Yesterday morning I wrote this post entitled “For Whom The Beltran Tolls” in which I continued to repeat my skepticism that the Mets were not being very realistic about Beltran being ready to play by Opening Day doubted their claims that they were simply “being cautious”. Here is part of what I wrote,

Are we still going to keep up the pretense that Carlos Beltran will be in the Opening Day lineup?

Apparently so. Terry Collins said Beltran only needs ten days to be ready and everything is just hunky-dory.

Alderson isn’t worried either. Beltran is a well conditioned athlete who is doing things to ensure that he will be there come Opening Day and last the entire season, he says.

Oh, I guess I’m just flaky and a bit dense because I thought that being he has never played right field in his whole career, that he might want to get in there and get some reps before he’s set to play the second most difficult right field in the majors for the next six months… But that’s just me.

Three at-bats as a DH, and eleven days later he is still on the mend. Oh brother…

Finally their tune has changed slightly as they begin to face the reality of the situation head-on.

After weeks of using words like “no doubt” and “very confident” to describe the odds that Carlos Beltran will be ready to start the season on Opening Day, there now seems to be a crack forming in the dam. The following is from NJ.com:

Mets general manager Sandy Alderson earmarked Friday as a chance to observe Beltran’s progress. He mentioned back-dating Beltran on the disabled list at the start of the year. “At this point, we’ll have to see where he is at the beginning of the season,” Alderson said.

Back-dating him can only happen if he doesn’t play any further spring games. A player can only be back-dated until the last game he played. If they are already considering this option, than that means they expect him to miss further time leading up to opening day. Why don’t reporters dig anymore and ask better questions? had it been me I would of jumped all over that comment.

Another thing I have been saying all along is that Lucas Duda should be on this team. As I stated previously, spelling Beltran is going to be a full time job and he would not be wasting away on the bench as too many fans seem to think.

Duda could easily get 300 at-bats this season and I would rather have him getting the extra playing time here in the majors, than giving all those ABs to Harris and Hairston whose best days are behind them and are both coming off horrid years at the plate.

Hopefully, they will come to their senses and keep Duda around, especially if this is a transitional season with eyes toward competing in 2012.