MySports Today

Talk about a train wreck.  The 2009 New York Mets could be one of the most disappointing stories in the history of major league baseball.  No joke…

The New York Mets were all excited to open a new stadium – CITI Field – in 2009, and had high hopes of playing a World Series in CITI Field in its 1st year hosting MLB baseball.  But after a decent start to the season, the Mets were still within striking distance of the NL East race.  But once the injury bug hit – Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, J.J. Putz, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Johann Santana, David Wright – it was like a runaway train headed straight for “Disaster Town.”  Jayson Stark has a great article on ESPN, pointing out that the Mets Train Wreck could continue for years to come…

Johan Santana will have season-ending elbow surgery to clean out some bone chips in his throwing arm.  The Mets are going ahead with the surgery now so that Santana will be ready for the start of spring training in 2010 – the Mets are 57-69 and they trail the 1st place Philadelphia Phillies by 16.5 games in the NL East race.  Santana had a great start to the 2009 season and his overall numbers in 25 starts were solid – 13-9 record, 3.13 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 146 strikeouts. But since his June 30th start against the Phillies, Santana has compiled a 6-7 record with a 4.02 ERA and only 5.5 average strikeouts per game.  Santana had this to say about the decision: “I didn’t want to shut it down.  That said, you don’t want to go out there and blow it and make it worse…  It’s not the worst.  Believe me, I’m going to be ready.”  If history is any indication, Santana should be just fine – he had the same surgery after the 2003 MLB season, and he won a career-high 20 games for the Twins in 2004 winning the A.L. Cy Young award in a landslide.  He went on to win another Cy Young award with the Twins before signing his lucrative contract with the Mets before the 2008 MLB season.

In addition to all of the other injuries that the club has had to deal with (David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, John Maine), the Mets found out today that Oliver Perez – season-ending surgery to repair right knee tendinitis – and J.J. Putz – who suffered a setback during his rehabilitation from elbow surgery with a sligh right forearm tear – will also miss the rest of the season.  Perez (3-4 record; 6.82 ERA; 1.92 WHIP) and Putz (1-4 record; 5.22 ERA; 1.64 WHIP) both struggled in 2009, as did most of the Mets.  Not sure if any other team suffered from the injury bug as much as the Mets did during the 2009 MLB schedule…