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In yesterday’s win over the O’s, John Maine threw six innings, allowed one hit and no runs.
Maine has a 1.85 ERA this spring.
He received a standing ovation from Mets fans sitting behind the team’s dugout.
In a post to his blog for the New York Post, Joel Sherman writes:
“The Orioles are terrible…But it is hard to dismiss what John Maine did to them on Monday…and really what he has done all spring. He worked harder on his body in the offseason. Just standing next to him, you can see that while still slender that he added more definition to his upper body. You try to ignore spring results, but John Maine is making it hard to ignore him.”
…thanks to Peter Wade, a great MetsBlog researcher, for the link…
In his first 21 starts last season, Maine was 12–5 with a 2.92 ERA, however he was 3–5 with a 6.14 ERA in his final 11 starts.
…maine was outstanding through much of last year…he hit a rough spot during the dog days of summer, but keep in mind that last year was his first full, successful, marathon season, and so it’s understandable that he would run out of gas a bit…this year, though, will be a pivotal season for maine, since he should have no more excuses to fall back on…frankly, with the way he has pitched this spring, i’m not sure he’ll need any excuses…
For more on Maine, read the Bergen Record, Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, Journal News and Star-Ledger.
AS I said in other posts IO think Maine faded last year a bit becasue of his hip injury. He never complained but in an article a couple of weeks ago he said it bothered him more and more and he had to take more treament a the season wore on. Last year I never heard a peep about the injury. So with more experience, confidence, a better changeup and better health I expect him to have a great year.
I completely agree, a little time changes a lot. Remember when John Maine was a throw in in the trade, and now he’s untouchable. Remember when the starting rotation was a mess, and we were all freaking out a few months ago that this team would go no where with its rotation, now its headed by the best pitcher in baseball and we are only looking at who will help us out most as the 5th starter.
I can’t wait until the start of the season, the closer we get the more optimistic I get.
18-6. 2.97era 1.10 whip. third in cy young voting behind johan and brandon webb. write down.
If Maine stays healthy, this well may be his complete breakout year as a star. He has pitches, velocity, location, and mental toughness. Very few great ML pitchers ever develop to greatness in their first three years.
The mental aspect Maine has is probably his greatest attribute. He doesn’t pitch afraid and try to avoid getting hit hard. He just goes right after hitters and puts them away. I wish Pelfrey had that mindset.
I mean, he’s got Pedro, Johan and Maine to talk to about being a starting pitcher. And Pelfrey’s right where Maine was in 2005. You’d think we’d hear more about Pelf going to the other starters, and not, say Billy Wagner (interesting that none of “Big Pelf’”s rotation-mates were photgraphed sporting the BMF tees).
The Orioles may be “terrible,” Joel, but I think I read somewhere that they had scored 10 runs or more in something like 10 of their previous 12 games. So they had been hitting the ball pretty well.
I’m shocked that Maine is 4th in the rotation behind Perez. I guess it’s to keep the lefty/righty balance though.
I’m shocked too. I completely understand the lefty/righty balance with hitters, but with pitchers it does not make as much sense. Can someone explain to me why there has to be a lefty/righty rotation? It makes no sense. The only way I see Maine as the 4th making any sense is that he can serve as insurance for when Ollie has one of his “blow up” games and gives up 6 runs in 3 innings and wrecks the pen for the next two days.
The lefty-righty thing is for when you face teams in a short series. You want as much variety as possible and alternating starters will force teams to have to see different styles of pitching from one day to the next and make them change their lineups a bit too.
to me it doesnt matter who pitches 4th or 3rd, but one thing I dont get is by having perez throw the 3rd game of the year he misses the first series against the braves, a team he has success with. BUT like someone pointed out OP is prone to those awful early exit games and with him in the 4th spot you could KILL the bullpen if he pulls that then we have our black hole 5th spot go out the next day and do the same thing.
this is also a good example of not pigeonholing guys too early. Many posters (and so called “experts”) decide after a relatively few games that a guy is a #4 at best, a backend starter, etc. without actually letting them develop into their prime.
So, a month ago Maine was a nice #3/4 at best, and now he may be Jake Peavy?
Two words: CY MAINE
I’d been calling him a Cy candidate the entire offseason
yes, even BEFORE the Johan deal, I was happy to roll with what we had, because I saw 18-20 wins for Maine as the #2. Now? Pitching against the other #4’s in the NL? He’s going to be damn near unstoppable.
I am very excited by Maine’s potential, but i think we should temper our enthusiasm just a bit.
What I like most about him is he is quiet. He’s the kind of pitching weapon that doesn’t attract a lot of attention outside of NY, so fans of other teams are always shocked when he pitches well against them.
In that regard (and really no other) he reminds me of what Rick Reed was as a Met. A very good pitcher nobody really knew.
True, but Rick Reed was Greg Maddux-esque and did it via pinpoint control. He never was able to completely dominate games and rack up strikeouts like Maine can. Maine has the arsenal and pitching style to be an ace, whereas Reed didn’t.
That’s why I wrote: (and really no other). I wasn’t comparing them as pitchers at all.
You’re right, missed that. Sorry.
No worries.
Just watching the way he’s pitching right now gives me a strong feeling we’re going to have 3 ACES at the top of the rotation…..
and if Ollie’s head can keep up with his arm there won’t be a team in baseball that can come close to touching this rotation !
Let’s all hope the stars align correctly this season…..how great would it be to finish the final season at Shea with a World Championship ??!!
Yeah, I know I’m getting carried away, but it’s fun to think about !