Today is April 14 and a year ago Pedro Feliciano was in Coors Field, pitching the eighth inning for the Mets in a 6-5 loss. That night, he faced Brad Hawpe, Sean Smith, Dexter Fowler and Todd Helton. It was one of 174 2/3 innings thrown during the past three regular seasons with the Mets and among the roughly 2,800 pitches thrown in game action during that span.

So why bring that it up now? It just so happens that the next time Feliciano faces an opposing hitter on a major league mound will not be until next April. That is because an MRI found a torn capsule in his left shoulder (the same injury Met ace Johan Santana is coming back from) and assuming Dr. James Andrews tells him to get it surgerically repaired, that appears to be the course of action Feliciano will take sometime next week.

Of course he is disappointed, who wouldn't be, pitchers are competitors and would want to work everyday is possible.

"It’s really disappointing," Feliciano said. “I love to pitch and I want to be a guy that pitches every day like I’ve been doing for the past three or four years. Now to be shut down for maybe a year, I don’t know how I’m going to handle it – it’s going to be hard."

Speaking of hard, Brian Cashman had a hard time being concise when he clarified his remarks about Feliciano being abused, so below to the best of my transcribing ability are some of his comments:

"In fairness, I’m not going to back away from the answer I gave to the question but the question was provided on a day when you guys were not really there. I’m not attacking the Mets, the question posed from the group at the time was one of those loaded, already know the answer to the question. I was asked and I answered properly.

"He was used extensively over there. I wasn’t blaming the Mets with what he is dealing with now. He’s on the DL and the first question was how long is he going to be down and I was trying to assess and say he’s going to come back. And then the follow up question was when you signed him, you knew he was used a lot by the Mets, was that a concern and my answer was he was definitely abused over there but we knew that and I certainly went ahead and signed him anyway. I’m not sitting over here blaming them for it but I did answer the question honestly.

"People took shots a little bit and rightfully so because they weren’t willing to call me and ask questions. Some people referred to me as hypocrite because of Scott Proctor and stuff like that. If you want to get Joe Torre on the phone, you’ll know I’m not a hypocrite.

"I dealt with our pitching coach, I dealt with our manager and we have new people here that utilize people in a certain way now. These guys are finite assets out there right now. There’s a very limited group of people capable of performing on the major league level on a consistent level, so you can’t put your assets in jeopardy and you can’t overuse them or you lose them. From my perspective and from the front office and if you’re a player development director or if you’re a scouting director and you’re trying to find replacements for those, we work 12 months a year to do that and it’s not easy. It’s definitely easy and when you have someone of quality that makes it all the way, you have hopes to use them for an extended period of time. So you have to use them properly.

This is the part where Cashman says he shouldn't be blamed for players such as Scott Proctor or Ron Villone being overused during the Joe Torre era.

"I’m talking on a general basis. I think the game has evolved and grown and people have learned over time, including us. Did we have players here with me as GM overused, yes but if you asked those players, if you ask the manager and did I meet with Joe, yes. Did I meet with our pitching coach – yes. When they said the same answer which obviously hear when this became public, I asked the player if he was OK. You got to understand  these players are competitors, they’re never going to say no. It’s just the way they are wired. So you pay people to know the answer. I’m not paying a pitcher to be the pitching coach for instance. I’m paying the pitching coach to be the pitching coach.

"I met with Proctor and said you better stop telling the manager this because of the way he manages and I’m not criticizing Joe and that’s just the way he is. He wants an honest answer. Just tell him no.

You can draw your own conclusions just like you can make your own evaluations of Phil Hughes, who will try to generate his first swing and miss on a four-seam fastball. Hughes also will try to generate some more velocity and power from his lower half because as manager Joe Girardi put, when you focus on your upper half, you tend to fly open.

Hughes will try to do that against an Orioles lineup featuring Matt Wieters. Wieters hit a two-run home run last night in the seventh inning off A.J. Burnett and has been doing so with a different batting stance.