Bay landed on the 15 day DL with a rib fracture on his left side. While Bay has three homers this season, he still has struggled in the clutch, and has drawn the ire of Mets fans this year for his inability to hit consistently. Still, without him the Mets outfield turns into a quagmire. New York now has to rely on the dregs of its minor league system, i.e. Mike Baxter, Kirk Nieuwenhui, Jordany Valdespin, Lucas Duda, and Ronny Cedeno. Sounds wonderful. The Mets already had problems when they traded Carlos Beltran last year only to watch his replacement in center field, Andres Torres, injure himself in the season opener.
To add insult to the injury, Mike Pelfrey may have suffered a worse fate. Originally diagnosed with elbow inflamation, Pelfrey, it turns out, suffered a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. Pelfrey could require surgery and would essentially be lost for the season. But, this must be said, isn't it typical of the Mets that they get the wrong diagnosis on an injury before they try to correct it? At least the Mets caught their own mistake before Pelfrey threw another pitch.
While Met fans may detest Pelfrey for his inconsistencies on the pitching mound, the guy was having a solid season this far in 2012. In three starts this year he achieved a 2.29 ERA with four walks and 13 strikeouts, including an eighth inning gem against the San Francisco Giants over the weekend.
The Mets will miss Pelfrey; they don't have enough pitching. It will be up to Johan Santana, R.A. Dickey, Jon Niese, and Dillon Gee to pick it up big time in the rotation. Would the long term loss of Pelfrey mean that the Mets will bring up one of their top pitching prospects, Zach Wheeler or Matt Harvey? Probably not. Harvey definitely is not ready; Wheeler might be closer to the majors, but,
for the nonce, don't expect either to squeeze into the rotation for the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment