I open myself up to calls of hypocrisy as I’ve chosen to make some observations about the progress of Jose Reyes. Any criticism of me is fair as just two days ago I ripped Will Carroll for doing the same when he made some well thought comments about Carlos Beltran’s injury. Looking back, I feel that I was wrong to do so. Carroll has made it his business the last several years in researching injury trends in baseball. I’ll call this my Omar Minaya moment.

Now on to Reyes, but first an admission. I have no inside knowledge and have spoken with no person in the know. I will be making my comments based on published feedback and a simple time table.

Reyes was disabled on May 21, so by a realistic estimate Reyes has been out 8 weeks. For a hamstring injury of significance – like Reyes’ – this is not out of the ordinary. Keith Hernandez missed the same in 1988 for the same injury. After the first game back, he said he was sore. We naturally gave him the next day off.

Rehabilitaion and reconditioning techniques today are more eloborate today while having a better pool of knowledge. I’m sure Reyes’ hamstring has been MRI’d which gives the medical staff a visual of the area we would not have had available years ago. Importantly after 20 years of looking at these, we are far better at reading them. Essentially, they’ve got very good “looks” at it.

But a “look” is far different than what the patient tells you. Reyes tells the staff that he experiences tightness and that the tightness usually occurs after a few days of rehab. As running the bases for Reyes is the most important thing – different than it was for Hernandez – naturally he’s hesitant. So is the staff, as an aggravation now might doom his season.

Still, I’m confident that staff has already put through some tests which involved extreme “eccentric loading”. This is a lengthening of the muscle after shortening. In Reyes’ case its likely to have been a variety of jumping and landing drills. If the staff is attempting to get him to run the bases, Reyes has probably passed these eccentric loading tests.

To sum it up, he’s close. The next step will be for Reyes to run the bases successfully. His starts – both out of the box and on tha bases are the benchmarks that Reyes himself is gauging.

If I were involved with Reyes’ rehab, I would tell him what I would expect to see. And that is, he will find that he is able to do what he wants on the bases, albeit not at the level he desires right now. It may feel a little tight at times, but that’s to be expected as your muscles aren’t at the 110 % you want them to be. The tightness means you are working the area that needs to be worked. You will be sore tomorrow. And it will be something we expected.

I’m certain that the Mets’ staff is operating similarly.

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It would be easy to assume that Omar Minaya has been totally immersed in the Tony Bernazard incident and his ill-advised handling to be involved in any trade talks. But its likely that highly regraded assistant Jon Ricco has been ably making inquiries on the club’s behalf. It was Ricco whom made the inquiry with his Braves counterpart that brought Jeff Francouer to the Mets. The one time Braves phenom seemes to be retooling in a new environment with the help of Howard Johnson.

At any rate, the Mets need not be sellers unless its a player whom has no future with the club. That can easily be accomplished over the waiver wire in August. The most practical way to look at the Mets fortunes are to see that they will be acquiring some significant talent over the next few weeks. Their own. When Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and Billy Wagner return.

No realistic assessment of the club can be made until the their talent is on the field. The removal of Tony Bernazard is a weight of significance of the shoulders off the entire organization that will be felt even at the major league level. One only need to look to the confrontation that occurred between Bernazard and K-Rod on the bus to see what kind drag Bernazard’s presence had been on the big club. My own sense is that K-Rod took on the bully for the team. It would have to be a player of his stature to do so.

I don’t think the Mets will be affected by the questionable status of Minaya. Liked and respected by players and coaches, Minaya also will not burden them with his problems. I would imagine that Minaya frequently may have had to play good cop to the volatile Bernazard with some players.

Still one club’s efforts over these next few hours are worth following as there is a match. The Tampa Bay Rays are reportedly be willing to deal Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford and Steve Kazmir to move some salary to possibly acquire Victor Martinez and Cliff Lee. Any or all three make sense and its conceivable that the Mets would get involved in a three-way deal.

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Three All-Stars are out of the starting line-up in Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado. The meaning the three have to the offense is incalculable. No team could be expected to keep going at the same offensive pace without these pieces. Two starters are out and the main set-up man are also missing. The injury situation is cataclysmic making the record understandable. One can never make a complete nor fair assessment of a team with such an injury report.

Having said that, there is something that troubles me about the Mets and it does not involve people in uniform. Bill Madden’s column this week revealed again the odd influence that Tony Bernazard has that clearly serves to undermine the manager. We’ve been down this road before with Bernazard as his role in making Wille Randolph’s job was documented last season.

If Bernadard is again constantly whispering in the Wilpon’s ears and roaming around the clubhouse as a clubhouse lawyer, don’t expect any good to come from it. Even when we get all those players back.

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Its a long season.

The injuries to JJ Putz and Jose Reyes are concerning and they will take time to heal, but both will get better.

A bone spus is an irritant, and as long as nothing else is damaged, Putz will be fine. It does sound as if he should have had it cleaned out after last season though.

I find the MRI read on Reyes hamstring tendon dubious as its easy to over read hot spots in soft tissue. It’s likely that the hamstring became a problem after the calf. But the Mets must realize that Reyes cannot go everyday like Wright can despite the similarity in ages.

Wright appears to be particularly durable, not unlike Cal Ripken was. Few players are. Travel combined with an increased variety in game start times makes it much harder on today’s players than there was even a decade ago.

Consistency in the Mets’ rotation reamins their biggets concern, although I am encouraged that they are getting deeper into games.

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During the 1986 season, I was in the clubhouse at the beginning of the game doing something in San Francisco. The only way to the field was an entrance right next to the Giants’ bullpen down the right field line. A little chicken coop cage is where the pitchers sat during the game. I got to the heavy steel door and watched us hit in the top half of the first. When Wally Backman came up, a voice from the Giants bullpen said, “hit him in the f….ing head.”

I told Backman about it later and he laughed loudly. In fact several players did. It meant mission accomplished. Backman got under the other team’s skin. How many current Mets spark this sort of response.

Matt Cerrone’s reporting on Minaya’s commnets was excellent in that he noted how Minaya made his initial pointed comment that clearly was intended to point to this club’s particular passion and intensity. Another more appropriate word would be moxie, a term that measures one’s ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage.

Minaya’s use of the word, “edge” is more subtle and more ill defined. But to use my word, moxie, on the surface only a few current Mets clearly appear to have it: Johan Santana, Francisco Rodriguez and David Wright. When Jose Reyes is playing with his devil may care attitude and the other team hates him, he has it. But these times are not seen often enough. Essentially only one of these is an everyday player.

Yes, here is where that other ill defined term, chemistry comes in. It’s not just liking and getting along and/or respecting each other. Whatever the particular personalities, a sense of shared purpose needs to exist. Resolve to acheive you goals.

And yes, you are what you appear to be – to opponents, to fans and yourselves.

With the current batch of players, all of these issues and subsequent questions are out there. The 2006 team that reached Game 7 of the NLCS had two players with which played with the aura of these intangible qualities in Cliff Floyd and Paul LoDuca. Pedro Martinez was also still around.

Omar Minaya did indeed walk back from his thoughts not because he believed he was wrong, but beacuse he knew he was right and there isn’t a whole lot he can do about it.

Chemistry can develop though as a team begins to find its way. But this team’s starting rotation will have to do more. The model for victory in last’s night’s game – needing three relievers to win – cannot sustain itself over a season. The line-up cannot continue to watch leads they’ve gotten during the early innings fade while they are playing defense during the middle of the game. There will be way too much psychological drama and the bullpen’s most talented pitchers will be spent by the time August gets here.

Daniel Murphy’s first inning two-run homer held up last night. Its these sorts of things that can help build something. Murphy is batting 3rd alot and its a traditionally an important spot in the batting order for the Mets. See Keith Hernandez and John Olerud. He’s done nothing but hit since he’s arrived. Maybe it will be that his emergence as a young star the Mets will have a badly new source of positive energy.

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Maybe.

But what did everyone expect? When executives became obsessed with wearing out starters, teams began carrying more pitchers on there staffs. During the late 80′s it wasn’t unusual for staffs to be carrying nine pitchers for periods, with the norm being ten. Then the number became eleven or twelve. And now its not surprising to see teams carrying 13 pitchers on 25 man rosters.

The game has changed subtly in the last 20 years. We’ve seen the complete game become rare. Not only is it not allowed in the minor leagues, guidelines are in place which limit pitch counts early in the season to 75, forcing managers to use more relievers. The policy is carrying over to the major league level as unintentional ceilings are embedded into a starters training early in career. Hence the five inning quality start in the minds of many.

In golf, it might be similar to the conditioning that goes into playing 18 holes. If young golfers were conditioned to go 12 holes, it would be quite a shock to go the extra three holes.

But this seems to be the way that baseball has chosen to go in protecting its best young pitchers with limits. Monetary investments in talent have advanced, and the precaution is understandable.

Nonetheless, for Mets starters 100 pitches are going to have to get more than 15 outs. Better command and more first pitch strikes please. Getting only five innings means the club will have to use 4 relievers, with JJ Putz and Francisco Rodriguez being limited to an inning.

Last night playing a run down, Jerry Manuel opted to attempt to get a run or more by forcing the Marlins to pitch to Gary Sheffield with a runner in scoring position or Jose Reyes with 2 on. It was the smart thing to do at this point in the game and season. It was a vary good time to use the power the Mets had on the bench.

Maine pitched well and only faced 18 hitters in five innings. I’ll take that every time. His pitch count – eighty three was solid as well. With the lead or playing at home, Maine might have stayed for another 4 or 5 outs which would have gotten the club into the 7th. Its the kind of start that they will look for from Livan Hernandez tonight.

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Joe Janish follows the Mets in a manner I’ve always liked by posting about and numbering each Mets game. An experienced baseball guy himself, his post-game notes are always excellent. Here are Joe’s notes from Game 1:

Next Game
The Mets and Reds take the day off tomorrow and come back to play again in Cincinnati on Wednesday. Mike Pelfrey takes the mound against Edinson Volquez. Let’s hope it’s warmer and drier.

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1. The rotation is consistent. If the Club uses the starters they are leaving camp with the majority of the season, it will be similar to the 1986 staff of Doc Gooden, Rick Aguilera, Bobby Ojeda, Ron Darling and Sid Fernandez. For this year’s Mets it means staying healthy, too. But today questions need to be answered about Oliver Perez, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey. It can happen though.

2. The outfield defense will need to hold up at home. If we find that this is happening, it will lilley mean that other things are going well, too.

3. The bullpen lives up to advance billing. Its a potential place of dominance.

4. David Wright, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran need to play as if they are in the prime of their careers.

The first item is the one that gives me pause on opening day and may be the real key to the season with the other three more easy to obtain. If the starting five produce, the Mets can get back to the World Series and indeed win beacuse of the pitching depth that they have.

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Two main themes are currently being reported in the print media this morning. First is of a potentil rift between Johan Santana and pitching coach Dan Warthen. The second is the feeling that Jose Reyes is making a big issue of batting third. Both of these storylines have been driven by reporters and their headline writers. They need to sell papers folks. Don’t get the impression there’s a there there.

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Francisco’s Rodriguez’ proclamation that the Mets – and the world champion Phillies – are the team to beat marks the welcome return of the Mets swagger. Its been awhile, hasn’t it?

Jerry Manuel proclomation to use last season’s collapse as a motivating tool signals a different sort of intensity from the top. The Mets have never really wanted to do that and thus it never served to harden them. Championship season in 1986 and 1988 were preceeded by bitter second place finishes the year before. This particular generation of Mets have never desired to motivate themselves this way. It was as if remembering was too painful to remember. Manuel is not going to go this route.

Such things can come from a team’s closer as his role is thought of in a day to day manner. And now Jose Reyes won’t seem to be the only one.

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