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Last year, John Maine was 12–5 with a 2.92 ERA during his first 21 starts of the season.
However, he was 3–5 with a 6.54 ERA in his last 11 starts.
In Newsday, citing an anonymous 
major-league scout, Ken Davidoff writes that hitters began to figure out Maine in the second-half of the season.
Maine, as quoted by Davidoff…
“I don’t know. I think I let some games slip. It was my fault, whether it was preparation or whatever…It hopefully won’t happen next year.”
…from what i recall, it didn’t look like hitters were making adjustments to maine, it looked like maine was just throwing a flat ball over the plate…the movement he had earlier in the year was gone, and so, instead of swinging and missing, batters were fouling back pitch after pitch, to the extent that maine looked tired and weak by the third inning…
…also, while i admire Rick Peterson’s strategic and philosophical approach to pitching, there were times last season when i feel maine needed to just let it rip, while no longer thinking about perfect placement…just throw the ball, man…let her fly…
Wrong Cerrone. Maine has that incredible fastball that cuts in and high on RH batters. They learned to lay off that pitch.
the kid is young and would make an awesome #3….behind johan and pedro, that is
nice sn.
i think he’d be an awesome #2.
Hell, just keep out MLB talent and trade away Gomez, Heilman, Pelfrey, Niese & Humber for Santana.
Last year was the most innings he’s thrown; not surprising he tired down the stretch. I bet he’s a bit better this year, having done it before.
his half-year splits mirrored haren. maine was likely tired after pitching the most innings of his career. that being said, he pitched quite the game against the marlins during the last series. they didn’t figure maine out
He also pitched a helluva game against the Braves back in August after the Mets got swept by the Phillies for the first time.
He also wasn’t throwing strike 1 as often as he was in the first half, thus the hitters were able to wait him out and grind out longer at bats. When he got ahead 0-2 and 1-2 (as he did a lot in the first half), the pressure was on the hitter and his high fastball was a deadly weapon in that situation.
Yeah, he really lost a lot of hitters at 1-2 and 0-2 and had trouble putting hitters away (too many full counts). I think he just got tired, or started making mental mistakes. Either way, I think he’ll rebound.
Why in the world wouldn’t we make the trade for Johan? He is clearly the best pitcher in baseball (peavy is the only one who comes close)…..I mean, we’re not talking about giving up young studs for a scrub like Victor Zambrano (i know that name is blasphemous, but I needed to exclaim my point)…we are talking about a bona fide ace starter. Lock him up for a few years and let the rest of the east try to catch up to us…..
if it seems out of the question, why not shift our efforts towards lincecum of San Fran? The giants are loaded with young pitchers and are in dire need of exactly what we have: young outfielders!!!! Omar, make this happen
As of now, Peavy is not on the same planet as Johan is. No one is.
I dunno…that Beckett guy in Boston isn’t chump change
The only problem with that is the Giants want MLB impact bats that can help now. Carlos Gomez or Fernando Martinez doesn’t satisfy their immediate need.
Maine’s biggest detriment, thus far, is his head. He still has the tendency to lost concentration. How many times does he walk the lead off guy anywhere from 4-6th inning? Then someone has to go talk him back into the game. He has to mature and not lose focus.
True, and more often than not, those leadoff walks are handed to the #8 hitter or the pitcher. Granted, he usually limits the damage, but it would make his life a lot easier if he avoided doing that.
it would make our lives easier too.
yea maine will ne fine he was fatigue but even though that second to last game of the season he threw a beauty
hey im 14 years old and i know basically everything about baseball what do u guys think the chances are of me become a Major League GM u can quiz me or test me on anything about baseball and i bet ill get it right trade,history, opinion or present
So would anyone else with access to Google.
First step toward becoming a GM: shutting up about it at age 14 (if you really are 14).
Just because you may know a lot about baseball does mean you will be able to become a GM. I am not saying you shouldn’t go after your dream, but it will take a lot of hard work and luck and you will have to start out as an intern for some minor league team or something. You dont just go into Wilpon’s office, ask him to quiz you on baseball and if you get most of the questions right he fires the existing GM and puts you in that place. If this were the case probably at least half the people on this blog would be GMs.
–Does not mean–
yea i am aware of that i was just bored so i figured id ask the question
so anyway lets land johan for some prospects maybe Gomez,Pelfrey,Heilman,Humber,and i guy like carp or guerra of somebody like that
we can afford loosing these prospects because we have 2 first round pick 18th n 22nd and 33rd or 34th overall due to th loss of tommy boy glavine and we always sing and will sing the dominicans and puerto ricans and venezuelans so were good there
You have to know how to spell “SIGN” correctly…
get into an ivy league and start with an internship in the organization. develop your interpersonal skills, get more knowledge of the baseball player development infrastructure. come to metsblog.com and do the opposite of what the masses want here.
Or you can wake up from your dream and hurry up with my whopper w/cheese. and please, hold the spit.
yea and when did Omar go to an ivy league school?
You wanna be Omar or you wanna Theo?
wow…way to crush the dream of an innocent 14yr old..On the otherhand, I guess that makes him about ready to become a real mets fan lol
Desperation is a stinky cologne…
Seriously, we get it. You know much about baseball. So do A LOT of people. That’s what a good study on a baseball almanac and perusing the Internet will do for you.
I think everyone here has given good points on what it takes.
What you will have to have as part of your credentials is SOME experience playing the sport and some track record of positive scouting. You have NO shot unless you can evaluate talent (and have someone notice).
It’s not all baseball trivia and transaction knowledge
Heres one….which team has given up the most talent for nothing in return???
It’s always a game of adjustments. Maine will have to learn to keep hitters off balance and set up his nastiest pitchers. Just part of the process. Think Pedro, though he’s obviously nearly superhuman when it comes to adjusting his game. Glavine did it, too . . . sometimes.
. . . sometimes
It’s just that those darn umpires kept changing the strike zone on him.
He’ll be stronger for having pitched more innings last year than previous years. I had the same thought on the Marlins game; just too bad he got ricked by Cincy and Washington down the stretch.
meant rocked. no pun intended on the Jacket.
I had a friend who’s obsessed with sabermetrics, and he said that it was only a matter of time last year before Maine went downhill. Something about the batting average of balls in play stat. Anyway, he definitely did a ton of “I told you so’s” when things started going downhill.
Anyway, check out his article. It actually references Metsblog too.
Maine article.
puhahahaha
Anyone watching him pitch could have told you that. He’s a young kid who’s never pitched a full season. He doesn’t have Cole Hamels-like talent. There’s no way he was going to dominate the entire year. hahahaha
Any fool could have told you that. Tell your sabermetric-hard-on friend to tell you what he’ll do next year, and the year after that.
Then slap him while you’re at.
Will do.
Typical anti-Mets slant to the story! As if every GM in baseball
wouldn’t be making big time offers for an already solid,young boaderline-all-star #2 if omar put him on the market.
Lets hope O never falls for the “hes not really that good” junk
like he did with Lasto!
Maine is still a kid , and a proven big game pitcher!
Matt,
While I respect your opinion, and do see some merit in this one, you are mistaken.
This guy’s fastball and movement looked the same. It was the hitter’s adjustments that made it appear to lose its bite.
What he needs to do is learn how to constantly re-adjust. He needs to raise his pitching IQ. I hope he spends A LOT of time with Pedro in Feb-March
Maybe I’m imagining it, but I thought I saw something where he was tipping his pitches over the last couple of months. That would play in to the “losing focus” argument.
No, Maine continually loses focus. That’s evidenced by his 4 pitch walks.
The part about tipping does make sense though, b/c hitters were def laying off his #1 pitch.
And as stated two posts above. It is about adjusting. And once Maine adjusts, he’ll be just as good, if not better. And when he does, please, really please don’t call it the result of Schneider’s awesome game-calling ability.
I think he is a terrific pitcher, much, much, MUCH better than a majority of non-Met fans think. An anonymous scout, please, can the press say ANYTHING nice or positive about the Mets this offseason? Shmohawks.
Why I heard Maine is tough to hit – ACCORDING TO HITTERS – is apparantly they have difficulty picking up his release point. As a result batters say his pitches look much faster than they actually are. Now, Mainer, throws 93-94 to begin with, so imagine how much harder it looks with his deceptive release point. That riding high fastball also helps, as other bloggers have mentioned. I have full confidence with him in the Mets rotation for the next few years. I can see him being a consistant 15-17 game winner, with a beautiful mid 3 ERA, and a nice amount of strikeouts. If he has another season like he had this year, look for the Mets to start talking contract extension.
I think we should ’sell high’ on Maine and use him to land Johan. Get the #1 and figure out the #3 or #4 later.
NO
YES
NO
So do I….I think there are going to be some disapointed Met fans when Maine regresses. JMO. Plus, he autograph snubbed me down in PSL last spring, so I have no love for Mr Maine :)
At least some people give insight to their unreasonable biases
It’s ‘unreasonable’ the Maine will regress next season? Seems to me O Perez had an identical record yet a lower ERA then Maine, yet gets no love. I’m banking on Perez to mature with Pedro in his ear all season. Maine, I’m not holding my breath for an amazing season.
W L ERA GS IP H R ER HR HB BB Ks
15 10 3.56 29 177.0 153 90 70 22 7 79 174
15 10 3.91 32 191.0 168 90 83 23 5 75 180
Looks pretty comparable to me. One pitcher gave nearly the same amount of HRs and more Walks (in less innings)…similar Ks and Hits…..same runs
How can you reasonably say one or the other has more/less potential???
Guess who gave up more walks and similar HRs in less innings….
He sure did…and that’s fair.
But think back. How many of those unearned runs were OF HIS OWN DOING??
Listen, i’m not arguing against OPie. I love the guy…but don’t tell me that he has ace-like ability and Maine doesn’t…
the way he pitched in game 161 was the way he pitched teh 1st half getting ahead and striking guys out with the high heat. john maine is not the type of guy thats supposed to nibble like peterson wants. he needs to go and challange hitters, he let it fly in game 161 and he almost threw our first no-no. i was at that game i still am haunted by that stupid dribbler.
that is true about the nibble/let it fly. i remember game 161, he was throwing heat even late in the game.
Hes still just a young, inexperienced kid. It was his first full season. He’ll get stronger, adjust, and be able to maintain his effectiveness over the full season. He got tired after the all-star break.
Yeah, those Marlins, who saw the Mets 17 times before that, really figured out Maine on that last Saturday. That includes Cabrera and Ramirez.
I feel the same way actually about just throwing the ball. I actually feel that way about Pelfrey a bit too. I wonder if Peterson isn’t quite the Guru he thinks he is.
ceetr i agree with u the jacket is extremely overrated as a coach – name me one home grown pitcher that has flourished under him
hello? did we forget the game he threw on the 2nd to last game of the season
I was at that second-to-last game of the season, and it was gorgeous. It was the best-pitched game I’ve ever witnessed in person, and it made the entire 2007 season worth it for me, collapse or no.
I was waiting for someone to bring up that game, sure he dropped off a bit in the 2nd half, due to whatever, I’d attribute more to fatigue than anything, you could really tell he didn’t have it as he went along in games like he did in the 1st half, but that game was amazing, and I really think could be a big time spring board for him.
He pitched a beaut on the next to last day, I was there, staying ahead of hitters, showed some zip on the ball…remember even though it was not a great team he was facing it was a big game for the Mets and he came through in a big way (unlike tha Atlanta plant Glavine).
Another year with more maturity, Schneider behind the plate helping keep runners at first and he may have a better season….same with Ollie.
Tom…
Great work. I am going to pass this along….
I was getting annoyed, until you said, “STFU DONNY!”
hahahaha