Tag: Pedro Martinez

SI’s Heyman On The Mets

Jon Heyman’s Daily Scoop column has tidbits of information from around the major leagues. I’ll give you the Mets related stuff below or you can read the full column here.

  • While Moises Alou may be as close as 10 days away for the Mets, that four-to-six week estimate for Pedro Martinez‘s hamstring appears to have been a very optimistic scenario.
  • Mets outfielder Angel Pagan (.381 so far) has earned more playing time with his superb start. Pagan, a favorite of the front office, could find himself in a four-man outfield rotation once Alou returns. Carlos Beltran would miss less time than the others, but Mets people appear to like the way Cleveland’s four-man rotation works.
  • Manny Acta is treated like returning royalty by some members of the Mets front office when he comes back to Shea as Nationals manager — a little awkward considering he’s managing the competition. Imagine how great they’d think he is if his team didn’t have the worst record in the league at 4-10 (tied with the Tigers).

Pedro May Be Back in April

ESPN is reporting that Pedro Martinez spoke to Dominican television for an interview, and told them he may be back this month.

“We will give everyone the surprise of the month, I think, if things keep going well and there are no further delays,” Martinez said in an interview with television channel CDN-37 in the Dominican Republic.

Martinez has been in the Dominican visiting his ailing father and working out with a personal trainer. He’s scheduled to be back in Florida today.

Pedro Martinez Return Delayed

Omar Minaya told the Post today that Pedro Martinez isn’t expected back until mid-May at the earliest and possibly into June. Martinez is recovering from a hamstring strain and the Mets want to be especially cautious with the fragile former Cy Young winner. Read the full story at the Post.

"Where's Pedro" sign at Yankee Stadium
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Time To Get Real About Nelson Figueroa

Now that we’ve come down from the dream story that Nelson Figueroa was last night it’s time to get real about his roster spot. I’ve read and heard so much from the media and blogs about the “Hometown boy makes good” story. SNY went on ad nauseam about the tale.

If you read this blog regulary, you saw that I wrote that Figueroa pitched a wonderful game last night. I really like his stuff and composure on the mound. He’s obviously got terrific family and friends pulling for him (as were all Mets fans). I loved what I saw from him last night.

That being said, Figueroa’s spot on the roster is going to call for some decisions in the future. Part of his value is that he’s only working on a one-year minor league contract. That gives the Mets flexibility to move him up and down from the minors. There aren’t too many players on the roster with that flexibility.

When, and if, Pedro Martinez, Duaner Sanchez, and Orlando Hernandez come back to the team there will have to be some roster moves to make room. I would guess that Carlos Muniz would be the first player to go down to the minors when Sanchez comes back as early as Tuesday.

Martinez and Hernandez may not be back for quite some time. When they do come back, Figueroa’s roster spot will become much more precarious. The Mets management will be forced to make a decision between keeping Mike Pelfrey and Figueroa on the major league roster. Take a look at the Mets active roster here. Who do you think should leave when Martinez comes back?

It would seem that Figueroa and Pelfrey will be competing for the one open roster spot when Martinez returns. I like that Pelfrey has someone with some talent that’s pushing him to focus and throw strikes. Frankly, I like Figueroa for the swing man role better than Jorge Sosa but that’s not going to happen. Sosa’s got a one-year $2 million major league contract so he’s not going anywhere barring a performance disaster on his part.

The only flexibility outside of the pitchers on the roster is with Brady Clark. He’s also working on a one-year minor league contract but will most likely be sent down when Moises Alou comes back. If Alou has a setback returning from his hernia surgery, that could give the Mets some flexibility to keep Figueroa and Pelfrey when Martinez returns. But I doubt that the Mets would keep 13 pitchers.

The conclusion is that I like what I saw last night and believe that Figueroa can give Pelfrey a serious threat of being sent back to the minors if he doesn’t consistently pitch well.  Even though Pelfrey is one of the Mets top prospects, the Mets need to win games now and Figueroa might be a better option for this season.

What We Know So Far

It was a disappointing home opener but it’s way too early to panic or fire the manager. The Mets really do need to win this series against the Phillies after losing the two game series to the Braves. You can’t have a successful season and lose too many home series within the division.What we’ve learned so far:

  •  Jose Reyes needs to start hitting. He gets the whole offense going when he’s on base.
  • The starting pitching needs to get healthy. We need a decent season from Pedro Martinez and some kind of contribution from El Duque.
  • The bullpen can be shaky. Schoenweiss, Sosa, and Heilman have all been giving it up early in the season. That needs to turn around quickly.
  • Carlos Delgado looks much better offensively than he did last season. He’s still a complete stiff in the field but I can live with that if he’s hitting.
  • Angel Pagan looks like he can play. I was worried about him playing every day in left but he looks pretty good so far.
  • Brian Schneider is supposed to be here for his defense and he had two passed balls today. He needs to do better than that to justify his weak hitting.

The bottom line is that it looks like this division won’t be a cake walk. The Phillies are really good and the Braves always field a competitive team. The Nationals and Marlins should start to fall away fairly quickly.