4
2013
Mets Matters: Gee Sparkles, Cowgill Impresses Me, Who’s Running The Show?
An article by 
Some athletes will use anything as a motivator while others simply know what it takes to get ready.
Today, pitching coach Dan Warthen tried to sell the idea Johan Santana used perceived criticism of his physical condition as the spark to get him on the mound for the first time since Feb. 19. Santana threw the day after GM Sandy Alderson said he didn’t think the soon-to-be 34-year old lefty would pitch for another ten days to put his Opening Day start in jeopardy.
The Mets are trying to mix the contrasting positions Santana as the ultimate competitor who knows better than anybody what it takes to get ready and the other that he uses criticism as motivation.
Well, which is it?
Reportedly, Santana was irritated at reporters’ questioning, to which my first thought is for him to get over it as he’ll get $31 million this year regardless of how much he pitches, so answer the damn questions.
There’s no doubting Santana’s heart, but he can be sensitive.
What I especially found questionable is if the Mets thought he was ten days away from throwing, then why would they let him throw today? Who’s running the show anyway?
When a team puts it in the hands of the athlete to make medical decision, there is a likely chance of failure. Just think of Ryan Church, Mike Pelfrey, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Jose Reyes and others.
Despite Santana’s sensitivity to criticism, the fact remains he’s not in pitching shape and is behind schedule. It is also fact it was Santana who chose how to handle the offseason after rehabbing the previous two winters. Santana felt he needed the rest so he rested. Alderson stated what happened and didn’t rip Santana; there was no criticism, just an analysis.
It is a long season – Santana’s last as a Met – and it doesn’t matter if he is ready April 1 or April 15 or whenever. Santana won’t be traded for a variety of reasons and his value to the Mets this year will be to get the most out of him. It makes no sense to rush him, so don’t be surprised if letting him throw today could come back to bite the Mets.
GEE SPARKLES: Dillon Gee, who underwent surgery in the offseason to repair an artery in his shoulder, threw three scoreless innings in today’s 6-4 loss to Miami. It marked the first time Gee faced major leaguers since last July.
Gee gave up three hits and a walk with one strikeout over 50 pitches. Gee expressed no concern about his shoulder, saying he can’t afford to pitch with apprehension.
“Obviously I’m just excited to get out and compete again,’’ Gee told reporters. “The location was just very hit or miss. I wasn’t locating the fastball very well.’’
BUSTER BUSTING THEM: Buster Olney OF ESPN tweeted the following on Sunday. Mets: Amazing. Their two highest paid pitchers might not be available Opening Day, and their two highest-paid outfielders are Bobby Bonilla and Jason Bay.
COWGILL IMPRESSING: The more I see of right-handed hitting Collin Cowgill, the more I like him. If he can do the things he’s doing here in PSL and can carry that into the regular season, the Mets will be just fine at the leadoff spot when they’re opposing a lefthanded starter. I’ll try to catch up with him on Tuesday and find out what it is that makes this kid tick. He plays each inning like it’s game seven of the World Series.
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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The Mets medical staff has been a nightmare for a number of years. This is a major problem within the organization in my opinion and the fact that it is not addressed means the ball is being dropped. I do not know if this falls under Alderson’s control or not within the organization, but whoever is responsible needs to address the issue. There was a big blow up with Beltran going outside the organization’s medical staff with his knees….well with their track record, does anyone blame Beltran? Certainly not me.
Problem #2 in my view with this story is Warthen. I simply do not believe he has a clue what he is doing. As the pitching coach, you would think he has great input into a pitchers routine and what he does to prepare. Yet we see relievers overuse (by a couple different managers), pitchers yoyoed back and forth between starting and bp, and few who seem to go without injury. Sure, much of this could be outside his hands and he might be overruled in situations. However, I just dont think him being retained is a smart move. And this one I know is Alderson’s call.
taskmasterwww4450 — As Chicken LIttle said, “The sky is falling.”
The Mets have used two world class hospitals so it’s a stretch to imply that the Mets medical staff is overriding the hospitals’ advice. It ain’t the Wild West out there anymore. It’s a big bucks situation so the Mets will be careful. Regarding Warthen, you say a manager (maybe three different managers) can override his advice. Yet you still want to get rid of him. Once again the sky is falling.
It’s getting kind of hold every time I see Cowgill getting credit for making a play that any little leaguer would have made and scored on. Enough already. If he were that good why would the cash poor A’s give him up for Marte? And why didn’t the A’s ever see him as anything more than a bench player? Or the D’Backs too for that matter? On the Mets, this utility, Quad-A player looks so good mainly because the outfield as a whole is a disaster since we lost Beltran and Pagan. Cowgill wouldn’t make the opening day 25 man roster of more than half the teams in MLB right now.
kind of hard to land a starting job over Cespedes, Crisp and Reddick and they have also have Brandon Moss and Seth Smith who had fine years last season in a part time roll.
Every team has, at some point underestimated a player, and another team saw that player had talent and made a move for him or maybe the player just puts it all together in his mid/upper 20s.
We have no idea whether Cowgill is an everyday player or not, but he has looked very impressive so far and could prove to be a great move.
MM, nothing like your Debbie Downer attitude in ST. Why not just be in the moment once in a while? So the A’s passed on him. No one’s claiming he’s a superstar, just a kid bringing the right attitude to a new team.
Is it unfathomable to think he may be honing his talents and abilities as he develops as an MLBer? Maybe he’ll be a complete bum and washout by May, but maybe he’s a diamond-in-the- rough.
look at the Phillies, who had a pretty good run starting in 2007.
and their “sparkplug” CF was so bad, he was a rule 5 pickup. 2 years in a row (he was given back, then exposed again the next year).
He managed to do OK for himself once he finally got a shot at a job.
so yeah, it does happen that guys are overlooked or under appreciated. And you can’t discount the drive a player has to get everything possible out of their talent once they get the shot.
Hell, the main focus of the article, Johan Santana, was a Rule 5 pick at one time. And then traded by Florida to the Twins for a nobody.
Once upon a time the Mets had a 27 year old middle infielder with a .290Ba/.370Obp slash line in the minors named Marco Scutaro whom they lost on waivers to the A’s in 2002.
They decided to keep Jorge Valendia and Daniel Garcia instead to backup Reyes and Alomar.
How did that work out?
In July of 2011 I would bet the popular thing to say was “Baxter is the Padres garbage.”
Or during 2010 season “Dickey couldn’t hack it with the Twins”
One very interesting theory about Dickey in 2009 with the Twins was the effect the Metrodome had on him. Beyond the fact that there is absolutely no wind in the Metrodome, there were also these weird currents that were present due to the ventilation system that opened up directly behind home plate. The Twins would turn the vents on when the home team was at bat the idea being the air coming from behind home plate would help the hitters. The vents would turn off when the Twins would pitch, and as we know Dickey does well when there is some wind because the knuckleball flutters and breaks more. I don’t know, he did pitch somewhat better on the road in 2009,
Boston, Oakland, Toronto, & Colorado let Scutaro go too
And how much were you screaming at the Mets for letting Marco Scutaro go back in 2002? And how convenient, how insightful for you to point that out 11 years later only AFTER Scutaro has a tremendous post season for the Giants.
GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!!!
So far Cowgill and Bird have looked very good, but I wouldn’t be so quick to play them everyday.
Baxter and Valdespin (who thus far deserves to make the team over Kirk) are still likely to hit RHP better than Cowgill and Bird and should be given some starts.
I am a big supporter of platoons especially when the splits are so drastic like we have here…
I have been saying all off season that the OF (barring bringing in someone new, which could still happen) would certainly be 2 platoons, and even a 5 man rotation of sorts.
so those 4 guys mixing and matching is probably best case, given the players on hand right now.
Bet Santana is in fantastic golf and tennis shape…
The dream of being able to flip Johan for a prospect at the deadline is looking like an even larger long shot at this point. One would think, with this being an essential walk year for him, he’d be in the best shape of his life, etc. etc.
Heard an interview with Cowgill on the FAN and I like his attitude. He’s not just there to try to win a job, but to also compete and win. He will be a welcome addition to the team.
As for Olney, he can go suck it. He should stick to worrying about his favorite team whose highest paid player not only won’t make it to opening day, but may miss most of the season and may get busted for PEDs this year too. .
John……it’s not that often that I criticize your opinions but today is another story! Where in heaven does it say that players have to talk to reporters or answer their questions? When Sandy Alderson made his “analysis” of what happened with Santana not being ready to pitch there was no bashing of Santana at all. But the media and fans in all of their glorious savagery jumped all over this and will probably beat it to death as they do most things.
Your comment that Santana should answer the damn questions because he is getting paid regardless is way out of line man. I would think that if you said that to his face…that he would refrain from ever speaking to you again!
I would!
Mets medical/training miscues span at least three GM’s. Under Phillips/Duquette they tried to change Reyes’ entire way of running to “help” his hamstrings with disastrous results. Beltran’s knees dragged on, Pagan’s disclocated shoulder,Reyes’ 2009 hamstring issues, the Church concussion, the Davis season ending sprained ankle (with a boot that cut off his circulation and made it worse), Wright playing for weeks with a broken back. At some point you have to think the problem is the medical staff. All teams have injuries. Few teams have the spate of misdiagnoses the Mets have,
When a team puts it in the hands of the athlete to make medical decision, there is a likely chance of failure. Just think of Ryan Church, Mike Pelfrey, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Jose Reyes and others.
This isn’t a medical issue. It’s a training issue, and many fans and even writers who cover the team seem to get the two confused often. Santana has likely already been cleared for baseball activities. Long time ago. That’s a medical decision. But how and when he trains to get ready for games is up to him, the coaches, and the training staff, not the doctors. So at this point it’s about TC, Warthen and Ramirez, not the doctors.
I agree with those who think too much is being made of Johan’s condition. Mariano Rivera for years has taken his sweet time getting into real spring training games. I suspect Johan knows his gas tank has a limited capacity at this point in his career, so he’s conserving gas right now. And why not? I’d rather he take it slow it now and ramp it up right before the season starts.
I wonder if Dillon Gee’s reaction if he saw a back page with the headline “Gee Sparkles” would be to say, “Sparkles? I sparkled? Couldn’t I have dominated instead?
Maybe “Gee Bedazzles”?
Hmm I don’t know.
http://www.dreamtimecreations.com/content/product/small/BEDAZZLER.JPG
As seen on TV, so you know it’s good!
Johan Santana is not a stupid man. He will be 34 and going to be looking for one more payday. He is not going to rev himself up to be ready in April so that he will break down in July and ber worth nothing in the offseason? At the cost of the Mets season, he wants to be stronger later in the year for himself and it will help the Mets if they can trade a strong Santana in July or August.
There should not be an assumption that Santana will not, or cannot be traded this season. His marketability will be dependent upon his performance and his innings safely projecting to under 215 (so the 2014 crazy money option does not kick in). By July, if his innings safely project to under 200 and he is pitching well, the absolutely will be a market for his services, it will simply be a function of how much money the Mets will eat and what type of return they get. They may even settle for eating a lot of money and not getting a big prospect if it just means clearing a spot for Wheeler or another kid.