The latest on Johan Santana cane from manager Terry Collins who said that Johan Santana’s decision to throw a bullpen for the first time in 10 days, was “unnecessary” and said he “wished his ace handled himself differently.”
Mike Kerwick of The Record quotes Collins who suggests that Santana needs to calm down and get his emotions in check, and that he should have gone about this the proper way.
“He’s fine,” Collins said, “and he wanted to show everybody he was fine. I just said, ‘Look, we’re going to do this the right way. We’re not going to hurt you. … I don’t care how upset you are about things. We’re going to do this the proper way.’”
Meanwhile, Jeremy Hefner, whom Kerwick tabs “the sixth arm in a five-man rotation,” made a case that he deserves the final slot if staff ace Santana is unable to pitch come April. Hefner tossed three innings of one-run ball in a 4-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Monday afternoon.
“First and foremost, I want Johan to be healthy,” Hefner said. “He’s a leader of this team. If something happens and he’s not able to go, then obviously that would maybe fall on my shoulders. I’m going to prepare to go out and give it my best whenever my name’s called.”
Good for Hefner… You like to see that kind of confidence and determination from your younger players. Back on January 23, I wrote a post that referred to Hefner as being one of the more underrated starters in camp.
CONGRATULATIONS: Last night at around 11:00 PM I got a text from MMO’s Minor League Analyst that his wife’s water just broke. Around 1:00 AM Jaxon Petanick was born and he and his mom are both doing just fine. Congratulations to Mitch and his family on this happy occasion for them.
