SI’s Jon Heyman joins Richard Neer on WFAN, subbing for Mike Francesa, to talk about MLB in general and the Johan Santana injury situation.
Darryl Strawberry joins WFAN’s Boomer & Carton to talk about joining the Mets this week for spring training. He also talks about his book “Straw: Finding My Way”.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia
Several media reports state that the Mets announed that Johan Santana will not be their opening day starter in Cincinnati on April 6th. His first regular season game appearance will be on Saturday April 11th in Florida, if all goes well.
The tightness in his left elbow will preclude him in appearing in a spring training game until at least March 18th. Although the Mets appear to be doing the right thing here, I have to question why he hasn’t been examinied in Florida or had an MRI. Santana doesn’t need to fly back to New York for an MRI, as had been previously reported.
I like that the Mets are being cautious with Santana, I just question if they’re being cautious enough. He very well may be the best pitcher on the planet. And the Mets are locked into six more years with him. The Mets need to start looking at the big picture and six more years is the big picture. Santana’s left arm is the most important asset that the Mets have as an organization right now. They need to be very careful with that asset.
I’ve been watching the Mets-Cardinals game on SNY today. Typically, I don’t spend much time watching spring training games unless I’m in Florida at the games. But Iwanted to see what Freddy Garcia looked like in his second start for the Mets.
Again, he was terrible. He gave up two home runs in two innings. One of the homers was an absolute bomb by Chris Duncan.
Garcia faced ten hitters in two innings and really looked like he was struggling. His fastball didn’t get above 90 mph and his breaking pitches didn’t look sharp.
At this point you’d have to wonder if Garcia will have a future with this team. It’s funny because I thought the fifth spot in the rotation would be Garcia’s to lose. With Tim Redding, Livan Hernandez, and Jon Niese vying for the same spot on the roster Garcia’s chances are getting slimmer by the day of making the major league roster.
I’m curious to find out what you think about the Mets handling of the Johan Santana injury situation. The Mets were villified for their handling of Ryan Church’s concussion problems last season. It’s very questionable if they’ve learned their lesson from that experience.
Give me your feedback in the poll in the sidebar.
ESPN on the Johan Santana, Brad Lidge, and Matt Hawpe injuries.
I knew it wouldn’t be too long before a newspaper wrote a column about Jerry Manuel using them. As a matter of fact, I wrote about it last week. Manuel’s been working the media with his comments to his own ends.
But now the NY Post has had enough of it. Mike Battaglino wrote this post for their blog today. And I think it’s a self-serving indictment by a company that’s been used by Manuel since last June. The Post isn’t the only company that Manuel is using to motivate players, inspire confidence in others, and inform the fans and players of his methodology to manage the New York Mets.
Bart Hubbach of the NY Post even wrote a nasty post defending himself against everyone that said he misinterpreted last June’s “fetilizer” comment by Manuel. Adam Rubin of the Daily News and Keith Olbermann were named in the post by Hubbach.
Clearly, the NY Post as an organization has an axe to grind with Manuel’s style of speaking that can lead to sensational headlines by a paper like the post. Generally, I like the work that Hubbach does covering the Mets and it very well may be the editors that create the sensational headlines that we see. But in this case you have to be careful to understand the motivation that the Post would have to put this story on the back page.
I don’t think that Manuel has made communication gaffes. I think he’s a calculating speaker that uses the media to help generate the results from players and fans that he wants to see.
Tickets are on sale at 10:00am this morning for the St. Johns vs. Georgetown game on March 29. The tickets are only $5 each. Go to the Mets official site to buy tickets.
The Mets Report 