The Mets had Johan Santana back in the bullpen again today for 73 pitches. He looked good as you can see by the video below and, presumably, he felt good too. The best news is that he’s throwing regularly. This is his third session since getting to PSL. And he just threw in the bullpen on Thursday.
The plan is for Santana to start a game a week from Tuesday. But pitching coach Dan Warthen thought that Santana needed to make some adjustments after today’s session. He told the media that Santana needs to straighten up to pitch on more of a downward plane.
Check out the video from Newsday. Santana looks like he’s throwing close to 100%.
There have been quite a few reports about Johan Santana recovering in Port St. Lucie this month. The Mets are hoping to get 25 starts out of him this season while he’s recovering from surgery on his left shoulder capsule. It’s the same surgery that Mark Prior and Chien-Ming Wang had that kept them out for years and were never the same when they came back.
Dan Warthen has been in PSL and talked to Dan Martin of the Post about it:
I’ve been looking at video from when he’s been down here recently and comparing it to video from 2008, before he got hurt. It’s no different. Not even one percent. That’s extremely important.
Personally, I don’t think Santana is going to be able to make a significant impact on the 2012 Mets. He may be able to come back in June and work toward pitching every five days. But I’m concerned that he’ll never be the pitcher that the Mets expected to live up to his $25 million salary this season.
The rest of the team isn’t even close to strong enough to support the team without Santana running at full strength.
The Mets and Braves were rained out in Atlanta last night and the Braves decided to schedule a doubleheader for 4pm today. It’s the home team’s decision how to reschedule a rain out. Despite the fact that the Mets visit Atlanta two more times this year, the Braves opted for a doubleheader today after the Mets played a doubleheader against Colorado on Thursday.
The Mets had to use seven relievers to get through the doubleheader against Colorado. Chris Young is still questionable for his start on Sunday. He couldn’t make the start last night, if the Mets played, because of bicep tendinitis. The concern is that if he starts the game tomorrow and has to bail out early, the bullpen won’t have anyone left available to pitch.
Assistant GM John Ricco is traveling with the team in Atlanta. He met with Dan Warthen, Young, Ray Ramirez, and Terry Collins last night when the rain out was announced to discuss the situation. He and Young spoke to reporters after the meeting which you can hear below.
In this week’s episode of the the Mets Weekly Report with Kerel Cooper of On The Black, we talk about the first week of games in Florida, Philly, and home against the Nationals. Specifically, we get into Mike Pelfrey getting boo’d during player introductions on opening day. Kerel was at the game and said that K-Rod got the loudest boo’s and then Pelf got plenty as well.
We also talk about an article in the Bergen Record this week that Terry Collins time may be short with the Mets. That may be true but can we give the guy more than a week before we start writing him off?
The last segment is about the under-performing pitching staff. Dan Warthen needs to get these guys going quickly. The Mets have the second worst team ERA in the National League. Only the Astros are worse.
Check out the video below and leave your comments on the state of the Mets this week.
It was another bad day for Oliver Perez today and it could be his last as a Mets pitcher. He got rocked for back-to-back home runs when he entered the game with two men on base against the Nationals in the seventh inning. His spring ERA ballooned to 8.38 and his fastball never got above 87 mph. It’s just not working out.
I was in favor of holding onto Ollie at least until the end of spring training. But it’s become abundantly clear that there’s nothing to be gained by Perez’ continued participation in spring training.
The Mets were willing to eat Luis Castillo’s contract for $6 million yesterday. Ollie’s contract will be twice as difficult a pill to swallow at $12 million. The only saving grace is that both players are going to be free agents after the 2011 season.
I feel like I’ve seen this quote a hundred times from Perez during his Mets career. After today’s game he said:
“I didn’t do my job, and that’s why they scored four runs,” Perez said after the Mets’ 7-4 win over the Nationals. “That’s a really bad job.”
Pitching coach Dan Warthen talked to reporters after the game too. He’s frequently been in a position to be an apologist for Perez.
“I would like to see better stuff from Ollie,” Warthen said. “We have other guys in here that are working hard and doing a good job from the left side,” Warthen said. “He’s trying to make the left-handed job, and these other guys are doing a very good job right now. We have to evaluate that way.”
Today I changed my mind about Ollie. I’m ready to pull the plug and let him go. I had serious doubts before spring training that he would be able to recover his stuff from 2006. Now, I think he’s wasting time in Port St. Lucie. It’s time for Ollie to go.
A few of the Mets have started to arrive in Port St. Lucie over the last week. Pitchers and catchers will report by Tuesday. You can see the full spring training game schedule at the Mets site. Even though the full team hasn’t even arrived at PSL yet, there’s still plenty of news about the Mets over the past few days.
Here are a few of the stories that caught my eye this week:
http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsIf you take a look at the Mets website coaches page, it’s pretty empty right now except for Terry Collins and bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello. That should change drastically this week. It has been widely reported that Sandy Alderson and Collins will name the rest of the coaching staff.
Expect Dan Warthen to return as pitching coach and Chip Hale to return at third base. Other than that, it’ll be a new group coaching the Mets next season. Here’s what the staff will likely look like:
Manager: Collins
Bench coach: Ken Oberkfell will be promoted from managing at Triple-A Buffalo
Third base: Hale will return
First base: Mookie Wilson after Moises Alou turned down the job
The Mets Report 