Saenz, Saenz, Everywhere Saenz

If the regular season were to start today, the Mets lineup would be as follows, by position:

Ramon Castro C
Olmedo Saenz 1B
Anderson Hernandez 2B
Jose Reyes SS
David Wright 3B
Brady Clark LF
Angel Pagan CF
Fernando Martinez RF

Certainly strikes fear in the heart of your opponents, eh? 

The injuries to this point had been nagging, recovery from surgery, nothing to shed but a drop of sweat over.  Now, Moises Alou is out four to six weeks for hernia surgery.  And, as we all know, he needs to do certain excercises to keep strength in his quads, or else they have a nasty habit of bleeding internally.  Bottom line - don't count on Alou this year.  Which is a shame.  He's one of the only Mets left who shows any emotion, he can still hit like the dickens, and he's a leader on the field. 

Of course, the Mets knew of Alou's history of injuries before they acquired him last year.  But that's OK, they have Endy Chavez.  Oh, wait, he's hurt too.  Well, that's why the picked up Angel Pagan.  Oh, wait, he has to play center field because Carlos Beltran is recovering from surgery.  We could always use Damion Easley or Jose Valentin.  Oh, that's right, they're recovering from surgery, too, and the good Lord (Casey Stengel?) only knows when they're coming back.  We could always rush Fernando Martinez up to the majors.  Oh, right, he's playing right field because Ryan Church has a concussion.  Well, we can count on Marlon Anderson, of course.  Nope, you guessed it.  He's in the trainer's room as well.

OK, so the lineup is a mess.  They can survive on pitching, right?  Maybe - if Johan Santana can figure out a way to pitch every day.  I see that Orlando Hernandez has adopted a new windup to take pressure off his bunions.  That's nice.  When are they going to put this guy out to pasture?  I mean, he has bunions, for the love of Casey! Here's a thought.  Maybe they can treat him like an old racehorse and have him stud a bunch of young pitchers.  This could be a brand new way of doing business in baseball.  Instead of drafting players out of high school and college, and paying out big bonuses, just raise them from birth.  Think of the money you'd save!

At least the rest of the pitching staff looks pretty good, IF Pedro can stay healthy all year, and IF Billy Wagner isn't over the hill, and IF Maine and Perez can somehow repeat their fifteen-win season, and IF Heilman, Feliciano, and Sanchez can provide effective setup relief all year, and IF Mike Pelfrey can pitch well enough to run El Duque out of town, or at least into the bullpen.

Wasn't I feeling good about this team last week?