A pair of Chicago Cubs centerfielders, Jimmy Qualls (1969) and Joe Wallis (1975), stole two of Tom Seaver’s early bids for a no-hitter. One year after being traded from New York to Cincinnati, Seaver threw a no-hitter for the Reds. Nolan Ryan never pitched a no-hitter – as a New York Met – but after being traded to the California Angels in 1971 he nudged Mets fans every couple years, throwing seven no-hitters.

“Every time he pitched you expected a no-hitter – or 15 strikeouts,” said Jay Horwitz, Mets VP/Public Relations, referring to Dwight Gooden.

In May 1996, Gooden tossed the only no-hitter of his career – as a member of the New York Yankees. Even Duffy Dyer had to leave the New York Mets to catch his first no-hitter (John Candelaria, Pittsburgh, 1975), 11 years before Josh Thole was born.

Four years later, in 2000, amidst a slow start and turmoil over comments Mets manager Bobby Valentine made during a speech at Penn’s Wharton School of Business, Mets ace Al Leiter attempted to lighten the mood. “I think I’m going to have to throw a no-hitter today to get the back page in New York with all the stuff going on,” he said. Starting against the Pittsburgh Pirates on the road, Leiter surrendered a second-inning lead-off home run to Wil Cordero, crushing the hopes and promise of the first-ever Mets no-hitter.

John Maine was on the brink, again, in 2007, until Florida Marlins catcher light-hitting catcher Paul Hoover reached on an infield single with two outs in the eighth inning. Maine settled for a one-hit, complete game shutout but, again, hopes of a no-hitter were dashed.

There were other close calls before, after and in between those chronicled here, but you get the idea. The New York Mets avoided no-hitters for a half-century. It was baffling at times. How could the pitching-rich Mets not have a no-hitter?

Seaver, Ryan, Gooden, Leiter, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Craig Swan, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, David Cone, Mike Hampton, Bret Saberhagen, Frank Viola, Bob Ojeda, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine; over 50 years of baseball the stars never aligned, not for a single summer’s night, for Steve Trachsel, George Stone, Rick Reed, Bobby Jones, Orlando Hernandez, Dave Mlicki, Pete Harnisch, Pete Falcone or Pat Zachry? No, no and no. Game after game, season after season the Mets were denied.

To blunt the pain and frustration, Mets fans turned the no-hit quest into a punchline. On any given night during the season a Mets fan could grab their smartphone, tap the Twitter icon and wait for [insert pitcher’s name here] to give up the first hit of the game which, inevitably, led to a tweet along the lines of:

Well, not tonight #Mets fans. That’s 7,952 games without a no-hitter.

So, on June 1, 2012, when Johan Santana became the first pitcher in Mets team history to throw a no-hitter, fans celebrated. I celebrated. In fact, the New York Daily News and New York Post back pages hang on my office wall. It was a big deal. But that’s where the road forks for me and many Mets fans.

Last week, amidst controversy over Santana’s health, Mets blogger Ted Berg tweeted:

Johan Santana returned from career-threatening surgery and pitched the first Mets no-hitter. He could show up 300 lbs. and he’d still be my hero.

Thirty-five people re-tweeted the post. I am not sure if the reaction was a symbol of support or fans just wanted to share his message with the baseball world. Either way, I disagree. Yes, I was amazed by Santana’s drive to come back and perform like the two-time Cy Young Award winner he once was with the Minnesota Twins. No, Santana should not be labeled a hero for one game.

SNY’s Chris Carlin dished out a portion of these stats on Twitter, to which another Mets fan replied:

Fair, for first no-hitter in Mets history.

Fair? Really? This is a sad – and misguided – statement.

When the Mets traded six players for Santana in 2008 they also agreed to sign him to a six-year, $101.5 million contract. Since then, he’s made 109 regular season starts, winning 46 games. He’s earned over $900,000/start in New York, or, $2.2 million per win. He missed all of the 2011 season and one-half of the 2012 season (because of the wear and tear he put on his arm pitching the no-hitter).

Remember the day you heard the news that the Mets had finally acquired Santana from the Twins? I do. Expectations were high. After the crushing collapse at the end of the 2007 season, Santana symbolized a renewed hope that 2008 would be different. Of course, it wasn’t. The point is: Santana was going to help the Mets win; a division, a league championship, maybe a World Series. You did believe that, then, right?

Hypothetically, would you give back the no-hitter if the Mets could have had a healthy Johan Santana in July, August and September? I would. I am of the mindset that winning baseball games, not pitching no-hitters or breaking records, is the goal. I am most happy when the Mets are winning. It doesn’t matter how, but if the Mets win.

Let’s face it, Santana’s not coming back after the 2013 season (if he’s not traded earlier). Over five seasons in New York he’s been closer to a disappointment than hero. Call me naive, but I expected more than one no-hitter from Santana, but thanks for the memory (singular).

Read more of my thoughts on baseball at JohnStrubel.com.

After a pitcher holds opposing teams hitless for nine innings, what is the biggest storyline that the media plays up in that pitcher’s next start? They ask that question that everyone thinks: can he do it again? Well, no one has done it since Johnny Vander Meer did so in June 1938 for the Cincinnati Reds. He had some bright spots in his 13-year MLB career, but not all of his stats are very eye-popping. He finished his career with a 119-121 record, 3.44 ERA, and 1,294 strikeouts in 2,104.3 innings.

However, getting batters to swing and miss was his specialty. Only Vander Meer, Tim Lincecum, Randy Johnson, and Warren Spahn have led the league in strikeouts three years in a row since 1940. Why is it so hard for a pitcher to throw two no-hitters in a row? Come on; it’s hard enough to fool hitters for a 1-2-3 inning, let alone for nine innings in a row. Also, I think that pitchers always think about continuing their dominance that they had previously in their next start. Most of the time, that type of dominance only happens once or twice in a lifetime, so it’s pretty tough to do that in consecutive appearances, especially when you consciously try to do it.

If you read my post about Nolan Ryan’s 7 career no-hitters, you can see how often no-hitters have taken place in MLB history. There have been only 26 pitchers in Major League Baseball that have been able to no-hit opposing teams on multiple occasions, with Justin Verlander, Roy Halladay, and Mark Buehrle being the only active players.

Why won’t this record be broken, you ask? Well, that’s easy. To break Johnny Vander Meer’s mark, a pitcher would have to throw no-hitters in three consecutive starts; I’ll only believe that this would ever happen if I saw a pitcher throw two in a row. Until then, I’m convinced that we will never see perfection like Johnny Vander Meer’s in 1938 ever again.

As of this writing there have been 18 games played. In those games Mets pitching has currently walked 79 batters, 4 of which were intentional walks in just 160 innings pitched. The staff ERA is 5.25 and their WHIP is 1.62 this season. Already the staff has given up 20 home-runs as well.

The Mets walk too many batters and those walks almost always come back to haunt the team. It’s interesting that this season as of this writing, R.A Dickey has walked 12 batters in just 4 games.  None of those walks are intentional walks. Last year Dickey in 27 games walked just 42 batters. Now it’s also interesting to note that Dickey spent a good part of last year at Triple A, not working with Dan Warthen. Could it be coincidence? Absolutely, but the entire staff is having trouble throwing strikes. Another case would be Dillon Gee. Gee this past weekend had a great outing, he threw strikes. Overall he looked more composed than some of our starters out there. Once again he hasn’t worked with Warthen much at all.

Equally if not more so troubling than the walks is the injuries our pitchers have had under Warthen over the years. The starting staff over the last few seasons have battled injuries with Warthen as the pitching coach. There were reports in 2009 that Santana was skipping side sessions dealing with his elbow injury and Warthen did not know about that. I find that unacceptable. Santana is the ACE of the staff and he’s paid a lot of money to pitch but the pitching coach, whose job it is to know the health of his pitchers was not aware of the situation.

The pitchers under Warthen have also regressed. Look at Pelfrey and his struggles. Also Maine and Perez were coming along fine until the firing of Rick Peterson and the promotion of Dan Warthen.

Warthen also has a problem of talking to the media and saying things he shouldn’t. Let’s not forget last year and the fiasco with him calling John Maine a “habitual liar.” In Spring Training Warthen told the media and the rest of baseball that he believes Mejia would be a reliever instead of a top of the rotation starter. Not only did he go against what the team plans but he could have killed any potential value Mejia may have one day if the Mets wanted to trade him.

I was surprised that Warthen kept his job, though I guess I shouldn’t be with this GM and manager. Hopefully soon the Mets will realize that Warthen is doing more harm than good for the staff and part ways with him.

MAINE: Waving good-bye?

Many thought it at the time, that when John Maine left that game in Washington after only five pitches that he was also leaving the Mets.

Maine came to the Mets in the Kris Benson deal as a throw-in, but emerged into a viable, productive pitcher. He won 15 games in 2007, but injuries, a weak shoulder and sometimes his attitude helped sabotage him. Maine never regained the form that brought optimism he might develop into something special.

I don’t think the Mets did him any favors last spring and he was poorly handled by Jerry Manuel and Dan Warthen, but Maine also didn’t bring much to the table the past two seasons.

A team weak in pitching, the Mets could attempt to bring him back at a reduced rate, but with the pitching market so thin, he’s liable to test the waters to see what’s out there. There’s no reason why he’d want to stay here anyway.

At one time, Maine represented potential and good things to the Mets – remember that game against the Marlins? – but now he personifies part of what went wrong. He represents unrealized dreams.

Of course, so does Oliver Perez, but the Mets are on the hook to him for $12 million and they have no other choice but to give it one more chance. With Maine, at a much lower figure, why bother?

As far as Dickey is concerned, the Mets will tender him and then work on an extension. They’ll probably want to see if last year was a fluke before giving him a multi-year contract.

1) The Ballpark: Citi Field is just too big! I know we’ve been saying that for the last 2 seasons but the Wilpons refuse to bring in the fences.  All you look at what happened to David Wright in his the first season at Citi Field.  His power numbers were down and the last 2 seasons his strikeouts have been on the rise.  Wright’s power at Shea was to the right center.  Citi Field’s right center is about 45-50 feet deeper than Shea’s and it has affected Wright negatively.  Some called it a fluke but then look at Jason Bay’s horrific first season.  The park took away his power. Citi Field without a doubt robbed Bay realistically of 5 homeruns and probably more.  The great fence of Flushing needs to go down too while we’re at it.  It’s time to admit the size of this park was a mistake and change it.

2) Coaching Staff: The entire coaching staff needs to go.  Howard Johnson has been a horrible hitting coach.  The situational hitting since Hojo took over has been non-existent.  It seems like Hojo would rather be their friends than a coach.  I get it he’s an 86 Met and the Wilpons are reluctant to fire him.  The Mets should just give Hojo a job with a nice title and a good payday and let him go away.  Dan Warthen also needs to go.  I know the pitching was better than expected this season but I don’t like all the injuries to our pitchers under his reign as pitching coach.  I didn’t like that in 2009 he didn’t know about Johan’s latest injury and he didn’t know that Santana was skipping side sessions.  I also didn’t like him calling Maine a habitual liar to the press. That’s just something you don’t say.  Razor Shines just needs to go.  Chip Hale seems to be a decent to good coach but at the same time Ron Darling mentioned many times throughout the season that Hale had been working with Wright and changing his defense.  Wright’s defense this year was pretty bad. He committed 20 errors and at times was slow in turning a double play.

3) The 3 Poisons (Carlos Beltran, Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo): Once the Mets finally do hire a general manager that GM (Alderson) must find a way to get these three off this team! Castillo is done, he can’t hit and he has absolutely no range at 2nd base.  Castillo brings nothing to the New York Mets, time to cut ties with him. Oliver Perez should not be on this team, he has done nothing for the Mets since signing that contract.  Perez cares more about himself than the team as he repeatedly refused to go to the minor leagues.  He didn’t win 1 game in 2010!  If you look at the way the Mets played before the all-star break and after the break there’s a huge difference.  Carlos Beltran decided to finally grace the team with his presence and was supposed to be the spark for this team but unfortunately did nothing other than make outs at the plate and miss balls hit to center on defense. Beltran refused to move over to right field to allow the better player Angle Pagan to play center and help the team.  Let’s not forget that these guys also refused to go visit wounded soldiers with the rest of their team.  These guys are not team players, they’re hurting this team and it’s time to get rid of them.

The new GM when he/she is finally hired has a lot of work to do and a lot changes to make.  Without these changes we can expect another losing season.

All I know is that, in a season when the Mets’ wins and losses don’t really matter a hell of a lot anymore, I care a lot more about seeing Santana right, striking out lots of batters and dominating opponents, than I do about his win-loss record. 

Sure, it’d be nice if the Mets could win some more games, but a strong finish for Santana could help convince everyone that landing a No. 1 starting pitcher doesn’t have to be the No. 1 priority this offseason.

I don’t agree entirely with Ted’s take, but I will agree that it’s good to see Johan Santana looking more and more like the pitcher he was before the elbow surgery (although not entirely, at least not yet).

Baseball has always been about wins and losses, and if Johan is being out-dueled or coming out on the short end of too many 2-1  and 1-0 games, blaming the offense is the simplistic way of looking at it.

But another way of looking at it is that Johan is normally facing off against another team’s ace who just happened to do a better job of shutting down a team than Johan did. Sometimes you just have to pitch a little bit better than the other team’s ace to nail down a win for your team. Sometimes you have to tip your hat to the other pitcher, to borrow a phrase from Rod Darling.

As for K/9 and K/BB rates, all those fancy pitching stats and metrics look great on paper and are fantastic for putting together a solid fantasy baseball team. A team’s wins and losses don’t matter in fantasy baseball, but wins and losses are the end-all in real baseball. It would have been nice to see Johan actually beat Roy Halladay, or Josh Johnson, or C.C. Sabathia, or Tim Hudson, or Yovani Gallardo. There’s no shame in any team’s offense being shut down by those guys – Mets included. 

As for not making a top of the rotation starter a top priority in the offseason, bad idea. Very bad idea. Terrible idea.

Lets not fall into the same trap that has clouded the judgment of many Mets fans for almost five years now.

We needed another top of the rotation starter to pair with Tom Glavine in 2007.

We needed a top of the rotation starter to pair with Johan Santana even more in 2008 if only to put the epic collapse of ’07 behind us. To believe that Oliver Perez or John Maine were those guys was a colossal blunder.

We still needed a top of the rotation starter to pair with Johan Santana in 2009. The notion that Mike Pelfrey was “that” guy was absolutely flawed and delusional thinking.

We desperately needed a top of the rotation starter in 2010 because 4/5 of the rotation was coming back from offseason surgeries or huge step backwards. Even Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya admitted as much in November of ’09, but that now appeared to be a ploy to sell more season ticket packages.

So what’s the prevailing theory now? That Jon Niese and Mike Pelfrey will somehow be top of the rotation starters in 2011? Really?

Johan Santana will be 32 years old next Opening Day and will have logged 200 more  innings on that twice operated on left elbow. To quote Detective Harry Callahan, “You feelin’ lucky, punk?”

It’s too premature to believe that Jon Niese will be a top of the rotation starter in 2011. That king of wishful thinking is what got the Mets in trouble in past years.

Mike Pelfrey may never be consistent enough to be anything more than a 3-4 type starter. His stuff is simply not overpowering enough and when he tries to be a fastball pitcher, he’s at his worst.

With the rest of the competition in the NL East getting stronger and better, how can you even consider the notion that the Mets stand pat again this offseason rather than bolstering the rotation with a solid starter?

Sorry, but that just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Like all Mets fans, I’m glad that Johan Santana is getting his groove back, but even when Johan was on top of his game, the Mets still needed another starter to pair with him. So what’s changed?

The Mets need a starting pitcher.  John Maine had surgery and is gone and Oliver Perez has been banished to the bullpen to lose games for the team.  R.A. Dickey has been a nice surprise and has filled a rotation spot.  Takahasi when he first came into the rotation did an excellent job.  Unfortunately the league has been able to make adjustments to him and the third time through the lineup is pretty much like batting practice against him.  I’m not blaming Takahasi, he was brought here to be a long relief pitcher and he has excelled in that role.  The bullpen is weaker without him, there’s no doubt about that.  That’s another reason why the Mets need a starting pitcher.

Cliff Lee and Dan Haren would’ve been a great upgrade for this team.  I understand the reasoning in not trading for Cliff Lee since he will be a free agent next year.  Trading Ike Davis to Seattle would’ve been the wrong move.  Maybe in 5 years from now we’ll say it was a mistake or we’ll say it was one of the best non-moves Omar did in his tenure as the General Manager of the Mets.  Unfortunately not trading for Dan Haren is I believe a mistake.  I realize that Haren with his ERA of 4.60 and his 7 wins and 8 loses is not having a great season but he’s a good pitcher.  Haren is owed 33 million dollars and is under contract for another 2 years with an option for an additional 3^rd year.  Instead of getting on the phone and trying to make a trade, Omar let Haren go to Anaheim.  The Angels robbed the Diamondbacks blind in that trade.  The Mets farm system is pretty strong, there had to be a couple of players that Omar could’ve sent to Arizona for Haren such as Mejia, Flores, etc…

Omar has been a horrible GM in general but especially with trades.  Just look at his track record.  The Mets need a pitcher, be it Millwood or Ted Lilly.  Hopefully it will not be Gil Meche.  Hopefully there will be a trade that will make sense; if not then this is going to be a long second half.

Andy Martino of the Daily News is reporting that John Maine underwent arthroscopic surgery to clean out scar tissue from his right shoulder, and will miss the remainder of this season.

John Maine had arthroscopic surgery yesterday to clean scar tissue in his right shoulder. Out for season.

Maine was last seen pitching in a game against the Nationals on May 20. In that game, he was removed by Jerry Manuel after making just five pitches.

Despite saying that he was okay and having harsh words for both Dan Warthen and Manuel, he was placed on the disabled list two days later. Pitching coach Dan Warthen later said Maine was in denial, calling him a “habitual liar” regarding his shoulder being okay.

Maine finishes the season with a 1-3 record and a 6.12 ERA in 39 2/3 innings over nine starts.

He will surely be non-tendered after the season, so this probably ends his career as a Met, a career that began with such promise, but ended with a rash of poor performances and a few unfortunate injuries.

Update from Adam Rubin:

A little side note to this is that the surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Ciccotti in Philadelphia, near where Maine’s agent, Rex Gary, is based, rather than by doctors from the organization’s Manhattan-based Hospital for Special Surgery.

According to Andy Martino of the Daily News via Twitter, John Maine received the second opinion on his shoulder today and it was confirmed there is no structural damage.

He does have fairly serious shoulder tendinitis and he’s gonna have to shut it down for awhile.

The Mets also released a statement saying that Maine, Omar Minaya, Jerry Manuel and Dan Warthen will sit down soon to ‘develop a plan going forward.’

Last week several sources reported that the Mets could release Maine and designate him for assignment, and a few days ago Jerry Manuel jokingly told reporters that his plan was to pitch Maine on off days.

It’s no secret that Hisanori Takahashi and R.A. Dickey, who pitches tonight, have excelled in his place… I just don’t see anyone in a real rush to bring Maine back, so who knows what kind of stuff these guys are hatching…

But what I’m getting at is this….we haven’t had injuries to key players like David Wright, Jason Bay, Davis, Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, Pedro Feliciano, or K-Rod…or to any of our catchers.  Last year, it was like we were legitimately cursed with the injury bug. So with the core of the Mets in the lineup and on the mound each day and each week, and with the team playing just about as well as it’s capable, second place and 1.5 games out on June 23 doesn’t seem so ridiculous.

And seriously, after last year, we were due for some better luck both with injuries and with the performances of our regulars.  Now, if the tides turn and David Wright rolls his ankle running the bases tonight, I’ll take the heat that’s coming to me.  But I think we’re in for a wild (and hopefully successful) run toward the playoffs this season.

Maine is a guy who always wants to pitch no matter what.  Maine expects a lot of himself and wants to contribute.  We’ve seen in the past that he is more than willing to go out and pitch when he’s hurt.  Maine is the opposite of Oliver Perez in that he wants to help the team.  Maine’s also the opposite of Carlos Beltran as he wants to play through the pain.  Unfortunately the desire to play through any pain is not enough to play in this league and shouldn’t be.  In that case you and I would be making more than most players.

Maine endeared himself to many Mets fans including myself in the 2006 playoffs. 2007 was a great year for him, especially the last start of the season for him in which he took a no hitter deep into the game against the Marlins.  2008 Maine needed to be shut down and ultimately had surgery.  Maine didn’t come back from the surgery as everyone hoped as he had to be shut down again for a good part of 2009.  Of course this year has been dreadful; just look at his numbers: 6.13 ERA, 25 Walks and his fastball doesn’t reach 90.

It wouldn’t surprise me in the next week or so we hear that John Maine has been designated for assignment.  To me what has sealed Maine’s fate is Jerry Manuel. Maine like Ryan Church and Ramon Castro before him is in Jerry’s Doghouse. Last month Jerry said to the writers that perhaps Maine would be better if he decided to pitch left handed.  It was a cheap shot from the manager.  Jerry this past weekend took another cheap-shot at Maine by saying that he would only pitch Maine on off days.  Of course the writers and everyone else just laughed.  The Teflon manager slides by as usual.  I bet if another manger had said that there would be a different reaction but since as Jon Heyman said to me in a tweet regarding Jerry Manuel:

“SI_JonHeyman @gregpomes not good for a quote. GREAT for a quote.”

Maine has been awful, I don’t want him in the rotation and the Mets wouldn’t be wrong if they get rid of him.  I didn’t like kicking Maine while he’s already down. We’ve seen Warthen attack Maine on air and I just can’t help but feel a little sorry for him.  A Jerry had to say was that “we are not going to take Takahashi out of the rotation and right now we don’t have a spot for John Maine.”   There was no reason to make jokes at Maine’s expense.  Really shows what kind of a guy Jerry Manuel is.  Perhaps being released by the Mets will be a good thing for Maine. He’ll go to a team with a good pitching coach and a better manager that perhaps can fix him. Whatever happens, I wish John Maine well and I honestly hope he can turn his career around.

In a rehab start for Double-A Binghamton yesterday, John Maine pitched four scoreless innings allowing just one hit and two walks, while striking out five.

According to Anthony Coleman of the Trenton Times, Maine’s velocity topped out at 88 mph. Maine didn’t seem too concerned.

“I don’t really worry about velocity. It’s just looking at swings, seeing how they react. It was OK, I guess.”

However, according to Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger,

Mets manager Jerry Manuel indicated that he would need to see an increase in Maine’s fastball velocity before he could move him into the rotation. Manuel hoped for something between 90-92.

McCullough explains why velocity is so important in Maine’s case.

Maine’s arsenal, however, relies on his fastball. Even with his velocity decreasing, he has thrown the pitch 74-percent of the time this year, according to pitch data from Baseball Info Solution. Back in 2007 and 2008, when his average fastball clocked in at 92, he used it 62.9 percent and 71.8 percent. His two secondary pitches, changeup and slider, rely on the fastball.

Maine is scheduled to pitch in Buffalo on Friday, before being activated.

I don’t see him bumping Niese, Dickey or even Takahashi out of the rotation right now, but he could bump Iggy out of the bullpen and back to the minors.

The Mets need another pitcher for the starting rotation; there is no doubt about that.  It looks like if/when John Maine returns from the DL he’s going to be placed in the pen. Oliver Perez has lost his locker as he is now on the DL and who knows when we’ll see him again.  Takahashi did a great job but it looks like the league is starting to catch up to him, especially the 3^rd time facing the lineup.  That’s not a knock on him; if you look at his numbers the opposing team hit him better after the 5^th inning.  He excelled when he was in the pen as the long man and if you really think about it the bullpen has suffered a bit since he went into the rotation.

There are 3 pitchers that will be available: Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee and Kevin Millwood.  If you paid attention closely this season you can see the Mets have been busy building trade chips.  Once Daniel Murphy got injured and Ike Davis became the 1^st baseman the Mets decided they were going to make him a jack of all trades.  Murphy is a natural 3^rd baseman and he played a decent 1^st base last year.  The Mets also were going to have Murphy work on playing both the outfield and 2^nd base in the minors.  Unfortunately for the Mets Murphy was the victim of a cheap slide last week in Triple A and is out for the season.

The Mets over the weekend cut ties with Garry Matthews Jr.  They also put 2^nd baseman Luis Castillo on the DL.  They called up Ruben Tejada from Triple A and the plan is for Tejada to get most of the playing time while in the majors.  Just to remind you guys Tejada made the team out of camp and was very impressive in the field but his bat needed work.  Tejada went down, worked hard and improved his offense.  He had some good hits over the weekend.  What some may not know is that the Mets have another 2^nd baseman in the minors who is tearing it up and is projected to be the future 2^nd baseman of the team, Reese Havens.  I’ve read online over the last few weeks that he could be ready for 2011.  The Mets don’t need 2 futures at 2^nd base and I think that the Mets are showcasing Tejada to trade him at the deadline.

As of this writing there is speculation that the Mets are going to call up 31 year old outfielder Jesus Feliciano.  Feliciano is a career minor leaguer who has never really gotten a chance.  As he has gotten older he has dominated Triple A pitching.  He has been hitting close to .400 this year in Buffalo.  The Mets do plan on Carlos Beltran coming back and Angel Pagan has more than earned his spot on this roster, so once Beltran comes back they won’t need an outfielder.  If I had to guess I’m guessing that like Tejada Feliciano is trade bait.

The Mets need pitching and if these guys are packaged in a trade for a pitcher then so be it.  Now I would guess F-Mart and perhaps another minor leaguer will have to be part of a package for Cliff Lee.  Lee would be great to have on this team.  This guy wants to stick it to the Phillies.  If it wasn’t for him it’s a good chance the Phillies would have been swept by the Yankees in the World Series.  He has proved that he can pitch in New York and think of a front 3 with Santana, Pelfrey and Lee.  Add Dickey and Niese into the equation and you have a pretty formidable rotation.  I know that he will be a one year rental and that’s why the Mets cannot trade Mejia for him.  If the Mets cannot sign him next year then they can get the draft picks from the team that signs him and rebuild what they lost in the trade.

I don’t want Oswalt on this team.  He’s had back injuries and he’s owed a lot of money.  I would rather the Mets go after Millwood.  I think Millwood on a good team can help a rotation.  He might not be in Lee’s league but I believe that he would be more beneficial than Oswalt.

Overall the Mets are in a good position.  The Mariners wouldn’t mind cutting salary as I’m sure the same can be said about Baltimore.  Barring injury, the Mets can add a good to great pitcher at the trade deadline and they won’t have to sell the farm to get him.

Although Maine claims that he will be ready to return when his DL stint ends early next month, he will first have to go through a rehabilitation program and will resume throwing as tolerated.

Maine, who was visibly upset at his manager when he was removed after facing one batter in Thursday night’s game has admitted feeling some pain, but does not believe this pain should prevent him from being out on the mound every fifth day.  Maine was quoted as saying,

“I guess they want to get to the bottom of what’s going on in there once and for all.  I feel that I’m more than capable of going out there every five days.  But it’s not my decision.  There’s a little bit of pain, but what pitcher doesn’t have pain?  It’s the nature of pitching.  It wasn’t going to stop me from going every five days.”

Maine’s next start would have been Wednesday night against the Phillies.  That start will now be made by Hisanori Takahashi, as tonight’s off-day erases the need for a fifth starter until Saturday’s game against the Brewers.  Although no formal announcement has been made, the Mets are likely to give the ball to Raul Valdes for the weekend tilt in Milwaukee.

In other injury-related news, Daniel Murphy has been activated from the 15-day DL and optioned to Triple-A Buffalo.  The Mets plan on making Murphy a more versatile player by having him play first base, second base, third base, left field and right field with the Bisons.

By being exposed to five different positions, Murphy will look to become this decade’s version of Joe McEwing.  The man dubbed “Super Joe” became a fan-favorite by playing multiple positions for the Mets during his five-year stay in New York, including the 2000 pennant winners.

The Mets would be wise not to allow John Maine to make another start at the big league level until he can get his velocity back.  Over his last few starts, Maine was throwing mostly fastballs.  Depending on one pitch to get major league hitters out is not a recipe for success.  If that one pitch is below average, as an 80-something MPH fastball would be, then that pitcher should not be in the major leagues.

On the other hand, the Mets are being very wise by exposing Daniel Murphy to numerous positions at Buffalo.  This will allow Murphy to give David Wright and Ike Davis a day off here and there, and will give a little more pop to the second base position.  By re-learning how to play the outfield, Murphy could also give Jeff Franceour a few days off as he attempts to overcome his prolonged hitting slump.  A Francoeur-Murphy lefty-righty platoon is also not out of the question, provided Murphy can learn to play the position.  Remember that Murphy did not have success as the Mets’ leftfielder in 2009.  Until he can prove that his defensive skills in the outfield have improved, he should not play anywhere but the infield.

One player is out while another player is on his way back.  We hope the Mets can continue to make their way back into contention as well.

Things looked bleak when John Maine was removed after throwing five pitches and walking the leadoff batter, but reliever Raul Valdes stepped up and gave the Mets five solid innings of relief, while the Mets bats exploded for ten runs topped by a two run homer from catcher Rod Barajas, his tenth of the season. The Mets beat the Nationals 10-7.

Game Notes

John Maine started, and I gotta tell you, I’m growing tired of his act… I’m just sick and tired of his constantly confused demeanor and the clueless sound bytes after each one of his starts. He is always whining and crowing about something and I can’t even remember the last time he truly pitched a great game. Tonight, both his mechanics and his velocity were very poor, so he called for the trainer like a kid who just soiled his pants. Jerry Manuel didn’t even say a word before he yanked Maine out of the game. Later in the dugout, Maine started squawking, but J-Man roared back at Maine who meekly retreated down the dugout steps and into the clubhouse. Good riddance.

Raul Valdes was summoned to replace Maine and pitched a heck of a game given the extraordinary circumstances. Valdes (2-1) pitched five innings, allowing three runs and seven hits. He struck out six and walked one. Mets.com had an interesting note, all of Valdes’ decisions have come against Washington, and his stint Thursday was the longest outing by a Mets reliever since Darren Oliver threw five innings against the Marlins on July 7, 2006. Valdes stepped up and delivered in the clutch which is more than I can say for John Maine.

Ahhh the bullpen… Manny Acosta followed with an inning in which he walked two and let up a hit. Jenrry Mejia was next and once again, he didn’t fare well going 1.2 innings and allowing three runs on two hits and two walks. His 3.79 ERA keeps rising and for his third straight appearance he registered no strikeouts.

Pedro Feliciano didn’t have it either, in fact nobody did tonight. Feliciano allowed two baserunners in a third of an inning pitched and the Nats actually got the tying run up to the plate in what was once a 10-3 game, but 10-7 would be as close as they got with their final run of the night coming in the ninth inning against Frankie Rodriguez. It looks like everyone in the bullpen is pumped up for the big Yankees series which begins tomorrow… Yeah right… These guys are worn out!

The Mets had their hitting shoes on tonight as the combined for 15 hits and 10 runs. David Wright was back in action and struck the first blow with a 3-run double in the first inning. He would later drive in another run on a sac fly to cap off a 1-4, 4 RBI day.

Jason Bay and Ike Davis batted third and fourth and both collected three hits each and scored six of the Mets runs. The mighty Rod Barajas picked up two more hits including his tenth home run of the season. He has been the Mets go-to guy on offense, but continues to bat either seventh or eighth in the lineup. Hmm…

So the Mets split their two game series with the Nationals, and end the road trip with a 2-6 record. Hopefully, the offense came out of their slumber for good tonight and that it will carry over into homestand where they will face two tough opponents in the Yankees and Phillies.

Game Ball

I gotta give the game ball to Raul Valdes for taking one for the team and pitching five solid innings.

Up Next

The Mets will send Hisanori Takahashi to the mound tomorrow and the Yankees will counter with Javier Vasquez  in the first game of the Subway Series. Game Time is 7:10 PM. I hope Takahashi has about seven innings in him… Lets Go Mets!

George Steinbrenner in his day would sometimes get tired of firing managers and criticizing the team and the manager so on certain days he would attack the hitting coach.  Some would laugh or roll their eyes but if you look at the Mets lineup from top to bottom this team offensively is just not producing.  They have been horrible in the clutch since the middle of 2007 which is when HoJo took over as the hitting coach.  Look at Jason Bay as the latest victim of Howard Johnson.  Bay was not on this team in 2007, 2008 and 2009.  Bay is and always will be a streaky hitter but he has produced for his team over the years.  Bay joins the Mets and as of this writing he has not hit more than 1 home run.  Now sure Citi Field has robbed him of a few but what about on the road in smaller parks like Citizens Bank Park?  The frustrating thing about the Mets offense is that they are getting on base, in fact a couple of season’s ago they had as many hits as the Phillies but they cannot drive in runs.  This team in 2006 was very clutch, at least up to the NLCS.  In the beginning of 2007 they weren’t getting on base much but were scoring and driving in runs but for some reason the team freaked out, fired Rick Down and promoted HoJo as the hitting coach.

HoJo also for some reason last year decided to screw around with Wright’s swing.  Wright was a .300+ hitter who before last year hit 30 or more home runs and drove in well over 100 RBI’s.  2009 saw a very big decline for Wright.  Part of that decline was aided by the lack of good hitters hitting in front of and behind him.  Can anyone really defend making Wright change his swing?  I guess HoJo never heard of the old saying “if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  I also cannot understand why HoJo doesn’t work more with Wright on going back to his old swing.  Do your job, get out the game footage and sit David down and watch the old footage.  I never really understood why the Mets went with HoJo as the hitting coach.  I’m not saying that HoJo was not a horrible hitter but he was not the greatest.  His career average is just .249.

Don’t forget that HoJo before coming up to the big leagues as a coach was a manager in the farm system.  He was for the most part a very unsuccessful manager.  It is worth noting that HoJo was David’s manager when Wright was in Triple A.  One of the reasons why I think HoJo has kept his job is that he’s latched onto David Wright.  It’s no secret that Wright and HoJo are friends off the field.

Dan Warthen as the pitching coach was not a move I liked.  I thought Peterson was a good pitching coach.  Granted he was out there sometimes.  I’m still trying to understand his interview that he did the day he was fired.  In all seriousness Peterson was able to work with these pitchers not just on mechanics and physical stuff but on an emotional level.  In 2007 Ollie won 15 games as did Maine.  Somehow he was able to get through to Oliver Perez, something that neither Warthen nor Ollie’s other coaches have been successful at.  Under Warthen these guys have regressed.  Also under Warthen the entire staff has lost their velocity and that is really what concerns me.  How can an entire pitching staff’s velocity go down in 1 season?  It has to be something that is unprecedented in baseball, just has to be.  The lack of velocity has hurt these pitchers, especially Oliver Perez.  Perez was always a sloppy pitcher, in fact the phrase “better to be lucky than good” sometimes could have been applied to Ollie in the past.  The one thing Ollie had going for him was his velocity.  The many mistakes he would make would not always hurt him as batters couldn’t catch up to his fastball and when he mixed in his changeup he was effective.  Ollie used to average 94-95, now he’s lucky to get to 90.  Maine comes to mind as well as a pitcher whose velocity has gone away and that came back to hurt him in the earlier games this season.

Warthen has also done his fair share of tinkering with his players.  John Maine’s delivery was changed and it hurt him his first few starts.  Since going back to his original delivery he has improved in every appearance up until this past Saturday.  I don’t know what Warthen was attempting with making Maine be a different pitcher as it obviously did not work.  Maine decided on his own that his new delivery was not working and that he would go back to his original one.  Why didn’t the pitching coach think about that?

After the 2009 season Dan Warthen was quick to blame the catchers for all the trouble the pitchers had last year.  I thought it was unprofessional then and I still do.  He was also wrong!  Yes Santos was a young catcher who was still learning his craft but now the Mets have 2 excellent catchers in Rod Barajas and Henry Blanco.  Both catchers call a great game and have been effective so far for the Mets.  Unfortunately the Mets pitching staff still leads the majors in walks!  For the last 2 seasons Mets pitching has allowed 24 walks to the opposing pitcher!  This falls squarely on the shoulders of the pitching coach.  This guy was a walk machine as a player and now he’s teaching our pitchers on how to walk the park.

Now firing these guys is not the complete answer to turning this franchise around but it’s a start.  I don’t relish seeing these guys go, it’s tough to lose your job, they have families to support but this is the business they have chosen.  Probably harder to fire Howard Johnson considering his history with the franchise but if the Mets want to win they’re going to have to make the tough choices and say goodbye to Warthen and HoJo.

Mets drop game three of the series to the Marlins 7-5. Mets drop to one game below .500, lose their fourth straight game, and lost their first five road series series this season.

Game Summary

John Maine did not continue his stream of quality starts as the first twelve pitches he threw in the game were all balls and walked the bases loaded with no outs. He would later give up three runs in just the first inning and again another three runs in the fifth inning. Maine ended up going five innings giving up six runs on seven hits, walking five and striking out five and threw a wild pitch. You got to give him credit for fighting his hardest but he just can not find his groove and may be the next to loose his spot in the rotation.

Jenrry Mejia came into the sixth to relieve Maine and immediately struck out the first two batters to face him. Mejia had a great streak of getting out of tough jams unscathed before tonight. However, that streak ended, giving up three straight, two out hits and a run to the Marlins. Manny Acosta pitched his second night of the series in the seventh. Acosta had an inning pitched, giving up a double but struck out two batters to keep the runner stranded. Feliciano would finish out the pitching with one K and one hit in an inning of work.

David Wright started the bats early with a solo home run bomb into center field. His eighth of the year. Mets would rally back in the second inning to tie the game at three, scoring two runs, with RBIs in from Wright and Bay. Wright went 2-3 in the day, with a homerun, two RBIs, a run and a strike out. That now makes forty-nine strike outs on the season for David Wright, leading the league. While Bay went 2-4 with a double, a stolen base, and an RBI. Yet still waiting for that second home run.

Chris Carter, The Animal, had a pinch-hit single and later scored from first on a double by Castillo. He will likely replace Francoeur in right field for tomorrow’s game. Speaking of Jeff, he’s 0-for his last-17, including 0-4 and two strike outs and an error tonight. How much longer till he loses his starting role?

Angel Pagan, starting in the third-hole for the second time in his career, ended the day 1-4 with a run and a walk. I’m liking what I’m seeing more and more each day from Angel Pagan. He hustles his butt off and he can hit. While Reyes, back in his lead off spot, goes 2-5, with a double and two runs. Castillo also went 2-5 with a triple and 2 RBIs on the night.

Turning Point

Mets could have had a chance to rally back in the ninth, however, Barajas being thrown out trying for a double ended that possibility.

Game Ball

Mets 1-5 hitters who combine for 9 hits and all the Mets five runs.

Up Next

Jon Niese (1-1) will face up against Marlins pitcher Ricky Nolasco (3-2) in the final game of the four game series. First pitch at 1:10 p.m. on SNY.

That leaves the other two in the rotation, John Maine and Oliver Perez, as anomalies. Maddeningly inconsistent, yet one shows promise, the other the ire of the Mets fanbase. One still is given yards of rope by the fanbase – possibly more than he should be given, and the other the rest are ready to use the remainder of said rope to yank him off the pitcher’s mound and out of town.

While the Mets team in general left the fanbase with a bad taste in their collective mouths in 2007, two bright spots that season were Maine and Perez. Both had breakout years, with Maine in his first full season as a starter and Perez in his fourth but arguably most consistent season, both 15 game winners. Truly, former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson could have been given a lot of credit for their performance, but he was let go in 2008. Since then, Maine has been plagued with injuries, not pitching full seasons in 2008 and 2009, and Oliver well, reverting back to being Oliver. Of course, the biggest difference (besides the fact that Maine is righty, Perez is a southpaw) is that prior to his injury-shortened season in 2009, Oliver Perez had a big pay day by hammering out a 3-yr/$36mm contract with the Mets.

Yes, Oliver Perez, a career .468 pitcher who hadn’t given a reason to warrant anything above $10mm per year or more than a one-year contract, gets paid $12mm a year on average, while John Maine, a career .539 pitcher gets paid $3.3mm per year. That’s a HUGE reason why Mets fans are willing to give John Maine the benefit of the doubt, while Oliver gets to sleep easy in his bed of money at night.

This season should be the litmus test of how we can predict future performance from these guys.  I have discussed with other fans that John Maine should have gotten an extended spring training.  His first three starts were lackluster to say the least; however, he WAS able to get his ERA down from a high of 13.50 to currently 5.45. His record is not impressive at 1-2, but the Mets are just below .500 with games he’s started, at 3-4. Maine as a fifth starter? Yeah, that’s a fair assessment.

While the Mets have won only ONE start of Oliver’s seven in 2010, the losses can be a bit deceiving. One of those games, Friday, April 16 versus the Cardinals, was noteworthy since Jerry Manuel took him out with 97 pitches (and he seemed to be doing incredibly well). On the flip side, his start against the Dodgers back on April 27, Manuel gave him a short leash after 74 pitches as he was struggling, which ended up being a good thing, since Hisanori Takahashi came in for “mop up” duty, and the Mets won the game, 10-5. Of course, his most recent start Sunday, May 9, against the Giants did keep them in the game; however, he threw 98 pitches and ONLY pitched 3 1/3 innings where he gave up 2 runs (not to mention giving up SEVEN walks). A record of 1-7 in games he’s started is not even formidable for an EIGHTH starter, let alone a fifth starter getting paid like an ace.

Oliver Perez is the most LIKE the Mets. He is maddeningly inconsistent, frustrating, underachieves, and is expensive…but we see glimmers of hope from time to time that keep us coming back for the abuse. As I told someone earlier today, Mets fans are masochists. We keep coming back for that delicious pain.

What is the point of this post? Well, in Tuesday night’s game, a survey was taken on SNY where 89% of fans said Oliver Perez should NOT stay in the rotation. I am no Oliver Perez fan now (for full disclosure purposes, I was in 2007, but realized it was lightning in a bottle. Why couldn’t Omar Minaya see that?), but why make the argument he should stay in the rotation when John Maine is almost the same pitcher?

Oliver Perez is so talented, but he frustrates because he’s so maddeningly inconsistent. History has dictated that John Maine will have that one bad inning but will typically bounce back, and often gives the Mets a chance to win. Of course, that “one bad inning” here and there can mean that he gives up six runs. Perez can often put the Mets in a hole early in the game, but it’s mostly what he does to the morale of the defense while on the pitcher’s mound and overall to the team. He does not put them in the best position to win every fifth day he starts.

Why do Mets fans let Maine off the hook while giving Perez the finger? John Maine wears his heart on his sleeve and we all see he cares deeply about his personal performance. Yes, I do recognize that “caring” and “doing” are two different things. However, I think that’s what Mets fans see and appreciate in Maine. Oliver Perez gets to rest comfortably while those of us who work in office jobs for a living would be fired many times over for performance ratings like his. It is easy to point to Oliver Perez’s paycheck and say he only cares about getting paid.

At the end of the day, these guys aren’t going anywhere (unless Maine — the most tradable entity of the two pitchers given he is so cheap — is sent to another team). We have to get used to them making starts. Especially Perez. When have the Wilpons EVER demonstrated that failure is not an option and actually cut dead weight when it is absolutely warranted? It would be ballsy, it would give the fans a vote of confidence. It will never happen.

As Mets fans we are conditioned to hope for the best but expect the worst. Like a new day that dawns, The Ballad of Oliver and John carries on, carries on.

Pitching was not supposed to be the strong point of the 2010 Mets. After all, the Mets’ starting rotation was supposed to be made up of Johan Santana and The Four Rainouts.

Mike Pelfrey had come off a baffling season. Although he stayed healthy (unlike his fellow starters), his ERA was over 5.00 and he never showed the consistency of his breakout 2008 season.

Oliver Perez and John Maine were injured for much of the year, but when they were on the mound, some fans were wishing that they were still on the disabled list. Maine could never keep his pitch count low and Perez lost his GPS device, preventing him from finding the plate.

As for Johan Santana, he was also injured and did not pitch in September after a subpar (for him) second half. From his first June start until his final start on August 20, Santana went 6-7 with an uncharacteristic 4.02 ERA.

The Mets tried (at least we think they did) to sign free agent starters to improve the rotation, but came home empty-handed. The same top four from 2009 would reprise their roles in the rotation in 2010 and Mets fans were not very pleased about it. A 2-6 start to the 2010 season did nothing to change their feelings about the state of the franchise.

Then something clicked in Colorado. First, Mike Pelfrey threw seven shutout innings in a victory against the Rockies on April 15. Big Pelf’s performance seemed to wake the rest of the pitching staff, as Oliver Perez had his best start of the year the following night in St. Louis, Johan Santana recovered nicely from the Josh Willingham grand slam game and Jonathon Niese contributed the first of two consecutive solid outings.  Even John Maine has gotten progressively better from start to start, although he was forced to leave his last start in the fourth inning due to elbow pain

It isn’t just the starting pitchers that have been “good for nothing”. The bullpen has been matching the zeroes posted by the starters. The best example of this was during the 20-inning marathon in St. Louis, where the bullpen held the Cardinals scoreless from the eighth inning through the 18th inning, stranding baserunners left and right.

Coming into tonight’s doubleheader, the Mets starters and relievers have held the opposition scoreless in 89 of the last 104 innings. The team’s record in the 11 games played over those 104 innings is 8-3. That’s not a coincidence.

Good pitching can always carry a team when the offense is down. For example, the 2009 Mets were near the bottom of the National League in runs scored with 671. However, the 1969 World Champion Mets had an offense that was even more anemic. The ’69 team only scored 632 runs. The difference between the two teams was in the pitching.

The 2009 Mets’ ERA was 4.45. The 1969 Miracle Mets finished the season with an Amazin’ 2.99 ERA. The ’69 Mets were never going to outslug their opponents, but they always gave you the impression that all they needed was one run and the pitchers would take it from there.

The 2010 Mets have also not been outslugging their opponents, but this current stretch of sizzling starts has them playing their best baseball of the still-young season. Eventually, the offense should heat up and when it does, it will take some of the pressure off the pitchers to throw shutouts every time they go out to the mound.

While we wait for that to happen, it’s good to know that the majority of the staff is clicking on all cylinders. So you see, sometimes being good for nothing isn’t really as bad as it seems.

According to Adam Rubin, John Maine will remain in the rotation and make Sunday’s start against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Maine matched a career high by allowing eight runs in three innings Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies. That performance lifted Maine’s ERA to 13.50 after two starts.

Keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best…

Original Post 4/14 12:00 am

Only seven games into the season and the house of cards the Mets call a rotation is starting to flop. During the post game show on SNY tonight, Jerry Manuel was asked by Kevin Burkhardt if John Maine’s rotation spot was in jeopardy after his second consecutive bad start. Manuel answered,

“It’s something I’m thinking about, but not ready to address. I want to sleep over it tonight and see how I feel in the morning, but certainly the time is right for us to begin a dialog about it.”

It sounds like desperation is already setting in…

Maine allowed eight runs tonight, all of them earned, on seven hits and four walks in three innings pitched. Absolutely unacceptable…

All the runs were scored with two outs, and that’s what really makes this so hard to swallow. Maine had several chances to get out of the inning, but kept laying them on a tee for the Rockies tonight. He was totally lost out there, and let the game get completely away from him. The Mets never had a chance with Maine on the mound.

Of course, this is terrible news for the Mets. Considering how high the organization had been on Maine this spring, this is obviously a huge blow. Maine’s fastball has no life on it and he struggled to hit 90-mph on the radar gun in the thin air of Colorado. In his first start, he topped out at 88-mph.

The question I have is, who could they possibly replace Maine with in the rotation?

The Mets gambled that Maine and Perez would come back from injury and become dominant pitchers this season. So far that gamble seems to be a colossal miscalculation.

Where do they go from here?

Feel free to chime in, and don’t be bashful.