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During the fourth inning of last night’s loss, Pedro Martinez limped off the field with what has been categorized as a strained left hamstring.
He will travel back to New York today for an MRI.
Willie Randolph told reporters after the game that expects Nelson Figueroa to replace Martinez on the roster, should he be moved to the disabled list.
…that would be fine, though, depending on the severity of the injury, it may also make sense to entertain a free-agent, such as Claudio Vargas or Woody Williams…
Randolph, talking to reporters after the game:
“We’ve dealt with injuries since I’ve been here and we have always picked each other up, and depending on where Pedro is, we’ll do the same thing.”
Billy Wagner, after the game:
“The guys have to step up…Resilience will have to be in our vocabulary as a baseball team, and we’re getting tested early…Until he gets back, we’ll have to rely on the other horses to pick it up and we’ll be fine. It’s a tough situation for Petey. He wants to come in and do well, and give our team a shot, and he did…He’ll be back, and all the world will be happy again…It just goes to show you, sometimes you need to eat more doughnuts and get fat. You can’t pull fat.”
In the Bergen Record, Bob Klapisch asks:
“Admit it, you knew this day was coming…You knew Pedro’s 36 years eventually would catch up with him. Only, who thought his reckoning would come after only 3 1/3 innings?”
According to Dan Graziano in the Star-Ledger, losing Martinez could be a major blow to this team’s mental strength.
Lastly, to hear from ESPN.com’ Buster Olney regarding Martinez’s injury, watch the following clip from ESPN’s Baseball Tonight:
And away we go…
Whatever, I didnt expect Pedro to stay healthy all year anyway, and anyone who did, doesnt know pedro. We dealt with being without him last year just fine, my main concern is who is going to be pitching the home opener….do I really have to watch Nelson Figueroa trot out there for the last home opener at Shea? That would be a shame….
No one expects Pedro to stay healthy for a full season but the best case scenario would have been a start here 2-3 starts there and nothing major. None of us know the extent of this injury but it has potential to be major and the timing of it really is what hurts. It was so crucial to get off to a hot start and I hope this injury doesn’t deflate the club. If they pull of a nice winning streak despite Pedro going down then it’s a huge boost - but the rotation is still decent and potentially better than last year, obviously, with Santana at the front.
The real problem right now is this offense. I’m not going to harp on Milledge and assume he could have been ready for a full season but I will have to state the obvious in that Carlos Delgado’s landslide is pretty remarkable. This guy was consistently one of the better contact/power hitters of the last decade and he’s falling so fast with every disgusting strikeout where he’s way in front and his head practically snaps off to unbearable foul popups this guy is not who he was.
I’m not that in tune with the specific payrolll implications but is there any chance at all that this team can make a run at Teixiera. I see him staying in Atlanta long term because it seems like a good fit but man do they need Mark Teixiera.
I agree. We SHOULD HAVE smacked these AAA pitchers around and we didn nothing. They hit 4 HRs off our staff and we didn nothing. Reyes looks lost at the plate, swinging at high crap and stepping in the bucket, Delgado is DONE and Beltran is his usual unconsistant self. Dudes, we are in trouble here, and now we have lost Pedro. We really need to come out strong and this is not going to help. These are the teams we have to beat and beat good or we will end up like 0when we could not beat the Fish or Nats. We need a bat at the bottom of the order. After Beltran we are nothing. If the bottom 4 guys get a hit its a bonus. If Pedro could slap away 10 pitches what was wrong with the rest of the team? We went 3-0 several times and still did nothing. We are not as good as we think we are. I hope Im wrong. Im sure one of you wiz kids will put me in my place, please. LETS GO METS !!!
I don’t even care about Pedro that much. He looked terrible anyway. Sosa was much more effective so throw him in the rotation. The key is…no more musical chairs with the rotation. Sit Pedro out for 2 months, slot Sosa in….and keep a consistant.
My worry is now the offense. They left a small village on base last night (shades of 07), and have ZERO power. ZERO. Delgado should not be batting 5th, but theres just nobody else. 4 runs vs the pathetic Marlins is unacceptable, and I don’t care what game of the season it is.
Paging Moises Alou….eat some more Wheaties and get back here. This lineup needs a power hitting righty real bad right now
Problem is who would he be replacing? Pagan in 2/6 with 3 RBI and .444 OBP. Do I expect it to continue, no but I doubt Alou for Pagan would have helped that much last night. We know our hole is Delgado right now so that means that Beltran can not have a cold spell while Alou is injured.
Righty bat? you mean like Lastings Milledge?
as far as Pedro, he was not sharp early, but in all of his starts last year, it took him a little while to get warmed up. he had sufficient velocity and plenty of movement, but could not hit any spots. that is something I think he would eventually iron out, but expecting old Pedro is unreasonable.
truth is, this is a major hit for the Mets and this is one of those injuries that could linger.
He made a good rotation great and with the 5th spot a mess, it is a very different makeup with Sosa
I am so sick of the “Pedro Watch”, i.e Pedro begins running, Pedro throws from flat ground, Pedro tosses 30 pitches from the mound, Pedro throws a bullpen, Pedro throws his first minor league game, and on and on and on.
The Mets might have no choice but to sign Perez next year
I agree with your last comment. Perez is vital and should be locked up. However, there are many potential FA out there. Why not let the Yankee’s go after Tex and put a ton of money towards CC?
The Yankes are going to go after BOTH Tex and CC.
No, no Wheaties… didn’t you hear what Billy Wagner said? More doughnuts…
Yeah, Onley was doom and gloom on baseball tonight which really pissed me off. The Mets have no reason to panic. Johan, O.P. and Maine will do just fine, but Buster Brown thinks that the Braves and the Phils can trot something significantly better than that on a consistent basis. I know his tone would be different if his Yanks were going through the same thing.
Anyone think that we should just skip the #5 right now. I know it was setup to give Pedro an extra day off but here is my thinking.
Perez pitches tonight to finish off series then we have Thursday off. Maine opens against the Braves and Santana pitches on normal rest Saturday. Then on Sunday you throw Pelfrey. This means that you should have a good chance of being up 2-0 on the Braves with the wild card of Pelfrey on Sunday. Then the home opener vs. Philly would be Perez followed by Maine and Santana.
To me this makes too much since. I understand giving Pedro the extra rest but that is mute right now and I would hope that we would not be protecting the others already.
If you got the math right for the days off, I like that idea.
Since they didn’t need a 5th starter anyway until what, 4/12 at the earliest, and they will be backfilling Pedros slot with a #6, it makes no sense to start that guy any sooner than neccessary.
To add to your argument, if they don’t skip #5, then Santana misses Philly this time around. That’s ridiculous! Skip #5!
Anyone have Claudio Vargas’ number? If so, please forward to OmarMinaya@mets.com. Thanks.
Vargas to me is a must right now. Bring him in let him get about 3-5 starts and reevaluate then.
I think, again not sure how bad Pedro is, but I am planning for the worst and thinking you need someone who can give you 10 starts. Rustich and Parnell can not be trusted to do that, nor can El Duque or to a lesser extent Pelfry. At least you know what your getting with Vargas.
I think Pedro will be out until June… I just think based on where it seemed his hammy pulled, it’s a bad spot and will linger…
This is the worst case scenario for a team that could not possibly endure a worst case scenario this season…
And yes, while Pagan has been pretty decent so far in a small sample, I think this weekend and early next week we might see where the holes are in this offense… Lastings Milledge is going to put up big numbers this year… Another regrettable deal…
I dont think milledge will put up astronomical numbers for a while……I do think Carlos Gomez will have a great year…hes off to a great start on the Twins….
Kind of feels like this classic Simpsons moment:
Kent Brockman “Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside?”
Professor “Yes I would, Kent.”
Regarding Claudio Vargas,
SIGN HIM EVEN IF PEDRO IS HEALTHY
Pelfrey needs another year in the minors, period. Millege and Gomez needed years in the minors last year, Omar has been bringing up guys too soon and it seems to hurt their development, we waited until Reyes and Wright were ready.
And I dont care if Vargas had a over-4 ERA every year, he is better than El Duque, period. we have 3 reliable starters on this team, lets get 4 and worry about El Duque’s feelings and Pelfrey’s mouthpiece only if we need to
Lets get the team on an all-doughnut diet…
Seriously, when Wags said “you can’t pull fat” I finally exhaled and honestly, laughed my a** off. That was classic.
Reality check: we have 4 very injury prone older guys from whom we are counting on major contributions. Between Petey, Moises, Duque & Delgone-o you know someone is going to be hurt bending over to tie a shoe, going up/down the dugout steps etc… The only surprise with last nights injury is that it’s leg related vs. shoulder related. Not sure how you blame this on a trainer. Each of these professional athletes should know their bodies best and should be responsible for warming up, stretching, being in shape etc.. It’s probably more of a freak thing, not something to be blamed on a single individual.
I think Sosa should be looked at as next in line considering he pitched well last year as a starter. Defintely bring in Vargas and let him get in to shape to show if he can contribute. I dont think he is ready to go immediately; isnt that why he was let go ? Lohse was crazy at 4 yrs/ $10.0m per yr, but 1 yr at $4.0m - that would have been nice insurance…. He at least seems capable of taking his turn on a regular basis and at least keeping it close.
Look at the Yankees last year. They had a string of Hammy issues out of the blue. It was because they had a new trainer with a new philosophy. Using rubber bands is a great way to stretch and the guy didn’t allow the players to use them leading to so many injuries. I am not saying this is the trainers fault now am I saying it is Pedros fault.
I have been an athlete all of my life and sometimes you simply get injured without you feeling it coming. I think the bunt may have been what did him in. He was running hard to try and beat out the throw. Fingers crossed lets hope it is not too serious
We will be fine. Santana/Maine/Perez/Pelf/Figueroa will get the job done for as long as it takes to get pedro back. Look at our competition…phillies/braves are off to a slow start and the nats are in first place followed by the marlins. We need to breathe and realize we did ok last year w/o pedro and there is no reason why we cannot do the same now. The mets are going to fight because they have something to prove this year. This is baseball folks you win some and you lose some. As far as Vargas….I think if his price is right we should snatch him up. And as far as ESPN….They counted the yankees out too last year…..