nysports

 Well, I am back from my vacation, and ready to start reporting back to all of you about MLB.  The most recent development on the Mets front is the injury to Johan Santana, which will cost him missing opening day as the starter.  The reason for this is the Mets generally like their starters to make 5 starts in spring training before pitching during a regular season game.  Obviously these 5 starts are also supplemented by pitching on off days, running and other strengthening to prepare the pitchers to be ready to give quality starts.

Santana has yet to make one start yet this spring training, although he has still been throwing.  Regardless, the Mets don’t want to rush their highly paid ace, and cost him more time.  So the plan is for Santana to resume pitching at this next scheduled start, but perform as if it was his first start, by only pitching 1 or 2 innings.

Assuming all goes well, Santana will be pitching the Mets 5th game of the season, April 11th at Florida.  This is probably better for him than pitching in the first series at Cincinatti anyways, as the weather will definitely be warmer for his Florida start.  That will make his 2nd start April 17th, against the Brewers, which will be his first home appearance.

However, these dates will likely change if Santana has to miss another start.  In that event, Santana would likely not go north with the team, and instead stay in extended spring training until he was ready to pitch.  When that happens, the Mets trend is usually to leave the player in Fla. for slightly longer than expected, so I wouldn’t expect Santana to pitch until mid-late April in the event he misses another spring training start.

I will keep an eye on this and give you constant updates.

In some other starting rotation news, it appears as if there is a 3 way race for the 5th starter spot between Freddy Garcia, Livian Hernandez and Jon Niese.  Tim Redding is most likely considered for a bullpen role.  Kyle Snyder is also probably considered for bullpen, or AAA roster.  There are also guys like Nelson Figeuora and Tony Armas in the mix, but expect them to all be demoted to AAA when the season begins, with a chance of winning a spot if injury occurs.

 That’s all for now.  Keep checking back.