Johan Santana Ready to Throw From the Mound

photo credit: OlympianX

Johan Santana had a rough year in 2009.

He began by struggling through 25 starts in 2009 before the Mets decided it was time to shelve him and figure out what was wrong with him.  Santana only went 13-9 in 2009 before the Mets pulled the plug on his season.  Those arne’t exactly the numbers you expect from a Pitcher who garnered as much attention and as much money as he did.

It turns out that Santana had bone chips floating in his left elbow and he hasn’t thrown from a mound since having them removed.  For those of you who are not hardcore baseball fans I wanted to point out a couple things:

1.  Johan Santana is a HUGE deal.  This dude was going to be the next Cy Young.  He was a combination of Greg Maddux’s surgical method and Randy Johnson’s utter power.  Everyone in the world bid for him when the Twins were trying to dump him and he fell to the Mets.  The Mets promptly signed him to a 6-year $137.5 deal.  So, he’s got to do better than 13-9.

2.  Throwing from the mound is a BIG DEAL.  Because the mound is slightly elevated it makes pitching that much more stressful on your whole body.  Yes, you sling your arm around and that doesn’t help your shoulder or elbow, but you have to put your whole body “into it” just to keep the velocity on the ball by the time it reaches the plate.

Santana FINALLY throwing from the mound means that he is well on his way back to the Mets.  Because Spring Training hasn’t started yet there’s a chance that he could see some action in the Spring as the Mets slowly bring him back to “active duty”.

The Mets NEED Santana if they want even half a shot at competing with the Phillies.  This move “to the mound” is the best news Mets fans have heard in a while.