Ramon Castro hit a standup triple today. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about spring training, I don’t know what does.
But amidst the ridiculous amount of injured Amazin’s right now, there have been a few reasons for optimism. One of them has been Mike Pelfrey. The tall righty is off to an impressive start to his spring, notching three scoreless innings today in addition to his previous strong outing. He was cracking bats and forcing groundballs — two things that every pitcher loves to see this early in the year. Just as you can’t get too worked up over pitchers getting blown up at this point, you can’t make too much of another pitcher mowing batters down. But it’s not a bad sign, which sure seems like a rarity in Mets camp these days.
Orlando Hernandez — also known as the roadblock Pelfrey must overcome — couldn’t make batting practice again and now will try again Wednesday. Duque’s inability to get on the mound figures to be a constant nuisance for the Mets these next couple months. It will be considerably less if Pelfrey can step up and fill that No. 5 slot.
In other injury news, Ruben Gotay’s sprained ankle may be more than sprained. He had his X-rays, but now doctors want a CAT scan. That’s not a good sign for reserve infielder.
