Beltran Running

[Centerfield]

Pain free supposedly.

The full article is on Newsday, but I can't read it because they're a bunch of douchebags and want to charge you.

[TransMonk]

That's great news, if true.

Not that I don't believe Lennon's headline, but I can't/won't read Newsday either, and it's not as if we haven't had mixed updates on Beltran as lately as last week.

[Chad ochoseis]

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - Carlos Beltran finally is running again, and with the strides he made Wednesday - both literally and figuratively - the All-Star centerfielder is hopeful that he ultimately can avoid microfracture surgery and rejoin the Mets before too long. Beltran, wearing a brace on his right knee, ran four loops along the warning track, starting in the rightfield corner and finishing at home plate. He only began the running program on Monday, but by the fourth lap, Beltran had increased the pace from jogging to longer, more purposeful strides. Beltran believes he could be sprinting by the end of next week, which would lead to running the bases soon after. But for now, he's pleased to be running without pain - especially after he could not last for a minute on a treadmill only three weeks earlier during a checkup at the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Colorado. "Thank God there's no pain," Beltran said at the Mets' minor-league complex. "It's a learning process for me to start running again, so right now I'm thinking about how to make it perfect. Today was the first day I ran and didn't have to think about it. I was happy with today. Today was a pretty good day." Otherwise, Beltran says he is in great shape and has dropped 10 pounds since the start of spring training. He took batting practice off a machine Wednesdayon Field 4 and easily smacked balls over the fence from both sides of the plate. When an instructor told Beltran to treat the final 20 swings as game situations, he went 10-for-10 with seven home runs from the right side. After switching to the left, Beltran went 7-for-10 with five homers, and two caromed off the roof of a utility shed well beyond the rightfield fence. "Hitting I feel fine," Beltran said. "I'm in the greatest shape of my career because I've never worked as hard as I have during this rehab. I'm just looking forward to getting out of here, man. I want to be with the boys. I know they're fighting and they're playing better baseball. I believe with me being on the team, I can help." Beltran revealed that he was given the option of having microfracture surgery this winter, but chose the arthroscopic procedure to "clean out" his right knee instead. Beltran said that microfracture surgery requires a nine-month rehab process before beginning baseball activity and that would have wiped out the entire 2010 season. "They told me, we want to try everything before that," Beltran said. "Before that we're going to try everything from A to Z, different things that we believe can help you. It's been a slow, slow progress, but it's been progress, that's what I'm happy about." Beltran also said the doctors in Colorado determined that his left leg was longer than his right and gave him orthotics to help align his knees. The knee brace is helpful now during rehab, but Beltran hopes to shed it once he's ready to play again. "Right now, it's hard for me to set a date because I'm not doing a lot yet," Beltran said. "It's encouraging because I don't feel the pain. Once I start running the bases, I think I will have a better time frame to when I can be helping the team."

[Ceetar]

I won't believe it until he's actually playing in rehab games pain free. And he's not running all out yet, but I'm glad to see even a small sign that his career is not over.

Bah, you beat me to it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm more than a little afraid what we get is going to be a Reyes-like fraction of the man, though.

I have trouble approaching New York tabloids since I saw Bill Madden speculating about George Steinbrenner's sex life. Deep chills.

[Ceetar]

Beltran revealed that he was given the option of having microfracture surgery this winter, but chose the arthroscopic procedure to "clean out" his right knee instead. Beltran said that microfracture surgery requires a nine-month rehab process before beginning baseball activity and that would have wiped out the entire 2010 season.

This is the biggie. And from what I've heard it seems like the nine-months is just a guideline, it could be worse, and it could be career-threatening because it's still pretty experimental, and it could inhibit his ability to actually run as hard and as well as he used to, meaning reduced range and what not. Right now there is no raeson to think he can't play CF if he doesn't get teh surgery.

But the 9 months thing suggests that we will know a lot more very soon. If Beltran cannot progress soon, he'll almost have to opt for the surgery to be back in time for the 2010 season. If that's the case though, the Mets _have_ to look for another CF, because you have no idea what will be up with Beltran, and you won't know before Spring Training. But cross that bridge when we come to it.

[Centerfield]

Beltran is being pretty candid there. Up until now, the company line is that Beltran did not need, and was not a candidate for micro-fracture surgery, despite all of the evidence pointing to the contrary. It seems pretty clear that it was all bullshit now.

Given this, it's hard to understand the team's handling of this injury. First of all, the bone bruises came about because of the lack of cartilage. There was no collision, no freak play, no other impetus other than day-to-day wear and tear that caused the injury. Resting is fine, but it was silly not to think that the bone bruises would not return when he began playing again. If up to me, I would have had this surgery last season and had a clean bill of health for 2010. They did not.

Instead, they brought him back to play in meaningless games. The only rational reason for this would be to see how he reacted once the bone bruises healed (i.e., would they come back?). He played, the bone bruises returned. He had to shut it down. At that point, having seen the bone bruises develop in the first place because of lack of cartilage, resting only to have them come back again (because there is still no cartilage), it is foolish not to have the micro-fracture surgery at that time. Beltran complained of it during fall. Micro-fracture would have sidelined him for a part of 2010, but he might have been healthy enough to return with a clean bill of health for the second half. Again, they opted against the surgery.

Now, it appears that the delay in his return is not necessarily surgery related, but that the bone bruises have not yet healed (from last fall). He says he is healthy, and running pain free, but it's hard not to believe that they won't reappear once he starts going full throttle. (I'm happy to be proven wrong here, but it seems inevitable to me). My guess is that he comes back around the All-Star break, shuts it down again in August or September, and then ultimately opts for micro-fracture surgery. I just hope this happens in time to salvage some part of 2011.

[TransMonk]

I still think the Mets need to go the rest of 2010 and 2011 with the mindset that Beltran is not and will not be available to them and that any positive contribution we receive from him during that time will be gravy.

"Treading water" until he comes back seems like putting a bunch of cracked and rotten eggs into one basket.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Beltran can bite me.

[Ceetar]

Well microfracture surgery isn't something to be taken lightly. And it's not as exact a science or a sure thing as say, tommy john surgery. No saying that the Beltran before it and the Beltran after it are the same caliber of player or that his knees will be "good as new"

These bruises may very well be the same bruises from early last year, not reappeared ones from August/September. Some are healing at better rates than others. Sometimes the bruises won't even hurt him or pose any risk, and he can just play. He recently had an injection if I recall, prior to putting the brace on, to create lubrication, so I suspect that's why he's feeling no pain now, and maybe that will help them to heal. If he could get them healed, and monitored, it might be a manageable situation. I have no idea if that lubrication injection thingy is something he can do frequently, or it poses a risk of some sort.

I also wonder now if the disagreement in the offseason was not over having surgery, but which surgery to have.

Beltran's being very candid now though, and I don't blame him. It's a terrible situation for him, contracts and money aside. He's prematurely facing what could be the end of his career and a serious knee issue that no matter how hard he works he is incapable of fixing on his own.


and I agree, you can't tread water and hope for Beltran to return. I like Pagan, but if Beltran doesn't show serious progress in the next month or so, you pretty much have to move on without him.

[Gwreck]

The problem with microfracture surgery is that if it's what Beltran truly needs, AND we want him available for 2011, he needs that NOW. Or within the next two months.

---

One factor that I haven't seen mentioned too much is that Beltran's contract is up following the 2011 season. A healthy Beltran -- who'll be 35 in April 2012 -- stands to be able to get one final big contact in the 2011-12 offseason, and I can't believe Carlos and Scott Boras haven't considered this, knowing that he'll have to be on the field and producing in 2011 if he wants more bucks that offseason.

[Ceetar]

I've seen the contract situation mentioned a lot actually. If that was Beltran's main consideration I'd have to believe he'd have had the surgery in January.

[TransMonk]

I have to think, even with the best case scenario involving his recovery, he will most certainly not be a Met in 2012. More likely an AL DH. I'd almost like to start thinking about finding a replacement for him now...unless we think Pagan is the long term answer.

[Ceetar]

TransMonk wrote: I have to think, even with the best case scenario involving his recovery, he will most certainly not be a Met in 2012. More likely an AL DH. I'd almost like to start thinking about finding a replacement for him now...unless we think Pagan is the long term answer.

that right now I'm not going to worry about. I'm just going to pretend that he'll come back healthyin a couple of weeks and in the 2012 offseason we're talking about moving him to RF and not letting him get away after two amazing post season performances.

[MFS62]

Here's something I found about bone bruises:
http://www.ehow.com/about_4586120_bone-bruising.html

A few things I found interesting:
It can be misdiagnosed as a fracture.
It is very painful, "especially for an athlete".
There is no harm to the bone itself.
It can heal "relatively quickly".

The fact that his recovery has taken so long is still a head-scratcher to me. But now that he's running, I'm optimistic that he can return, and be productive, this year.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

I agree with Monk. I'll be glad to get whatever we can out of Beltran over the next year and a half, but if an appealing long-term replacement becomes available before Carlos' contract runs out, I think you have to do what you can to secure him.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think they're certainly working to grow his replacement.

[Guest attgig]

MFS62 wrote: The fact that his recovery has taken so long is still a head-scratcher to me. But now that he's running, I'm optimistic that he can return, and be productive, this year.

guessing that the stuff in the joint that was cleaned up in january kept aggravating it. After surgery, there's recovery time, and therapy to make sure that all the scar tissue goes away from the incisions, etc.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy DC wrote: I think they're certainly working to grow his replacement.

Who are the center fielders in the pipeline?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Other thread, but they've got legit prospects at almost every level, if you count Martinez as a centerfielder, and while he wouldn't be expected to excel there, he can certainly hack it.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

"Captain" Kirk Neuwenhuis, presumably.

[Guest attgig]

I doubt fmart gets a chance at CF.

looking at the other outfielders according to cot's when beltran's contract is up:
Bobby Abreu LAA *
Jose Bautista TOR
Carlos Beltran NYM
Milton Bradley SEA
Mike Cameron BOS
Ronny Cedeno PIT
Ryan Church PIT
Jack Cust OAK
Matt Diaz ATL
J.D. Drew BOS
Jeff Francouer NYM
Jonny Gomes CIN
Gabe Gross OAK
Carlos Guillen DET
Corey Hart MIL
Jeremy Hermida BOS
Raul Ibanez PHI
Conor Jackson ARZ
Ryan Ludwick STL
Gary Matthews Jr. NYM
Nate McLouth ATL *
Juan Pierre CWS
Juan Rivera LAA
Cody Ross FLA
Grady Sizemore CLE *
Nick Swisher NYY *
Josh Willingham WAS




nobody that compelling there either....



Helloooo Angel!

[Gwreck]

Grady Sizemore is more than compelling, but that asterisk means there's a club option for 2012.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

And virtually none of 'em are center-field-experienced (or center-field-able, for that matter).

Cody Ross, anyone?

[Guest Edgy DC]

I really don't think we can genterate a meaningful picture of December 2012 in May 2010, though.

[ashie62]

No we can't, but speculating has a certain charm to it.

[nymr83]

MFS62 wrote: Here's something I found about bone bruises: http://www.ehow.com/about_4586120_bone-bruising.html A few things I found interesting: It can be misdiagnosed as a fracture. It is very painful, "especially for an athlete". There is no harm to the bone itself. It can heal "relatively quickly". The fact that his recovery has taken so long is still a head-scratcher to me. But now that he's running, I'm optimistic that he can return, and be productive, this year. Later

i've had bone bruises on two fingers at different times.
-they werent really too painful, i'm not sure how exactly to explain levels of pain, but if i say i didnt take any pain relievers hopefully that will get the point across
-both felt fine and were fully functional in under a month
-this may have nothig to do with bone bruises on other parts of the body

[nymr83]

Maybe we could replace him with Gary Matthews jr.

::ducks::

[Guest Edgy DC]

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/article/2010-05-28/mets-beltran-likely-out-till-after-all-star-break.

Mets' Beltran likely out till after All-Star break Sporting News staff reports Friday, May. 28, 2010 - 11:06 a.m. ET Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran, still progressing slowly from offseason knee surgery, might not be ready to return to the lineup until mid-July. General manager Omar Minaya told the New York Daily News that Beltran still hasn't been cleared to resume "full baseball activities" and will need 4-6 weeks from the point when he is cleared to do so until the time he can make his 2010 Mets debut. Beltran is doing some running and taking some swings but isn't doing any sprinting. Beltran hit .325 with 10 homers and 48 RBIs last season, but he was limited to 81 games.

The Sporting News still has a staff?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I remember when I thought a mid-May return was pessimistic.