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‘s Kevin Burkhardt sent in the following 
text message…
“Orlando Hernandez was scheduled to throw live batting practice, but instead he threw a 45–pitch bullpen where he was not throwing that hard. He said he experienced no pain in his foot and although he is behind schedule said he’d be ready by opening day.”
…every time kevin sends me a text message, and i see ‘el duque,’ i freak out…it’s amazing how i just assume it will be bad news…in this case, it reads like eh-news, not bad, but not good…frankly, when it comes to el duque, it’s a hold-your-breath, day-to-day, pitch-by-pitch news cycle, and we just need to accept it…
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Last year this would have worried me, this year there seems to be more horses in the stable.
He can take his time and return when ready, if Pelfrey takes his slot until then that’s fine.
I feel like I’d rather have Pelfrey start out in the rotation and get his comfort level up, rather than have him just waiting for the first injury.
As great as El Duque pitched last year, the perpetual wondering and “what if” takes a toll, especially on his backups I’d think. The way Pelfrey looked in September, I think he’s ready to take the next step this season. I was at his Braves breakout game and he was Dominant–he made texeira look foolish a couple of times with his off speed stuff and totally hypnotized the braves hitters into submission with his bowling balls..the rest of the month he looked pretty good as well.
He had that one good game and one more after that. If you look at his stats for the rest of the season he was as crappy as he was in the beginning.
That game was a game of the week and got a lot of attention, but don’t believe the hype.
he is young, talented, and has shown that he is capable of dominating. So I will believe the hype.
The #5 starter isn’t needed til April 19 – so as long as Duque’s no more than 3 weeks behind, it’s not a big deal.
I would expect them to go north with 11 pitchers (4 starters, 7 pen) and 14 position players.
When did he show he was capable of dominating? That one game? The next game when he gave up 10 hits and 2 walks (striking out only 3) in 5 1/3innings?
There are plenty of crappy starters out there who have had great games in the big leagues.
Now I am NOT saying he is going to be crappy. I think he will be good. But I also think he needs more time in AAA. My point was that one good game vs. the Braves and then a bunch of mediocre or worse games after that is not, in my opinion, turning the corner.
hype nothing .. I’m talking about what I saw with my own eyes. Why did you leave out that in the next game when he gave up those 10 hits he only gave up 2 runs? Because it didn’t support your argument? That actually makes it a pretty well pitched game I’d say.
I’m not judging on just that one game. I watched him all season, and I saw him grow over a long season of adversity. The upgraded rotation will take some pressure off of him, and I think this could really be the year he turns the corner. YMMV of course.
I left it out because I was replying to the idea of “dominating”, and giving up 10 hits and 2 walks in 5 1/3 is not , in my opinion, “dominating”, regardless of only giving up 2 runs.
I watched him too and while I was hoping that I’d see something better from him, to me it was just more of the same. I wish I had seen what you had.
we need a bubble for him and moises…
when i was at spring training on wednesday i noticed that el duque wasn’t throwing the ball at all during fielding drills, while all of the other pitchers were
Better to see if Pelfry is good enough now than to have El Duque in the rotation because if Pelfry doesn’t solidify a spot in the rotation this season, there may be three holes to fill in the rotation next season without any minor leaguers ready to fill those roles. The payroll is going to skyrocket and before you know it we’ve turned in to the yankees.
just alittle reminder…as much of a yankee hater as i am…the los jankees have 24 more rings then we do…
only 8 rings in the years from 1962 on .. that’s only 6 more! you can’t give them the years they had as a head start.
Hey mookie, since 1962, that’s 7, not 8 titles for the Yankees, and IMO, at least two of them, are suspect:
1999 WS*
2000 WS*
So, that makes just 3 more legitimate ones than the Mets have since their inception.
If you don’t give them 2000, than it’s really two more because than the Mets get one more
the Yankees were on the same level playing field as every other team, a steroid enhanced playing field. Just because Clemens got caught doesn’t make any other team immune from this. Therefore, taking away those titles is just silly and wreaks of bias.
His mention was regarding payroll — Yankees have zero rings since their payroll blew up. Zero.
I disagree. It wasn’t an even playing field. Because we know that in 2000, for example, Neagle, Clemens, Hill and Canseco all cheated. All made significant contributions either to the Yankees’ stretch drive or in the postseason. So far there is no evidence that any Met who played a key role in 2000 cheated. So it was anything but an even playing field.
I don’t want to take away those titles really. Just asterisk them. They are certainly suspect and tainted at the very least. The Yankee so-called dynasty was a sham.
you’re really going to include Canseco as a significant contributer? all of what? 40 ABs? Either way, obviously we disagree on this, but my view is that its obvious that there are far more people who used then who have gotten caught, and we’ll never know all of them, so therefore its kind of impossible or unfair to asterisk one team’s championship. To me, the getting caught part doesn’t mean much, its the fact that I’ll never know the extent to the usage.
In just one month down the stretch that year, Canseco had 6 HRs and 19 RBIs for them. They just made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth that year. So yes, he played a key role for them.
And yes, the usage was more extensive than what was outlined in the Mitchell Report, but no one knows the extent. In the meantime, it is a fact that there was significant cheating on the 1999 and 2000 Yankees and that can’t be overlooked. Hence the asterisks. It’s unfair to let that go, especially since the 1999 Braves and the 2000 Mets may have been relatively clean.
For me and I’m sure millions of baseball fans around the country, the getting caught part is significant. And I’m sure it’s significant to Clemens too, lol.
Blah blah blah….. The Yanks won a bunch of titles 80 years ago……who cares?
STFU about the Yankees. Geez. What is the obsession?
not sure payroll has to go much higher.
Pedro/OP and El duque make around 25 million.
that money might be feed up to get replacements.
any minor reason to put El Duque on the DL until April 12th is fine by me. It’ll allow them to keep one extra reliever or one extra bench bat to start the season. So long as it isnt a significant injury this will be better for Duque in the long run, maybe he can get into Sept and Oct healthy for a change.
i know…everything with el duque and his injuries are nerve-racking…i did have a debate with a friend of mine who’s a braves fans and convinced him he’s still more durable than hampton
Maine figures to go up a two to three million with arbitration and any decent pitcher is going to cost at least 10 million a year. Maybe they’ll resign Pedro but if he has a good year he’s not taking any less than he’s getting now and will probably want at least a two year deal. I guess I’m the only one concerned with payroll. I read this morning that the payroll is now at 146 million and I just don’t want the mets to turn into the yankees payroll wise.
Pedro.. will not come cheap… but he has to take a home town discount. The Mets gave him a ton of Money on his first contract. Missed a Year and half..
we would have to turn into Boston first…then the skanks
Matt,
It’s great to have a REAL Mets fan, one of us, that has established a relationship with the Mets like this. Getting this info from Kevin Burkhardt on a regular basis makes me feel like we have our own personal insider information, and I salute you, Matt.
Duque still has a month to get ready, but it is not promising to me that he is not throwing at full strength yet. With his injury history and advanced age, I can understand why you get nervous every time you see his name on a text message from Kevin.
I’m also very glad that Mike Pelfrey is ready to take Duque’s spot should there be a problem.
I have the same sentiments about metsblog.com as Scott does. I am fairly new to the Mets blogoshpere and I strive to have something half as successful as Matt does here.
Back to El Duque….. the way he has pitched for the Mets, even with his injuries and age, has to be more than what was expected of him. I look forward to him getting his arm strength up again and thrilling us come the start of the regular season.
What’s the over/under for starts that El Duque will make this season?
I’d say around 22?
Thank God Omar was able to keep Pelfrey out of the Johan deal.
well if he put pelfrey in the deal, then defidentely humber wouldnt have been and maybe he would have been ready to step in if duque goes down, but i agree pelfrey right now is a much better option than humber and its a good thing hes not a twin right now.
22!!! Your dreaming… The ABSOLUTE MOST is 20!
I would hope that Pedro and Duque combine for 50 starts. Asking for any more would probably be foolish
30:20 for Pedro would be favorable, imo
I think any excuse the Mets have to put Pelfrey in the starting rotation is fine by them. They want Pelf to succeed in the rotation in the worst kind of way and I wouldn’t be shocked if the way they resolve the where to put El Duque controversy is to have him sit on the beginning of the season with an injury.
As others have said, this made the Johan deal that much more significant. El Duque is a great piece to have on a team with championship aspirations but he should never be relied on as “the guy” as he’s been the past two seasons.
El Duque is a great piece to have, but I don’t think he’ll make 25+ starts. Pelfrey has to be ready to take the #5 spot, and I hope that ATL game was a preview of his full potential. One thing for sure, after that 0-7 start he kept working hard and didn’t give up. Shows the kid has mental toughness.
After that 0-7 start.. he also can’t do any worse!!
I would love to see Pelf become a bullpen stud. I would love for us to build a great young bullpen. We have Heilman, Sanchez & Smith (hopefully we can get the 1st half version back) all of them are relatively young. If Pelf can come in and lock it down in the Pen, it would make all that much harder to beat.
See “Kunz, Eddie” for your next bullpen stud.
and along with Joe Smith, Muniz and others I look at the mets system as having nice depth in the relief pitching area. Hopefully we dont need/have anymore Schoenewies like signings for a while…
I would much rather Pelf became a rotation fixture. It is much easier to gind a strong arm to patch into the pen, plus the Mets already have some candidadates on farm.
Much harder to find a upper rotation guy, expecailly one that can stay there for a few years.
This is why I want more young, high quality arms and long-term good suspect arms. El Duque is what he is, don’t look for 20 starts from him. Period. If we get 30 from Pedro and he can pitch in the playoffs, I’m happier than a pig in you know what.
But, I think we should have picked up some more arms. I think we should look at Freddy Garcia, if we can get him on the cheap for next year and for any help he could give us this year. Also, I think we should feel out the A’s for Joe Blanton. He is exactly what we need at the back of the rotation. RELIABILITY!!!!!
Billy Beane will want a king’s ransom for Joe Blanton. Freddy Garcia, even though he was 1-5 with the Phillthies last year, would be a risk I would take. He’d be going from a notorious hitter’s park in CBP to a notorious pitcher’s park in Shea.
Let’s not overlook Tony Armas Jr., either. He seems to be the type of pitcher that would thrive under Rick Peterson. He’s going to probably start the season at N’awlins.
Armas has been hurt more than he has been well. And he gets lit up on a regular basis. Hopefully, Jacket can do for him what he did for OP, but I won’t bet the ranch on it.
You have a Ranch!!! That is AWESOME!!
And a mansion and a yacht.
If he wants that ransom, oh well, i guess we can’t get him, but we got Santana without giving up either of our top 2 prospects. As much as I like the guy, Blanton is no Santana.
Pelfrey and a 2 high picks is the most I’d give up.
I wouldn’t give up Pelfrey. And, there’s this lefty starter that is impressing the Hell out of the Mets coaching staff at ST right now–Jon Niese. The buzz, from the article on Mets.com on Friday, was that the only reason he wasn’t standing out right now was the fact that there’s this certain other LHP in camp right now. Niese will be at N’awlins by the end of the year, and maybe at CitiField by the middle of next year.
getting Blanton is a pipe dream, this isn’t a fantasy league, Beane does want talent back, we don’t have it, we’d have nothing for the future. Also, you can’t trade draft picks man, just forget Blanton.
i didn’t mean draft picks as in future, I meant some of our recent high picks as in prospects. Like Kunz or Rustich but not both. Sorry for the lack of clarity there.
how about lohse, hes still on the market, and he would be a cheap minor league option with high potential, he just wants to pitch somewhere
Lohse had said he doesn’t want a minor league deal, which is why he staring at his phone right now.
Can’t believe the guy was Pilly’s 3rd starter last year.
Talking about back-firing.! He saw Meche’s deal and assumed he would ge the same… We all know what happens when you assume
Phils traded for Lohse because they lost so many starters due to injury. He was pretty much the 4th starter, but wasn’t on the team long enough to be officially slotted.
He was pretty much league average, which is actually better than it looks considering his two home parks last year. At Shea he’d probably be above average.
He’s a Boras client. Some years it seems the ML teams allow one of his to hang out to dry either collusively or not. He usually gets way more than his clients are worth but every once in a while the teams have some sense.
EFF. thanks for the knowledge. That’s one thing we can all agree on..that Boras needs to be slapped around every so often.
Any chance of Phils going back to the Lohse well this year?
Well, he already turned down a contract offer from the Phils of 7mill for 3 years. No idea if it is still on the table, but it might be looking OK right about now!
Alou and Hernandez are both older and extremely injury-prone, but there are two important differences between them. Alou is either is on the DL or playing well; Hernandez is either on the DL, hurt and pitching poorly, or healthy and pitching well.
The major difference, though, is that Alou is professional and mature, not causing a distraction when something is wrong. El Duque, as great as he has been when healthy, is a head-case and always has been when something hurts.
I see El Duque becoming a major distraction at some point this season as the Mets try to ease him out and Pelfrey in. His ego is bigger than his talent at this point, and Pelfrey has probably already surpassed him. The best thing that could happen for the Mets is probably that Pelfrey pitches even better than last Spring Training, and El Duque agrees to have surgery and retires.
i def dont want him to retire, i want him to go to the pen, he would be a great long man, and it would really solitify the bullpen, and give pelfrey the 5th spot and sign some other guy(garcia or lohse preferably lohse because he can start the season healthy) to sit in the minors and have an option when something happens, and something will happen to someone.
I wish this guy would just go away and they would give Pelfrey the fifth spot. He days he’ll be ready for opening day. who cares. he’s bailed on the team the last 2 uears in the stretch run. He’s useless.
dude u r kidding right? el duque was the best pitcher we had 4 a while and put up great #’s. the only reason not to start him, is the fear of losing him. otherwise he is the guy.
RELIABILITY!!!! That’s the only thing he is missing, which is why I want him as my #6th starter/long man.
Pelfrey can’t be a temporary solution…he’s either the fifth starter or he’s starting in AAA. You can’t expect a 24 YO to start 3 games for an injured player, then go to the minors, then come back and start 2, then miss a start…he needs to know he’s in there and doesn’t have to be perfect to stay. Young guys need stability to develop rhythm and good habits.
Duque just isn’t healthy enough to be relied upon on a consistent basis. Let him be this year’s Sele, but used more often…
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Can’t post in the ‘Yea Lidge is Injured!’ thread, but word is surgery and out 3-6 weeks for Lidge after his MRI.
Is there a TV schedule, SNY, for Mets spring games, yet?
I’m jonesin”, baby…
yup, it’s up at the sny website :)
ESPN is reporting that Brad Lidge is going to miss 3-6 weeks.
Mets first break of the season.
Yeah, fleece factor and foxsports have it. he needs surgery.
El Duque is the fifth starter.
As such, he will be left behind for extended spring traing until all five starters are needed. Do not expect him to be with the team until at least middle April. There is no need to put him on the DL (yet).
If the rotation is set up to start every once every five days, there is no need for a fifth starting pitcher until April 12.
Santana pitches the season opener @ florida and pedro pitches the home opener vs Phils (4-8). This also gives Perez more starts with an extra day off, when he is most effective.
Santana pitches 3-31, 4-5, 4-10, 4-16, 4-21, 4-26, 5-2, 5-7, 5-13, 5-18, 5-24, 5-29
Maine pitches 4-1, 4-6, 4-11, 4-17, 4-22, 4-27, 5-3, 5-9, 5-14, 5-20, 5-25, 5-30
Hernandez pitches 4-12, 4-18, 4-23, 4-28, 5-4, 5-10, 5-15, 5-21, 5-26, 5-31
Martinez pitches 4-2, 4-8, 4-13, 4-19, 4-24, 4-29, 5-5, 5-11, 5-16, 5-22, 5-27, 6-1
Perez pitchez 4-4, 4-9, 4-15, 4-20, 4-25, 4-3, 5-6, 5-12, 5-17, 5-23, 5-28, 6-2
thanks for this
That is great work, man.
What could be my last trip is April13. Wow, if I could see Pedro, that would be a wonderful farewell trip.
1. El Duque Not Throwing Hard is not a headline. LOL!
2. Maybe he is thinking about running against Raul.
just give the 5th spot to pelfrey
from Adam Rubin’s blog:
Carlos Beltran did get plunked on the left triceps by a pitch from Johan Santana. Beltran had the stitches imprinted in his arm, but Willie Randolph found it amusing. The manager said Beltran had specifically requested facing someone who threw strikes, since pitchers can be erratic this time of year.
Its his arm, and he got hit by a pitch……
Calm down bro
what? do us a favor and learn how to read or at least pay attention. His knees are recovering from dual arthroscopic knee surgeries he had after the season, and he was therefore unable to start rehab soon after that because its hard to do that when both of your knees are out of comission. As for what happened recently, he got plunked by Santana on his arm.
are you new here? Cause first off, you posted it as if it was a fact everywhere, you didn’t say “rotoworld is reporting —- ”
Your gonna get flamed a bit for doing that and then putting an “oh brother” as if your saying a “here we go again”
Either deal with being SLIGHTLY flamed, or leave man, you need bigger balls to stay on this site
Haha — you love it.
what ya drinkin’, buddy…
Okay buddy….have a differing view point than other people on the blog. Thats fine. Think you’re right. Be sure you’re right, for all I care, but there is no reason to attack people on the site by calling them names such as “baffoons”. If you counter what people say with a substancial argument there is no reason to name call.
well, Trachsel bailed on the Mets. duque got hurt.
And when you figure out where the better 5th starter option is coming from, let me know.
wow, you talk like a 16 year old
with a yeast infection…