4/2/08 Placed RHP Pedro Martinez on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain; Selected RHP Nelson Figueroa from Triple-A New Orleans; Sent RHP Brian Stokes outright to Triple-A New Orleans.

I don’t think there was ever a doubt that Pedro Martinez would not miss some time this season due to injuries. Is it bad that it came this early? Absolutely. But all things considered, four-to-six weeks without Pedro isn’t too bad, and the club shouldn’t be hamstrung by him missing seven-to-ten starts. So the media reaction was one of hope for Pedro and the Mets, right?

No, instead of reasonable and rational thought, we got a new helping of “The Collapse” from the media, who ever since September have seemed to let that narrative take way too much prominence in things. I was not aware I was panicky, Yahoo!, but I’ll try harder to be so, just for you. Our World Series dreams are dashed and we are morons for not getting a better backup plan for Pedro. Red Sox fans have taken it upon themselves to play Nelson Muntz for the Mets’ signing damaged goods while they pooled their savings on his devastatingly huge contract to give buku bucks to fellow future Hall of Famers Matt Clement, Edgar Renteria, and Wade Miller.

Perhaps the most egregious of the hindsight columns (sadly) involved Foxsports.com’s Ken Rosenthal, who penned this masterpiece of a column. I usually find Rosenthal to be one of the best columnists on the internet, but this was just an inane diatribe. First of all, Scott Kazmir? In paragraph one? Really? Is this 2005?

Was the Brian Bannister trade bad in hindsight? Sure. Would a healthy Ambiorix Burgos have looked pretty nice in the Mets bullpen right now? I tend to think so. Bannister is a nice starter, a terrific baseball mind, and has had a solid career thus far. He also has the type of mediocre peripheral statistics that are hard to defy while still enjoying a terrific career. And although I feel like Leslie Nielsen in Airplane! for being the geek to say this after the plane has already landed, we’re all rooting for him despite that. However, Burgos had the power arm, the strikeout rate, and if he were healthy, I think he’d be battling Aaron Heilman for setup duties right now.

As for Kyle Lohse, who said he wanted to come here and play sixth starter? Why would he want to risk being squeezed out of the rotation when everyone was healthy if he could find a better situation? Rosenthal also advocates Rich Harden, one of the very few recognizably good pitchers who is even harder to keep healthy than Pedro.

Look, Media, the Mets made their preparations for Pedro being hurt. It was called “trading for Johan Santana.” The Mets are still equipped with an ace and two other quality starters, even without Pedro. It would have been nice to have a Josh Fogg as a backup plan, someone who could throw some slightly below-average innings, but the Mets went with Tony Armas and watched as his spring training never really began, thanks to visa issues.

The problem wasn’t Pedro being hurt; it was Pedro and Orlando Hernandez being hurt at the same time. Until Hernandez gets back, the Mets are going to have to rely on their offense to win some of the starts by the New Orleans crew. Mike Pelfrey understandably bumps up to the fourth slot, and Nelson Figueroa, who I gave a 0% chance of playing in the majors this year, will get the call as the de facto fifth starter.

As I mentioned in the comments there, I did think that Sosa would be the choice for the fifth starter’s role should both Pedro and Hernandez be hurt, given his flashes of success there in the past. I suppose if Hernandez is coming back sooner than later, it’s best not to stretch out Sosa’s arm, but after the Brian Lawrence experience last year I’m a little wary of giving starts to guys who don’t have a recent track record of being at least a mediocre major-league starter.

At this point though, there isn’t much else the Mets could do. Claudio Vargas reportedly doesn’t want to start in the minors, which is why the Mets haven’t signed him yet. The rest of the scrapheap includes guys like Robinson Tejeda, Woody Williams, David Wells, Jeff Weaver, and possibly bad contracts like Jason Marquis or Matt Morris. Not exactly a better bet to be found than Sosa that I can see. There are really no trade chips left, so the Mets are just going to have to grin and bear it until El Duque comes back.