The Mets have announced that Johan Santana is experiencing 'tightness' in the triceps tendon of his pitching elbow.
The Mets are not conveying concern to the media, but pitching coach Dan Warthen says, "We won't be pushing him."
Warthen says he believes that Santana's discomfort has been caused by his patriotism, "As patriotic as he is, I believe he really wanted to pitch for his country. They only have two big things [in Venezuela] --soccer and baseball. And, in baseball, Johan is the cheese."
April 6, 2009 – Opening Day in Cincinnati – might be in jeopardy because Johan has had no work (other than bullpen sessions), and to be ready for opening day, the rule of thumb is 90 pitches, which might not be likely.
Santana expects to meet with Manuel, Warthen, and the training staff tomorrow.
Just to add a little concern, Santana sounded less than optimistic when he said, "Hopefully, next week I'll start facing hitters" Saturday morning. And -- more ominously -- he said "I'm fine. It's just that the tightness is not something normal for me."
Source: Marty Noble - MLB.com
2 comments:
I think what we really need to hope for is that the medical practice of Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard isn't in charge anymore after last year's debacles of Ryan Church and Moises Alou.
I'm still holding out hope that this is nothing more than an early season soreness that usually happens with pitchers. My biggest concern is if the Mets keep playing this down, and it is much bigger - see Moises Alou, Orlando Hernandez, Pedro Martinez...
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