MET NOTES
PITTSBURGH – Even though no one ever said there was a feud between him and Mike Piazza, Bobby Bonilla was annoyed yesterday because he felt that impression was taken from comments he made about a potential rehabilitation assignment.
Bonilla was asked Tuesday if he would consider a rehab trip to the minors before being activated from the disabled list and the right fielder said – with a smile on his face – that he would like to have the Mets bring up minor-league pitchers to throw to him the way they did with Piazza last month.
Although none of the reporters assembled at the time felt Bonilla was saying anything against Piazza, Bonilla felt it came across that way.
“It was written like Mike and I are feuding,” he said. “We’re not feuding. I am upset because the way it was written was .”
The way most reporters perceived it was there might be a conflict between Bonilla and the team if they ask him to go down to the minors, because he seemed to make it clear he wasn’t interested in going down.
Whatever, Bonilla said what he had to say yesterday and then said it didn’t matter anymore because he felt “super.”
He ran the bases before the game and looked healthy doing it, but he was not activated from the DL. He was put on the list May 10 after being hit by a Pedro Astacio pitch in the left knee. But it is his right knee that is causing persistent discomfort.
Bonilla could be activated for the Diamondbacks series beginning tomorrow.
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Al Leiter proclaimed himself ready to go for Sunday’s game against the Diamondbacks. The left-hander threw to hitters yesterday and continued to work on his new mechanics that are supposed to help his follow-through, and said if he hadn’t made the change, he might have injured his pitching arm.
“My arm hasn’t bothered me as much as it has been and that tells me the changes are working. If I had kept throwing that way, I was on the road to hurting my arm.”
He will throw one more time tomorrow, but anticipates nothing keeping him from starting on Sunday.