Last week’s poll question was: Do you agree with the way the Mets staff is handling injured players?
Here are the results:
Yes: 6 percent
No: 63 percent
Time will tell: 31 percent
The majority of you do not agree with the way the Mets are dealing with injured players right now and it’s only getting worse. Angel Pagan injured his groin in Sunday’s game against the Marlins when he was filling in for Carlos Beltran, who was sidelined with a stomach bug that also seemed to hit Gary Sheffield before and John Maine yesterday.
Pagan received an MRI after the game, and the results are still pending. Pagan is listed as day to day. That’s now seven Mets active roster players who are either on the disabled list or day to day. The Mets training staff can’t make any mistakes with so many players out. The Mets can’t afford it, even though they have the third best May winning percentage this season. Thanks to that great month, they are in a neck-and-neck race for first place with the Phillies.
Since Saturday, though, there’s been a lot of controversy over the way Jerry Manuel sat David Wright, Gary Sheffield and Luis Castillo to get them some rest against the best Marlins pitcher, Josh Johnson, in the middle of a winning streak. A lot of fans were upset that they paid good money to see what amounted to the second string team, even though Beltran and Schneider both started.
That’s not what makes me scratch my head. It sucks when you go to a game and don’t get to see your favorite players or pitchers start, but that’s the nature of baseball. Sure, they could all use a day off, but this was two days after everyone had a rest due to an off day on the Mets schedule. Did playing that one game on Friday wear them all out? I don’t doubt they need the rest, but save it for a day in the middle of a seven-game road trip when you’re playing against an opposing pitcher on a struggling team. You can have a day off and still give yourself a chance to win.
In the end, did it actually help the players who were rested? Wright, Castillo and Sheffield all had hits on Sunday and maybe their legs were preserved a little longer. None of them contributed an RBI, however, and once again, the backups kicked into gear and provided the game-winning offense.
On a lighter note, here is this week’s poll question:
Which Mets backup is your favorite player?
