Orlando Hernandez appeared on Cuban television for the first time since his defection in 1997, the Associated Press reports.

El Duque was interviewed as part of a documentary named “Furea de Liga,” or “Out of This League.” The 68-minute film by Ian Padron was released in 2004 but not seen until Saturday on government-controlled television.

“I am not a traitor. I am an Industrial,” Hernandez said in the documentary, referring to Havana’s Industriales, Cuba’s most famous team. “I have had the opportunity to play for the two best teams in the world: Cuba’s Industriales and the New York Yankees”

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Gerry Fraley at The Sporting News ranks the starting rotations in the National League and puts the Mets 9th overall out of the 16 teams.

9. Mets: RHP Pedro Martinez, RHP John Maine, LHP Oliver Perez, RHP Orlando Hernandez, RHP Mike Pelfrey.

Martinez and Hernandez are nearing the end. Maine and Pelfrey are still learning. Perez can be very good or very bad. His frequent walks lull fielders to sleep

The Diamondbacks, Padres, and Dodgers rank 1-2-3.

I wouldn’t lump Maine in with Pelfrey at all, thats a really poor job there, however I have to agree that among the rest of the rotations in the NL, the Mets are middle of the pack. Pedro has to show he can throw a full season, El Duque is almost guaranteed to go on the DL at some point, and Pelfrey is a big fat question mark. Maine and Perez to me are the only next to sure things.

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Peter Gammons of ESPN has reported that the Mets don’t currently have the trading chips to acquire one of the Athletics pitchers, Dan Haren or Joe Blanton. They were also denied a trade for Erik Bedard late last week. With that said, it may be time for the Mets to look elsewhere. Here is a list of potential targets and what they are valued at.

LHP Dontrelle Willis (Florida Marlins) - The Marlins have stated that they are willing to listen to offers for Willis, though they are expected to retain him for the 2008 season, or at least until the July 31st trading deadline. Willis is coming off his worst season of his career, going 10-15 with a 5.17 ERA. Throughout the past three seasons, Willis’ strikeout to walk ratio has decreased each season. In 2005, Willis struck out 170 while walking 55. The following season in 2006, he notched 160 strike outs while walking 83. Finally, last season, he struck out 146 and walked 86.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Reds, Mariners, and Diamondbacks

Cost: Two young players

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Bartolo Colon (Free Agent) - Colon could definitely be a high-reward/high-risk signing for any team that picks him up. He has played only 28 starts due to his battle with shoulder and elbow problems since the beginning of the 2006 season. Omar once traded prospects Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips in a deal for Colon when he was general manager for the Expos.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Padres, Rangers, Diamondbacks, Phillies, Mariners, Nationals

Cost: One-year, $9 million deal or two-year, $16 million

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Carlos Silva (Free Agent) - The 28-year old Silva currently leads a very thin market of starting pitchers. He went 13-14 with a 4.19 ERA for the Twins last season and figures to cash in at around $10 million a season with another team. Plenty of teams remain interested in him, though most of them plan to use him as a fall back option and prefer to look to the trade market before committing a large contract to him.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Royals, Cardinals, Tigers, Phillies

Cost: 4-Years, $40 million

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Livan Hernandez (Free Agent) - Hernandez is an innings eater. He has not pitched less than 200 innings in any season since 1999. He went 11-11 with a 4.93 ERA for the Diamondbacks last season. The Mets lost a 200 inning pitcher in Glavine to the Braves via free agency and they need to find a way to fill those lost innings. The team have made it known that Livan is more likely a Plan C or D. The fact that his half-brother El Duque is on this team and his history with Omar in Montreal makes him a strong candidate to be a Met in 2008.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Astros, Cardinals

Cost: Three-years, $21 million

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Hiroki Kuroda (Free Agent) - The 33-year old right hander went 12-8 in 26 starts with a 3.56 ERA for the Hiroshima Carp last season in Japan. Scouts project him to become a middle of the rotation starter in the MLB. Conflicting reports have come out recently that the Mariners have have offered him a contract. One report says that it was for three-years, $30 million. The other states that they offered him four-year, $44 million.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Mariners, Dodgers, Royals, Phillies, Cubs, Rangers

Cost: Four-year deal, $45 million

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The importance of middle relievers in baseball has increased in recent years, as the trend of starting pitchers failing to go deep into ballgames continues. The Hardball Times provides a graph of the decline in the number of innings pitched by starters over the past hundred years.

With this increased importance, comes a price. In the New York Times, Murray Chase points out that relievers had an average salary of $1,433,992 in 2006 up from $1,316,384 in 2005.

The Mets currently have Pedro Martinez, Oliver Perez, John Maine, and Mike Pelfrey tentatively penciled into their rotation for 2008, with a fifth pitcher likely to come from free agency or via trade this winter. The uncertainty of the Mets rotation makes the need a quality bullpen even greater. The inconsistency of the Mets rotation last season caused the Mets starters to fail to get deep into ballgames, and put a great degree of pressure on an overworked Mets bullpen.

The Mets enter 2008 with a bullpen consisting of Billy Wagner, Scott Schoeneweis, Duaner Sanchez, Jorge Sosa, Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith, Juan Padilla and possibly Orlando Hernandez.

The Mets will likely use Aaron Heilman as a trading chip to acquire a front line starter.

As we scan the free agent landscape this off season, there are quite a few quality arms available to upgrade with. Two big name closers are on the market, Francisco Cordero and Eric Gange, but will want to close so would be of no use to the Mets.

Ron Mahay, Jeremy Affledt, David Riske, LaTroy Hawkins and Scott Linebrink, Octavio Dotel, and Byung-Hyun Kim are some of the other arms who might be worth a look as middle relievers. Chad Cordero is a longshot, as the Nationals have asked for Carlos Gomez in return and Cordero is also likely to perfer a closing role.

Mahay was 3-0 last year, with a 2.55 ERA and 1.33 WHIP over 67 innings for the Braves. He is considered the best of the middle relievers on the market and has attracted the Yankees interest.

David Riske was 1-4 with a 2.45 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP over 69.7 innings for the Royals. Riske hasn’t had an ERA over 4 since 2002.

Matthew Cerrone on Mets Blog relays information from Mike Pagliarulo who advises the Yankees, who Mark Feinsand of the Daily News said has interest, to steer clear of Linebrink, whose stats indicate a ‘structural decline.’

Octavio Dotel was traded to the Braves from Kansas City at the trade deadline and compiled a 4.11 ERA with a 1.33 WHIP. He spent time on the disabled list with a shoulder strain in August.

The Orioles could look to move Chad Bradford, who is signed to a three year, $10.5 million contract. He compiled a 3.34 ERA with a 1.43 WHIP.

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The Baltimore Orioles have declined their $7.5 million club option for 2008 on former Met RHP Kris Benson. Benson missed the 2007 season with shoulder surgery.

Benson, 32, signed a three-year, $22.5 million contract while with the Mets prior to the 2005 season. He was traded to the Orioles for current Mets pitcher John Maine and relief pitcher Jorge Julio, who was again traded away by the Mets to Arizona for pitcher Orlando Hernandez.

Benson last pitched in 2006 going 11-12 with a 4.82 ERA for the Orioles.

Roughly two weeks ago, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald pointed out that Benson could be among one of the free agent targets for the Marlins in the offseason as his price will come down tremendously after missing the 2007 season due to an arm injury.

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Orlando Hernandez had surgery today to remove a foot bunion.  Just like grandma.

Duaner Sanchez may or may not play Winter Ball as part of his rehab. Mets personal promise he will take private transportation only.

The Amburglar is not expected to pitch next season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, buying us all even more time to actually learn to spell his name.

And outfielder Moises Alou has been placed on chair and then vacuum sealed in a plastic cube at the Mets Hall of Fame, where he will remain until the team decides whether or not pick up his option. The Alou wing of the Mets Hall of Fame can be visited at Shea stadium between 9am and 5pm Monday through Friday, admission is $2.

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Over at his Lohud blog, Delcos is reporting that Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez will indeed be activated for tommorow's game.  Vargas will be the most likely  arm sent down to AAA.

So the question remains: is Duque in form, or will it be a rocky start? Though considering you're swapping him with Vargas, as long as he's at what he was at an average night so far, its still going to be an improvement.

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According to numerous reports, El Duque could return this weekend.  He threw a side session yesterday, and if he's feeling well today he will most likely pitch against the Marlins this weekend.  Vargas will most likely then be moved back to AAA Zephyrs.

the Post also reports that Jose Valentin is still no where near coming back, nor is Lastings.

Good news on El Duque, maybe he can get the pitching a little more focused. Not good news on Stache, but that was pretty much expected.  If he's going to be out awhile, we really need to get someone to grow a stache in his honor. My vote: Gotay.

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Just some thoughts on the Mets starters, now that we've gone a whole month into the season.

As you know, coming into the season, the age of our first two starters was put to question.  Many in the media felt Glavine was close to done, past his prime. At his age he'd be good for five innings, then back to the clubhouse for Murder She Wrote and a tv dinner. He's now 3-1, but has a no decision that was a win blown by the bullpen. He's given up 11 earned runs, for a 2.80 ERA and has 18 strikeouts.   Glavine is some sense has been better on the road, where his ERA is lower at 1.93 (its 4.5 at Shea), though he's issued 10 of his 13 walks on the road, as well as hit 3 batter. Overall, Glavine's been solid. He's had a few shakey starts, but tends to correct himself as the game goes to recover. Just as important as all this, Glavine serves as the mentor for the young starters.  Someone such as Maine, Pelf, and Perez don't always know what needs to be done to improve, and Glavine is there to help them along.

John Maine: Well he's your NL Pitcher of the Month. He's 4-0, has a low ERA (1.35) and really doesn't give up runs.  If theres any cause for concern, its that he is is a pitcher for whom the ball is often in play. Maine has strived quite well with the Mets defense behind him, and could end up suffering if Gotay and Easley prove to be much less talented at second base than Stache.  I haven't seen much of Gotay, but Easley has not yet shown any Stache worthy performances.  He has so far had slightly more fly outs than ground outs (41 to 30), though hasn't given up the long ball that much so far. One could say he's a bit overdue to give one up in the winds over Shea.  He has yet to throw a wild pitch or hit a batter, and gave up just 18 hits. If he can keep his focus, he should be able to continue to perform well.

Remeber like, a minute ago when I made fun of everyone who said the Mets pitchers were old and would fall apart?  Well, El Duque is old and fell apart.  He will miss at least one more start, but its probably safer to assume that it will be awhile. At his age his healing time will probably take longer. So lets just assume he's out of the picture.

Oliver Perez, the Mets man of mystery. At 3-2 we've seen both Ollies.  We saw him go seven innings and give up 1 run on five hits.  And we've seen him go less than 3 innings, walking seven.  The good news is that the evil Perez is showing improvement.  Today was the first start in which he issued a walk since his meltdown on April 11th.  He has gotten his strikeouts up, and has proven the ability to go long, throwing 120 pitches in a loss in his start at RFK.  The improved Perez so far has been decent, but chances are inside still lurks the bad Perez.  I'd expcet to see more meltdowns, but for a number 4 pitcher there's no complaints.  If he can win more than he can lose, and keep the score to something in which our offense can reach, then thats about what we can ask for. We might want to be a bit concerned that chances are Ollie is now our #3 pitcher. But given last year that was Trax, is it that worrisome? Trax too would have his poor days where everyone in a jersey that didn't say Mets seemed to be able to get a hit or a run.  But he ate innings while doing so. Aside from his one horrendous start, Ollie seems able to do that. If he can go 7 innings in a loss and keep the score down enough where we have a fighting chance, then he's better than most of our other options.

Mike Pelfrey: Pelf brings to mind Monty Python.  After his first few starts, the fans had him slung over their back with Omar bringing his cart.  But yesterday he called out and let us know, he's not dead yet.  Lets not sugarcoat it: his first three starts were bad. 12 earned runs bad. Just six strikeouts bad. He didn't seem to have control. He was overthrowing. And in none of those first three did he make it to the end of the 6th, his shortest start lasting just 3 innings.  The good side, he seems to be improving.  He had a shaky 1st inning yesterday, but then figured things out and was fine and went 6 and third, his longest start for the Mets this year. His bad first inning killed him though, giving him another loss (he's 0-3 with one no decision).  But he passed the 100 pitch mark for the first time, and he's young. He seems to be slowly adjusting to the big leagues, but slowly adjusting is better than not adjusting at all (I'm looking at you Chan Ho park).  Due to the injury bug's visit to Shea, chances are Pelf will get more time. Even if Duque is back after the minimum time on DL, they'll keep Pelf around till they're sure he can pitch.  Hopefully he'll see his first Met win soon though. Just remember, he doesn't need to be Tom Seaver or Pedro, he needs to be a decent fifth starter.  His role is to be able to give us a chance when he pitchers, as opposed to the ace who should be guaranteeing it. Previous people in his spot have been Jose Lima, and Victor Zambrano.

Chan Ho Park. I am not writing about Chan Ho Park, because I don't forsee him being a Met come the teams trip to Arizona at weeks end. I would assume, like everyone else out there that Jorge Sosa will be the next one to get the call. I know I have preached patience for Pelf in the past, but I don't have the same faith in Chan Ho. He was weak in AAA. He was weak in spring training. He was bad Monday at Shea. So insert your own joke involving his last name and where his pitches are hit.

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El Duque has been placed on the 15 day DL, with bursitis in his right shoulder. Chan Ho Park will be called up from AAA New Orleans to pitch in his place.

I'm not going to lie. This makes me rather uncomfortable. I don't know if this is just a temporary move, since Park was the only AAA guy who was on schedule to pitch today. If thats the case, its somewhat of a relief. I can survive one Park outing if he's getting sent right back in exchange for Sosa.  But Park does not have my confidence. I guess we'll see tonight.

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It was announced earlier today that El Duque flew back to NYC to get a checkup after feeling a tightness in his throwing shoulder. Nothing has been said one way or the other, but El Duque was the scheduled starter in tommorows game at Shea vs the Marlins. This brings up the question of if he cannot, who starts?

The first option, if its just soreness that will require a day or two and not a trip to the DL, is moving up Pelf.  Pelfrey is scheduled to pitch Tuesday, and would be the only option from within the current 25 man roster.  The other three starters all pitched in this Nats series, so are obviously out.  Aaron Sele, the primary long man right now, also pitched recently and is out of contention.  Pitching Pelf at the least buys the Mets a day to see if El Duque is ready, and keeps them from having to make a roster move. Neither of the next two days scheduled Marlins pitchers is what one would call great. Olsen has given up 18 earned runs this season while going 2-1.  Nalasco, Tuesdays pitcher, is more of question mark. He has yet to start a game this season, pitching just over an inning in relief.  If the Mets offense can refind their groove at Shea, moving him up a day could be doable, though it has all the earmarks of a day that says a lot of runs from both teams.

There is also the option of one of our AAA guys.  Sosa is out, having pitched today. Humber and Park are the only two other starters on the 40 man. I don't know all the naunces of roster manipulation, but I am assuming that being on the 40man would make it easier to send one of them up for a game if either El Duque is DLed or someone else is sent down. 

Park has the experience of the two, but has struggled.  His ERA is in the 7 neighborhood while facing minor league hitters.  He's also on the most rest and is scheduled to pitch tommorow anyway.  If Duque sits and Pelf isn't moved up, he is most likely not the best, but the only option.  He gave up six runs in his last start, but won while the Zephyrs set a team record with an offensive explosion.

Humber could be an option for Tuesday if Pelf was moved up. He last pitched Friday night in a losing performance. He gave up six runs, five earned, and his been inconsistant.  He's had three games in which he kept the opposition to just 1 run, resulting in two wins and a no decision.  His two losses also include a game where he lasted three innings and gave up four runs on four hits.

With Sosa being allowed to pitch today, my guess is that Randolph doesn't believe El Duque will be out.  If any moves are made, my guess is a game switch between him and Pelf.

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Adam Rubin reports on his New York Dailly News Blog that Omar Minaya and the Mets have a press conference scheduled for this
afternoon to announce the signing of Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez to a
2-year, $12 million deal and Jose Valentin to a one-year deal (with
option) for nearly $4 million guaranteed.

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Newsday reports that Omar Minaya said on a conference call yesterday that he already has begun talks with the agents for Orlando Hernandez and Chad Bradford and is awaiting a call back from Willie Randolph to find out who will represent him in negotiations.

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Mark Hale in The New York Post…

According to Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez's agent, Greg Genske, the veteran righty has spoken to the Mets about coming back.

“El Duque's preference is to remain with the Mets. He loves New York
and has had a terrific experience with the Mets organization,” Genske
said in an e-mail yesterday. “While we are in discussions about a
potential return to the Mets, several other clubs have called to
express interest in El Duque.”

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