Free agent acquisition Tim Redding will be shut down until further notice and will begin the year on the DL. Although the Mets were counting on having Redding win the 5th spot in the rotation, blessings are to be had for Jon Niese and Bobby Parnell.

Reddings injury is better spoken of as a condition. Conditions of his signing required an MRI of his shoulder. They were clean. But Redding did have surgery on a toe during the off-season and its understandable the normal conditioning of his entire throwing apparatus would be behind. Thus it manisfested as what is classified as an overuse type injury that’s accurately refered to as weakness in the shoulder. The Mets are saying its the muscles behind his shoulder which are responsible for slowing the arm down after the ball is delivered. the prognosis is very good.

At any rate, Redding’s departure represents further openings on the staff that goes north in just a few weeks now. Most observers are saying that the likely 5th starter spot will now go by default to Livan Hernandez. Perhaps so and it will be his as long as he gets his club to the 6th inning.

What about Niese and Parnell? The Mets probably had few thoughts about leaving with them in the first place. Both players played last year for the big club towrd the end, so the organization would like to keep their MLB service time down to perhaps get another off-season to control their contract. But this isn’t the main reason.

The Mets would love for either or both pichers to perform so well that they are almost force to take them. While the two have been impressive, they’ve not overly asserted themselves against major league hitters right now. So its best for them to begin the year in AAA and either be the first one’s called up or to dominate in a way that demonstrates they’ve improved beyond how they performed last season. The Mets would be delighted if they perform so well that they are almost forced to call them up.

Meanwhile, Redding’s temporary departure enables the club to keep them in camp longer and might be among the last players cut. This makes the two feel as if they are part of the club now and when they move to AAA they will feel like they made the club and are only in a temporary holding tank.

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From Metsblog.

Poor kid played his ass off last spring and worked himself into the everyday leftfielder before missing the season with with a shoulder injury. Now this. Pagan looked as if he would make the club again, but its worse than that. The silent whispers will begin around the game that the once promissing outfielder is injury prone and cannot be counted on at the major league level.

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In my Mets days, guys used to hate giving interviews that they knew would be heard in the clubhouse. Any use of a personal pronoun in their statement would be mocked in unison, “I, Me, Me, I, Me, Me, I……”

So if we are to believe WaPo’s Dana Milbank, Obama said this yesterday when speaking to congressional democrats:

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, “This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,” adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”

Dem operatives are out spinning now and saying that the quote was taken out of context. Some like the one who appeared on Fox moments ago attempted to change the subject by running out the false claim that McCain had attempted to land a helicoptor on an oil rig during a hurricane. McCain cancelled his visit to an oil platform over a day in advance because of safety issues. Nevermind the fact that the rig was going to be evacuated. Hysterical dem hacks are notorious for making false claims on TV.

To draw the parallel with major league players again, when the freshly interviewed player returned to the hooting lockeroom, he’d often be asked if he’d been reading his own press clippings too much.

Perhaps this is what Obama is doing. Intoxicated by roaring masses and a largely fawning press, Obama is now personifying what he’s been criticized for becoming – the messianic figure. The use of “I”, even in a meeting with colleagues, is troubling in the manner in which it was applied. No matter what context.

Nontheless, a great unswoon is underway. With the startling critical editorial from the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen yesterday was just another example that with 97 days left the media may not be as in the tank for Obama as some have observed.

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