New York Mets

It looks like we have an answer to the question I asked yesterday , at least a temporary one. According to Brian Costa of the Newark Star-Ledger , the Mets will send Daniel Murphy to Triple-A Buffalo once he is healthy enough to return.

Here’s more from Costa:

So far the Mets have not been bitten by the injury bug nearly as badly as they were last season, but they are dealing with their share of injuries.

Just about everything went right for the Mets last night as their offense carried them for nine runs and starter Jon Niese was brilliant during a seven inning performance that kept the Mets atop first place.

The Mets jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning when David Wright hit a two-run home run and two batters later Jeff Francoeur hit a solo shot. Rod Barajas hit his first homer of the season to put the Mets up 4-1 in the fifth. The Mets then broke it open with a four-run seventh where they seemingly got contributions from everybody.

According to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated, Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran hopes to start running in a week. If this is true, that would mean the Mets are anywhere from five to seven weeks away from their center fielder returning.

Although this certainly could be wishful thinking, since the news is coming from Heyman we know that the source is likely Beltran’s agent Scott Boras. So this should be pretty close to first hand information. Boras has a shady reputation, but there is no real reason to lie or mislead in this instance.

As a Phillies fan, I am hoping that the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies' season is not becoming that of the New York Mets' 2009 season, one riddled with injuries and a lost season before the All-Star break

I can hear the laughing all the way from Queens.

Really though, here's what the Phillies awful 9-1 loss means: The Phillies are in third place, 1.5 games behind the Mets and a half-game behind behind Washington. A win today by the Phillies only assures them to be a half-game behind the Mets.

Not to mention what Washington does.

I have no problem proclaiming to the world that I’m a huge nerd, so it’s no surprise that I really like infographics. 

For those of you unfamiliar with what an infographic (or information graphic) is, according to Wikipedia it is a “visual representation of information, data or knowledge.”  Also known as interesting info portrayed in a cool way.

Daniel Murphy has been out for the entire season so far with a sprained right knee, but he is getting closer to returning to Flushing as he is currently down in Port St. Lucie hitting in the batting cages, according to Andy Martino of the NY Daily News .

A week-and-a-half ago, nobody thought that the Mets would be the team in first place when they went up against the Phillies this weekend, but it’s true. The Mets have been winning at a better pace than the Phillies lately despite the fact that it is the Phils who are generally regarded to have the better lineup and rotation.

So what chance do the Mets have of coming out of this series maintaining possession of first place?

As the Mets’ bullpen has exceeded expectations in the early part of the season, the need for Jenrry Mejia seems to be diminishing.  However, Jerry Manuel remains adamant that the 20-year-old will be a bigger part of the pen rather than be pushed out and sent to tune up in the minor leagues for an eventual starting role.

According to ProSportsDaily.com Manuel was asked if the emergence of Fernando Nieve in the pen could free up Mejia to become a starter, Manuel declined, instead noting that he’d like to work him more into a late-inning role.

At the end of Spring Training, Carlos Beltran said that he wanted to begin running exercises in Port St. Lucie, Florida on April 10 and rejoin the Mets by at least early May, but three weeks after Beltran’s self-imposed deadline, he is still not close to returning to the lineup.

According to the New York Daily News, Beltran was fitted for a custom knee brace last week, which he hoped would help accelerate his rehabilitation.