While Ruben Tejada and Alex Cora sub for an ailing Reyes.  Consider this situation when Reyes returns:

If Reyes plays himself  to a worthy extension(IF is a big word here)  Do you keep Tejada as a backup?  Would you trade him? Would you outright release him? Would you put him in the minors and see if he could play Second Base and if he’s capable, bring him up?

Let’s hear it.

It’s not just Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya that have to worry about fast starts to the season or their jobs being in jeopardy.  The same case could be made for Jeff Francoeur, Daniel Murphy, and Rod Barajas.  The way Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, and Josh Thole have been playing in a way this spring that makes you suspect they’ll be knocking at the door to Citi Field sooner rather than later.

With Reyes possibly being out some, or all, of April the pressure on the starting pitching has just doubled.  The most recent report on April suggests that he may be back closer to mid April, but that’s still a rough estimate.

We’ve known for a while that the season was going to hinge on the starting pitching.  The offense was projected to be one of the top in the league, and surely would’ve won some games on it’s own even when the pitching struggled.  With Reyes and Beltran out, they may not have that cushion for a while, but this doesn’t mean the Mets are doomed to a 9-13 type record to start the season.

The fast start is more important than ever, and if Maine, Perez, and Pelfrey can have a good month of April the Mets will still win games.  We all know they’re each capable of pitching good games.  It was expected before the season that they could definitely pitch competitively and keep us in games, but now they may be pressured to actually win the games.  Instead of quality start performances and limiting the opponents to three runs over six innings, stepping up and going seven innings and occasionally limiting the other teams to merely one or two runs becomes important to the Mets early success.

This isn’t to say the Mets lineup is useless, and that they won’t occasionally put up a crooked number, but Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran are two of the most irreplaceable players in the game today.  The season is never won and lost in April, but if the pitching can step up and win more games than they lose, not only will it minimize the damage caused by losing Reyes and Beltran, it will set them up nicely once they return.

This post brought to you by the self-proclaimed Optimistic Mets Fan.

I apologize for not posting yesterday but after the Jose Reyes thyroid fallout this past Thursday, I just felt I needed a 24 hour break from everything Mets related. Yes during this hiatus I even managed to stay away from the negativity box that is WFAN placating myself by listening to the soothing sounds of the new Slayer CD entitled ” World Painted Blood” ( I recommend it highly !). So as I was regrouping my thoughts ( and cleaning my high powered rifle ), I had a epiphany. This might be the best thing that could ever happen to the 2010 Mets. Okay so now before you reserve the rubber room for me just hear me out. With both Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran out for a period of time ( who knows how long before they take the field again), this could be a rallying call for this team, a incident that could quite possibly band this team together. I feel that if Jerry Manuel Would instill a “fight or die”" us against the world ” mantra, this team could find the fire that it has been sorely lacking since game seven of the ‘06 NLCS. I believe that Ruben Tejada is the best in house option to hold down the fort until Jose gets back, with Alex Cora serving as backup . From the stats I saw Tejada has a better than adequate bat and is possibly the most defensively sound shortstop other than Reyes in the organization He might not be the human highlight reel like Santana is, but if he is more like Rafael Santana than Ramon Martinez I feel that this team can win. I feel the Mets would be making a big mistake if they traded for a temporary replacement ( remember Mike Bordick).
But to get back to my main argument here, it seems that almost every media outlet is predicting nothing but doom for this organization this year. This team has to channel this negativity - get angry and DOMINATE !!!

                                                         ” The Mets have to get ANGRY !!!”

And now …. ON WITH THE INFAMY !!!!!

Happy Birthday wishes go out to back up outfielder from the ‘66 -’67 campaigns , Al Luplow (1939)

Utility-man for the ‘65 team , Gary Kolb is 70 (1940) .
One of the best pitchers the Mets never gave a real chance to , Terry Leach is 56 (1954) .

Former third base coach, Luis Aguayo is 51 (1959) .
Back up catcher for the ‘98 team , Jorge Fabregas is 40 (1970) .

Happy 31st birthday to our Ace - Johan Santana (1979)

New York Mets traded reliever Mardie Cornejo to the Detroit Tigers for reliver - and Pride of Flushing - Ed Glynn on March 13, 1979. It is common knowledge that Glynn was once worked for the Mets as a concessionaire when he was a teenager, and he was a decent reliever in his two year tenure as a Met, garnering eight saves and a e.r.a of 3.53

Detroit Tigers claimed infielder , Shane Halter of the New York Mets on waivers on March 13, 2000.

And don’t forget - there are just 23 Doug Flynn days until the Mets open the 2010 season against the Florida Marlins at Citi Field !

In a segment titled “Assessing Reyes injury” for MLB Network you have Harold Reynolds, Tom Verducci, Matt Vasgersian and Al Leiter break down Jose Reyes medical situation. Ranging from what may have caused it to how long he may be out and who can replace him in the meantime. Then oddly when Al Leiter gets his chance to chime in he takes the conversation somewhere that seemingly has nothing to do with Reyes injury.

In what he called “thinking just as a Mets fan” Leiter tries to compare the Reyes situation with some big disconnect that in his rambling as if pressed for time he never explains what exactly in the Reyes situation is the disconnect that he is talking about to begin with. Leaving it for viewers to try and figure out what he is talking about.
Leiter seemed as if he was trying to create something more of the situation that may not necessarily be there getting tongue tied at times as he tried to connect the rather vague dots he created to events in the past. You watch for yourself and let us know what you think. Video courtesy of MLB.

Thanks to Metsblog for the link: Recap: Thyroid Specialist about Reyes on WFAN

“In her opinion, based on what she has read and heard, “It sounds like he has thyroiditis, which does get better by itself,” but, “the beginning part, could be as short as a few weeks, but it could be longer and take two months.”

“In her opinion, she has never heard of HGH causing thyroiditis.”

“Dr. Resta said, in most people, it takes three to four weeks before they see better blood levels.”

OK well for some reason I feel better after reading this.

Great article from Seven Train to Shea:

Mets Will Be Fine Without Reyes, Think Positive

I know it’s hard right now to get over this crushing blow but we are Mets fans and that’s what we do.

Thanks to Metsblog for the link.

Another link that I posted last night:

Just One More Thing To Overcome

by Rational (sometimes) Mets Musings