Beltran And His Recovery

David Lennon at Newsday writes about Carlos Beltran and how he is worried about his recovery:

The Mets' company line is not to worry, but Beltran said yesterday that he still is not capable of "stop-and-go" running in the outfield and must teach himself how to slide again. Beltran's knees, surgically cleaned up in October, are not the problem. It's everything else involved with the recovery process.

"When you have surgery, you lose all the muscle in your quads, everything goes away," Beltran said. "Because the knees are fixed, the sensation of tendinitis I was having, I don't have anymore. But if I don't strengthen my quads, then all the pounding is going to be in the knees, and I'm going to aggravate the knees again."

Beltran has been showing up early, before everyone else, doing his exercises and taking his scheduled dips in the hydrotherapy pool, along with about a dozen other Mets. When it's time for the rest of the team to prepare for that day's game, Beltran and his injured comrades are herded off for more rehab.