Coutinho: Never Count Out Mets’ Johan Santana « CBS New York

The very first domino in the 2012 New York Mets season will be what the Mets get from Johan Santana. As the often optimistic Rich Coutinho points out, you never know in the game of baseball:

"Nobody expected the Arizona Diamondbacks to rebound from a 90 loss season to win the NL West. Nobody expected the last two World Champions to be squads with under a $100 million payroll. No one expected an AL East team not to be in the World Series the last two years. It is the reason we play the games and it is the reason sports is such great theater."

A lot has been said about how long it took for Chien-Ming Wang to return and that Mark Prior never returned from the same surgery. However, Prior was a hard thrower and Wang, although not a strikeout guy, made a living on a hard sinker. Santana's bread-and-butter has been the change-up, a pitch that doesn't require aggressive arm and shoulder movement. I would expect the recovery to be less involved, not to mention that additional knowledge gained from the Prior and Wang experiences for trainers to adjust accordingly.