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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Poll Results: Mets 2009 Leadoff Hitter

Jose Reyes And Luis CastilloThe results are in and most of you prefer Jose Reyes over Luis Castillo to hit leadoff. The margin was 70% to 30% and I have to agree. Now we’re starting to hear from Mets manager Jerry Manuel that he’s thinking about going back to Reyes leading off. The media stories we’ve been getting from Manuel about Castillo leading off go to my theory of Manuel working mind games.

We should also refer to the excellent post that Cyril Morong wrote at Cybermetrics about the best leadoff hitters in baseball last summer. It’s worth noting that Jose Reyes is at the top of the list in his statistical analysis.

In my mind, Manuel shouldn’t fix something that isn’t broken. Leave Reyes in the leadoff spot and try to hide Castillo at the bottom of the order. Maybe he could even try one of those crazy lineup’s that Tony LaRussa uses with the pitcher hitting eighth and Castillo ninth.

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Video: Johan Santana Injury From ESPN

Here’s some video from ESPN’s Steve Phillips talking about the impact that Johan Santana’s injury could have on the Mets. He talks about everyone in the rotation getting bumped up a slot and the negative impact on the bullpen. Also in the clip is some information about Pedro Martinez trying to get a major league contract for 2009.