Update, 6:26 pm:
“An SNY producer has been sent home with the flu,” explains Adam Rubin, in a post to his blog for the Daily News.
According to Rubin, Mets assistant GM John Ricco said nobody on the team is currently experiencing flu syptoms.
Update, 5:25 pm:
In a post to Twitter, Newsday’s David Lennon says the Mets may have been exposed to some strain of flu, adding, “a member of their traveling party has come down with it.”
According to Bart Hubbuch, of the New York Post, also on Twitter, the person in the traveling party, who works for SNY, may have ‘swine flu.’
Yesterday, Mets GM John Ricco told the Daily News that Beltran and John Maine do not have a flu because they do not have a fever.
…forgive me if i don’t trust their doctor’s ability to read a thermometer…
Update, 4:45 pm:
Ryan Church and Jose Reyes were both unable to play in an extended spring training game today due to heavy rain in St. Lucie.
Original Post:
Yet again, Carlos Beltran will not be in tonight’s starting lineup, missing his third-consecutive start due to a stomach bug.
Instead, Jeremy Reed will again start in center field.
Luis Castillo will bat leadoff tonight, followed in order by Fernando Martinez in left field, David Wright, Gary Sheffield in right field, Fernando Tatis at first base, Omir Santos, Ramon Martinez at short, Reed and Johan Santana on the mound.
By the way, Martinez has four hits in his last 11 at bats, including two doubles, two stolen bases, two runs scored, two walks and two RBI.
{ 48 comments }
I think I might need something stronger than Pepto-Bismol.
When is Church due back?
He’s eligible to return Sunday, but I suspect it will be later that week, if not longer.
Maybe they will give him the Brian Schneider treatment and keep him out for a month.
If that means Fmart plays the role of Santos and comes through with numerous hits in the clutch…then Im all for it.
I think regardless of F-Mart progress, Church days as a Met are number. It seems that Jerry doesn’t want to play him. According to Lennon and others, the front Office doesn’t like him. The problem is they should play and pump him up so that his trade value will soar instead of putting him in the dog house.
Correction Matt, I think this would be Beltran’s third consecutive missed start. He was pulled in the middle of Saturday’s game for this bug.
Right, he already missed two. Jeez, I’m losing count.
Is this a joke? I haven’t missed 3 days of work total over the last 3 years because of illness.
This is why people question his toughness.
I suspect Jesse52782 that if your job involved trying to hit 90+mph fastballs you might not be adding value to your organization when sick.
I know when I am sick, I can still get through what I need to do, but then again my profession is not centered around physical activity.
Not so much the 90+ fastballs, but running after balls in the outfield and on the bases.
yea…stomach virus is pretty lousy…he most likely is very dehydrated, and thats put your whole body at risk. Easy to pull muscles and/or cramp.
although Michael Jordan dropped 38 points while playing 44 minutes in game 5 of the 97 finals while he had the flu…unreal.
I don’t question his toughness…In fact, he is one of the toughest players on the team. he played in 161 games last year. he’s averaged 151 games his last 8 seasons. He practically broke his face and came back to try and help the team.
He’s played on bum knees the last few years, and we only know about it b/c of off-season knee surgeries
The guy has to be ailing for him to not play b/c of a stomach virus. Besides, he already has a bum knee from a few weeks ago.
anybody else here question his toughness?
Beltran probably lost some weight and is going to be weak. It’s going to take him a little while to get back on track. I hope this doesn’t lead into a slump for him. It would be a shame because he was on such a roll.
Reed is a decent defensive outfielder who has been hitting timely…… Does anyone know why Cora isn’t starting instead of R. Martinez ?
Let’s hope “pops” Sheffield can hold it together for one more night.
Same can be said for Castillo who looked like he hurt himself diving for a ground ball….tonight’s bench is Murphy, Schneider, Valdez and Cora…..
hell, lets hope “pops” can hold it together for longer than that lol
With Delgado sidelined for a significant amount of time still, “pops” is going to have to play a much more central role than I’m comfortable with. So far so good, but I hope Omar has his ear to the ground for a power OFer…
I think with Gary, it’s one day at a time these days. He looks like he really needs a few days off.
We have no idea how sick Beltran is, but this won’t help his soft reputation. Maine gutted out 6 ip on Sunday, yet Beltran is missing 3 straight games now. Pretty weak.
Totally agree. But reputation among whom? I for one are resigned to the fact that some fans will never appreciate Beltran for the great player he is. Too bad for them I say.
I, for one, have become* Sorry.
I look at his games played for how “tough” he is. 149 average games played from 2005-2008. I’ll take it…
damn these injuries..granted beltrans isnt exactly an injury are becoming comical…beltran has been hurt/sick…church is on the DL…sheff is either breaking down because hes 40 and hasnt played the OF in 3 years or his hammy is more serious then hes letting on…which means the only fully healthy OFers are reed who is the 4th OFer…and fmart…a 20 year old who may very well be back in the minors unless he consistently hits in a week or so…which would be alot to ask from a 20 year old with 1 week MLB experience….wow thats hard to believe…cant even make it up…
Forget the Pepto, this line-up had me reaching for the Jim Beam, that is until I got to Johan’s name with the knowledge that Nutz wont be trecking out to the bump in the 8th, at least for tonight.
Damn I miss seeing Reye’s name in there every day – Friday cannot come soon enough…
I love Beltran and he’s by far my favorite Met on this team, but it’s even hard for me to defend his soft rep here. 3 days man? Come on Carlos, we need you out there.
I hope FMart continues to get the playing time when Church is ready. We already know what Church is, a good arm, good glove with 8 measly rbi’s. He’s never gonna be a bigtime player.
I guess the baseball gods felt instead of having us collapse for a 3rd straight year we will just become a mash unit where no starters play and we never have a chance to crumble in september….i guess the idea of good fortune for the mets is too ridiculous for the gods
yea, although we’re 6 games over .500 and 2 losses back, and have been playing short-handed for weeks now…
so…how healthy is Beltran, percentage wise? would he answer like 60% ?
I hope that Belran feels better. He is important for team. But stomach virus is very irritating and very unpredictable.
Why not give Sheffield a night off? Tatis could play right, Murphy could play left.
Let Beltran get healthy. Remember he also had some tenderness in his legs so this maybe a blessing that he can rest it. If you look at his numbers, he has been tailing off significantly in the last 14 days. He has hit .276 with 4 runs and 3 RBI’s. .276 obviously for someone slumping isn’t bad but no where close to what he was doing. Hopefully he will be good to go by Thursday. Reed played well anyway so there is no rush to get Carlos back.
Has Cora been activated yet and if so why do we need Valdez, Martinez, and Cora on the active roster? Keep two (Cora and Valdez) and get an outfielder up here tonight. Our back-up outfielder tonight is actually starting at first base.
this is all rock in a hard place with the injuries and illness, the most logical approach tonight without Beltran would Tatis in left, Martinez in right, Reed in center and Murphy at first.
Sheffield needs to rest the way he was not running last night.
very true…but we really need Sheff’s bat in the lineup even more so w/o Beltran
tonight being the night that I need outfielders with Legs and hope Santana is on his A game.
I’m not too disappointed that Jose was forced to take an extra day due to weather. I really don’t want to see this rushed, and want him to be able to get to 100%, or at least to a point where playing won’t risk further injury. This sounds obvious, but the player may try to return to soon, the coaches can let themselves be pursuaded, lots can go wrong to rush a player back.
This is all also happening during a really weak portion of the schedule. Let them take it slow, as long as they don’t really fumble the games…..like last night. D’oh!
Part of me worries about the defense tonight. F-mart has looked shaky around the walls at times and Sheff is what is he is. I guess the question is at this point, who is the better left fielder: F-mart, Sheff, or Tatis?
We need more than Pepto, we need the whole first aid kit! I’m sure hoping the Sheff can keep on trucking, but Jerry has got to get him a couple of days in a row off to kind of recharge that old body. God bless him for what he’s brought to this team, but at his age how much more can we expect? I just hope Jerry doesn’t just keep running him out there untill finally he can’t walk and then we lose Sheff for months instead of a couple of days. But I wouldn’t put it past the Mets to do it!
Since 5/1:
Mets record with Santos in the starting lineup: 12-3.
Mets record with Castro/Schneider in the starting lineup: 7-7.
KEEP. STARTING. SANTOS.
Tough to argue with that. Santos has been a clutch hitter and seems to handle the pitchers very well.
It’s all about the Jomir Santantos battery tonight, baby. THEY’LL tell us what to do.
breaking: an SNY employee may have exposed the team to swine flu
or i could just read matt’s post
If swine flu hits the Mets, that will officially be the worst luck ever.
I know that there was some rumors that there was swine flu with the Mets when a fan claimed that he/she received the swine flu from teh Mets. Who knows….Honestly, I don’t trust the Mets doctors. Thet semmed less crediable each day with various of injuries and day to day with all the players. I hope whatever Maine Beltran really has passes and it is not serious with the sny personnel.
who knows…but i like to think its real….just reading the wikipedia (very credible lol) entry about leading up to the game gives me goosebumps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_NBA_Finals
…see Game 5 paragraph.
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