Milledge’s Hand and El Duque’s Neck
There was a brief scare as a result of a play in yesterday’s exhibition opener. Lastings Milledge got hit on the hand by a pitched ball. Luckily x-rays on the hand today showed no broken bones.
Also, as a follow up to last week’s story about Orlando Hernandez going back to New York for an MRI on his neck. Turns out that El Duque has arthritis in his neck. (This has been widely reported but I wanted to put it in the blog so the story is complete.)
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Milledge Matures
In today’s New York Post Kevin Kernan writes about the progress Lastings Milledge is making regarding the character issues that plagued him as a rookie last season. Milledge certainly seems to be talking the talk about maturing and adjusting. But it was nice to see John Delcos of the Journal News cite in his LoHud Mets Blog an example of how Milledge is also walking the walk. The kid is certainly carrying himself in a more respectful way this spring. we’ll see if it translates into more respectful numbers during the season.
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El Duque Possibly Hurt
In what has been a very quiet start to camp the silence is now being broken. At issue is a possible injury to number two starter Orlando Hernandez who has flown to New York to have his neck examined. Apparently he’s been feeling some discomfort in the neck, which he did last year but didn’t miss any starts because of it. GM Omar Minaya said the exam is preventative and he thinks it’s just some early spring stiffness.
These kinds of things happen all the time in camp and though it’s usually not a big deal the Mets need to be extremely careful here. The rotation is very thin on established talent, especially with Pedro Martinez on the shelf for the early part of the season, so any starter missing time could impact the rotation significantly.
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Burgos Impresses
Most of the local Mets beat writers who have blogs have commented on Ambiorix Burgos first session against live batters today. Apparently the guy throws some real heat. Lastings Milledge was heard saying “ow!” as he ran to first base after hitting a ground ball to second base.
I’m not really surprised that Burgos throws so hard. I watched him a little bit last year and even had him on one of my fantasy baseball teams for a while. The guy had 72 strikeouts in 73.1 innings. He also walked 37 which is not a very flattering ratio. If he can get his stuff together (and he has the right pitching coach for that in Rick Peterson) he could dominate.
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Camp Opens
Pitchers and catchers report to Mets camp in St. Lucie today for the start of spring training even as we struggle to clean up from the ugly snow/sleet/rain we had yesterday. Figure to see a lot of media attention even though there will be nothing big to report. Still, it’s exciting to see baseball activity starting again. It’s a sure sign that the world goes around and things can get better.
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Mets Non Roster Spring Training Invitees for 2007
Pitchers: Eddie Camacho (L), Willie Collazo (L), Derek Lee (L), Kevin Mulvey (R), Clint Nageotte (R), Aaron Sele (R), Joe Smith (R), Lino Urdaneta (R), Jorge Vasquez (R)
Catchers: Drew Butera, Mike DiFelice, Joe Hietpas, Mike Nickeas, Francisco Pena, Jose A Reyes
Infielders: Michel Abreu, Mike Carp
Outfielders: Chip Ambres, Fernando Martinez, Victor Mendez, Ruben Sierra
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John Delcos’s Top 10 Questions
With pitchers and catchers reporting in just a few days John Delcos of the Journal News takes a look at the top 10 questions facing the Mets going into spring training.
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Wright Joins Bush League
Yesterday in St. Lucie Mets third baseman David Wright talked about his dinner at the White House with President George W. Bush and other baseball luminaries including George Will and Lou Piniella. Read more about it in Kevin Kernan’s column in today’s New York Post.
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Williams Out Until May
The field for the open slots in the Mets starting rotation got a little bit thinner last week when it was revealed that Dave Williams, expected to contend for a spot on the back end of the rotation, had surgery on a herniated in his neck. Williams’ agent, David Pepe, said yesterday that the left hander could require up to three months of rehab before he could participate in a game.
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Spring Is Almost Here
With spring training only a couple of weeks away it’s time to get in gear for the coming season. Expect to see me get a lot more active here in the coming weeks as players begin to arrive in camp.
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