Blogging Mets

Zack Wheeler officially became a Met Wednesday when he was scratched from his first Spring Training start with an injury. It doesn’t appear to be serious — yet. Just wait until the Mets medical geniuses get their hands on him.

Zack Wheeler won’t be donning goofy Mr. Mets hat for a week or so.

Wheeler apparently strained his oblique while taking batting practice. Mets Blog reports that the strain is mild, and that he could start throwing in about a week.

“I came out and it was a little stiff,” Wheeler said. “It’s early in the spring. We’ve still got a month left, so I don’t want to risk a bigger injury and be out longer.”

That makes sense. It appears the Mets will be extremely cautious with Zack Wheeler; after all, the future of the team is pretty much riding on his right arm.

“The big promise that we’ve got coming, it’s on the mound,” Terry Collins said. “You’re certainly not going to take a chance. You’ve got to be very, very careful, because we’re not going to do anything to hurt this guy.”

Let’s hope it is indeed a minor strain. These oblique things (whatever they are) are a bit scary because they always start out “mild,” then the player is out for a month. And with the Mets injury history…

The Mets have decided that they will not allow Travis d”Arnaud to block the plate if a runner is trying to score on a close play. I understand the thinking, but I’m not sure how happy I am about this.

Pete Rose would hate Mets decision. Ray Fosse on the other hand…

“He’s the future,” Terry Collins told the Daily News in explaining the team’s thinking. “So we’re going to be smart about this. When he gets to the big leagues, things may change, but right now — let’s let him get to the big leagues. The thing is, catchers with his offensive potential, they’re hard to find.”

The Mets are concerned about d’Arnaud’s injury history; he hurt his knee last season, but on a slide into second base, not on a play at the plate.

They also saw what happened to Buster Posey in 2011, when he broke his leg blocking the plate and missed most of the season. The Mets are not the first team to do this in the aftermath of Posey’s ugly and costly injury.

But here’s the thing — collisions at the plate are a part of baseball. Unless they are outlawed completely, and apparently there is a move afoot to do just that, all catchers should be expected to block the plate and possibly sacrifice themselves to help the team. Now granted, allowing a run to score is small potatoes compared to losing a player to injury. But still, it is just wrong to stand to the side of the plate while a runner strolls in.

Actually, the Mets never should have made this proclamation. So few runners even initiate contact anymore; I believe the last Met to bowl over a catcher was Ty Wigginton, and he hasn’t played for the team in a decade. The Mets would have been smart to keep this information private, and let other teams think plays at the plate would be contested.

In any case, this is probably the smart move for the Mets and Travis d’Arnaud. But it is just another example of the pussification of sports.

Despite reports that the Mets were really and truly Michael Bourn’s first choice, he said Tuesday that he never seriously considered the Mets offer because it would have required him to wait weeks until the draft pick nonsense was settled.

Michael Bourn’s son was never close to being a Mets fan.

“I couldn’t do that,” Bourn told Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. “I’d still be sitting at home.”

You can put the blame squarely on Sandy Alderson for this. He wanted to wait until he was really, really close to a deal with Bourn before formally asking the league or the players union or whomever to bend the rule and allow the Mets to keep their 11th pick in the amateur draft. Apparently he thought a positive ruling would have given Michael Bourn’s agent, the evil Scott Boras, more leverage.

Instead, the Mets never asked and Bourn did the right thing and jumped on Cleveland’s offer of four years, $48 million, with an option for a fifth year. The Mets apparently offered the same deal but with no option.

I would be really angry about this if I thought signing Michael Bourn would have been a game-changing move for the Mets. Bourn would have been nice, but not for that much money and that many years. I think that money will eventually be spent on several players who will have the same, if not more, effect on the Mets than Michael Bourn might have had.

After just two Spring Training games, Lucas Duda is getting a much-needed rest — he is being held out of the next few exhibition games. Yeah, this bodes well for the season.

All Lucas Duda will do for the next few days is look at his bat with a puzzled look on his face.

Duda is 0-7 with six strikeouts thus far this spring. That is not good.

Terry Collins told reporters that Duda’s wrist, on which he underwent surgery in the off season, is just fine. Rather, the team has been limiting Duda’s work in the batting cage, bringing him and his wrist along slowly. So Collins suggested Lucas Duda did not get enough practice swings, which is carrying into the game. Something like that.

Lucas Duda will work exclusively in the cage for a few days until he is declared fit for games that do not count.

And he’s the most experienced outfielder on the Mets.

Johan Santana has suffered an apparent setback in his comeback from injury that ended his 2012 season prematurely. His first Spring Training start has been pushed back for as many as two weeks.

Johan Santana’s bullpen session could be last we see of him for a while.

Team doctor David Altchek, who is visiting Port St. Lucie (why he is not there full time is beyond me), examined Santana on Thursday. After conferring with the good doctor, Sandy Alderson said there was “mutual recognition that maybe things needed to be backed off a little bit.”

Alderson insisted Santana is not injured. “There’s no structural issue,” he told ESPNNewYork.com. “It’s just a matter of building up strength. So he’ll be long-tossing before he gets back on the mound. We expect that his schedule will have been delayed somewhat.

“It’s a matter of just getting into a development progression. It’s not a soreness thing. I wouldn’t even call it a weakness. It’s just where he is in his program is somewhat behind based on his winter and the injury from last year and his loss of the second half of the season. So he’s just a little behind schedule.”

Whether he is “injured” or not, this cannot be good news for Johan Santana. He threw one bullpen session, and now he is being held back?

I’m not writing Santana off, but if he cannot come back from his physical problems, what he was able to manage during the first half of 2012 was all the more amazing. That he was able to pitch so well, including the no-hitter, while his shoulder was figuratively (and possibly literally) hanging by a thread shows what a competitor and smart pitcher he is.

But lets hope we haven’t seen the last of Johan Santana. That would be quite sad.

In this latest edition of “The Phil Naessens Show,” Phil and I discuss Mike Piazza’s new book “Long Shot.”

Check it out.

http://phillipnaessens.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/the-phil-naessens-show-february-22-2013-dodgers-twins-and-mike-piazzas-long-shot-autobiography/

Mets camp was abuzz Wednesday after Zack Wheeler threw his first batting practice session, yet it appears there is no possible way he will make the team out of Spring Training.

Zack Wheeler throws impressive batting practice session.

The media and several players watched, and everybody walked away impressed.

“Just the ball comes out of hands so easy,” Ike Davis said according to ESPNNewYork.com. “You can just tell when someone has good stuff. Just seeing him pitch for the first time, you can tell that it’s there… The first time seeing him on the mound, especially the first day and probably not going full-go, it looked pretty good.”

“He’s got some late life on his fastball,” Justin Turner said. “It kind of jumps on you — kind of like that late explosion that (Stephen) Strasburg has on his fastball. I was impressed. That late life makes it tough for guys. You see it, and then it really gets on top of you in a hurry. Obviously, with his velocity, he’s going to do that anyway. But it’s definitely not a smooth, easy 98. It’s an explosion out of his hand coming in there, so the ball looks like a little aspirin. I was impressed.”

People are calling Zack Wheeler a potential ace, but he is still apparently ticketed for Las Vegas (that sounds so much better than Buffalo!), and that is just not fair.

Whatever happened to winning a job because of superior performance? Dwight Gooden was supposed to go to Triple-A in 1984, but he lit up Spring Training and made the club, and we all know that worked out.

Why not let Wheeler win a job? It’s all about the money. Bringing him up in mid season would delay his free agency and arbitration by a year, and that is precisely what the Mets will do, just like they did with Matt Harvey last season.

It really isn’t fair to Zack Wheeler, who may well be ready for the majors. And it is not fair to the fans, who deserve to have the best 25 players on the roster. So much for trying to win.

As expected, Daniel Murphy received a cortisone shot Tuesday to deal with the “subtle tug” of his intercostal muscle in his right ribs, a source tells ESPNNewYork.com.

Before he traveled to New York Tuesday morning for treatment, Daniel Murphy said he hoped the injury would only keep him out for a week to 10 days.

David Wright suffered a similar injury last season and also got a cortisone shot. He was ready and able by Opening Day, so that’s good news, right?

A pitch hasn’t even been thrown yet, and already a Mets starter is injured. Daniel Murphy was sent to New York Tuesday after experiencing a “subtle tug” on an intercostal muscle in his right ribs.

Daniel Murphy injured. Great.

This intercostal muscle, which no one ever heard of until a couple of years ago, is the same thing that David Wright and Scott Hairston injured last Spring Training, and they were both all right for Opening Day.

“I think we want to be proactive and get me up to New York, especially with all the success they had with David and Scotty last year,” Murphy said. “This seems to be the best course of action. The best-case scenario would be take a couple of days off and it’ll be fine.”

Daniel Murphy could get a cortisone shot at the dreaded Hospital for Special Services, where so many Mets players have gone for “quality” medical care over the past few years.

There is a report that the Mets could consider trading Justin Turner if there is a roster crunch late in Spring Training. It begs the question: why would they do that?

Justin Turner, possible former Met?

The mysterious “source acquainted with the Mets’ plans” told ESPNNewYork.com that Turner could be forced out depending on whom the Mets want to carry on the team. There is even a chance Turner could be sent to the minors since he has an option left.

The Mets could decide to go with Brandon Hicks and Omar Quintanilla as backup infielders, and if Marlon Byrd makes the team, he would need to be added to the 40-man roster. Then there are the dozens of relievers Sandy Alderson signed to minor league deals.

This is just stupid. Not only is Justin Turner a key piece of the Mets clubhouse, he also plays all four infield positions and is working out in the outfield. He has come up clutch time and time again for the Mets. There is no reason to choose the beloved for some reason Hicks or Quintanilla over him.

Terry Collins is a huge Justin Turner supporter, so he would likely fight to keep him around. But if the brain trust makes another brilliant move, there is nothing Collins can do.

Of course, getting rid of Turner might eliminate those annoying shaving cream pies to the face, but I’d rather put up with that to keep Turner around.