MySports Today

After Mets ace Johan Santana completed a pain-free bullpen session Monday morning, it became official – - Santana will start his 1st spring training game against the Florida Marlins on Thursday in Port St. Lucie.  Everyone now reports that Santana is fully healthy and back on track to start opening day for the Mets.  He was able to throw sliders in the Monday bullpen session and is slated to go up to 3 innings in Thursday’s start – - assuming he doesn’t encounter any issues.  We’ll keep you posted if any new news develops and how the start goes on Thursday.

Now it looks like New York Mets ace Johan Santana will be ready for the start of the 2009 MLB season.  Santana threw 36 pitches in batting practice on Saturday in his first action against live hitters since his October 2008 knee surgery.  Santana said this of the outing:  “I pitched today with no problems in my elbow or my arm or anything, so I am fine, and at the same time I was working on my pitches and I was able to command it, so that’s what you want to see.”  The Mets have once again changed Santana’s spring schedule, and now say that Santana could start a spring training game as early as next week.

Santana had complained of tightness in his pitching elbow 8 days ago.  The Mets gave Santana 3 days rest and when the symptoms didn’t persist, Santana participated in team drills and then threw a 46-pitch side session on Wednesday of this past week.  That went so well that the Mets felt he was ready to pitch live batting practice on Saturday morning.

We’ll keep you posted, but it seems like things might be back on track for Santana and the Mets.  It would be great if Santana could make the opening day start, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

The New York Mets are dealing with left elbow troubles with the ace of their pitching staff – Johan Santana.  Santana returned to New York for a precautionary MRI to get to the bottom of the tightness in his left (throwing) elbow.  Santana says he feels fine, but doctors say that he has an irritated left biceps tendon that is causing the discomfort in his left elbow.  Santana has continued to throw and claims that he feels better the more he throws.  Pitching coach Dan Warthen concurs – pointing out that Santana is not favoring any parts of his body in his throwing motion and that he may just have pushed himself too hard, too soon.  The Mets signed Santana (29 years old) to a 6-year, $137.5 million contract in February 2008, so they are going to be cautious with their prize possession.  Stay tuned for more details here at MySportsToday!