He’ll have a big decision coming up soon. That’s whether he wants to pitch at Triple-A Buffalo and hope for an opening with the Mets at some point this season or if he wants to be released. If he’s released he could get a shot at a job at the major league level somewhere else. Honestly, I don’t even think that the Dodgers would take him now. And they’re really hurting for starting pitchers.

John Maine is working on an ERA over 10 so far this spring and just really looks out of sorts. I don’t take too much from that because I’ve seen what he can do when he’s healthy. But there is reason for concern that he just hasn’t been able to recover from the offseason shoulder surgery that he had. He’s locked into the #4 spot in the rotation no matter what right now. But if he has a couple of bad starts at the beginning of the season we’ll all need to be concerned.

Mets Oliver Perez Due Back In PSL Today

Oliver PerezStarting pitcher Oliver Perez is due back at Mets spring training today from his short sting with the Mexican team in the World Baseball Classic. Perez was pretty bad for the Mexican team, pitching 6.2 innings and giving up eight runs ( seven earned) on 13 hits including five home runs.

We can thank the folks at Major League Baseball, the WBC, and Mexico team manager Vinnie Castilla for abusing Perez while he was there. Perez threw 85 pitches in his final game against Cuba on Monday.

At this point in the spring no starting pitchers are throwing 85 pitches in a game. In my mind, this is an outrage. And if Oliver Perez starts out the regular season poorly for the Mets there will be questions all season long about what could have been if Perez avoided the WBC exhibition games.

I won’t even get into how disgusted I am about Venezuelan team manger Luis Sojo abusing our new closer Francisco Rodriguez with 4-out saves. K-Rod hasn’t thrown a 4-out save in MLB in two years. And Sojo is doing it in an exhibition game? The Mets ownership and management have every right to be appalled by what’s happening to their players in this ludicrous WBC exhibition event.

Mets P Tim Redding Injured

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/Resources/Javascripts/PisV3.jshttp://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/Resources/javascripts/DataV3.ashx?ImageId=729919&PublisherId=1326New York Mets vs Washington Nationals

Tim Redding’s spring training hasn’t started very well. He’s been shelled pretty much every time out so far. And now we have word from Mets GM Omar Minaya that Redding is suffering from “weakness” in his right shoulder. Now some would say that his right arm has always been pretty weak but this time its an actual injury.

Redding will be on the disabled list when opening day rolls around on April 6 and he won’t pitch anymore this spring. Normally, this wouldn’t be very significant for the Mets. But the fifth starter situation has become so dubious over the past three weeks that this does now impact the team.

Remember that the Mets won’t need a fifth starter for the first two or three weeks of the season anyway. So there isn’t an immediate need to sort out the situation. And we also have to remember that we are talking about the fifth starter. We’ve seen some awful pitching from Redding, Freddy Garcia, and decent work from Livan Hernandez this spring.

There are still some alternate options like Brian Stokes and Nelson Figueroa when he gets back from the Puerto Rican team in the World Baseball Classic. So I’m not that worried about this issue now, and I’m certainly not advocating signing Pedro Martinez. I saw enough of him the last three years to know that he just doesn’t have it anymore.

Johan Santana Spring Debut Looks Good

Johan SantanaJohan Santana took the mound for the first time this spring and looked pretty good doing it. He went 2.2 innings giving up three runs on four hits after throwing 47 pitches. He did give up a long home run to Dan Uggla to left field. But his pitches looked pretty sharp.

Santana’s fastball was in the low 90’s and his changeup was excellent as usual. There doesn’t appear to be any need to worry about the sore elbow that kept Santana on the sidelines for the first few weeks of the spring.

Oh, and by the way the Mets lost the game 16-8 after Tim Redding was torched again. More on the race to see who can lose the fifth starter spot in the rotation later.

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