23
2013
No-Han 2.0 and Why Sequels Always Suck
An article by 
It’s long been said that sequels are rarely ever as good as the original. It’s an undeniable truth. Of course there are exceptions like The Empire Strikes Back or The Godfather: Part Two, but for the most part sequels genuinely suck, to put it bluntly.
No-Han was everything any Met fan could have ever hoped for last season and it surpassed all our expectations. And when it happened there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Some viewers were even passing out in the aisles, while most of them danced and jumped around them.
But the followup to last year’s box-office hit is already looking like a box-office flop and it could cost the team millions.
SPOILER ALERT!
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana is officially going to start the season on the disabled list. Worse yet, it may be months before he makes it back to the Mets rotation. The fact is nobody knows, the only constant is that he currently can’t pitch. (What about that whole WBC thing?)
The Mets announced that Santana continues to experience weakness in his left shoulder and there is no timetable for when he will pitch off a mound again – that’s assuming if he ever does pitch off a mound again. The critics are already weighing in and are giving No-Han 2.0 a resounding two thumbs down each.
His outlook is so bleak that he still is not past the stage of throwing on flat ground at a short distance and even that’s a chore for him.
“I’ve just got to stay here and work out and get ready,” Santana told reporters Saturday morning.
“I’m making progress. It’s just I don’t know when I’m going to be pitching again.”
I don’t know when I’m going to pitch again? This is more frightening that Friday the 13th – Part 6 only with less gore…
Santana, like all top-grossing actors, will get his big payday to the tune of $25.5 million dollars regardless of how No-Han 2.0 plays out, but that doesn’t keep the bad taste of it from our mouths.
The Mets thought it best to let their 34-year old ace rest up for three months after shutting him down because of a bum ankle… Make that eight months…
According to Adam Rubin, team doctor David Altchek says that Santana’s shoulder is structurally sound. That’s great, but if that were actually the case, then why the delay? And why is he limited to tossing only marshmallows at 30 paces?
“When I talked to him, he said everything was fine,” Santana said. “The shoulder is not feeling good or it’s just not strong.” Santana described his current activity as a “slow process.”
A slow process indeed and only getting slower… It reminds of the ending to LOTR: Return of the King – the longest ending in Hollywood history.
Now might be a good time to leave your seat and go grab a refreshing drink and another bucket of popcorn (extra butter) – this intermission is going to take a while…
The curtain is coming down quickly on Johan Santana’s 2013 season and it doesn’t look like there will be a good ending to this rotten tomato.
In short, Santana will not break camp with the Mets next week and the team is unsure when he’ll pitch again this season.
That’s too bad…
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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I would expect Johan was going to be ready this year but that shoulder he had it fixed is troublesome. The Mets will have to find another starting pitcher this year without Johan.
How can you mend a broken wing?
How can you stop the pain from coming down?
How do you stop, the Mets from sucking.
What keeps this front office around?
Question: is Santana’s contract insured? I know A-Roid’s contract is insured up to about 75%, but I also know its harder or possibly impossible to insure pitching contracts. Anybody know?
Typically, most baseball contracts, when and if they are insured, only pay up if the player is out for the season before the season begins, or never plays one game that season. Once he steps on the mound, and at some point he will, no insurance.
Ah! should have read before I commented, if that’s the case, the mets might just have him miss the full season.
This is the last year of Johan’s contract.
Does anybody know how the insurance policy works? If Johan misses the first half of the season, are the mets off the hook for the first half of his salary? I’m sure if he missed the whole season, insurance would have to pay his full salary. I wonder if the Mets just rather him on DL for insurance purposes ?
If he pitched in WBC and missed the MLB season would he have been insured for MLB. I know since he ended on DL last year he would not have been insured for WBC . That is why the Met’s said no to the WBC.
Johan Santana is finished. Stick a fork in him. He isn’t playing any part in this team’s future. Why the constant obsession with him is puzzling. Here’s a star pitcher who succumbed to multiple arm surgeries. The days of him contributing to any team are a thing of the past. The Mets need to simply DL him, send him home, and move on. All that’s going to happen when and if he returns is one shelling after another. He will hold back one of the kids we have coming through the system. No one needs to see him bashed to death like he was towards the end of his season last year.
The notion Johan is returning to pitch 10 or so effective games, which will create some type of fictitious market in order to rob playoff bound teams of their top prospect, is so wishful thinking it’s not worthy of discussion.
Funny, I asked the insurance question and today Adam Rubin answers it from a post he made in 2011.
There’s no way any team will give up a good prospect for Santana in July – even if he’s pitching well by then.
Nobody will trust that arm to hold up for another couple of months.
In any case, I’ll remember Santana fondly for his CG win in G 161 in 2008 and his no- hitter.
It’s a shame his body has broken down and he’s a shell of his former self. He won’t be part of the next Mets playoff team. I wish hin the best but don’t expect him to have more GS in 2013 than Jeremy Hefner.
teams will do a lot for pitching at the deadline if they are desperate for it. So it all depends on how well (and for how long) he has been pitching.
Last game of june last year IIRC he threw 8 innings of 3 hit ball against the Dodgers. If he is looking like that in late July someone will give a decent prospect.
too bad the ownership/front office continued to push him to pitch with an injured ankle…
Or embarrassed him and knocked his pride to get him to pitch with a weakened shoulder three weeks ago.