Okay so it’s not really the conference call from hell, but lately doesn’t it seem like Omar’s become the harbinger of death whenever he addresses the media?
Today he had another one of those conference calls where he throws an unexpected curveball at us, or was it a spitter?
There are many versions out there about what was said, but I think I’ll go with Newsday’s David Lennon’s take on it because he does an excellent job of recapping it for us.
Just wrapped a conference call with Omar Minaya, who provided updates on the Mets’ numerous injuries. Not much good news. Here’s a recap:
– Fernando Martinez had surgery two days ago to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee and will be out six to eight weeks. Looks like he’ll be staying out through the trade deadline.
– Minaya said Jose Reyes is probably the closest to returning from the DL. He took live batting practice off John Maine today in Port St. Lucie, but had yet to run the bases. Reyes has been limited to agility drills with some hard running in the outfield.
– Maine is probably next in line as the Mets remain hopeful he can pitch in a rehab game in a week to 10 days. Minaya said he no longer has pain behind his right shoulder.
– Carlos Delgado also is in Port St. Lucie, where he is taking BP as well as infield practice. Minaya was optimistic with his progress, but does not anticipate him returning before August.
– As for Carlos Beltran, he had another MRI that showed the bone bruise did not shrink “sufficiently” to allow him to resume full baseball activity. Beltran is mostly running in the hydrotherapy pool and riding a stationary bike.
So where do I begin…
Should I remind everybody about how often I’ve expressed my concern about the Carlos Beltran bone bruise in the last three days?
Or do I go straight to the news that F-Mart is out for six to eight weeks?
Lets start with Beltran… On Monday I wrote the following,
Something smells bad about this bone bruise, and I was shocked about a couple of things I read about Beltran in the last two days. You may recall that picture of Beltran being taken after he returned to play against the Pirates after missing a few games from a cortisone shot the Mets gave him for that bone bruise, which has now overtaken El Duque’s bunion as the the weirdest Mets injury in recent memory. He has now been seen wearing a knee brace for the first time since he went on the DL. Shouldn’t he be getting better and not worse?
If Beltran isn’t ready to even begin baseball related activities, I think it’s safe to say his return is now pushed to August. Damn it!
As for F-Mart, he gets injured like this every freaking year. He reminds me of Alex Escobar, the last amazing can’t-miss, five-tool, outfielder the Mets had. Escobar faded into baseball’s black hole, can F-Mart be too far behind? Please trade him as soon as he can walk without crutches!
Now for John Maine… He MAY be ready to pitch in a minor league game in a week to ten days. That puts his return at the first week in August. That assumes he only makes one rehab start and has no setbacks. What are the odds on that happening. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Jose Reyes has yet to RUN the bases? Wow…
I take it back… this is the conference call from hell.
This is a reoccurring nightmare. Every week we are subjected to the same gloomy health updates from Omar. It’s really nobody’s fault, but damn when will it end?
Man Omar, can you give us the good news for once.
on F-Mart, I’m surprised that the news on him (surgery, out till September) surprised me.
the scathing article I read over the weekend from (I think) the Post about the dysfunction in the Mets franchise seems to be proven more true with this.
I read that article too and and agreed with all his points. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but lets face it, Omar deserves the brunt of it.
All pretty much on par except that F-Mart is now in deeper doo doo than before. All these injuries are going to take longer than expected. Reyes has a partially torn tendon. Those do not repair on their own and rest should not remedy it. Most likely we do not see him again this season and he winds up in surgery off-season. Maine currently has no pain, but what’s to stop it from reoccuring with some work. They are assuming there is no real injury there. Is that actually the case? Delgado remains on track for now and we likely see him return in a month give or take. Beltran is purely who knows? And now the F-Mart bad news. 6 to 8 wks seems a bit much for a routine arthroscopic knee surgery, so this seems to be somewhat more severe than the garden type variety. So his trade value is out the window. And who’s to say Ollie stays ok. He just came back and his durability is still in question. The wait and see strategy doesn’t look good.
MASK, NONE OF US LIKED THE ‘WAIT & SEE’ APPROACH; BUT WHAT CHOICE HAS EVER BEEN THERE SINCE FRED REFUSES TO EVER PAY LUXURY TAXES AND WITH A PAYROLL IN ’09 OF 149M WITH THE LINE @ 162M, EVEN IF WE HAD THE PROSPECTS, WHAT HELP DOES 12 M BRING WHEN U NEED SO MUCH? UNFORTUNATLY, NONE OF THE MAJOR LEAGEUERS OMAR SIGNED TO MILB DEALS HAVE FLOURISHED.
I’M TTIREC OF ALL THIS FINGER POINTING AT THE “LACK OF MINOR LEAGUE DEPTH” BY THE MADDENS & HARPERS OF THE NY SPORTS WORLD. THIS LACK OF PIPELINE WAS A COMPLAINT OF BOBBY VALENTINE’S DURING THE PHILLIPS’ REGIME. TYPICALLY WHEN ONCE CONTENDING TEAMS CHANGE DIRECTION & SELL OFF THEIR UNDERPERFORMING VETS AS DUQUETTE WAS FORCED TO DO WITH PHILLIPS’ POR INVERSTMENTS, TEAMS GET TO RESTOCK THEIR MINORS WITH HALFWAY DECENT IF NOT TOP PROSPECTS, USUALLY BY KICKING IN CASH TO ACCOMODATE TEAM ASSUMING THE BAD CONTRACT OF THE VET.
WELL IN ’04, DUQUETTE WAS HOUSE CLEANING ELIMINATING ALOMAR,BURNITZ,BENITEZ,VENTURA,ZEILLE AND ALL HE GOT IN RETURN THAT ANYONE’S EVER HEARD OF WAS ROYCE RING FROM CHICAGO OFF THEIR AAA CHARLOTTE KNIGHTS’ ROSTER BECAUSE JEFF WILPON REFUSED ATO INCLUDE ANY CASH IN ANY OF THE DEALS. THAT IS HOW THE METS’ FRANCHISE HAS BEEN RUN FOR YEARS AND SUDDEENLY, BECAUSE JEFF HAS AN AXE TO GRIND FOR OMAR, THESE DUMB CRITICISMS ARE LEVELED WHEN EVERYONE AGREES THE METS’ BEST TALENTS IN MINORS ARE AT THE LOWEST LEVELS, MAINLY DRAFTED AFTER OMAR’S ARRIVAL. OF THOSE DECENT PROSPECTS HE INHERITED THERE WAS ONLY 1 POSITION PLAYER OF NOTE, LASTINGS MILLEDGE. NEED I SAY MORE? REYES & WRIGHT ALREADY PROMOTED. ESCOBAR & KAZMIR DEALT, THE LATTER AT JEFF’S DIRECTION TO DUQUETTE AND AT PETERSON’S RECOMMENDATION. BTW, JEFF PERSONALLY HIRED PETERSON, IF YOU GO BACK & REVIEW THE JEFF WILPON ANNOUNCEMENT, YOU’LL FIND PETERSON WAS HIRED TO TOTALLY DESIGN THE FRANCHISES PITCHING APPROACH INCL PETERSON’S BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL LEVELS INCL MAJORS & MINORS (COACHES & PLAYERS ALIKE) WITH PETERSON REPORTING DIRECTLY TO JEFF. I’M NOT MAKING THIS STUFF UP. U’LL NEVER HEAR IT ON SNY SINCE JEFF’S THE SOLE CROSSOVER EXEC BET NYM & SNY.
lets go mets F Mart looked like complete doo doo, I can’t believe he was rated so high. He needs another 2 years at the minor league level
Joe, it’s not the conference call from hell, it’s the season from hell. We are cursed or something. I’m calling it the curse of Darren O’Day.
I wouldn’t call it the “curse of Darren O’Day”. I think it’s the curse of Casey Stengel and Gil Hodges – or the curse of Shea. Maybe it won’t be exorcised until Citi Field is painted Mets blue.
But I actually wrote something on my blog recently that points to this just being the bad side of a familiar bad pattern that the Mets franchise has repeated over and over again.
http://rememberingshea.blogspot.com/2009/07/pattern-of-bad-behavior.html
What have the Mets done? They broke my Reyes and Beltran!
what a reactionary writer…temper that diatribe with virtues like patience and fortitude…”the sky is falling” attitude is excessively over the top, dontya think ?
CAPSLOCK=DISABILITY ACCOMODATION
I’M GOING TO TEMPORARILY PUT ASIDE MY DEFENDING MNGT FROM SCURULOUS ATTACKS AND SAY I’VE BEEN TOTALY SURPRISED HOW FEW HAVE CASTIGATED THE METS FOR EXPECTING BELTRAN TO REGULARLY PATROL THE ENTIRE OUTFIELD ALMOST LINE TO LINE ALL SEASON DUE TO SUCH INCOMPETANT FLANKERS IN RF & LF. MURPHY & TATIS & SHEFF & EVANS ARE EACH BAD ENOUGH; BUT WHEN U PLAY 2 OF THEM ALONGSIDE BELTRAN IT MEANS THE USUAL PRACTICE/COURTESY OF THE CFer BACKING UP THE APPROPRIATE CORNER ON FLYBALLS NO LONGER IS A CASUAL RESPONSIBILITY; BUT A NECESSITY SINCE BELTRAN MORE OFTEN THAN NOT IS THE PRIMARY RECEIVER. ONCE THE BONE BRUISE WAS REVEALED. CHURCH & REED SHOULD HAVE BEEN “THE” CORNERS UNTIL HEALTH WAS RESTORED.
I REMEMBER ONE OF THE FIRST GAMES AFTER PAGAN WAS REACTIVATED, THERE WAS A MIXUP WHEN BELTRAN FORGOT WHO WAS IN LF & POACHED PAGAN’S FLYBALL, ALMOST COLLIDING. CERTAINLY CFer HAS DOMINANCE ON DISPUTED FLYS; BUT CARLOS HAS BEEN REQUIRED TO PLAY KELLY’S PART FROM THOSE BAD NEWS BEARS, RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING & EVERYONE.
Excellent observation.
Ditto.
Let me just say it: Let’s please trade F-Mart while we have the chance. This guy has pretty much been on the DL since we signed him. In boxing, you talk about a glass jaw; this kid’s got a glass body. Can you think of any other MLB organization that needs a fragile player any less?
He’s like Moises Alou at 40. Please don’t tell me he’ll get tougher as he ages.