Porcelain Pedro

The good news is Pedro's shoulder is just fine.  The bad news is he may be headed for the fifteen-day disabled list. 

Pedro Martinez often bristles at the notion that he is fragile.  Yet, year after year since joining the Mets, he has yet to prove he can last an entire season without getting hurt.  After his intensive rehab following rotator cuff surgery, there was hope that his fragile days were gone, but in his first start, no less, of the 2008 season, he pulled his right hamstring, not by colliding into the catcher at home plate, not by diving after a bunt, not even by running hard down the first base line, but by throwing a pitch.  Throwing a pitch toward home plate.  Let's think about this.  He put himself on the DL by performing the most minimum of his duties.

Now what?  Now, instead of deciding between two questionable pitchers for the number five spot in the rotation, they have to rely heavily on them.  Now, instead of Pedro Martinez filling the second spot in the rotation, it will be Mike Pelfrey, Orlando Hernandez, or even Nelson Figueroa.  They are even talking about signing Claudio Vargas, who was recently cut by the Milwaukee Brewers.  His 2007 ERA?  5.09.  The once deep rotation now seems dangerously shallow. 

Yes, Mets fans, our Johan Santana-inflated bubble has been burst.  Just like Pedro's fragile hamstring.