Monday, February 26, 2007

Your Weekly Mets Update

Glancing back at the past 11 days in Mets spring training camp, very, very little has transpired. But wait, something had to happen, right? Welllllll how about Orlando Hernandez coming down with a freaking stiff neck after throwing roughly two pitches and being sent back to New York? Indeed, it turns out that El Duque (which for those of you that didn’t that didn’t take 4 years of high school Spanish like Rickey did means “The Duque”) has some form of arthritis in his neck. And I can’t say I’m surprised at all, because guess what? Very old people are troubled by things like arthritis, bum hips, and the inability to modulate their volume of their voices. But in the defense of the elderly, Julio Franco does always know when it’s going to rain.

I’m willing to concede the possibility that Hernandez’ health might have become an issue say around uh, May, but we’re still in February people. February! So to sum things up, El Duque’s health needs constant monitoring all season long and Rickey needs an antacid and some bourbon. Generally speaking, the phrases "Met pitchers" and "being sent back to New York" are not a good combination... But on the bright side, with this development, there is the increased chance of seeing rookies like Humber getting some pitching action this season. Always a good thing. Moreover, Rickey is actually pretty excited about the unknown nature of the 2007 Mets pitching rotation because it allows Rickey the unbridled freedom of posting theoretical pitching lineups like this:

1. Glavine
2. Duque
3. Maine
4. Perez
5. Pelfrey/Humber/Sosa/Sele/Park

Not too shabby, is it? And let’s face it, if you’re a Mets starter, all you really need to do is show up sober with pants on, throw two solid innings and hand the game over to the ridiculously talented and deep 50 man bullpen. Meanwhile, the Queens Lumber Company will take care of the rest. We’ll be just fine.

Another reason Rickey is excited about this season: Lastings Milledge getting the opportunity to snatch the right field position away from Shawn “I-worked-harder-on-Yom-Kippur-than-I-did-in-the-2006-playoffs” Green. And honestly now, who isn’t rooting for Milledge to prove all his critics wrong and mature into the next Darryl Strawberry? (well, minus the drug and alcohol problems anway).

Milledge is undoubtedly on the right track. He showed up at Port St. Lucie bulked up and with a new attitude to learn. Problem is, he’s still a rookie and as such, he still makes rookie mistakes on occasion. For evidence, read this recent quote from the NJ Star Ledger:

“Lastings Milledge, who homered off Ambiorix Burgos during batting practice yesterday, meticulously taped color photos of three past or present major-leaguers to the side of his locker yesterday morning -- Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Jay Buhner. Sosa, who sat out last season, is in camp with the Texas Rangers while McGwire and Buhner are retired.”

Um, ok. First off, having a Jay Buhner picture is just flat out odd. And the Sosa and McGwire photos are borderline unforgivable. What, pictures of Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer weren’t available at the time? Can someone please talk to this kid?

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2 comments:

TheJackSack said...

Ya gotta love Milledge, or "Midge" as I like to call him (Moe from The Simpsons calls Marge that name too because he can never remember her real name). Matt Drudge reports that Jay Buhner might be Midge's daddy, which explains a lot.

Mike said...

Did my man 'Stings make like Darryl and promise a "monster season"?

And then did he try to punch Carlos Delgago, call David Wright a "little redneck," and slap around a couple women?

If so, then he's on his way.