New York Mets Fan Blog» John Maine

The State of the Mets Rotation

slavite — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:55:07 +0000

Currently the Mets sport a rotation of Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, Jonathon Niese, RA Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi. Dickey and Takahashi did not start the season in the rotation, but after John Maine and Oliver Perez hit the DL Dickey and Takahashi took over. As of right now Dickey and Takahashi are pitching very effectively and are a big reason the Mets find themselves seven games over .500. With the likely return of Maine the Mets should avoid tinkering with the success of the rotation and put Maine in the bullpen.

To start the season the Mets held out hope that John Maine and Oliver Perez would finally be able to put it together and prove to be reliable pitchers in the rotation; however, neither impressed during their time with the team.

Oliver Perez, probably the player the Mets had the most staked into after awarding him a 3 year 36 million dollar contract a season ago, played so poorly the Mets tried hiding him in the bullpen. Unfortunately he was not even effective there and, after he refused a minor league assignment, the Mets banished him to the DL.

Maine’s story is a little more promising. He did not pitch very effectively to start, but after returning to being primarily a fastball pitcher Maine was able to pitch well enough to keep the Mets in games. The problem was he still had trouble pitching late into games and sustained an injury that forced him out of a game after throwing just five pitches before landing him on the DL.

Maine has recently thrown in a rehab game and is working his way back to the majors. The question is: Should the Mets put him back in the rotation? Right now the Mets are clicking, and a big part of that is the current starting rotation. In addition the bullpen has been more effective as pitchers are pitching six and most of the time seven innings. In fact Pelfrey and Niese started back to back games where they pitched for nine innings. While Dickey and Takahashi will never be top-line starters, they are getting the job done right now and that should not be tinkered with, especially in favor of a player that struggles to pitch five innings.

John Maine’s best career move looks like a transition to the bullpen. He has a lively fastball, but not a ton else and like I keep mentioning, he has trouble going deep into games. In the bullpen only one or two strong pitches are needed to be effective. It would be great to convert Maine into a set-up guy, or if we are lucky an eventual cheaper option to K-Rod at closer when Frankie’s contract is up after next season.

While Dickey and Takahashi’s effectiveness might wane as the season continues, John Maine is not a good replacement. He has had numerous times to prove his worth, and outside of 2007 has failed to do so.

by Evan Slavit at the Sports Fan Blog Network

Maine is first real test for Mets’ iffy rotation

GameSetMatch — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:24:58 +0000

The Mets got exactly what they expected out of Johan Santana in their season-opening win over the Marlins on Monday.

Now comes the hard part: Seeing what the other four-fifths of the starting rotation will give them.
And that starts tonight, when John Maine takes the mound against Florida at Citi Field after yesterday’s off day.
“You always want to get the year started off strong,” Maine said. “It’s the same thing every season. Your first couple of starts, you’re anxious and you want to get off on the right foot. No matter what you’ve been through to get there, that doesn’t change.”

Click here to read the full article – By DAN MARTIN of New York Post

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So far, so good for Maine in return

GameSetMatch — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:04:41 +0000

John Maine spent his pregame hours Tuesday eating nachos, flipping through his new Dan Brown novel and quizzing Pedro Feliciano on how he spent his off-day — all before heading outside for a light throwing session. Quickly and efficiently, Maine has assimilated back into big league clubhouse culture.

Now it’s just a matter of assimilating back into the rotation. Maine, fresh off his first three innings since June, will pitch again Sunday against the Nationals. And he should round out the year as a member of an evolving Mets rotation.

This week, the Mets will proceed with a six-man rotation: Pat Misch on Tuesday, followed by Bobby Parnell, Nelson Figueroa, Mike Pelfrey, Tim Redding and Maine. Once that stretch is complete, manager Jerry Manuel will likely remove one of the six from the rotation in order to give the other five more regular work over the final two weeks of the season.

Click here to read the full article – By Anthony DiComo of MLB.com

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