Mets Injury Update

After an off day on Monday, the New York Mets will gets a couple of players back from injury before they open a series with the Washington Nationals. First, Jose Reyes looks to come back from a strained hamstring that he suffered earlier in the week, which has put him out for the past series with the Brewers. Also, from reports and interviews with Willie Randolph, it sounds that the Mets will get some bullpen help from Duaner Sanchez on Tuesday. The Mets setup man who hasn't pitched in a MLB game since 2006 will be back with the team tonight and the team will send rookie Carlos Muniz to Triple A.

On the bad side of the injury bug, according to Bart Hubbach of the New York Post, Pedro Martinez is expected to be out until the middle of May, possibly into June. The Mets will continue to use Nelson Figueroa as their starter, but if he falters at any point the Mets wont be afraid to go to newly signed Claudio Vargas.

Mets Take On Lastings and Nationals

The final home opener at Shea hasn't been what the Mets and their fans thought it would be. After 6 games the Mets are 3-3 taking two games from the Phillies and one from the Brewers. The team has been playing sloppy and missing out on key scoring opportunities. Our pitching has been less than stellar and the offense although scoring runs at a descent pace lacks power to scare opposing pitchers. Hopefully a few familair faces of the Nationals can spark the team to some wins before the team heads into Philly for a weekend series.

Shea Stadium will welcome back Ex-Mets Lastings Milledge and Paul Lo Duca, one should recieve a decent reception, while the other should be booed out of the stadium. This will be the first time that current Mets Ryan Church and Brian Schneider get to face their old team, and a chance to show the Nationals they shouldn't have been traded. The Mets need to win this series to gain some momentum into the weekend series verus the hated Phils. Mets will send out Mike Pelfrey in the opening game, followed by John Maine and Nelson Figueroa.

Mets Fail 1st Test, Look To Pass 2nd One To Open Shea

So it wasn't a very good series for the Mets in Atlanta, losing 2 games with one being rained out on Friday. The Braves beat our best two pitchers in their homestand, and gained nothing but confidence for what they can do for the rest of the season. For the Mets it seems to have put doubt into some fans head that we cant get past the Braves again in Atlanta, even with our Ace going 7 strong innings.

Johan did pitch great, and Maine looked like he was over throwning all game, he did hit 97 mph on the gun at times. Yes, i thought the Mets should have atleasted spilt the two games but even with sweep I am not to worried yet. I mean come on its April.....

The Mets will be hosting the last opening day at Shea tomorrow against maybe their newest and biggest rivials, the Phillies. The Mets will be sending out Oliver Perez in the home opener to get the team back on track. Mets hitters need to start getting on base more often to create scoring oppotunities. In the two game series versus the Braves they only collected 4 walks. That doesn't help the middle of the lineup drive in runs. The pitching matchup for the home opener will look like this:

Perez Vs Moyer
Pelfrey Vs Kendrick
Maine Vs Eaton

We catch a break in the home opener and don't have to face either Hamels or Meyers for the first series with the Phillies. Although he Phillies don't have to face Santana. Hopefully the Mets take it to the Phillies and show them that they aren't mentally afriad of them and are a force to be wrecken with.

A Nice Test For The Mets In Weekend Series

I wanted to say this was a big series for the Mets this weekend but I don't think the first week of the season can have a big series no matter the teams playing. This series against the Braves may not be big for either team but it will somewhat important to each team playing. For the Mets it will show that they are the team to be talking about even without Pedro. For the Braves they can finally show the baseball world that this team is for real and ready to take the division that was once theirs back. The 3 game series will see two really great pitching match-ups, game 1 and game 3 of the series will be tough to score runs in. The 3 game pitching match-ups look like this:

Game 1: Maine Vs Hudson

Game 2: Pelfrey Vs Glavine

Game 3: Santana Vs Smoltz (2 Future HOF)

I can't wait for this series to start. I don't know if I am more excited to see John Maine, because he was so dominate in the spring or for Sunday's game with Johan Santana Vs John Smoltz. I know I should be more excited about the game 3 match up but I think John Maine is gonna have a great year, maybe even better then Johan especially if he stays in the number 4 slot in the rotation. It is also a big match up for me because I traded Timmy Hudson in my fantasy league to acquire John Maine in a straight up deal, so I need to get some bragging rights, lol. Great series all around this weekend though. I will be pleased with 2 out of 3 especially at Turner Field.

NY Mets Suffer Two Losses On Tuesday Night

In a highly anticipated first start for the Mets, Pedro Martinez suffered the worse thing he could have dreamed about while in Miami, an injury. Pedro wasn't hitting all his spots last night by hitting the first batter of the game, then giving up a home run to Dan Uggla who was the next batter. Pedro gave up another two runs in the second inning, one on a solo home run to Luis Gonzalez. In the fourth inning Pedro induced a ground out but his left leg bukled after the pitch and he grabbed his hamestring. Pedro flew to New York today to get an MRI and it looks that our number 2 starter will be out for 4-6 weeks. The Mets have placed him on the 15 day disabled and recalled Nelson Figueroa to start in his place.

I wanted to see Nelson in the rotation to start the season, i thought he deserved it from his spring performance over Pelfery. I just didn't want him to get the job by Pedro getting hurt this early in the season.

After the lose of Pedro and the 4 run defict the Mets were able to piece together a run here and there to come back and tie the game up. The offense has yet to show any power with no home runs so far this season but they have put together alot of extra base hits. The bullpen did a great job coming in for Pedro until the 10th inning when Matt Wise left a pitch up in the zone and the Marlins hit a walk off home run. It was the only run the bullpen gave up in 6 innings of work.

Money Well Spent

Opening Day was everything Mets fans have waited for since acquiring their ace Johan Santana. I don't want to get into a large amount of stats in this post but just talk about the game, but Santana looked great with 8 K's and allowing just 2 runs on a home run by Josh Willingham. He was in complete control with his change up and having righties standing their looking on inside fast balls. The pitching lineup of Santana, Wise, Schoeneweis, Sosa and Heilman recorded 11 K's and Sosa had a huge strike out with the Marlins threatening in the late innings.

Our lineup against their first lefty of the season came to play, well at least for one inning. The Mets hitters scored 6 of their 7 runs on 5 hits in the 4th innings, capped off with a David Wright bases loaded double to the left center gap. Mets starters hit well and showed that without Alou they still can be dangerous against lefties. Everyone in the lineup looked comfortable and out to make a point in their first game.

Overall the game couldn't have gone any better for the Mets, they got the pitching performance from their new ace, and the middle of their lineup produced runs like they needed them too. Tomorrow the Mets send Pedro out for his first start against the Marlins and their young lineup.

Mr. DL Looking For Early Come Back

In an article on Mets.com, Moises Alou talked with Marty Noble of MLB.com about setting his sights on a late April return to the Mets lineup. Alou states in the article that :

"I came to camp in the best shape of my life," he said. "Since November, I was in great shape. I never lost my playing shape ... I never got fat or had a beer belly. Whether I was going to come back to play or look good in the beach, I was in shape. ... And I had to pop off about getting 500 at-bats. It wasn't popping off. I was serious"

I love his enthusiasm I really do but, "Moises Don't Rush Back To Soon." I know that we need his right handed hitting in the lineup but I rather him in mid-May when we know he is completely healed and can try and last the rest of the season. We don't need him to play at the end of April just to have him go on the DL in May or June. The fans and front office will panic and try and bring up F-Mart when he is not ready and throw off his development. So Moises all I can say is "Rest Up, You'll Need It."