Going Back-To-Back

Injury wise, things are starting to look up for the Mets. Carlos Delgado played, Beltran has been playing, Catillo is playing, things are looking a lot better now than a week ago. Still, the question of what the Mets do should these players get injured during the regular season has not been answered.

Another drama involving injuries involves Dauner Sanchez. Sanchez, who has not pitched since being injured when a cab he was in got into an accident, has looked fairly sharp this spring. Still Willie Randolph says that until Sanchez can pitch in back-to-back games, he will not be given the nod to be on the team.

I certainly understand where Randolph is coming from. During the course of the regular season, Sanchez will be called upon to pitch in back-to-back games. If he cannot handle this, the Mets might be better to have someone else in that role. Randolph says he wants to be at full strength come the beginning of the season. Sanchez says he would rather miss the start of the season than pitch a couple of games in April, re-injure himself and be out for the entire rest of the season. I understand and agree.

It seems like from the information I have read there are conflicting reports. One report that I read seems to suggest that Sanchez feels he is ready to try going in back-to-back games but the Mets don’t want him to try it, just quite yet. The other report I read seems to suggest that Sanchez feels he is not ready to try it yet but come the end of next week, he will be. Both reports suggest that he will go with what the Mets feel is best and try things when they want him to.

While Sanchez looked good his last outing, my understanding is he will not be pitching again until Wednesday and then if all goes well, he will try Thursday as well.

I do not know what will be with Dauner Sanchez. I do know that if he is ready come opening day, that if he pitches as he did before he got injured and if he can come in back-to-back games when he is needed, the Mets will be in better shape than without him. Still, those are a lot of “If’s”.