The Mets Police: john maine

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Happy Birthday New York Mets John Maine

Our friends over at Centerfield Maz who are kind enough to lend us articles remind everyone..

John Maine- Mets #3 Man In the Rotation Turns 28

John Kevin Maine was born on May 8, 1981, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Maine played college baseball for Charlotte and was the Conference USA Pitcher of the Year in 2001 breaking several single-season pitching records including strikeouts and wins. He was drafted by the Orioles in 2002, and became one of the top minor leagues pitching prospects. He made his MLB debut in August 2005 and got his 1st win shutting out the Blue Jays at Camden Yards. He was traded to the Mets with Jorge Julio in exchange for Kris & Anna Benson.

He started out in the minor leagues in 2006 but was called up when rookie Brian Bannister went down. Then he got injured and was up & down until finally coming up for good in July. He pitched a complete game shutout and won two out of three starts getting no decision in the other. He threw 26 scoreless innings just shy of breaking Dwight Gooden’s record of 23 scoreless in 1984, and falling just shy of Jerry Koosman’s team record 31. Willie Randolph gave Maine the 5th starter’s role for the remainder of the season; he went 6-5 with a 3.60 ERA. He wasn’t expected to start the in the post season, but when Pedro Martinez & El Duque’ went down he got the ball for Game #1 of the NLDS against the Dodgers. He got no decision pitching into the 5th inning, allowing only 1 run, but the Mets won the game & sweep the Series. In the NLCS vs. St. Louis he started Game #2 and gave up 3 earned runs in 4 innings, but didn’t get the loss. He didn’t get the ball again until the crucial Game #6 at Shea Stadium. Maine threw 5 scoreless innings and struck out 5 Cardinals beating Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter sending the Series to a Game 7.

In 2007 Maine led the club in wins (15) strikeouts (180) losses (10) and HRs allowed (23). In April he was 4-0 and almost threw a no hitter in Florida, earning him Pitcher of the Month. He had a great 1st half and was snubbed for the All Star game, in which he probably should have gotten the start. He was tied for the league lead in wins (10) and had 92 strikeouts & a 2.71 ERA. He cooled off in the second half, but stepped up pitching the game of his life on the next to last day of the season. The Mets were fading fast after losing their lead in the NL East and Maine threw a one hit 1-0 shut out at Shea Stadium against the Marlins, giving the team new life. He had a no hit bid going until two outs in the 8th inning when Marlins backup catcher Paul Hoover singled. His season ERA was good at 3.91, he averaged a strikeout an inning and became one of the leagues durable starters.

His 2008 season was cut short by arm troubles, and after a stint on the DL in August he returned with 3 solid starts but his season was shelved by manager Jerry Manuel so as not to jeopardize his career. In 25 starts, 140 innings, he went 10-8 with a 4.18 ERA. One of the reasons the Mets fell short of the playoffs is because they lost Maine. He had bone spurs removed in the off season and is ready to go for 2009, although he hasn’t settled in with any consistency yet. In January of 2009 he signed a one year 2.9 million dollar deal.

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Castillo For Maine is A Bad Trade

2000 mets, john maine, jon niese, luis castillo

If I offered you Luis Castillo for John Maine you would laugh at me. Well today the Mets gained Castillo and lost John Maine to the DL. That's not good. The starting pitching is sketchy and the bullpen is worse. Not much they can do about either. This looks like a "hang on and hope" type playoff run. Big series in Philly this week.

Might we finally see Jon Niese?

Maine & Rain

john maine, mets

Heard a lot of sports talk today - by the way someone tell 1050 we don't need an update evry 10 minutes.

There are crazy people out there today:

1. The Santana Moaners.    It's 2008. He pitched 8.   99% of the time people will not blow a three run lead.   Stuff happens.

2.   The Jerry Bashers.   He thought someone could pitch the 9th with under a 27.00 ERA.   Calm down.

3. Aguayo Freaks.   Yep, I'm sure that if the Mets had won that the back page would have been about runners being thrown out.

One game. Relax.

Even if they lose tonight, relax.

As for tonight, John Maine is on notice. If I don't see you on the mound in the 6th inning you will get a mean nickname like your pal Four Inning Pedro.

Open to suggestions...hit comments.

Should be an interesting 24 hours with lots of rain in the forecast. Be ready for a long night.

The Sunday Column

argenis reyes, avp, beach volleyball, john maine, kerri walsh, misty may, new york baseball giants, personal seat license, seaver, terry francona

So let's retire #17 once and for all.   You can visit Mets By The Numbers for a list of all the castoffs, jokes and wanna-be's that have been issued this number - they are pretty darn casual handing it out when they protect #24 with a sword.    Keith was the Captain (the Gary co-captain nonsense was weak), he's revered by the fans, The Former Franchise wants no part of us, and Keith on SNY has seemed enjoying being "The Great Keith Hernandez."

So it's good for him, good for us, good for the franchise.   When there are 17 games left at Shea, tell Fernando Tatis his new number is 24, and hand a 17 on the fence.   Wouldn't mind a statue of a certain pitcher that doesn't love us, and another of Keith Hernandez outside Citi Field.

If they retire The Great Dodger's #31 before they retire Hernandez you will see many a cranky post.   Keith means way more to this franchise than the catcher from the Dodgers did, and there's already way too much Dodgers action over at N'Ebbets Field as it is.

Welcome to the Jonathan Niese bandwagon. It starts here and it starts now. I will be accepting members until the end of the year.   If you wait until the spring then you are just trendy.    If you don't know who Niese is, no need to apply.

John Maine needs to learn to get out of the fourth inning or I will have to give him the nickname of Four Inning.    I wonder if Maine is nice to 70 year old Irish ladies (inside blog joke, scroll down 20 posts).

I like this kid Reyes.   No not the overrated one at SS that everyone put in the Hall of Fame in 2006 - the Argenis one. Scrappy. Came from nowhere without annoying hype. Doesn't pull out his shirt three seconds after the final out.

Surprisingly, for a crank like me, I don't hate this sign. But here's the deal Mets:

This stadium is called Citi Field.

That's it.

Don't in four years tell me Citibank was sold and now you want me to call it Estadio Del Banco Popular or The WaMuDome.

The name of the stadium is Citi Field and shall be, until you move to Mercury in 2021 as previously announced. Hopefully by that time I will be a billionaire, and will buy the San Francisco Giants and move them to New York and take back the logo and rename the Mel Ott Rotunda.

You think it's crazy to suggest they will rename it? Here's some lines from The Times:

In the past three quarters, it (Citigroup) has lost $17 billion — including a $2.5 billion loss reported on Friday — caused by $38 billion in credit losses and write-downs for bad mortgage investments. Since early 2007, the company has cut about 28,000 jobs.

I also really appreciate this dig from the same article.

Losses or not, there is no stopping the Citi Field deal, even if some of its laid-off employees may not be able to afford to take their families to a game, or even if some of them could have been retained with the $20 million a year being spent on baseball.

If The Rays win, you get a donut.

Nice to see Joe Torre get the Formerly Brooklyn Dodgers into first place on Friday night to celebrate Joe's birthday.

At 7pm tonight I will post another Open Letter To The Giants about the horrible crime against humanity called a Personal Seat License.   Why again do you need a new stadium?

Mets-Reds reminds me of the Orosco/McDowell game.   There was something in the air that night, I think everyone saw that game. It probably has something to do with the Mets putting half their games on cable TV, excpet Queens wasn't even wired for cable (oh for a time machine and Mets Police 1980s) - so that was a Channel 9 game, which was an increasingly rare bird, so we probably all watched.   Anyway - you know the game, a big fight, ejections, Carter at third, and Jesse and Roger taking turns on the mound. Great great stuff.   Would be one for a DVD if someone has the tape.

The Mets might keep "Nice To Old Ladies But Pitches Four Innings Pedro" skip the Phillies series. I think that's great because it means the Mets don't have to go to the bullpen in the fifth, plus Pedro can hang around and be nice to seventy year old ladies (I told you, scroll down 20 posts). Oh wait, Pedro being Pedro means if he ain't pitching he doesn't have to come to Shea. When Roger Clemens did it in Houston he was selfish, but Pedro is just being Pedro.

I could see Manny Ramirez in left next year. It seems like the kind of thing Omar does - signs a 37 year old outfielder.   The guy is a Hall of Famer for sure, but much like Four Inning Pedro, he's a Red Sock. I'd rather lose without him than win with a guy closely identified with another team, and an absolute integral part of their franchise history.

Is Terry Francona like Torre up there in Boston? He's gotta be, right? I mean there isn't some 120 year old guy sitting around who also won two rings with Boston is there?

It's hard to take MLS seriously if they are going to play on whatever that was for field in Giants Stadium last night. What was that, Astroturf? Why are there football lines and an NFL logo in July. The former Metrostars can't get a stadium soon enough.

Embrace the AVP. They are in Brooklyn this weekend. Misty May and Kerri Walsh came into the weekend having won 90 straight matches (that's them celebrating on the left) and in three weeks you're going to be watching them on NBC every other night during the Olympics.

The men's game is somehow less enjoyable. Aside from the pretty sights and sounds of the women's game, the men's game just lacks something. AVP on NBC check it out.

Trade Post-Mortem: Examining Trades of the Past (2nd in a Series)

Anonymous

john maine, Kris Benson, Mets trades, scott kazmir

On July 30, 2004 the Mets made two trades that would greatly impact the team both in the short and potentially long-term. Both trades involved young pitchers - one left the Mets and one came to the Mets. The one that left is Scott Kazmir - and I think we all know the details of that trade. The other pitcher, the one that came to the Mets, was Kris Benson.

Benson was acquired along with Jeff Keppinger from the Pirates for Ty Wigginton, Jose Bautista, and Matt Peterson. Benson never really blossomed into anything with the Mets, going 14-12 over a year and a half that was plagued by injury and controversy (who can forget Anna in the Christmas outfit). Keppinger never really found his place with the Mets, only appearing in 33 games for them in 2004 before being traded to Kansas City.

The players the Mets gave up didn't really amount to much either. Wigginton is on his 3rd team and has become a serviceable utility player. Bautista is still in Pittsburgh, which in itself says a lot. Peterson has never moved past AA.

So it seems that this trade was a lot of nothing - and just looking at it by itself I would agree. However if you look at the "trade tree" - the deals that were made with these players down the line - the impact is a lot greater.

After Benson failed with the Mets, he was subsequently traded to Baltimore for a promising young fireballer Jorge Julio. To complete the deal the Orioles also threw in a young minor leaguer named John Maine. Julio was traded just a few months later for El Duque.

So on the day the Mets traded away Scott Kazmir, they also began the process where they would eventually acquire one of the current cornerstones of their staff.

Sticking Up For Willie For A Change (and other stuff)

fire willie randolph, john maine, johnann santana, willie watch

This whole rotation changing thing is silly. Start Santana on his normal rest and just win a game. Willie is right when he says a win is a win. Bank a win on Thursday rather than trying to show off against the Yankees. Who is to say the Mets don't score 13 runs in the first.

Looks like Willie is being overruled on this one. Not a big fan, but I feel bad for you on this one.

However...I did stumble across something called www.firewillierandolph.com which I haven't explored yet but I like the name.

My apologies to anyone who got dropped from the blog links on the left. When I switched to the custom url I lost all the links. I am working on getting them back and if you'd like to swap links just drop me a note.

Apparently the Nationals think we are "rivals." http://www.federalbaseball.com/

Good job out of Maine tonight plunkling Lopez to start the game. I think the Mets are being whiny babies about the Nationals (throw strikes and you won't get mocked) - but I applaud the team for feeling strong enough about it to do something about it.

Wagner just got the save. Once again Santana & Maine and pray for rain. Switched to the Yankees game (yeah you did too so don't bust my chops) and I must say the turf at Tropicana is the ugliest in pro sports.

As We've Been Saying

john maine, mets

Let's see: Santana, Maine or rain: Maine, check.

Uniform Check: Hideous cursed black uniforms are in the suitcases. Check.

Result: Mets lead 12-0 at 5pm ET.

Next Game: Pelfrey vs Anyone. uh oh.

Mets Fans Blow 4-1 lead; Bloggers 2-14 with RISP

brooklyn dodgers, johann santana, john maine, lee mazzilli, willie randolph, wilpon

The fans continued to let the Mets down last night as the fans were unable to hold onto an early 4-1 lead. Jose Overreyes (now batting .260) had a chance to blow the game open early, but fear of being blogged about led him to make the third out.

Even Willie Randolph agreed that cranky bloggers need to do better than 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position:

"Way too many missed opportunities. You set yourself up for a fall when you get that many opportunities early and don't take advantage of it. It's no secret. We've got to start swinging the bats better."

Owner Fred Wilpon was not displeased because the Mets loss did result in yet another victory for Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers.

In other game notes, hideously ugly black jerseys were worn for the third straight game, and manager of the future Lee Mazzilli was in no way responsible for the loss.

Today's matinee looks promising since one of the following words will appear in the boxscore: Santana, Maine, rain.

Back In Black

black mets uniforms, brooklyn dodgers, charlie samuels, howie rose, johann santana, john maine, mets, new york baseball giants, wilpon

Heard Howie Rose say Charlie Samuels was running his mouth about the Mets wearing the hideous awful cursed black jerseys over the weekend during both games.

So they trotted the horrible repulsive black jerseys out last night. Well guess what Charlie - if you check the boxscore it doesn't include the words Santana, Maine or rain - so they lost.

Now they are 3-2 with the appalling ghastly black jerseys - so let's put them away forever.

I'll use Wilpon logic - the Brooklyn Dodgers never wore black uniforms and the black might accidentally remind someone of the color of the New York baseball Giants hats - so put them away.