There are few players I have enjoyed covering as much as Orlando Hernandez. On the mound, El Duque is a fearless artist. In the clubhouse, his moods can swing dramatically, from giddy to sour to distraught _ all of them equally compelling.
And if I were a baseball general manager, I would sign him only as a sixth starting pitcher. There's no way I would give him any greater responsibility.
The Mets placed Hernandez on the disabled list Monday, with what was described as bursitis in his right shoulder, and there was talk of El Duque missing only two starts. We'll see. Just look at Hernandez's record. The 162 1/3 innings he tallied last year marked his most since 2000, and he broke down on the eve of the playoffs.
Now the Mets' pitching depth gets tested,.John Maine and Oliver Perez climb a rung on the hierarchy, and Mike Pelfrey's turnaround becomes more important. Clearly, Chan Ho Park isn't the answer
Last year, the Mets thrived when Pedro Martinez went on the disabled list. With El Duque and Jose Valentin going on the DL yesterday, and Moises Alou dealing with potential problems, as well, the 2007 test now begins in earnest.
Comments (5)
"And if I were a baseball general manager, I would sign him only as a sixth starting pitcher. There's no way I would give him any greater responsibility."
You are absolutely right. But how realistic is that in the pitching starved market we saw last offseason?
You are right Craig. What were the Mets supposed to do during the offseason? I guess maybe they could have signed Jeff Suppan but Minaya wasn't really interested. There wasn't alot to pick from and I'm glad they didn't sign Zito. We all knew El Duque was going to go down in the season. Let's just hope it's a the beginning and not on the eve of the playoffs part deux!
Ken...Perez and Pelfrey have to pick up the slack...we'll see if Minaya makes a move by the July 31 deadline...then it's the return of Pedro.
Ken Davidoff will be on Long Island's Sports Talk radio show tonight at 10:15PM on 90.3FM.
Orlando is not the entire team, team work is about other members on a team working together as one big unit and piclking up other members. The mets starting pitching has performed incredibly and once the bats start to roll around (wright,delgado) the mets will be fine. omar minaya is not dumb with the lack of pitching in the majors, the mets are lucky if orlando only makes two starts this year. thats two games they will probably win.