Mets receive good injury news

Kevin Kernan of the NY Post had a story on Jose Reyes in todays paper. He was at a private workout with Jose yesterday. Jose has been working out at this complex in Long Island and is doing great according to the article. He will be reporting to spring training in about a week or so ahead of everyone to continue his rehab. He stated that he feels great and can't wait to hit a triple. He knows that he is going to be fine this season and credits the trainer who set up the program for him. It is funny though that even as the Mets got good news with injuries there was another bad injury story. J.J. Putz who pitched for the Mets last season claims the Mets never gave him a physical last season after he hurt his elbow and that they screwed the whole injury up. He even implied that they may have told him to hide his injury from the media. The Mets of course said this isn't true. The thing is who believes the Mets anymore when it comes to these kinds of things. I wouldn't worry about that so much as it involves their image which is already damaged. The important thing for the Mets is to get their sparkplug and ignitor back and it appears they will be getting Jose Reyes back. He will go a long way in determining if they can get back to being a good team or not.

New York Mets mini camp

The New York Mets started a 3 day optional mini-camp today in Port St. Lucie,Florida. Oliver Perez, Johan Santana, John Maine, Daniel Murphy and others were there. Johan Santana and Oliver Perez will begin throwing off a mound tomorrow. Johan Santana remains a optimistic person and had this to say. " I believe, if we stay healthy our team is much better." He said that if the team stays healthy they will be good and that they are looking forward to the season starting. Mets manager Jerry Manuel was in attendance and said the team needs to get off to a strong start. He also said he considers Angel Pagan the frontrunner to be the centerfielder in Carlos Beltrans absence. I think that is the right move as Gary Matthews Jr. is a bench player and should not be more. He also said at catcher he considers Omir Santos the starter but it wasn't a ringing endorsement. He did talk up Josh Tole and said it isn't out of the question that he could start. I just don't see the Mets going with a rookie catcher but who knows. If they don't sign anyone they really don't have a starter, they are all backups and then the young kid. He said he is anxious to see Kelvim Escobar and Ryota Igarashi pitch, he considers the 8th inning very important. These are the guys that will be competing for that role. Jerry Manuel said the 8th inning role will be determined by someone that will throw strikes, he considers that a key in the park they play in. He said that they have to play good defense also. He said that the free agent market wasn't very good and that was a challenge they had to add another starting pitcher. Jerry Manuel said that he won't act any different because of the pressure to perform this year. He knows his job is on the line but doesn't seem too fazed by that right now. Here is what the GM Omar Minaya had to say. " I do believe that we are going to have a good team. I think that a healthy New York Mets team will contend for a playoff spot. I think it is fair to say that the Philadelphia Phillies have improved themselves. We have a lot of work to do but I think these guys are committed, Jerry is going to be committed to get back on track to what we did in 06, 07 and 08. Is this guy for real, how can they not be committed and also didn't they lose in the NLCS and then blow playoff spots the following 2 years. I think you want to improve on that not get back to that point. Omar did say they are still considering Carlos Delgado. He was asked a question by Kevin Kernan of the NY Post about the team being a joke. He did seem to be taken aback but said he didn't consider them to be a joke but that you have to win. I personally just think the Mets are poorly run from top to bottom and that is why they have the reputation that they have. They just don't seem to get anything right that they do and they always look worse and worse. The only way for them to get away from that is to go out on the field and win. It is hard to see this team doing that though without getting at least another pitcher, other then Johan Santana you really have to worry. I also need to say that most of the information coming from the mini-camp was via Ken Davidoff of New York Newsday and his blog. I have given my opinions but obviously wasn't there so have to rely on others that were.