It's easy to point to where it all went wrong for Duaner Sanchez. On July 30, 2006, Sanchez was enjoying a breakout season with the Mets. He was an important part of a bullpen that was leading the team to a runaway division title. But then he went on a late-night cab ride in Miami and his taxi was struck by a drunk driver, wrecking his shoulder and putting him out for the season. For the Mets, it led them to make the panic move of trading Xavier Nady for Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez, and many feel that was a big reason why the Mets fell short of the World Series.
From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.
Atlanta Braves The problem with signing 36-year-old free agents is that they tend to get hurt a bit more than younger players. New Braves left fielder Garrett Anderson tweaked his right calf in warm-ups and will miss two to three weeks; maybe more. Matt Diaz in left field is not good for the Braves and it sure as heck isn't any kind of answer for your fantasy team. There is good news in camp, however, Rafael Soriano pitched a scoreless inning today giving up only one hit and striking out one in his bid to return from right elbow surgery. Derek Lowe was next to untouchable pitching four perfect innings today striking out six and walking none.
The Mets are currently holding a competition for the team's fifth starter spot in camp between guys like Livan Hernandez, Freddy Garcia, Tim Redding, and Jonathan Niese. There are some decent arms in there, sure, but none of them are exactly screaming "World Series here we come!" Which is why there are so many Mets fans out there who are wondering when the team is going to sign Pedro Martinez.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.
Meet the ... Chokers. Sorry, folks, but until they can actually close out a regular season, that's the label they're getting. Fortunately for us fantasy folks, we don't really care about total team performance in the regular season, provided it doesn't impend on individual players' abilities to post statistics. And in that sense, the New York Baseball Mets are quite the enjoyable team to watch. They have a slew of top-tier players on the squad and generally almost always provide a ton of fantasy value. Not much will change in terms of that this year, although you may be surprised as to where it will come from.
After blowing another lead in the ninth inning against the Pirates Monday, the Mets appeared to be at their breaking point when they arrived in Washington for a three-game series with the Nationals. Things were so bad manager Jerry Manuel talked about using starting pitchers Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez and John Maine in the ninth during his pre-game meeting with reporters.
Fast forward nine innings and reliever Pedro Feliciano, the savior of the moment after a pitching a perfect ninth to nail down a 4-3 win, was joking with reporters about how "scary" the save situation was for him.
Such is life in a desperate pennant race in the middle of August with three teams battling for just one spot in the postseason. "Sometimes you're flush and sometimes you're bust," as Ray Liotta's character from the movie Blow would say.
Chances are the New York media will paint this win as a watershed moment for the Mets, a moment spurred by the motivational tactics of Manuel and a closed-door bullpen meeting led by veterans Scott Schoeneweis and Duaner Sanchez.
The good news is that all those nagging injuries that Moises Alou has been getting in his never ending minor league rehab stints have come to an end. The bad news is that's because his latest injury has turned out to be pretty significant.
Omar Minaya announced after today's game that Alou's hamstring, which Josh told you was giving him problems during a rehab game in Binghamton last night, is torn ... and surgery has been recommended. If Alou does opt for surgery, he's most likely out for the season.
Certainly, most people out in the crowd would advise Moises to hang it up, that it's not worth being away from his family to go on these endless minor league assignments to go back to the major leagues even though he's done almost everything you can do in the game. Certainly a stark contrast to a guy like Brett Favre who, as far as we know, is perfectly healthy yet has an entire city's psyche under siege with his sudden indecisiveness. And this is not to get on Favre, but to give Alou a lot of credit for continuing the work and going through the setbacks because he's 100% sure that he wants to play major league baseball. There's something noble and tragic about it at the same time. But if Alou wants to continue at it next season, even though the final result might not be what he would want, then more power to him.
It can be tough for anyone who has rarely (if ever) been in New York City to try to make a living. For rookie Joe Smith of the Mets, he's already felt the sting of being in a new city.
He's making more -- $370,000 -- than most people who were attending college this time last year, and most of his "firsts" have been positive. But not all of them. One he would have preferred to miss, his first ticket, happened on Wednesday -- $115 for illegal parking in Long Island City. He wasn't real pleased.
"The sign said 'No standing.' Well, I wasn't standing. I was parking," Smith said. "If they mean 'No parking,' shouldn't it say 'No parking?' I mean, I just figured they didn't want anyone standing there. I don't know why. I mean, obviously, there are a few things I don't know about New York.
"But there was a lot of room to park."
Of course there's a lot of room to park when you park illegally.
No wonder Smith is having such problems, his parking mentor is John Maine, who doesn't exactly set the best example.
Clearly, Smith is learning. He drove to Shea on Friday afternoon, only the second time he's done so without following John Maine, and the first such trip on which he didn't get lost. And he made it back on Saturday without incident, escort or a citation ... Maine serves as something of an NYC advisor for Smith. He already has counseled the rookie in two ways about parking and parking penalties. Maine's car was ticketed on Tuesday and towed on Wednesday.
Great, the blind leads the blind. Unfortunately, the Mets have no choice but to learn how to drive and park by themselves ... between Tom Glavine's teeth being knocked out and Duaner Sanchez's shoulder being demolished, the Mets have had bad experiences in taxi cabs over the last couple of years. Given the choice, a $115 parking ticket doesn't seem so bad.
As if the Mets didn't have enough pitching woes, it looks like Duaner Sanchez, who was supposed to be back from his separated shoulder within the first month or two of the season, will now be out until August with a hairline fracture in that shoulder.
"I wasn't expecting it at all," Sanchez said Monday in Port St. Lucie, Fla. "It's frustrating. I feel like I let my teammates down."
It has been an eventful spring training for somebody who hasn't thrown a pitch in a live game. First he reports to camp overweight, then the whole lateness issue, now this. It doesn't help a team already rife with starting rotation issues, to have to spend the majority of 2007 with a weakened bullpen.
I wonder how desperate the Mets are for pitching help? This, from Tony Jackson of Inside the Dodgers, might answer your question:
Saw Jenny McCarthy, wearing platform shoes, playing catch with Ron Darling near the first-base line during batting practice tonight here at Tradition Field. What a circus this place is. She is apparently filming some stuff for a weight-loss program. She also interviewed Dodgers trainer Stan Conte on camera before the game. Not sure if it's an infomercial or just some streaming video for a web site or what. But whatever it was, it was just another New York side show.
All right, maybe Omar Minaya isn't looking at McCarthy. But if I were Chan Ho Park (who gave up a bomb in relief Monday night against Matt Kemp), I'd watch my back.
Chan Ho Park battled for a job this spring training and now he's got one. However, it's not the one he really wanted. Mets brass came up with the decision on Friday night, but failed to tell Park about it until after his performance on Saturday. It was a performance, by the way, that Park had expected would go five innings, but instead he was pulled after three to start to get him used to relief work. Park's surprise turned to disappointment:
"I came here looking for a job as a starter, that's for sure," said Park, who agreed to a $600,000, one-year contract with the Mets in the offseason. "They asked me to be a reliever, and obviously I'm unhappy. I have to figure out what's best for the team."
It's simple, really. What's best for the team is to have right handed relievers that aren't complete dog meat. And right now Park, who pitched effectively in relief at the 2006 World Baseball Classic, is a better bet to come out of the pen from the right side than say, Ambiorix Burgos (an 8.76 ERA in the spring), Jon Adkins (8.10 ERA) or Jorge Sosa (who's one good season came with Leo Mazzone as his pitching coach). Park is needed in the pen until guys like Duaner Sanchez and Guillermo Mota return from injury and suspension.
And also what's best for the team is Park (and Aaron Sele, who has also won a job with the Mets ... most likely in the bullpen) to be around as insurance for Tom Glavine (age 41) and Orlando Hernandez (age 37 or 41 depending on who you believe). El Duque has torn a calf while running, cramped up while running, and developed arthritis in his neck ... all in the last six months. Mike Pelfrey will most likely already be in the rotation, and nobody knows when/if Philip Humber will be ready this season. So Park is needed to be on the same page with the Mets' line of thinking. Hopefully after the surprise wears off, he will be.
Aaron Heilman is a reliever. His home run to Yadier Molina in Game 7 of last season's NLCS not withstanding, he's a damn fine reliever to boot. But Heilman wants to return to what got him drafted in the first place, and that's starting.
He is stuck, mired in the bullpen with no way out. And no amount of talk from the team or teammates will convince him that he wouldn't trade all of the success in the bullpen for the freedom to do what he wants.
"I can understand the argument both ways," Heilman said. "I'm not saying it's a bad argument, but there's a point when that feeling is there that you know what you want to do and you know you can succeed at it. Until I feel I can't be successful doing it, then I'm still going to feel this way. Nothing is going to change my mind until I come to a conclusion that I'm not able to be successful in that role."
He clings to the successes he had as a starter -- going 15-0 in 15 starts as a senior at Notre Dame or the complete game one-hitter he tossed with the Mets in 2005 just before he was sent to the bullpen.
The facts of the matter are these: Duaner Sanchez isn't going to be ready for the start of the season. Guillermo Mota is down for a 50 game suspension. Ambiorix Burgos is struggling out of the gate for the spring. The Mets need an eighth inning guy, a role that Heilman flourished in last year after Sanchez's season was ended in a taxi cab by Cecil Wiggins. Also, Heilman is still under the Mets control until 2010. So there really isn't anything he can do, right? If Heilman can be passed over for a starting spot by guys like Geremi Gonzalez and Jose Lima, then Aaron is going to have to poison a lot of food to be considered for a starting spot.
It's easy to point to where it all went wrong for Duaner Sanchez. On July 30, 2006, Sanchez was enjoying a breakout season with the Mets. He was an important part of a bullpen that was leading the team to a runaway division title. But then he went on a late-night cab ride in Miami and his taxi was struck by a drunk driver, wrecking his shoulder and putting him out for the season. For the Mets, it led them to make the panic move of trading Xavier Nady for Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez, and many feel that was a big reason why the Mets fell short of the World Series.
From now until the regular season begins, 
The Mets are currently holding a competition for the team's fifth starter spot in camp between guys like 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in 
It can be tough for anyone who has rarely (if ever) been in New York City to try to make a living. For rookie Joe Smith of the Mets, he's already 
As if the Mets didn't have enough pitching woes, it looks like Duaner Sanchez, who was supposed to be back from his separated shoulder within the first month or two of the season, will now be 
Chan Ho Park battled for a job this spring training and now he's got one. However, it's not the one he really wanted. Mets brass came up with the decision on Friday night, but failed to tell Park about it until after his performance on Saturday. It was a performance, by the way, that Park had expected would go five innings, but instead he was pulled after three to start to get him used to relief work. Park's surprise 
Aaron Heilman is a reliever. His home run to Yadier Molina in Game 7 of last season's NLCS not withstanding, he's a damn fine reliever to boot. But Heilman wants to return to what got him drafted in the first place, and that's 
