I asked this question the other day while on Twitter, with Jenrry Mejia in the bullpen, Nelson Figueroa in Philly, and no major league ready pitching prospects on call, who would be the Mets’ first choice to replace an injured or under-performing starter? Kelvim Escobar, Hisanori Takahashi and Fernando Nieve were the most popular answers I received. Unfortunately, Escobar may not comeback from his injury and even if he did, he signed on as a reliever, and [...]

Sure, we’re all thrilled that the Mets continued their Opening Day dominance on Monday with a win over the Marlins to start the 2010 season.  It was a very complete performance with Johan Santana, Fernando Nieve and K-Rod holding the Marlins to one run; and our hitters, starting with David Wright belting a first-inning two-run homer against our nemesis Josh Johnson, delivering enough runs to make it a rout.  Newcomers Jason Bay, Gary Matthews Jr. [...]

While reading MetsBlog, I came across an interesting link in which Tim Dierkes of MLBTR compiled a pretty cool spreadsheet. Dierkes ranked this years projected opening day rotations based on how much each team has spent. It really is a unique way to look at things and I hope you visit them to see his entire list.  Surprisingly, the Mets who are obviously in desperate need of pitching help, have spent the fourth most money in the Majors. Here [...]

The 2010 season opener is just 6 days away for the Mets.  In 6 days the Mets will stop playing Spring Training games and play games that really matter.  This Spring hasn’t been a great one.  Carlos Beltran didn’t make it to the field, Jose Reyes was sidelined for 3 weeks, and there’s still questions going into the season that have most Met fans worried about 2010 before it even starts.  I know the numbers aren’t [...]

Nice interview in the NY Post this morning with former Met and SNY Analyst Bobby Ojeda. Q: Based on the inconsistency Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez and John Maine have shown this spring training, do you think the Mets made a mistake not picking up another starter this offseason? A: I would have agreed with that statement last year. But this year, I honestly believe Mike Pelfrey will be better after last year’s experience. John Maine [...]

Mets fans will never stop hoping for the best possible results this season, especially before the games even begin.  Our desire to root for a winner is so great, oftentimes blinding us to the realities of the situation.  We hope that Reyes and Beltran will return on schedule.  We hope that our starting pitchers will pitch to their potential.  We hope… Hope is high.  Expectations are low.  There are the optimists and pessimists, as well [...]

Watching Johan Santana’s understandably horrific spring training debut yesterday, something dawned in this Mets fans head.  No, there is no fear whatsoever that Johan is a different pitcher post-op, in fact, quite the contrary.  Based on his velocity and arm slot, I am positive he will have a monster year.  The reason I have absolutely no fear that Johan will return to form this season, is the same reason that I really began to fear [...]

Since becoming a Met in 2006, John Maine has shown signs of greatness, such as his near no-hitter against the Marlins on the next-to-last day of the 2007 season.  However, he has never been able to maintain the consistent level of pitching that a pitcher of his talent needs to be a top of the rotation starter. Never was this more apparent than during his 2009 season.  In fact, you might say Maine’s home and [...]

I knew I wanted to write something about the Mets’ starting rotation after reading an article in The Sporting News about the Mets being one of this off-season’s “losers,” citing the fact that they did not address the “gaping holes” in the starting pitching rotation.  Well, yeah, but we are likely going to go into the 2010 season with a starting staff of Johan Santana, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey, Ollie Perez and Fernando Nieve.  And [...]

Pitchers and catchers are arriving in Port St. Lucie, workouts will be starting shortly and soon exhibition games will be played in Florida.  The Mets will be trying to erase the 2009 season and focus on winning in 2010.  There a lot of question marks coming into the 2010 season for the Mets such as their rotation after Johan Santana, Daniel Murphy’s ability to be a productive 1st baseman both offensively and defensively, Luis Castillo [...]

Although Tom Petty wrote his classic song, ‘The Waiting (is the hardest part)’ over 20 years ago, this songs rings true today. Am I the only one tired of waiting for John Maine to develop into what we all expected? He came onto the scene in 2006 and showed promise, potential and a bright future. Now 3 years removed from his debut he is still labeled as one who has promise, potential and a bright [...]