OK, here we go again. Roster Moves are probably more important to me than they are to you, which is why I'm annoyed that I seem to keep falling behind on them.
Starting off, John Maine's season may be over due to shoulder soreness; as I mentioned in the Flushing University column, this is a very serious blow to the Mets' playoff chances. If I hear the words "rotator cuff surgery" and "John Maine" anytime between now and January 1, he'll be getting his unconditional release from my Strat-o-Matic baseball team.
Since Maine's next start wouldn't be coming until next Tuesday anyway, Luis Castillo got the initial recall after nearly two months on the shelf for various leg ailments. No one missed him while he was gone. Castillo has been plugged right back into the starting lineup and right back into the #2 spot, and you have to wonder if Jerry Manuel really wants to manage a baseball team in 2009. Decisions like that will doom you to being a bench coach forever.
Blowing a seven-run lead and losing to a division rival is a devastating loss in its own right, but the Mets lost more than a baseball game on Tuesday. They lost their best catcher, Ramon Castro, to a quad injury. Robinson Cancel will take his place on the roster and Brian Schnieder will go back to catching six days a week. Neither of these developments are positive ones. Now that Castillo has been handed the second base job again, the Mets have no need for Argenis Reyes again until Labor Day. They do, however, need another arm, so Nelson Figueroa is back to provide Manuel another one-batter option in the sixth inning of big games.
Let's take a look at the active roster now:
STARTING PITCHERS
Johan Santana
Oliver Perez
Mike Pelfrey
Pedro Martinez
John Maine - DL
RELIEF PITCHERS
Aaron Heilman
Duaner Sanchez
Pedro Feliciano
Scott Schoeneweis
Joe Smith
Brian Stokes
Luis Ayala
Nelson Figueroa
Billy Wagner (closer) - DL
CATCHERS
Brian Schneider
Robinson Cancel
Ramon Castro - DL
INFIELDERS
Carlos Delgado
Luis Castillo
Damion Easley
David Wright
Jose Reyes
Fernando Tatis
OUTFIELDERS
Daniel Murphy
Nick Evans
Carlos Beltran
Ryan Church
Endy Chavez
Marlon Anderson - DL
3 comments:
When is everyone going to learn that Castro, for as good as he is, is the most fragile player on the Mets roster, and all of those questions like "why Casanova/Cancel starting instead of Castro?" can be answered by saying "because Castro is an injury prone pile of mass." The Mets have cathing woes, they really should have gone six guns blazing for IRod to carry us for a couple of years until we figure out how to fill the position. All signs point to us waiting for a catcher who looks promising in single A or watching the franchise turn a shortstop into a catcher, who by the way had his development stunted due to injury. All said, it looks like we're screwed at that position for three years.
Maine's injury is a bone spur and any surgery would not be directly done to tendons or cuffs of any kind, it would be to shave the spur out. Either way, even though I won't be using Schilling this year, I'm happy I made the deal, I mean, I did get a pick out of it.
Of course, not leaving Jesus Flores unprotected in the Rule V draft two years ago would've solved the catching problem. Minaya still would've traded for Schneider, of course, because God forbid anyone under 30 gets a starting job these days. Castro would still be backing up, but Flores would be at Triple-A, getting all the Cancel at-bats and making a case for himself to start in 2009.
Then Minaya would've traded him in the off-season for a 34-year-old middle reliever.
Castro, Castro, Castro. I'm sure most of us are aware of his fragility, sadly. Unfortunately he was the best option, but I think everyone (including the Mets) knew you couldn't use him more than 4 games a week while crossing your fingers. Of course, the Mets, as Jack pointed out, have been loate to develope a new young catcher since they got Piazza. Not that good catchers are easy to come by, but they have to be able to do better than this.
And by the way, if anyone tries to tell me about how Schneider is there for his great defense I'm going to (figuratively) punch them in the nose.
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