Giants and Mets Injuries

One of the things that made me really excited about this Giants season was what I thought was a really deep, talented defensive group. Well, there’s a lot of bodies there, but most of them are now injured.

As The Blue Screen pointed out LB Michael Boley (hip) hasn’t played yet, but he’s the not the only one who is ailing. Here’s the list:

-DT Chris Canty (torn hamstring) is out a while

-DTs Fred Robbins (knee) and Rocky Bernard (hamstring) are still working their way back into shape

-DE Justin Tuck (foot), DE Osi Umenyiora (knee) and DT Barry Cofield (knee) all missed practice time while recovering from their injuries

-CBs Aaron Ross (hamstring) and Corey Webster (hip) each missed more than a week and Ross reinjured that hamstring in the final practice

-LB Danny Clark (chin), S Kenny Phillips (knee) and LB Antonio Pierce (foot) are out.

-WR Mario Manningham (hip pointer) is day-to-day

-And now backup DT and long snapper Jay Alford is done for the season. And after the playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, Giants fans will not rest easy until a reliable long snapper is found.

Right now it’s a tough time being a Giants fan. Aaron Ross looked like a budding star at CB but as Tom Coughlin said to True Blue, Ross can’t get beyond the hamstring injuries. Chris Canty has yet to play and Tom Coughlin is calling his hamstring injury serious. Poor Lawrence Tynes has had some very tough tasks to show he’s healthy. And Deadspin let me know why the Giants suck (though the article was a little bit ridiculous).

This has all led Coughlin to go off on a conference call:

“We heard for so long that we have so much depth, but I don't know what you are watching”

Ouch.

It can’t be any worse, however, to be a Mets fan. They released Livan Hernandez to save money (he was once their #2 starter). Then they look in their division and see the rival Phillies make a trade for Cliff Lee who is this year’s CC Sabathia. In “The Year of the ‘Feat’”, they came across Eric Bruntlett’s game ending, unassisted triple play right as they were trying to rally to play spoilers against said rivals. Then this weekend happened, most accurately described in Joel Sherman tweets:

@nyp_joelsherman: More sad/ true Mets: from 2006-thru Sun, only Ad.Gonzalez had plyd more Gs since '06 than Francoeur: Iron Man as Brave, injured as Met

@nyp_joelsherman: In end, #Redsox had $$, #Mets needed to move $$. money makes world go round, and makes trades happen

@nyp_joelsherman: On conf call, MInaya said didn't remember Santana's spring elbow injury that nearly cost him O.Day start."That was a long time ago" #ohmygod

@nyp_joelsherman: Minaya's explanation y Santana was allowed to pitch thru elbow discomfort was gibberish tinged with negligence. Let's call it Mets stew

That’s about your Mets season right there. Now Ken Davidoff say the Mets are sending a terrible message to fans by not taking the Wagner draft picks to save some money and Joel Sherman says the Mets and Omar Minaya are sending a horrible message to everyone by how they handled Santana. Ken Rosenthal asks if the Mets are taking care of their players. FanGraphs says there’s still a heckuva lot of money left on the Santana deal if he isn’t 100% going forward (leading Peter Abraham to say the Yankees were wise for staying away for Santana). Ken Davidoff doesn’t even think the Mets would have been contenders had their “Big Four” not gotten hurt.

And the Mets big free agent starting pitching signing, Oliver Perez, has allowed 10 earned runs in his past two starts (5 2/3 innings pitched) and may have a knee injury. Final Destination (the movie) seems to be the story of the Mets season. Try as they must, they cannot escape injury. K-Rod should just hole himself up in a bunker at this point. Didn’t the Mets unbelievably have Swine Flu go through their team earlier this season as well?

It’s not a fun time to be a Giants or Mets fan (tough for Ari, he’s both). But then again, you could be Adrian Beltre and have a slowly healing, still swollen testicle. Ouch!